Mother's Day Lunch

Yohboh makes a big lunch for all the moms in his life.

Mother's Day Trifle

This year the kidlet made the Mother's Day Trifle.



She was very proud of herself.

Pork six ways

I think one of the ways to really save money is to stretch your proteins out.

For example Sunday of last week I made a five pound pork loin.  I also made a pound of dried cranberry beans and some rice.  No, I did not expect us to eat all that food at once but I made the rest of the week's meals with that pork loin.

Here was my menu for that week:

Sunday - Pork Loin roasted with thyme, oregano and garlic, rice and beans and a cucumber tomato and onion salad.
Monday - Pork tacos with rice and beans on the side
Tuesday - Cubans made with roast pork, sliced ham, swiss cheese, cucumber tomato and onion salad
Wednesday - Hot and Sour Soup, Kimchi Fried Rice
Thursday - Ramen noodle bowls with leftover sliced pork
Friday - Cubans again because they were really good.

Chuy ate rice and beans every day for lunch.

What is great about this way of eating is that it lends itself to any kind of protein.

Hot and Sour Soup

I always judge a Chinese joint by their hot and sour soup.

We used to have a favorite joint but the owners passed it down to their relatives and the quality completely dropped.  And they screwed up our order not once but twice.

So we tried a new place.  The hot and sour soup tasted like thinned sweet and sour sauce.  And everything was very greasy.

So I was craving hot and sour soup with no place to do order it from.  What is a food blogger to do?

MAKE IT HERSELF.

And now I wonder why I kept ordering it.  I had to go buy two ingredients to make it--tofu and dried black mushrooms.  This cost a grand total of $2.79.  And I made enough soup for six.




Hot and Sour Soup

8 dried black mushrooms

4 cups chicken stock

8 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
8 ounces of tofu, thinlysliced
8 ounces thinly sliced pork

2T rice wine vinegar
2T soy sauce

1 T cornstarch

2 T freshly ground black pepper

2 eggs beaten

Scallions for garnish

METHOD:

Take your dried black mushrooms and put them in a large drinking glass.  Fill the glass with hot water.

Bring the chicken stock to a boil.  Add the next three ingredients and bring to a simmer.  Add the vinegar and soy sauce.

In a small bowl mix the cornstarch with a little bit of water until it looks like skim milk.  Add it to the soup.

Stir well.

Let simmer for 15 minutes.

Check your dried mushrooms, they should be really big.  Pull them out and slice them thinly.  Add the mushroom water to the soup.  Add the mushrooms too.

Add the pepper.

Taste it.  What does it need?  I like mine more sour so I added more vinegar.

Take it off the heat and add the beaten eggs.  Stir quickly to make little ribbons of egg.

Beat your self up thinking about all the soup you could have made instead of buying it.

Tilapia Yogurt

So the other day I was eating this:



And on the back it said this:


Contains Milk Wheat and Tilapia.

Why is there fish in my yogurt?

I googled it and the answer is the fruit mousse contains gelatin from tilapia.  I don't think I will eat anymore fish yogurt.

Sunday Brunch

Yohboh suggested we go to breakfast on Sunday.  I suggested we stay home and I made:



Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 T oil
2T Sugar
1 Cup buttermilk

Combine the first four ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the next five ingredients.  Add the liquid stuff to the powder stuff.    Stir until just combined.

Heat a large skillet to medium.  Spray with oil spray stuff.  I like small pancakes.  This made eight.

The whole wheat made it very filling.

Better Than Bibimbop

I made bibimbop for dinner.  Instead of a fried egg, we had salmon roe.  YUM!

GARDEN 2013

We put the tomatoes in the ground!

Kidlet Lunch

Egg rolls, strawberries, cantaloupe, cucumbers, tomatoes, granola bar and a peanut butter Snickers.

She will eat the egg rolls, granola bar and the Snickers for sure.

The rest (expensive food)?  It's a crap shoot.

Banana Pudding with Chocolate Syrup and Strawberries

I did not really want to eat the last of the banana pudding.  But I wanted to empty to the tub.  This pudding only lasted three days in the house.

Meal Planning

A lot of people are proponents of weekly meal planning.

I like to plan about three days ahead.  I like to grocery shop about twice a week.

Here is what has gone down this week:

Sunday - Easter Dinner
Monday - Pizza Night
Tuesday - Ham, sweet potatoes and beets
Wednesday - Steak nachos with leftover beef from Sunday
Thursday - Split pea soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
Friday - My mother brought some food but have to make peanut butter fudge
Saturday - Going to a birthday party

Really, I like to cook three times a week and then eat the leftovers re-imagined.

Paska

Paska is a eastern European cheese cake like concoction.




My mother in law made it.

Rainbow

Kidlet and I made this for Easter:



Rainbow Jello.  This was not hard, just time consuming. And truthfully, I do not like Jello.  But the kidlet loves it so she will gladly eat this.

Clementine Vodka

I think our family goes through a box of clementines a week.  So last week I had an idea:


Clementine VODKA.

I just put the whole peel in some cheap vodka we had.  I put the whole peel in for a trace of bitterness.

Yohboh made this:


Creamsicle Martini


2 oz clementine vodka
4 drops vanilla extract

Back of the Box Recipe

I was going to make stuffed shells with spinach.  But instead I made this:




Stuffed shells with meatballs.

It was a back of the box recipe.  Sometimes a back of the box recipe is good.   Really good.