Eating what you want
If we haven't met before, I'm Vicky and I am a wife, mother, martial artist (Tai Chi and Iaido), and project specialist in battery recycling. My true passion though is cooking and baking.
and bake.Yay! I dont like sitting around much, so I planned to make some things from scratch that I have not done in a while, or even, ever in some cases.
I started off with planning the meals I wanted to make instead of what I think I need to eat for my constant state of dieting. In this week's planning I included Mom's Thanksgiving (I am making
the deviled eggs and the green bean casserole) as well as using up leftovers from the Vicky's Thanksgiving meal we had on Wednesday. My kids work schedules are crazy so we do it when we can.
Once the plan was done I looked at what I could do to use up leftovers like cranberry sauce and make it into something new. I made room for some soup and sandwiches I'd been getting at Panera but cost at least 24 dollars when I get it delivered at work.
Then i found recipes for the things I wanted to try and started working on them.
It's not just the money, its stoping the wasting of food, eating better, and enjoying the feeling of "I made it myself" when I sit down to eat. And enough is not said lately of actually eating what you want.
I had to get over the worry that the family wont eat everything I make, but they are all grown up and can feed themselves if it comes to that. I also had to admit that even the best laid plans will change, and it's best to be flexible. So with that said, here we go!
Today is Saturday and for today's meals I planned:
Breakfast - Toast with egg, tomato, cheese, herb, salt, pepper
Lunch - Tomato Soup and croutons with Sandwich: Chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, garlic aoli
Dinner - Beer butt chicken, salad with lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, cheese, carrot, cucumber, croutons, french dressing
Snack - Chips and dip
I decided for the above, I would make:
Italian bread and garlic aoll for the sandwich, tomato soup and croutons, and onion dip for the snack.
Rather than make the italian bread by hand, I chose to use the breadmaker. I know how to make bread both by hand and with a kitchen aid mixer. But hubby got me the breadmaker and I feel like I'm respecting his gift when i use it. Yeah that's a little corny but I am away a lot, and this shows him his thoughtful gift didnt go to waste.
I put the ingredients in the breadmaker and set it to dough. Once the dough is ready, I will shape and let it sit in a loaf pan until it rises double in size. Meanwhile i started the garlic aoli. Now this is new to me so I'm following the recipe to the T. It asks me to mince garlic ( I used the coffee grinder) and let it sit in the lemon juice and mustard for 15 mins.
15 minutes later, every alarm is now beeping at once so off to the next steps!
I got the garlic aoli mixed up (does anyone know how to get mayo out of a squeeze bottle without wearing it?) and I used my large funnel to pour it back into the squeeze bottle.
I masking taped it and labeled it with a sharpie marker, with the date, and warned hubby it looked a lot like the other one. Then I pulled out the bread dough and formed it into a loafish shape, placing it into a loaf tin that was sprayed with olive oil. I put it to bed by putting a towel on top and let it sit on the bread maker.
I was about to dive into crouton making by putting the frozen crusty bread from my daughter's bread company in the microwave to thaw, when hubby came in wanting tuna salad. So now I'm waiting for him to finish before making the croutons. I dont like admitting it but I dont share my kitchen very well, I just wait for the other party to be done. Yes, I know this should make Thanksgiving fun but its different in someone elses kitchen, honest.
Croutons were made with this already amazing smelling garlicky herb bread. I added olive oil, butter, and the last of my rosemary with some parmesan, salt and pepper. Theyre done now. Just a reminder for you since I forgot, set your timer for both the first 8 mins and the last 7 mins. Theyre darker than I expected. Oops. Still taste great though.
The onion dip was easy once the onions were dark and translucent. To me, it always looks half dark and half light, but for sure see through. This is when I stop so I can get the sweet onion taste of the not so dark ones. And they never brown evenly for me. Maybe I have to learn something else to make that happen?
The tomato soup turned into tomato pepper soup simply because i have not been keeping up with my backstock of canned tomatoes. But! I did have peppers and some small grape tomatoes as well as one little can of canned tomatoes. That plus some tomato paste I think will round it out and make it a thick tomato pepper soup that Panera cant even make. Soon as the vegs are soft I'll immersion blend them, add the cream - scratch that, milk - and parmesan, and i think it will be done. I'll of course have to taste it.
I meant to have a sandwich with my homemade bread loaf but I'm pretty sure I will not get it done before my soup is ready. So I will eat in stages, having a sandwich after the soup instead of with. Flexibility!
 |
| Peeking at the bread dough |
It was a lot to take on after breakfast, to be honest.
I'm sitting here now, ready to sign off as soon as the bread is done. I am temping it with my little probe thermometer to 190F. Then I'm going to let it rest for a couple hours before cutting into it. Lunch tomorrow, for sure.
The tomato pepper soup was AMAZING. Like, seriously, as good as Panera if not better. Wow. And the croutons really made it something special.
It was very fulfilling that at the end of a giant blitz of cooking I had a really amazing bowl of soup. I'm so proud of me!
Here are links to today's recipes
If you want to give these things a try, I highly recommend it.
Look for another blog soon!
Comments
Post a Comment