Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

I’d like to eat Cream of Wheat all week

10/08/2012 Nichole 2 Comments

This weekend was not pleasant.

The nastiness started on Thursday, actually, when Poppy came home from her piano lesson with a stomachache. Not long after that, the stomachache manifested itself as a stomach bug, and Poppy was down for the count. It hit Pete hours later, and the rest of the day was a blur of Gatorade sips and emergency cleanups.

Friday wasn’t so bad. The kids woke up back to normal; I think Pete actually backflipped out of his bed. So that was good. But then Rockford left for a business trip in the afternoon, which was not so good. I don’t like it when he’s gone in the best of situations. And this weekend? It was not the best of situations.

I’m sure you see where this is going by now.

The stomach bug hit me Saturday morning, about an hour and a half before Pete’s soccer game. We didn’t go to the soccer game. The really nasty stuff lasted for about 14 hours, during which time the kids feasted on unlimited TV, computer time and peanut butter. I was finally able to leave the bedroom yesterday, but I still spent most of the day on the couch. The aches, chills and issues were gone, but I had some wicked nausea whenever I tried to move and a horrible headache even when I wasn’t trying to move.

It’s a good thing I made my grocery list early last week. I haven’t wanted to think about food for days.

Monday Breakfast for dinner
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Spaghetti
Thursday: BBQ sandwiches
Friday: Pizza

menu plan Monday

And also Rockford made me some popcorn

10/01/2012 Nichole 2 Comments

I wish the weekends would stop flying by so quickly. We had a nice one, full of soccer games, playing frisbee in the back yard and watching “Doctor Who.” (And crying at the end of “Doctor Who,” because I am a sap.) I also spent some time going through the pantry and freezer, and I found enough to make most all of our meals this week. Three cheers for this week’s small grocery bill!

Monday Velveeta Helper: Again! I know! I think I may be developing a problem.
Tuesday: BBQ chicken sandwiches: I found a bucket of Lloyd’s chicken barbecue in the back of the freezer. Now doesn’t that sound like the start to a delicious meal?
Wednesday: Baked rigatoni: I used the Food Network’s mix-and-match baked pasta recipe many, many times when I first found it, and then I lost it. But I found it again this weekend, so we’ll be having pepperoni rigatoni! It has a delightful ring to it, doesn’t it?
Thursday: Trinidadian Chicken Curry: Last week’s Pioneer Woman recipe was so good I decided to try another this week. This looks to be flavor-packed!
Friday: Pizza

recipes

The Daring Bakers challenge resurrects a rather old point of contention

09/27/2012 Nichole 7 Comments

I often can’t remember exactly how old I am this year or which exit I need to take to get to my brother’s house. But I do remember the first time I heard of empanadas, something like 13 years ago. I remember because Rockford told me about them on the phone one evening, after a fellow intern on whom he still says he did not have a crush introduced him to them one day when they went out for lunch.

Jealousy is a powerful thing. Maybe if Rockford developed a crush on my shoes I could remember where I put them.

The only empanada that I knew of before this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was the small, handheld pastry version — like the Empanadas Mendocinas featured on From Argentina with Love — so I was surprised when I read through the recipe to find that I wouldn’t be making what I was already thinking of as homemade Hot Pockets. This recipe is for Empanada Gallega, which hails from Spain and, according to Wikipedia, is the great-granddad of the little empanadas I was expecting. This empanada is a big freeform pie that’s cut into slices to serve.

The host for the September challenge had a few suggestions for filling the empanada — salt cod and tuna were both suggested — but I decided to go my own way this time. I made a vegetarian version using black beans and plantain. The filling was tasty, but the bread on my empanada was much thicker than I’d originally envisioned. I think I could fix that by rolling the dough out thinner.

The finished product was kind of like a giant sandwich. Rockford thought it was great, but that may have been because it reminded him of the days when he got to have lunch with cute South American interns.

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