I was writing a post about How I’m Coping, and I somehow deleted the whole thing. I went through my drafts folder in hopes that it was hiding there, alas it was nowhere to be found. I did, however, find this:
Opposite Day for the Guy Who Never Did Anything Right
Once upon a time, there was a boy who never did anything right. He lived in a pyramid that was shaped like a square. When he was a baby, his shadow looked like a monster. One day he said “Eh, time to take out the trash.” Then he took out the trash. Usually he missed the trash can. But today was opposite day, and he didn’t miss the trash can! He found the key to something and opened the door, and behind it was another lock! It said “Unlock this with an apple core or a medicine pill, whichever one you choose.” And then lightning struck his power line, and he was like: “Hey, my power’s out! I can’t watch my favorite show!”
I have zero recollection of this. It was dated February 16, and it sounds like it could be something Pete wrote. But I really don’t have a clue. It’s National Blog Posting Month, though, and I couldn’t let today slip away without posting something.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for True Made Foods. Nichole was compensated for this post. All opinions are her own.
You can tell I liked the True Made Foods sauces, because I used a lot of what I tried. You can also tell that I forgot to take a picture of them before I opened the bottles and started eating.Once upon a time, there was a guy named Kevin. When Kevin was a kid, he was an athlete. When Kevin grew up, he was in the Army. But no matter what else he was doing, Kevin was the sort of guy who did not like vegetables. We all know that kind of guy (or gal), and some of us spend a good deal of energy endeavoring to convince a particular guy (or gal) of the veggie-avoiding type to embrace the veggie. As it so happened, Kevin’s wife Abbey was that type of gal.
Abbey wanted Kevin to have a healthier diet, so she started adding blended-up vegetables to their regular foods. Kevin not only discovered that this was not so bad, he was excited to find even more ways to add veggies to his diet. So Kevin and Abbey processed some spinach, carrots and butternut squash and added it to ketchup, and they all lived happily ever after.
Part of that “happily ever after” was starting a company, True Made Foods. True Made adds their spinach, carrot and butternut squash blend to ketchup, barbecue and sriracha-style hot sauce. They sent me a box of all three of them to try out last week. I haven’t tried the barbecue sauce yet, but I can tell you that the ketchup and “Veracha” are legitimately tasty.
True Made uses the veggies to sweeten their sauces, so the added sugar content is about half of what you’ll find in traditional ketchup. I tried the True Made ketchup on french fries. The texture isn’t as smooth as what I normally buy at the store, and it’s just a bit tangier. I don’t think you’d notice the texture if it were, say, on a burger, and I didn’t find the difference off putting at all. In fact, I think I used a good bit more ketchup than I normally do on my fries.
True Made’s Veracha is made from tomatoes, carrots, butternut squash, jalapenos, spinach and cayenne, and they say it’s “pure paleo,” if you’re into that sort of thing. I don’t use a lot of sriracha as a straight-up condiment, so I wanted to use the Veracha in a recipe. I tried a little spoonful of it before I thought about what to do with it. It’s more mild and less vinegary than the version with the rooster on the bottle, and I thought it would go nicely with honey on some grilled chicken. So I googled “sriracha honey chicken” to see if there was already a recipe out there that I could use, and lo and behold there was.
A lot of the reviewers of the Sriracha-Honey Chicken recipe AllRecipes.com said it was too spicy for their families. We have a few folks here who like spicy and a few who don’t, so I played around with the ratios a little to tone it down. Here’s what we had:
Baked Honey-Veracha Chicken
1/2 cup True Made Foods Veracha
1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk Veracha, honey, melted butter, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and black pepper together in a small bowl. Place chicken in a baking dish. Pour Veracha mixture over the chicken. Flip the chicken over to coat it completely. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and cook 15-20 minutes longer or until chicken is done.
Poppy said she would’ve preferred it with 1/4 cup Veracha and 3/4 cup honey, but the rest of us thought it was really well balanced, pleasantly spicy and flavorful. We’ll definitely have it again.
You can (and should, because it’s delicious) find True Made Foods at any Lowes Foods and some Super Targets, H-E-Bs and Whole Foods. Check out their website to find them in a store near you.
We were scattered all over the countryside this weekend. Rockford and Poppy were hours away at a two-day soccer tournament, and Pete and I were home for a chess tournament. Poppy’s team made it to the semi-finals, and by all accounts she played some of the best soccer she’s played all season. This was Pete’s first chess tournament. His experience was light on victories but he had a great time anyway. I’m proud of both of them, and I was glad to have everyone under the same roof again last night.
This is the last week of soccer practice for awhile. Poppy is a little sad about not seeing her girls four days a week, but she’s also relieved to have a little downtime on the horizon. I am, too.
Here’s what we’ll be eating as soccer season comes to a close:
Monday: Potluck
We’ll be sharing a meal with families from our homeschool co-op.
Tuesday: Fish sticks and mac ‘n’ cheese
Poppy wasn’t around this weekend to tell me what she wanted for Poppy’s Choice night, but I figured she’d be just fine with good ol’ fish sticks and mac.
Wednesday: Ham & swiss sliders
This is one of Rockford’s favorite meals.
Thursday: Poppyseed chicken casserole
I was happy Pete picked this instead of cheeseburgers again this week.
Friday: Pizza
Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.
