The Bard said it best in his play "Twelfth Night"
"If music be the food of love, play on"
Let's skew his meaning a bit and see just where the love of food and the love of music takes us.
This June is going to be an incredibly busy month for me, and as much as I enjoy blogging and the blog community, I need to take a break. I will still be reading your blogs, but might not post comments since I will be using my phone for reading mainly and sometimes it will let me post as Anonymous, but most of the time it will allow none.
Will be back when life settles down to a dull roar!
This was a week that saw us in a couple of locations which is not our norm any given week. We started the week in Tennessee, back to Alabama, then ended it in Portland.
Sunday: We got up early to be in Nashville for an 11 o'clock brunch at The Dutch. The food was good but the company was great. Two of Son3 and DIL3's friends had planned a "Welcome to Nashville" meal for them. DIL3's parents came in from Switzerland to help with the move and we finally got to meet her dad in the 3-d world rather than seeing and talking through FaceTime. We had met her mom in NYC and already knew what a lovely woman she is.
After brunch we checked into our hotel, changed clothes then headed to their house. We all managed to attack some of box mountain, but left them with plenty to do at a later time.
We ended the night going out to eat at a local bbq joint.
Monday: We had planned to stay at the same hotel DIL3's parents were registered and we met them for an almost 2 hour breakfast/visit before we left to head back to Birmingham.
Son2 and DIL2 had made arrangements for her mother's care so they could meet us for a late lunch/early dinner. I have missed seeing them so it was wonderful to have a little time and conversation over a meal.
Tuesday: Son3 and DIL3 had their rental truck through Wednesday and drove it to our house to get those things we have been storing for them from Mom's house or the lake place. Of course I loved seeing them, and am thrilled to almost have my room back.
Son2 and DIL2 still have a few things stored there but their life is complicated right now and they have not been able to really spend time working on their new to them house. But I am close to being able to reclaim the space.
Wednesday: Though I should have been getting everything ready for our trip to Portland I read instead. If you want a "fast read" that draws you in quickly you might want to give "The Third Twin" by Ken Follett a try. I was sucked in when I had my first cup of coffee and finished it right after a late lunch. I am glad laundry is easy to do in short spurts, because at least everything was washed and ready to pack.
Thursday: We had a late afternoon flight to Portland with a brief layover in Dallas. I was in a little panic because our flight from Birmingham was delayed about 30 minutes and we had a small window to make our connecting flight. Turned out to be no problem since it was delayed also. We made it to the hotel by about 1, hit the sack and slept well
Friday: Son1 met us at the hotel for breakfast then we went to Pips school to watch their Friday dance party ( outdoor recess with music, dancing optional) before checking her out for the rest of the afternoon. We talked a bit before she decided we would go to an udon restaurant. DIL1 and her mom joined us which was even better.
We went to their house to visit before going back to our hotel for some needed sleep.
Saturday: This was a day that made the entire trip worth it. We went to Pips dance recital and the grin on her face while her group was dancing was more than we could have hoped for.
The week came and went. We ate some of the things I had planned, but certainly not every meal every day. Can you say dinner dates?
This video slays me
.
Ideas I thought we might have for dinner:
1. Grilled tuna, hot spinach salad, artichokes, rice or potatoes for TheHub
2. Veggie dinner TBD later
3. Leftovers
4. Chicken enchilada casserole, coleslaw or salad
5. Sandwiches and salad
6. Beef stew, coleslaw
7. Out to eat
What we ate instead:
Monday: I cleaned the fridge and found some veggies that were less than prime, plus I had thawed some cooked meatballs that had been in the freezer. Easy dinner.
Beef stew, coleslaw
Tuesday: Leftover chicken and a bogo mini pepper sale at Publix was the inspiration for the nights meal
Chicken enchilada casserole, tomato onion and cucumber salad
Wednesday: TheHub had a business dinner meeting and there is no way I would cook for just me.
Warmed (or possibly cold straight from the fridge) leftovers
Thursday: Because I painted all day, dinner was TheHub's responsibility. (Yes I know he also worked all day, but at the end of his workday he came home washed his hands and was ready to roll. I was busy scrubbing primer off of my hands, arms and toe (? how did that happen?)
Take out chicken dinners from Jacks
Friday: See Thursday, with the exception of paint on my toe. TheHub brought dinner home for us.
Pork chop, turnip greens, stewed okra or whatever TheHub ate. I did not pay any attention to his plate.
Saturday: We had planned on having sandwiches for dinner, so we did. Everyone for themselves.
PBJ *or bacon sandwich (not mine)
Sunday: We went to Nashville for the big move in day. We all went out to eat after working to empty some of “box mountain”
Various bbq dishes
This week we are only going to have 3 meals at home.
1. Something
2. Something else
3. Leftover something
(your guess is as good as mine)
*The choczero orange marmalade is a fantastic tasting sugar free alternative. I have no affiliation with them. They just have some really good products.
This was a pretty calm week spent mostly at home. I had a lot of chores to do, did some and successfully managed to avoid others. Truthfully it was a good and productive week with some down time.
Sunday: We woke to a pretty morning and went to church. On the way home we stopped to grab a quick lunch before watching the various softball games on TV. (Yes, Alabama was watched, in addition to other games)
Son2 dropped by to help us remove the pool cover. The joy is that the pool is open but the downside is that the water is going to take about a week before it is ready for swimming. Now I need to get the pool deck gussied up for the summer swim season.
Monday: Age related . I forgot to write my joy for the day and by the time Tuesday (OK really Saturday night) came around I had no clue what might have been joy filled for the day.
I just remembered one thing. Our new passports came and my picture was not as horrible as I remembered it was, though no one who looks at it will ever mistake me for a supermodel.
Tuesday: Yes I was a bum and read most of the day. I mean, the day was overcast, so why not?
Wednesday: I binge watched/listened to Ted Lasso while I was doing work in the house. A friend had told me how good it is, and I admit to really enjoying a show about a truly nice, optimistic human. What a refreshing change.
Thursday: Finally we had some protracted sunny days in the weather forecast. I began work on the patio set I had purchased. Though I did not get everything painted, I did get it primed.
Friday: I got the set painted.Whoo hoo. I was a little bummed that it took 2 coats of paint, but such is life. I think I am really going to like it once it is completed. The cushion seat covers will have to wait until we are back from Portland . My Beloved Sister came over for a bit and we laughed about how bad we looked. I had paint all over me (I am a very clumsy painter), neither of us had taken a shower and were wearing crappy work clothes. We would have been great cast as extras in a redneck horror flick.
I found an audio book on the Libby app. to listen to while I painted. "The Girl With The Louding Voice" by Abi Daré and narrated by Ronke Adékoluejo was a joy to listen to as I worked.
After cleaning up TheHub and I flipped channels between Alabama softball and Alabama baseball (both lost).
Saturday: We woke, got ready to leave, and headed out to do our Saturday errands. It was a beautiful morning filled with sunshine and cardinals. Everywhere we drove we saw flashes of brilliant red in bushes, trees and just flying in front of the car
Once home I did a little touch up painting on the patio set and after it dried we moved it to the porch. Even with the cushions I dislike, it looks pretty good ( but it will look great once I get the slipcovers made).
We also got my van filled with items from Mom's house Son3 had stored here. We were originally going to take them to NYC, but once they started talking about a home in Nashville, they suggested we hang on to them a little longer. They made the move Friday and Saturday, and invited us to meet them for Sunday brunch.
Woo hoo! The first wave of their stuff is gone and I will soon have a room back!
We ended the day getting our duds ready for being in Nashville a couple of days.
After packing the only other thing on our list was to watch Alabama softball. They are not playing well, but they managed to pull off a win (barely).
Have a great day and look for your joys no matter how large or small. They are always out there.
There are days when I have leftovers that need to be reformed into another meal. There are also weeks when the food ads are so lame there is no reason to set foot in a grocery store. This was one of those times. Anyone who reads my blog knows I keep a stocked refrigerator, and had already planned this week based of foods I have available. This is one of the results. It is not really a recipe but more of a "how to", therefore all measurements are approximate.
Sliced olives, scallion tops and sliced peppers for garnish
Heat oven to 350. Spray a 9x9 baking dish with Pam. Spread the rice in an even layer over the bottom of the pan.
Stir the cream cheese until it s softened, then mix in the enchilada sauce. Add the seasonings and blend well. Stir in the chicken and peppers then plop it on top of the rice. Spread it evenly the place in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the cheese on top until it is melted, toss the garnishes over the top of the melted cheese and a quick dinner is ready.
Serve with additional enchilada sauce.
I snapped this picture right before I sat down to eat and had not yet spooned a tad more sauce on it.
It would have been prettier if I had used red peppers but I didn't have any. * To make this keto, I used my own sugar free enchilada sauce. (Found the recipe online a while back but I don't remember where. Made 3 x's the recipe ) I keep it in 1 cup containers in the freezer so I always have it on hand. Instead of rice, I used frozen riced cauliflower. I sprayed the pan and put the cauliflower in it to bake about 10 or so minutes so it would be thawed and dried out a little before I added the chicken mix.
TheHub is non keto and this gets his seal of approval. We will add this to our dinner rotation for the summer. I have a dual microwave/convection oven and the 9x9 dish is small enough to bake there without doing any serious heating up the kitchen. Good food and less heat is a summertime win!
This past week I managed to do the minimal amount of cooking without going out to eat multi times. I am giving myself an A+ on cooking avoidance. This was one of those "If I can't make it in 15 minutes or less (minus time the crockpot cooking time for the crack chicken) I am not making it at all"weeks. I seem to be pretty good at doing what I say I am going to do and managed to keep my kitchen time as brief as possible. The upside? There were few pots and pans to wash!
What was planned:
1. Salad dinner TBD √
2. Grilled tuna steaks, steamed artichokes, salad, some side dish for TheHub
Monday: I forgot to take anything out of the freezer for dinner, but had been to The Pig earlier in the day and thankfully bought some ground chuck. (I needed to spend 10 bucks to get the 2 free items of the week. It was not stock up price, but it was at least a decent price.) I used about 1/3 pound of it then froze the rest for future meals
Wednesday: Gotta love a crockpot meal to contain the mess and keep the kitchen cool.
Crack chicken, * over mashed potatoes or caulirice, tomato cucumber onion salad
Thursday: I had planned on grilling tuna steaks, but when the morning weather looked treacherous I found something else to thaw. Then the afternoon was sunny and I thought about taking the tuna steaks out of the freezer. I am glad I didn't for right as I would have been using the grill the bottom fell out.
Smoked pork, coleslaw, collard greens, bun or no bun
Friday: We had another television softball game to watch and wanted to have an early, quick, easy to eat meal
Keto lettuce wraps (PF Chang's knockoff)
Saturday: We go out to eat just about every week, but this week we just did the take out thing from Blue Pacific.
Shrimp pad Thai or green curry chicken
Sunday: We watched a softball game while dinner basically cooked itself
Roasted chicken, tossed salad
Suggestions for this week:
1. Grilled tuna, hot spinach salad, artichokes, rice or potatoes for TheHub
2. Veggie dinner TBD later
3. Leftovers
4. Chicken enchilada casserole, coleslaw or salad
5. Sandwiches and salad
6. Beef stew, coleslaw
7. Out to eat
I did absolutely none of the keto baking for the freezer last week and there is a really good chance I will not get it done this week either. I am going to list it on the off chance I actually get around to some of it.
1. keto dinner rolls
2. keto sponge cake in the shortcake pan
3. keto cornbread
4. keto peanut butter cookies
5. keto chocolate chip** cookies
6. keto French coconut pie
Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all.
* Imake a scaled down versions of this recipe. Instead of a Hidden Valley envelope I use my ranch dressing spice mix. The flavors are just about the same as using the packaged mix, and because I keep it on hand all the time, it just makes sense to use what I have. I could probably add some buttermilk powder to the crockpot to make it even more like HV, but honestly we don't need it. The flavor profile is there and that is enough for us.
We also eliminate the cheddar cheese and bacon, but the sliced scallions are essential.
