Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-Tastic Tortilla Soup

Yes, that is the actual name of the dinner that I made tonight. Isn't it awful?!?  I can't believe that someone in development at Food Network didn't sit down with Rachael Ray and tell her that the name is ridiculous, but I guess sometimes these things get though.  Maybe the recipe development guy was on vacation that week. You just have to forgive the name and try not to judge.

I, for one, have been excited about dinner tonight since I woke up this morning.  I recognize that this makes me a serious loser, but I'm ok with it.  The backstory on dinner tonight is that after Steve and I emerged from the darkest depths of the stomach flu, we both really wanted tortilla soup. Weird, right? Except for the cheese and tortilla chips, I had just about nothing for this recipe in the house, but Steve gave me permission (I let him think this) to depart from the pantry raid for a brief moment to savor the deliciousness that is tortilla soup. It is worth every.last.cent.

Here's the recipe.  You can read the recipe if you want, but I'm going to give you my changes. What you may lose in flavor is made up in convenience. I am far too busy to be roasting red peppers and scraping corn off the cob, so I changed some stuff.  You'll thank me.

Here's my version:

Ingredients: (Don't be intimidated by the number of ingredients, it is SO WORTH IT!)

Olive oil

1 can of corn

2 red bell peppers, diced

1.5 pounds chicken breast tenders

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning, 1/3 palm full

1 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 palm full

Salt and pepper

2 small to medium zucchinis diced

1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 to 2 chipotle in adobo peppers (medium to hot heat level), chopped -- available in small cans in Mexican and Spanish food section of market - I usually add 2 but we like it spicy. It's your call.

1 can stewed tomatoes, 28 ounces (I usually have to buy 2 smaller cans, but it's the same difference), chopped

1 can tomato sauce, 8 ounces

1 box (4 cups) chicken stock, available in re-sealable paper containers on soup aisle

tortilla chips

taco or cheddar cheese

Here's what you do:

Dice chicken. Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot soup pot. Add chicken to pot. Season with poultry seasoning, cumin, salt and pepper. Lightly brown chicken on each side. Add red peppers, zucchini, onions and garlic and chipotle peppers. Cook vegetables with chicken 7 to 10 minutes to soften. Add chopped stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock. Add the canned corn. Bring soup to a bubble, reduce heat to medium low. The longer the soup simmers, the better it will be, but you can eat it right away. I usually let it cook for 10-15 minutes.Ladle the soup into bowls and top it with crushed tortilla chips and some taco cheese.  Enjoy! 

This is what it looks like, but this is Rachael Ray's picture and not mine, and we don't usually put the sour cream and avocado on the soup, but you'll get the idea:

We seriously crave this meal and eat it once every 2 weeks or so.  Plus, since it's really just a kicked up chicken vegetable soup, it's really healthy, especially if you omit the toppings like the cheese and sour cream.  If I remember correctly, it's 5 or 6 points on Weight Watchers and that's if you include the chips & cheese.  It's like 3 points without that stuff.  I know this because I ate it all the time when I was losing the baby weight from both kids. 

So there you go.  I am a loser and get excited about soup.  But you will too once you try it!

"Moe" Money, "Mo" Problems

While we are officially over the stomach flu, I have been totally slacking when it comes to cooking this week.  I'm just not hungry, and seeing as I spent all last weekend barfing (sorry to be so descriptive), I decided not to push it.  For the last couple days we ate leftovers, and then today I just had a 100% crap-tastic day.  I'm trying really hard not to make this blog a forum for complaining, so I'll just say that it was super frustrating, and then after work I had a meeting until 4:30, and I wasn't going to be home until 5 which means that we wouldn't eat until 6ish, and that's too late when your toddler and infant go to bed at 7pm at the latest.  I also woke up STARVING and I ate voraciously all day, so tonight was really a perfect storm.
We cheated.  So sue me.  On the way home from work I guilted Steve into letting me pick up takeout, and while I love Chick-fil-a more than I love life itself (mmm...Southwest Chargrilled Salad), I decided to stop at Moe's, which to be honest is like Chipotle, but not as good.  Still, since the nearest Chipotle is over 30 minutes away, Moe's does the job in a pinch.  Will had a chicken taco (which he actually consumed - shocker!), Steve and I had a burrito, we all had way too many chips and salsa, and I let out all my complaints and Steve listened and offered suggestions.  It was actually a really nice dinner.  Not so much the genetically modified, antibiotic injected chicken burrito, but more the conversation.

The "Mo" part of this post comes from the fact that finally, after 27 months of life, Will has learned to say the word "no."  Only it comes out as "mo." For the first week, his use of the word "no" was really cute.  Not so much anymore, but he also learned the word "gross" which I find pretty funny, so they balance themselves out.

On the Emma front, she recently celebrated her 9 month birthday:

I took pictures of Will on his monthly "birthday" for the first year, and then we bought a 12 opening frame and put them all in, in order. I would encourage every new mom to do this.  It is so neat to look at their whole year in a glance, especially because when you're "in" the first year, you're so tired and overwhelmed alot of the time you forget to reflect. I also think its cool to see how when they are a year old, they still kind of look like they did when they were a newborn. Will's is hanging in the playroom and we already bought the same frame for Emma and we'll put hers up around her first birthday.

I promise I'll be back cooking tomorrow. I'm making one of our favorites, tortilla soup, and I promise to share the recipe!

A Plague on Your House!

First of all, let me start by acknowledging that I know that I have misquoted Shakespeare in the title of this post.  But "A plague on both your houses!" doesn't make sense because, in this case, it was only our house that had the plague.  So there.  Color me Mercutio.

Second, let me explain.  This weekend we were forced to depart from the pantry raid.  It was not by choice, but by germs, when at 4am on Saturday morning I was hit by a Mack truck called the stomach flu.  I sucked it up until about 10AM when I called no joy, and prayed to the porcelain god for forgiveness from all my food related sins.  As I was "in prayer" Steve also came down with the virus.  Off the kids went to their grandparents' houses, and Steve and I wallowed in self pity for the rest of the night.  We woke up the next morning feeling weak, but much better.  Our stomachs, while having forgiven us, will never, it seems, forget.

The next night we were starving, and for whatever reason I was craving meatloaf, so I turned to my dad's recipe, which is the best ever!  Here's the recipe:

My Dad's Meatloaf:
Ingredients:
1-1.5 lbs ground beef
1 beaten egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 onion chopped
3 tbsp. vinegar
3 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. mustard
2 tbsp. worcheshire sauce
1/2 cup water.

Mix the ground beef, the egg, the breadcrumbs, the onion and half the tomato sauce together.  Add 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper.  In a small bowl, wisk together the rest of the tomato sauce, the vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, worcheshire sauce and water. Knead half the tomato sauce-vinegar mixture into the meatloaf.  Put meat mixture in a loaf pan, cover with remaining sauce mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1.5 hours.

It is to die for!  This is no dry meatloaf! It's tangy, ketchupy, sweet, vinegary deliciousness!  I don't even really like meatloaf, and I love this version.  I served it with sauteed asparagus, and this recipe for Paula Deen's garlic mashed potatoes. Believe it or not, we actually had everything for the dinner in the house, so it cost us nothing! 

Over the course of our stomach plague, I lost 4 pounds from "praying."  Typically this is what happens when you don't eat anything but a string cheese and half a Gatorade for 2 days, but I'm sure that our Sunday dinner put back on a little weight, but it was well worth it!

Tomorrow I'll post the meal plans for the week (it's starting to get ugly when all that's in your pantry is a can of mexicorn, some ramen, tomato soup and Enfamil).  In the meantime, we'll be praying (to Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Mother Earth, Shiva, Tom Cruise & the Scientologists) that the kids stay healthy this week!

See you tomorrow!

Mother of the Year!

In the last 2+ years, I have had a number of what Steve and I call "Mother of the Year!" moments.  For example, when I dropped Emma on her head at the pediatricians office (don't go calling DYFS, it was only like 6 inches off the ground), or anytime Will acts like a lunatic in Target and I buy him off with goldfish crackers.  A "Mother of the Year" moment basically rewards parental behavior that you know isn't good, but you do it anyway. Luckily, ours have been relatively few and far between.  Well, just when I had forgotten about those moments, today we had another one, and it was, of course, food related.

One of my least proud parental moments involves Dunkin Donuts.  We have one in our ShopRite and Will always goes grocery shopping with me on Sunday mornings, and in order to get through the trip, I buy him a donut.  This became a whole thing when I realized that every time Will saw a Dunkin Donuts store, coffee cup, bag, etc. etc. he would point at it and shout "that! That! THAAAT!" at the top of his lungs, letting everyone in a 10 mile radius know that he knew the Dunkin logo.  I've never been prouder of myself as a parent (can you read the sarcasm?!?).  Well, I've actually been proud of the fact that he knew DD and not McDonald's, but it seems that time has come to an end.

Today after work I had meetings for prom locations with my class council and then on the way home I stopped for McDonalds.  Steve and Will were eating lasagna I made while I was home today (our babysitter was sick - feel better Joni!) for dinner, so I knew they were taken care of.  Well, I got home and Will pointed right at the McDonald's bag and said "I want THAT." How he knows that McDonald's is delicious, I do not know. He's had it maybe twice in his entire life and both times he rejected it (an obvious rookie mistake good decision).  Well, I guess he learned somehow because according to Steve 20 minutes previously he declined the lasagna (by "declined" I mean refused to eat even a single bite), and when I got home he proceeded to eat half an order of fries and 2 chicken selects. It was like we had been starving him for the past 2 years.  He couldn't stuff the food in fast enough. Here's the evidence:

Dipping the chicken in sweet & sour sauce (clearly the best nugget dip)

Shoveling the food in:

Not my proudest moment.  So, just when you think you're feeding your family as many fresh, organic, whole grain, whole foods, McDonald's jumps up and steals your thunder. Sigh. Tomorrow he's going to eat a vegetable if it kills me, and that vegetable will NOT be genetically modified potatoes.  Mother of the Year!

Nicole Kidman's Pasta

Tonight was crazy! I had to pick up the kids after school, then make dinner, eat, clean up, then bring Will with me to run a couple errands in Hopewell before coming back, helping with baths, reading books finally throwing both children into their cribs.  I'm totally pooped!

Anyone with kids knows that it is a logistical nightmare to feed and bathe two of them, especially on a weeknight when you have to run errands.  The only way to make tonight work was for us to eat dinner at 4:30pm.  That's right, our house might as well have been the Sizzler early-bird special. 

On the menu: Nicole Kidman's Crispy Orecchette with Broccoli.  As I mentioned before, I got this out of People magazine and it has now become one of our favorite meals. It's so good, that it's in the every other week rotation. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• One pound of pasta (I used rotini, but you can use whatever you have)
• 2 heads organic broccoli florets
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• olive oil, salt & pepper

First, toast the pine nuts in a small pan (you can totally skip this step if you want).  Then, cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions. While it's cooking, heat the olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan) in a large skillet, then add the garlic.  When the garlic is fragrant, add the broccoli and season with salt & pepper.  Saute the broccoli until it's cooked to however you like it - I prefer it a little undercooked, so it's still got some crunch, but it's up to you.  When the pasta is done, drain it & put it back in the pot.  Add the following to the pasta, mixing after each: the butter, the broccoli, the balsamic vinegar, the pine nuts, and the parmesan cheese. You're done! 

In Nicole's version she has us adding white wine and lemon juice, toasting the pasta in the skillet after it's cooked, blah, blah, blah.  I've found you don't need to do that.  It does taste a little better, but it's not worth more dirty dishes and added time.  It's lost on the palate of a 2 year old.

Enjoy! Tomorrow night is sloppy joes! I'm already dreading the clean up.  Is it inhumane to just hose Will off after dinner?  Darn 40 degree evenings...

Fish isn't Meat, right?

So today was supposed to be Meatless Monday, but that was a no go.  I defrosted chicken this past weekend to make Bisquick Sesame Chicken Strips, which I had planned on making on Saturday.  But I felt like crap all day and Steve ended up going out for a man date with my Dad, so it didn't get cooked.  Then in a coup that was staged at Jo-Jo's during sed man date, Steve and my Dad conspired to make corned beef and cabbage dinner plans at my parents' house for Sunday night.  Bottom line: the chicken had to get cooked today.

The problems were: a) Chicken isn't vegetarian, and b) when I smelled the chicken it just wasn't right and I wasn't about to chance an entire family with food poisoning so I just axed the entire dinner.  Instead we had battered fish filets and potatoes o'brien.  Actually, we only had enough potatoes for one person, so I made Steve eat the leftover fried rice from last week.  So I guess it wasn't technically "Meatless Monday," but it wasn't exactly "Meat-ful Monday" either.

Here's the menu for this week:
Monday: Rancid chicken. Battered Fish Filets & O'Brien Potatoes.

Tuesday: I have the stuff to make both sloppy joes and this awesome pasta with pine nuts, broccoli, butter and balsamic vinegar. It is randomly from People magazines "Cooking with the Stars" column, and Nicole Kidman is credited with making it.  I'm reasonably sure that her chef probably makes it and not her, but it's delicious anyhow. I'll try to remember to post the recipe because it is that good.

Wednesday: Either the pasta or the sloppy joes- whichever I don't make on Tuesday.

Thursday: We'll probably have leftovers. I have appointments after school for prom locations and I won't be home until at least 5:30 and you know Steve isn't cooking.

Friday: Who knows? It's Lent so either Fish & Chips or Pizza.  Boo for no burgers and beer on Friday nights, but if that's what it takes to go to heaven, then I'm in.

Here's a cabinet update- here is how our pantry looked before Week 1:

Here it is now:

Here's the freezer before Week 1:

Here it is now:

Yes, that's vodka.

I'm not showing you the fridge because it's packed with stuff but that's because almost everything we've bought in the last three weeks is perishable and goes in there.

Also, in the last three weeks we've spent a total of about $160 on groceries(!) and almost all of it was either fresh produce or stuff for the kids like milk and yogurt.  Here's to saving money!

Because there is popular demand for more Emma, here she is wearing Will's beads.

See you tomorrow!

The Food Standoff Ends!

As many of you know, we have been in a food standoff with our 2 year old.  We continue to make the same meals that we always have, and he continues to refuse eating them.  It doesn't really bother us too much, because we know that we can't back down on this or he'll be one of those kids that eats nothing but hot dogs and chicken fingers.  We've been waiting for the meal that he'll actually eat.  Tonight, we found it:

We had french toast with bacon and sliced strawberries.  Not the healthiest meal, but it totally hit the spot, and Will shoveled in the food.  Like any good Bruschi/Jablonski, he went for the bacon first (that's my boy!). Then he ate 2 big slices of french toast and he even stole my strawberries.  SUCCESS!  He even licked his fingers:

The best part was, I only had to buy the strawberries for $2.99 and the texas toast for $1.49.  So for about $4.50 we will have at least 2 breakfasts (or dinners in this case) for our entire family.

In other news: I ordered the cutest Easter baskets for the kids from Pottery Barn Kids.  I've wanted to order them every year since I was pregnant with Will and every year I think "I'll wait and get them on sale after Easter." But Pottery Barn never has any left.  So this year, when I saw the Peter Rabbit liners I knew I had to buck up and buy them at full price.  Here they are:

Aren't they so stinking cute?!? I can't wait to fill them up for Easter!

Finally, I've heard from several people that Emma isn't featured enough in the blog.  Let me be clear: She is not the forgotten child. She can be so giggly and smiley, but she can also be a pill - hmm...I wonder where she got that from?!? It's just that this is a food blog, and she eats baby food, Mum-Mums and yogurt melts.  It's really not exciting reading.  But if ye shall ask, ye shall recieve...the update on Emma is that she starting pulling all the way up to standing last week and now she's working on cruising and letting go while standing up.  Some evidence:

My prediction is that she will be walking in a month - she's our wild child!  She's also cutting her first tooth and like her mamma, she doesn't mess around with telling us & showing us how she feels about it.  We are awaiting a corporate sponsorship from Baby Motrin.

I'll be back tomorrow with this weeks pantry raid menus!  Emma says "Bye!"

Basketball & Beads

Let me first acknowledge that today is St. Patrick's Day.  I'm Italian, so I'm not celebrating.  Personally, I think corned beef and cabbage is in the top 5 grossest meals ever, so I definitely wasn't even considering making a traditional St. Paddy's Day meal.  That said, I didn't shop this week, so we had to make do.  I found a roll of refrigerated pizza dough, I had some leftover organic pasta sauce in the fridge, and we had 1/4 of a bag of shredded cheese and some string cheese in the fridge that I chopped up...Voila!  Pizza!  I always try to put veggies on our pizza in the hopes that we can sneak some into Will's belly, so I sauteed a red bell pepper with some italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic and green onions and put that on the pizza as well.  Unfortunately, it was late, Will was fussing because he was hungry, so we ate without taking pictures first.

Things I learned from this meal:
1) I should make pizza more often. It's really not hard at all, and usually I'm just as satisfied as I would have been from ordering out.
2) I heart veggies on pizza, even more than sausage or pepperoni.  This is a tell-tale sign of being old.
3) Will was not, in fact, hungry.  He has just completed the transition from normal toddler to professional malcontent.  He ate a clementine for dinner. That's right, a single mini tangerine. But he didn't seem upset about it, so I guess he'll eat at some point.

On an aside, I LOVE March Madness. It is my favorite time of year.  I love it even more than Christmas because there are no obligations one has to meet when it's March Madness.  Of course, I filled in my bracket.  Usually I spend hours and hours researching, then I fill out the bracket based on average picks of ESPN analysts.  I typically finish in the bottom five in the pool. This year, I decided not to research, and to pick teams based on the following criteria:

1) whether I like the team.  For example, I hate Penn State.  I don't know why, I just do.  So I'm not picking them. I also don't like Cincinnati, because I believe it's a coach's job to actually get players to graduate. They aren't doing so hot in that department.  So I'm basing my picks on prejudice and personal opinion.  We'll see how it goes.
2) If stuck after criteriom one, I chose based on uniform color.

I feel confident that I can't possibly finish worse than last year. I'll keep you updated. So far I'm 5 for 7.

One last thing, earlier this week I mentioned that we went to a fundraiser at Alchemist and Barrister.  My cousin Dan gave Will some mardi gras beads which he is now obsessed with and MUST wear everywhere we go.  Here's evidence:

This is five minutes before he freaked when we took them off for his bath. If the Village People was like Menudo and swapped out members once they got too old, Will would be their next big star.  He also dances around the house with them on, which just cracks me up every time I see it.  The beads might get "lost" overnight.  It depends if I remember and whether he decided to sleep with them on.

Tomorrow's Meal: Hibernian Fish & Chips (aka. How to be a Good Catholic for Dummies).

See you tomorrow!

Ancient Chinese Recipe

There are certain types of food that are meant to be eaten out.  In my opinion, Chinese food is one of them.  I've tried to make stir fry and yes, it's good, but it never tastes totally right.  So when I decided to try again to make my own Chinese food, I had very low expectations.  I tried to make lo mein once, and it was downright inedible.  I did learn that more does not equal better when it comes to grated ginger. It was a valuable life lesson.

Tonight's dinner consisted of chicken and vegetable potstickers along with homemade fried rice.  I needed a recipe, so I went on food network to find whichever recipe for fried rice didn't involve a $30 trip to the grocery store, and was pleased to find this recipe from 30 Minute Meals for Special Fried Rice.  The final product looked pretty good!

Steve gobbled it up (Will, not surprisingly was not a fan), and it tasted pretty close to take out, but it seemed to be missing something.  Next time I'm going to make a couple changes: 1) Less soy sauce.  I thought it was salty, and I used lower sodium soy; 2) it needed some heat.  I think next time I would add some sweet thai chili sauce and see if that helps; 3) I wouldn't serve it with the dumplings again.  I think I'd mix in some teriyaki marinated chicken or something similar.  The dumplings with the Gyoza dipping sauce was total sodium overkill.  Aside from those three things I'm really proud of myself!  It was loaded with organic veggies and I used brown rice to make it a bit healthier.  On an aside, I didn't buy the shredded carrots from the grocery store, but instead attempted to grate baby carrots.  Big mistake.  BIG.  I'm surprised I still have the tips of all my fingers!

One other change for this week's menu.  Steve has requested that we join the 75 and older crowd on Friday night for the Trenton Order of the Hibernians Friday night lenten fish fry.  If you're interested, here's the link to their website. No, we're not Irish.  But I do enjoy using fried fish as a vehicle for consuming malt vinegar.  They also have a liquor license, and we can feed the three of us for under $20.

On an aside, Emma is cutting her first tooth (finally!!!)!  She's pulling up on the furniture & trying to cruise & she's not even 9 months old! Also, I downloaded my Disney pictures the computer, and most aren't appropriate for this G rated blog, but here are two good ones.  One of me "Singin' in the Rain" at Hollywood Studies (otherwise known as The Park Formerly Known as MGM):

And one of me outside the French pavilion at Epcot just as the sun was setting.

Tomorrow night is going to be another menu crapshoot, so we'll see what I can cook up using a box of couscous, freezer burned Lender's bagels, and Trader Joe's boxed macaroni & cheese. Suggestions? I'm thinking leftovers.

Steve for President in 2012

I'm back from Disney!  We had a great time, but I'm SO happy to be home!  It had been almost a week since I saw the kids and this morning when I got Will out of bed he kept hugging me and saying "MAMA!" It was the best welcome home I possibly could have gotten.  Steve was also reasonably happy to see me :)

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing this guy in the airport:

In case you're not a 12 year old girl, that's Robert Pattinson, the star of the Twilight movies.  Of course, our students were going berserk. He was kind of a jerk, and wouldn't confirm that it was actually him, but it obviously was because he didn't deny it.  Plus, I would assert that you aren't a big enough celebrity to be a jerk if you have to fly commercial. You need a private plane before you get to be mean.  The other thing was that he seemed irritated that the kids noticed him, but in all honesty, he looked JUST LIKE Edward.  I mean, obviously he looks like Edward since he plays him in the movies, but he was dressed just like the character and needed a spraytan in a fierce way.  He should stop dressing like a vampire and just wear a baseball cap and his life would be MUCH easier. I should write a book on how to be a celebrity, because I think I would be better at it than Robert Pattinson was at the Orlando airport.

On an aside, my husband should run for president in 2012.  The man could have solved the nation's fiscal issues, the social security crisis and calmed Libya and Egypt with the level of intellect and logistics that it took for him arrange to never have to cook dinner while I was away.  Of the 6 nights that I was away for dinner, Steve cooked for one of them.  His meal of choice:

I would like to thank all our family and friends that came to his aid and fed him and Will.  Steve seemed rather proud of himself, and let's be honest, it is commendable that for 6 days all you had to cook was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, and one frozen pizza. It's impressive!

This week is going to be in true pantry raid style because I haven't gone grocery shopping and won't be going until Saturday.  I'm going to try to do some makeshift menus tomorrow & take some pictures of our updated, almost empty fridge & cupboards. In the meantime, I am catching up on a week's worth of reality tv.  Bye bye Disney, Hello Bethenny Ever After and Amazing Race! What I won't be watching: Twilight.



My Love/Hate Relationship with Eggplant

I love eggplant. No really, I LOVE it.  I love it fried, grilled, in pasta, however.  But until recently, I have only eaten eggplant when out at a restaurant because it is seriously such a pain to make at home. This summer I threw out TONS of organic eggplant, mostly because we were just trying to stay afloat with a newborn and a toddler and I didn't have the foresight to think about any meal that took more than 30 minutes to prepare,and ALL recipes involving eggplant take more than 30 minutes to prepare.  But since we decided to really commit ourselves to Meatless Monday, I am having to revisit my love/hate relationship with eggplant or else we're going to be eating pasta every Monday. Now, I have nothing against pasta.  That too, I love.  However, it really isn't healthy to eat like you're running the NYC Marathon the next day, when in fact: a) I have not run since probably 2005, and b) while mentally strenuous, my job as a teacher isn't physically demanding enough so as to require me to carboload.

Battle Eggplant:
As I drove home from school today, I knew what I had in store: eggplant that had to be peeled, seeded, salted, drained, grilled, then baked.  I also knew that the time was already 4:45, so dinner wasn't going to be until really late. For a second I felt like Julie from Julie & Julia when she would come home from work, debone a duck, and serve dinner at 11:30pm.  The only difference is Rachael Ray is decidedly NOT Julia Child, and stuffed eggplant is NOT beef bourguignon. I thought about just making the frozen pizzas, except that then the eggplant was going to go bad (no chance in hell Steve was going to make it in my absence), and the whole point of this experiment was to actually save money and if you throw away the groceries, then you definitely don't save money.

Long story short, I sucked it up, and made the Stuffed Eggplant Steaks. They were beyond good!  Steve loved them.  Will chose to eat carrot sticks and salad instead (weirdo, but whatever). They were kind of like a grilled eggplant parm with spinach. They are totally going into our rotation, except in the future I'll salt, drain and grill the eggplant on the weekend so that I only have to do the easy part (stuffing and baking them) on a weeknight. Another plus, in real life, they totally looked like the picture on the website:



That almost never happens! I think it took me about an hour start to finish, which really isn't that bad, but on a Monday an hour feels like an eternity!

I'm off from cooking tomorrow - be back Wednesday!

Operation: Fend for Yourself

My husband is running the biggest scam ever!  Let me give you the backstory: this winter my school accepted applications for chaperones for the Senior Class trip to Disney World.  Before I applied, I asked Steve if I could go - of course like a good (read: scared) husband, he told me to go ahead and apply, just as long as it was ok with me if he chaperoned his school's ski trip.  I said ok, applied and was accepted.  In the meantime...his school's ski trip was cancelled.  So, he has to watch the kids for 5 days while I'm in Disney with 300 high schoolers, and I don't have to watch the kids alone at all!  Score! Which brings me back to his scam.  I'm leaving Thursday at the ungodly hour of 2am, and returning on Monday.  His schedule is as follows:

• Thursday: drop kids off at my parents, go to work, pick up kids from daycare, drop them back off at my parents in the evening.
• Friday: go to work, drive up to the lake for skiing with my dad
• Saturday: more skiing
• Sunday: drive home, see the kids, put them to bed.  drink beer.
• Monday: drop off kids at my parents, go to work.  Since I'll be getting home during the day, I'll probably pick them up.

Rough gig, right? He only has to watch them for probably a combined 5 hours (not including sleep).  He'll probably manage to get in a free dinner at someone's house on Sunday as well, not that I can blame him.  The man could be the next President of the United States with the logistics it took to pull this off! I have to give him credit for that! If left at home, I probably would have just watched movies and ordered Papa Johns!

Which brings me to this week's Pantry Raid menu.

• Monday: Meatless Monday! I'm trying this recipe for Stuffed Eggplant Steaks, since I had everything except the eggplant and the ricotta in the house. I might do pasta with olive oil & garlic on the side, but it looks pretty hearty, so it might not be necessary.
• Tuesday: It's Fat Tuesday, so we'll be going to Nonna's for "Cutta Di Yeg." She swears it's an Italian thing you do the night before Ash Wednesday. I think it's an "I grew up on the tippity top of a village with a total population of 45 people, 7 dogs, 35 chickens, and 1 priest" thing.  Regardless, she's cooking and I'm eating so I'll go along with the story.
• Wednesday: I will be at a doctor's appointment with Will, then Disney luggage check, so Steve is making Trader Joe's Organic Spinach and Feta pizzas, courtesy of our freezer.
• Thursday-Monday: Steve can figure it out! He's the one who got me into the pantry raid, so I'm excited to see what kinds of crazy recipes he makes.  I feel like there's probably alot of sandwiches in the future!

My menu for Thursday-Monday is as follows:
Everyone knows that Disney World has the best popcorn:

And as an homage to my father, I'll have one of these (ears ALWAYS consumed first):

And finally, on Saturday night, I'll be at Teppan Edo in Epcot for hibachi! I never can catch that damned zucchini in my mouth though...But I feel like when you're at the Happiest Place on Earth, they let you keep trying until you get one!

What is your favorite Disney treat?  I'll have one, then gloat!







The Best Part of Wakin' Up...

Let's be clear - I am writing this at 6:08am on a Saturday.  This is my new thing - I go to bed at 9pm, then wake up at 6am get up, watch my reality tv on DVR and drink my coffee alone.  Don't get be wrong, I love my husband, kids, dog, but the time spent alone in the morning, when the house is quiet and I can drink my coffee, watch tv, blog, whatever, is wonderful!  This morning I'm watching 2 guilty pleasures - Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes and Say Yes to the Dress.  Both wonderful, and better yet, since the hubs is asleep, I don't have to hear any complaining!

Back to this weekend & the pantry raid...We have the busiest weekend EVER! This morning I'm getting a much anticipated treat in preparation of my trip to Florida - a pedicure! And because we don't want either child breathing in nail salon fumes, I get to go alone - woohoo!  After lunch Will and I are going to my school's performace of :

We've been prepping him by watching the movie for weeks, so I'm optimistic that he'll actually sit and watch the show.  It will either be great, or he'll run around like a lunatic and we will be :those people: at the show.  The good news is that if he acts like the wild man of Borneo, I only spent $10 on the ticket, so it's not like it cost us a mortgage payment.

Afterwards we're going to our friends M & G's house for dinner.  I got the Lazy Greek Chicken recipe from them, so there might be an addition to the recipe book after tonight. We're supposed to bring dessert, and while I would love to get cupcakes from my favorite bakery, Sugar & Sunshine, in pantry raid fashion, I have all the ingredients for Rice Krispies Treats, so I think I'll take the responsible (read: boring) route and make them instead.

Tomorrow I'll have next week's menu, aptly titled "Fend for Yourself," since I'll be in Disney for most of the week!

Pork Rollin' with my Homies

What exactly is pork roll?  In a word, pork roll is: delicious.
In The Search for Delicious - I know I can't be the only person that read that book as a kid! - "delicious" never should have been defined "a tall glass of water on a hot day."  "Delicious" should have been "crispy pork roll on a toasted hard roll, with American cheese and egg." Pork roll is tasty and gluttonous and wonderful.  It's the processed meat that can't be beat.

We do breakfast for dinner about once a week mostly for two reasons: 1) it's fast, and 2) we know that everyone (read: Will) is going to eat it.  We had pork roll, egg and cheese sandwiches on flatbreads with homefried potatoes (aka Potatoes Robert) and fruit on the side.  Everything was delish, and even Will decided to eat tonight. It wasn't exactly worthy of a spot on the Food Network, but I'm sure that given that he's from NJ, even Mario Batali enjoys a pork roll, egg and cheese.

Given that we are trying to clean out our pantry, fridge and freezer, last week I took some "before" photos.  Here we go...The pantry before:

It may not look like much, but all those fabric bins are also filled with food, baking supplies, snacks, etc. etc.

Here's the fridge:

You know we'll be super pathetic when 2 weeks from now I'm arranging meals around condiments! I already have mental notes attached to the thai chili sauce and the sweet & sour sauce for next week!

Lastly, the freezer.  I expect this will be empty when I return from Florida. Let me save everyone the jokes and acknowledge that our freezer looks like a college student's.  The Lean Pockets are mine, not Steve's.  I stand by them. They are delicious and fast and won't give you too much junk in the trunk.  Try the new Pretzel Bread Jalapeno Chicken ones and you won't be disappointed.



Don't you feel like you just watched an episode of MTV Cribs? I know that my freezer looks eerily like Mariah Carey's or one of the members of 'NSync.

I'll take some update pictures this weekend - it already looks less crowded!

See you later!

My Big Fat Greek Chicken

So it's only Day 2 and I already messed up the menu. We were supposed to have breakfast for dinner - Bacon, Egg, & Cheese sandwiches on biscuits with homefries and fruit.  But, then when I looked at the schedule for the week, I noticed that I wasn't going to be home for dinner tomorrow night, and there better be some leftovers for Steve and Will, so I swapped Thursday's dinner (Lazy Greek Chicken) with Tuesdays (Breakfast for Dinner). 

The recipe title "Lazy Greek Chicken" is really false advertising.  It involves butterflying chicken breasts, chopping onions, making breadcrumb mixtures. Let me tell you what my version of "Lazy Greek Chicken" is: take some chicken breasts, marinate them in greek salad dressing (aka. Good Seasons), then grill them.  This recipe, while not difficult, is definitely not for a couchpotato.

I added garlic mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Here's how it came out:


Steve and I enjoyed it, Will is right back to freeing India from the oppression of the British Empire via hunger strike.  He ate exactly zero bites of food, and ended up with a banana for dinner.  He tried to throw his plate, but it was out of disgust and not to celebrate how wonderful dinner tasted with a traditional Greek plate smash. 

As I mentioned above, I have a meeting tomorrow night for the Senior Class Trip (bye cold Chesterfield, HELLO warm Disney World!) so I won't be home & won't be cooking.

On a tv side note, was I the only one who was underwhelmed by the new Dancing with the Stars cast (thanks, but no thanks Kendra & Chris Jericho)?  I have also sunk into a depression over the lack of Glee this week.  Luckily Top Chef is "supersized" this week and Carla's still in it to win it - LOVE her! - so that should pull me through!

See you on Thursday!