To preface this whole entry, I love cooking so weather or not I have a videogame obsessed boyfriend, chances are I would still be cooking a lot. However, there is nothing better to me than to have someone sit down, and enjoy a meal I cooked.
I am not an organized woman. My clothes are in piles on the floor, sometimes the dishes sit in the sink for a day or two, and often I forget to get gas until inevitably I am running late and have to stop resulting in becoming even later. When it comes to my menu for the week though, it is thought out, neatly planned with a number of different things kept in mind. To start off, when planning my menu I always make sure there are things that can be made with leftovers, aka I make a roasted chicken, then use the leftover chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches. This cuts down on the fridge real estate, and also ensures that I secondly, do not make the same proteins multiple times in the week. This is important because no one wants chicken 7 days a week, and also because it would be expensive to eat steak 7 days a week. Lastly, I try to even out the menu: 2 soups/ stews, 2 salads, 2 major meat meals, and 1 day of sweet leftovers or drunken late night pizza. Final note on my menu making madness, I never plan meals to be on certain days, it has been in my best interest to make the menu, give meal options, and then on the night I FEEL like making that meal, it gets made. No sense in stressing about it, life’s too short.
Grocery shopping is my absolute favorite thing to do all week. I know, I’m weird. On that note, when I plan a menu (it is typed up), I just go ahead and make a shopping list. Now time for the super obsessed part- I type it up, and categorize it, by aisle/department. I know this sounds weird but, I know the layout of my grocery store so, it was kind of a no brainer! I never have to run around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for things.
This is a preview of what my menu/ shopping list looks like:
Weekly Menu
Meal Option #1: Chili
Meal Option #2: Potato Soup
Meal Option #3: Taco Salad
Meal Option #4: Enchiladas
Meal Option #5: Steak and green beans
Meal Option #6: Penne ala vodka with grilled chicken
Are you out of something? If so list below:
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^^^ A printed out copy of this bad boy goes on the fridge, notice I put a space for shit we need? My boyfriend/brothers/friends are notorious for not telling me when they use the last of something, so this way we avoid that problem. Now for my epic shopping list.
Groceries
Produce:
Shredded lettuce
Tomatoes
Avocado
Green beans
Meats& Protein:
Bacon
Chicken
Ground beef
Steak
Hot dogs
Aisles 1-4:
Can Cream of Chicken
Black olives
Penne Noodles
Vodka sauce
or Spaghetti sauce
Aisles: 5-9:
Tortilla chips
Cereal
Hot dog buns
Dairy:
Cheddar
Mexican Cheese
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Butter
Parmesan
Milk
Frozen section:
Shredded Hash Browns
Misc:
Vodka
Heavy Seas- smoke on the water
A smidge overboard, okay, but organized, fuck yeah! So I do have a pretty hefty stock of frozen meats and canned goods, so that does keep my list smaller. I also make large quantities of stuff so I can freeze the leftovers so when I’m not around the boyfriend doesn’t have to eat Papa Johns. Also, I cook with beer, A LOT, like whenever I can find a reason to put it in. I do not think that the recipes I make would be bad without beer, but it just adds this dimension of flavor that I truly enjoy. I could go on and on about beer cooking, but I’ll leave that for another post.
I will conclude this post by posting my recipe for Chili:
Ingredients:
½ lbs ground beef
½ Ibs hot sausage
1 diced yellow onion
1 nugget of fresh garlic
1 can whole tomatoes (drained)
1/2 can tomato sauce
1 small tomato paste can
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto
1 can black beans
½ bomber bottle of Heavy Seas smoked porter
(^ any smoked beer will work Victory Otto, also pretty amazing)
Cayenne pepper, red pepper (yes they are different things), Cajun seasoning, paprika, Italian seasoning, black pepper
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar
What to do:
Dice onion, break up garlic (dice, crush, doesn’t really matter), add ground beef and sausage, brown. Drain out fat, return to pot. Then add everything, ½ can sauce, paste, whole, and diced tomatoes. (I personally use canned beans but you could use dried beans if you want, I digress) Strain beans of their goo, rinse them off, and add to the pot. Then add spices, and beer. Simmer down now, and let that shit cook on med-low for a least an hour, the longer the better! Serve it up with a dollop of sour cream, and a hefty amount of cheese!
Leftover Mania:
Chili cheese hot dogs for lunches
½ lbs ground beef
½ Ibs hot sausage
1 diced yellow onion
1 nugget of fresh garlic
1 can whole tomatoes (drained)
1/2 can tomato sauce
1 small tomato paste can
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto
1 can black beans
½ bomber bottle of Heavy Seas smoked porter
(^ any smoked beer will work Victory Otto, also pretty amazing)
Cayenne pepper, red pepper (yes they are different things), Cajun seasoning, paprika, Italian seasoning, black pepper
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar
What to do:
Dice onion, break up garlic (dice, crush, doesn’t really matter), add ground beef and sausage, brown. Drain out fat, return to pot. Then add everything, ½ can sauce, paste, whole, and diced tomatoes. (I personally use canned beans but you could use dried beans if you want, I digress) Strain beans of their goo, rinse them off, and add to the pot. Then add spices, and beer. Simmer down now, and let that shit cook on med-low for a least an hour, the longer the better! Serve it up with a dollop of sour cream, and a hefty amount of cheese!
Leftover Mania:
Chili cheese hot dogs for lunches
Love the blog! Here's an idea for something new to try, especially if the boyfriend likes spicy as much as the Brothers and the rest of My Boys! I just made a chicken curry on Tuesday. You know spicy traditionally isn't my thing because of the stomach issues, but this has a different kind of heat somehow..
ReplyDeleteIngredients:
1 medium onion
1 large split chicken boob
red curry paste
coconut milk
vegies (what do you have to use up in your frige or freezer?)
little cream or half & half
lemon and lime
cilantro
garlic
raisins
for the rice:
white or brown rice or a combo of both
chicken stock
coconut milk
lime zest
cilantro
Sounds complicated? Not really. Since a lot of the ingredients are ding double duty it's fairly inexpensive and quicker than you'd expect.
Skin and debone the chicken, cut it into about 1.5 inch cubes. Add 1 minced clove of garlic into the chicken along with a tiny bit of oil and set aside. Zest lime - divide zest into two portions. 1 will go into the dish, 1 goes into the rice.
Cilantro. Here's my pet peeve about that. It's expensive and it always goes to waste before you use up an entire bunch. I get the frozen cubes from Trader Joes and pop out the number of cubes I need,then the rest goes back into the freezer- no waste! Since it's only $1.99, it's also a good buy. I use it in salsa and everything, so I can vouch for the fact that it works fine. Fresh is better of course, but unless you're going to go all Betty Crocker and grind/freeze your own during the summer, this is a super alternative.
Cut the onion up. I do mine in about 1/2" moons. Add Some veg. oil to the pan (EVOO won't work in this recipe, it's too flavorful)an saute the onions until they are translucent but not brown. Add half the can of chiken broth, ten break out the red curry paste. A little goes a long way! It's a small bottle found in the oriental section of the grocery store, and even though it's sort of spendy ($3.00 for a small bottle), lasts forever. I think I've had this bottle for over 3 years, so... I started with a Tablespoon, but hey, knock yourself out if you want something even spicier!Cook the paste and onions together for a bit, then add the chix.
Cook chicken for just a minute or two. No need to completely cook through because it simmers later. Add 2/3 of a can of coconut milk to the mix, then add your raisins (I just do a handful),a quarter of a whole lemon (sans seeds), lime zest, cilantro and vegies.
My thought on the veg here. Use what you have. I used some fresh cauliflower, broccoli and carrots because that's what I had, but I could just as easily see red or green peppers, zukes, or even sweet potatos or butternut squash. Also, I think frozen veg would be ok, just don't cook it as long or it will turn to mush.
Simmer while the rice cooks, add a splash of cream or half and half at the end to add some silkiness to it, and squeeze some lime juice over it (also remove the lemon, it can be a nasty surprise to eat a chunk of lemon.
Rice: Ihave a rice cooker, so that's how I'll give directions, cause it's simple (find one of these at the thrift store, they make life ultra simple) Add the rest of the can of coconut milk, rest of the chicken broth, a tablespoon of butter and some cilantro (I think I did about 4 cubes of TJ's)Slap on the lid and let it go until it says "done". Add lime zest into the rice, fluff up with a fork, check chicken mix for salt and serve! Honestly, sounds complicated, but the most time here is spent cutting up the chicken!
Saturday I am trying to make risotto - again. Last time I tried to make it I was less than impressed with the results, but from one foodie to another my daughter, Bon Appetit! :)