Meal Plan Monday: Featuring Rosemary-Anchovy Pork Chops

I love it when my food magazines come in.  I know I will never get around to making 99% of the recipes that are in them, but I love the inspiration they give me.  I picked up a copy of Everyday Food at the grocery store (stupid impulse buy items), and found a very intriguing recipe: Rosemary-Anchovy Pork Chops.  I had to give it a try.  The rest of the meal plan came from there.  What do you eat with Pork Chops? Mashed Potatoes.  What do you do with leftover Mashed Potatoes? Soup.  You see how that goes...

Monday night's recipes: Rosemary-Anchovy Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, and Roasted Broccoli

 Meal Plan: Featuring Rosemary-Anchovy Pork Chops

Click on the meal plan name above to access the downloadable and printable plan, 

prep schedule, recipes, and grocery lists.

Monday
    Rosemary-Anchovy Pork Chops
    Mashed Potatoes (Make at least 2 cups extra)
    Roasted Broccoli with Pine Nuts

Tuesday
    Mashed Potato Soup
    Prosciutto Wrapped Breadsticks

Wednesday
    Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Thursday
    YOYO - You’re On Your Own!

Friday
    ‘Leftover’ Pizza - Use frozen dough and use up any leftover from the week
     as toppings!

Saturday
    Enchilada Casserole (make 2, freeze one)
    Sauteed Zucchini and Corn

Sunday
    YOYO - You’re On Your Own!

Breakfasts
    Hard Boiled Eggs
    Fruit

Prep Ahead Items

Stuart labeled this "Milk by Salvador Dali", but I did pre-prep the hard boiled eggs.

The pork is marinated in the rosemary-anchovy marinade overnight.

Veggies are cut up and bagged, and you can see the mashed potatoes on the right.

Two enchilada casseroles are in the freezer!

Foodie Friday: Stove Top Popcorn

Who doesn't remember when their parents would make popcorn on the stove and then you would all cuddle up to watch a good family movie? I can remember my dad standing in front of our stove back home in Saudi, gently shaking the pan with the lid slightly vented, then delicately seasoning it in the way that only he could.  The popcorn was perfect! Then I moved away to boarding school where we survived on microwave popcorn and ramen noodles.

I recently re-discovered this gem of an idea on Pintrest, so we gave it a try.  The first few times were good, but the popcorn was kind of chewy.  Something was amiss, so I went to what Charlie Parker calls "The Google Machine," and I found my answer. Check out the recipe below.

Stove Top Popcorn

Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Popcorn Kernels

Table Salt

Coat the bottom of your tall pot (think soup pot) with the vegetable oil and place 3 or 4 kernels in the oil.  Turn the stove on to medium high.  Our stove is 0-10 and we use 7.  Then (here's the key!) cover the pot with your splatter guard and not a regular lid.  This will let all the steam and heat out and let the kernels pop in the oil not the water vapor. The pot will continue to heat up, and you will know its ready when your test kernels pop.  At this point add in the rest of your popcorn and wait.  Don't worry about stirring it.  Hello! They self-stir! Each time a kernel pops, it pops out of the of the rest!  Once you start to hear long pauses, take the pot off the heat until you don't hear any more pops.  Pour it into a large bowl and season to taste.  We use regular table salt, because kosher doesn't stick as well. Enjoy!

Corgan and Lily

One of the most joyous things about being a mom is watching your daughter grow into the world.  She starts interacting with things and people outside of herself in ways that only she can.  She is so new to everything and everyone, and she is curious about it all.  Our good friends have a daughter who is about to turn 3 this summer, and she and Corgan have been spending a lot of time together.  It is absolutely enchanting to watch!

Lily, our friends' daughter, is obsessed with dolls, so I think she sees Corgan as a doll that moves, but the idea that these two will be spending their formative years growing and learning with each other is fabulous. We share many of the same values and parenting routines with Lily's parents, so she is a well behaved, but 'knowing' toddler. I get a warm feeling inside to know that my daughter is lucky enough to have a friend to grow up with.

Corgan and Lily at the Zoo

Corgan and Lily Cuddling

With Lily's Dad.

Lovin' on each other!

Corgan even tried to pull Lily. Didn't work out so great.

The two young ladies with my mom (aka Grandma).

 

Corgan and Lily Meet the Bean Bag Chairs!

Corgan's Future Dates Better Watch Out...

Some of you may know that my husband is a martial artist. He has a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is obsessed with martial arts films.  Because of his grad school he hasn't been able to go to the studio to work out or spar in years, but he still practices from time to time at home.  The other day he decided to get back into breaking bricks.  Yes, you heard that right. Breaking bricks.  Here is his first attempt in almost 5 years:

Here is his second attempt:

After he finished this one, he said "Never tried it that way before!"  So proud.

It's All About the Poo

I have a love/hate relationship with cloth diapers. I love that we don't have to run to the store and buy new diapers all the time. I love how cute Corgan looks running around the house in them. I love how little we throw away, now that we don't have to throw away 6-8 diapers a day.  I HATE the poo.  Now, instead of happily wrapping the poo in a nice cocoon of disposable diaper, we have to physically deal with each and every fecal addition to the world.

If our child had normal poos, this wouldn't be so bad.  However, it's rather hit-and-miss with Little One's bowel movements.  Solid poo? What's that? I don't ever get to see that.  Brown poo? What's that? I would welcome that. Poo without chunks and bits of digested food? What's that? You get the point... (And yes, we've cleared this all with the pediatrician, and some kids don't get 'normal' looking poos until 3 or 4 years old.)

This post wouldn't be complete without poo pictures!

As you know, we use cloth diapers because Corgan gets crazy-bad diaper rash, and there is almost always a flare up when she has a wonky poo.  Friday she had a weird green/curdled looking poo that pasted all up her backside, so... she got diaper rash all up her backside. Wee fun.

Aside from the diaper rash, the great thing is that I get to clean each diaper that gets the red, green, orange, or yellow mutli-consistancy poos! (Yes, Stuart does his fair share. The man is a saint!) Today I had the joy of cleaning 8 different poo diapers that were so bad I actually did the initial cleaning in the toilet bowl downstairs. I couldn't stomach the idea of putting the poo in the washing machine. Then I put them in the washing machine with HOT water and bleach, then again with organic soap for baby clothes to get out the bleach.  This was just the inserts.  Next I cleaned the exteriors in a separate load. What a fun and eventful Friday night :)

Meal Plan Monday: Featuring Orange Roasted Chicken

I live by planning, so we meal plan each week and grocery shop based on that plan.  When we were doing hard-core Dave Ramsey we were able to keep our grocery budget under $70 a week while eating healthy food. We still meal plan, but we're a little less frugal with the items we buy.  Lately I've also discovered how great it is to pre-prep a lot of the food during one of my daughter's weekend naps so that weeknight cooking is a lot smoother.  It's been saving us TONS of time on weeknights and we're not having to worry about trying to get dinner on the table while our 15 month old wants to be entertained.

We did this entire prep list on Saturday in 1 hr and 15 minutes. This knocks out tons of time on weeknights and lets us have more family time after work.  Corgan goes to sleep at 7:00 PM, so we don't get a lot of time before she's down for the count.  In the morning, I can pack a breakfast and lunch for my husband and myself in less that 5 minutes.  We're not morning people, so we loooove the extra bit of sleep in this gives us.

Click on the meal plan title and date to get a printable version for yourself :) The printable will have the meal plan, prep-ahead list, and grocery list. (This is my flagrant attempt to get a Pinterest following.  Please add me to your pinboards and help me out!)

Meal Plan - April 23, 2012

Monday
    Roasted Orange-Herb Chicken
    Steamed Broccoli
    Boxed Rice

Tuesday
    Roasted Pork Loin w/Parmesan Crust
    Rosemary Red Potatoes
    Sauteed Spinach

Wednesday
    YOYO - You’re On Your Own!

Thursday
    Creamy Beef Over Noodles
    Sauteed Zucchini

Friday
    Frozen Pizza
    Roasted Asparagus

Saturday
    YOYO - You’re On Your Own!

Sunday
    “Leftover” Pizza - Have Pillsbury pizza dough on hand to make a pizza to use up your leftovers. Yum!

Lunch Salads
    Salad w/cold pork, tomatoes, almonds and honey mustard

Breakfasts
    Hard Boiled Eggs
    Breakfast Tacos

Prep Ahead

 An organized fridge will make your family meal prep soooo much easier.

 Hard boil your eggs and place in grab-and-go packs for breakfast.  The asparagus is in water, ready to go later in the week. The round pyrex is some Roasted Carrots with Tarragon that I made for Corgan.

 Leftovers for lunches are always on the second shelf, we have the foil-wrapped pork loin read to cook, then you see the 10 breakfast tacos ready to be re-heated for breakfast on the go.

 Here are the broccoli florets, chopped zucchini, pre-boiled potatoes, and orange and lemon slices ready for their turn on/in the stove.

 Our whole chicken is thawing, and then on the right you see all our grab-and-go food for Corgan.  It's way easier to feed a toddler when you don't have to hunt for the food in the fridge when she's hungry.  

 The rest of our fruit and veggies are in their appropriate bins. 

My lunch salads are on the left.  I pack them individually and put their 'fixings' in small snack sized bags. I also have the dressing pre-portioned to grab in the morning. 

Foodie Friday: Roasted Carrots with Tarragon

My little one has always been a strong eater. Always.  As soon as we got her on solid foods, she couldn't get enough.  We would always laugh at how much she would put away. I might've already told you that Ms. Mary from her daycare once said that "She will have to marry a rich man so he can afford to feed her!"  Amen to that. 

Lately, however, she has gotten pickier and pickier.  Part of the problem is that she still doesn't have molars, so she can't get too adventurous with textures, but she also hasn't been trying stuff that she's disliked in the past.  One time she tried cooked carrots, but they were too hard. I hadn't cooked them enough. For months after that, she wouldn't even let us put the carrots on her plate without getting fussy.  This recipe finally convinced her to love carrots!!!

Not the best plating I've ever done, but she liked it.

Roasted Carrots with Tarragon

2 lbs carrots

dried tarragon

olive oil

salt

Peel your carrots and cut them into 1/4 inch rounds.  I cut them small since my daughter would be eating them, but you could go larger.  Lightly coat them in olive oil (about 2 Tbsp), then sprinkle on the tarragon and salt to taste.  We like a lot of tarragon and a little salt, especially since we don't want Corgan to get used to eating a lot of salt.  Then roast them in a covered pyrex dish for 40 minutes at 425 degrees.  For adult consumption, I would probably cook them for 30 minutes so they have a little more crunch.  They are delish!

15 Months

Corgan has recently moved up to the next room at daycare (again), and we're breaking in new teachers.  That's always fun.  After the first day, they picked up on the cloth diaper thing pretty well, and they are learning how awesome my kid is.  I'm a little biased.  I picked Corgan up yesterday and Ms. Jessica made the comment, "She's so smart for how old she is!" I laughed, because that is what we are always saying.  She freaks us out all the time with the stuff she does.  I decided that to honor her 15 months, I would find 15 things that are new in how she interacts with the world:

1) Her vocabulary is sooooo fun! Uh-oh, nose (noh), eye, shoe (shi), bye-bye, banana (nananana), up, please (psh),  no, yes (yeah), milk (meh), Mama, Dada, and more that I can't think of right now.

2) She can walk herself all the way to her new classroom at daycare without deviating, even though she's only been going there for four days.

3) She has decided that she HATES the highchair, and will not eat while sitting in it.  She's now eating at her little table, and its the cutest thing ever!

4) When she's playing on the loft, and it turns 7:00 PM, we can ask her, "Corgan, are you ready for night-night?" and she will either say 'no' or start walking to her bedroom.

5) You can ask her where her belly button, eye, ear, nose, hair, tongue, or feet are and she will point to them.

6) You can ask her where your own nose is and she will point to yours, then she will point to her own and say, "ma noh" (my nose!).

7) She has figured out how to properly wear sunglasses, even though she has the Piedfort nose that is too tiny to really hold them up.

8) She loves her shoes and anytime she sees a pair she will sit down and stick out her feet so you can put them on...even if she's already wearing shoes.

9) She knows that if she says please (psh) and opens her mouth like a baby bird, then she will get food.

10) If you ask her what sound a kitty makes, she will meow.

11) If you ask her what sound a puppy makes, she will woof.

12) If you ask her what sound a cow makes, she will moo.

13) She has finally figured out how to get her letters into the Leap Frog system on the fridge, and she will bounce along to the singing.

14) Thanks to the cloth diapers (and her brilliance!) she will pat her diaper and let you know that she needs to be changed.

15) She has just been inducted as the youngest member in the history of Mensa. We're so proud!

My Love Affair With...

COFFEE!!!

I am obsessed with coffee, so I was rightly irritated when my coffee maker went kaputt! Kind of.  Since we live in Texas, the water is incredibly hard. Every appliance we have that uses water has to be constantly cleaned from all the hard water deposits, including our coffee maker.  If we don't run straight vinegar through it on a regular basis, then it gets crazy-slow and uber-concentrated. 

I went shopping on Monday and was surprised that Stuart added a new item to the grocery list: coffee maker.  Yippee!  I went perusing the shelves of the nearest HEB Plus and found our old standby: Mr. Coffee, 12 cup, white.  It runs just under $20 and will last a little over a year, and makes the best coffee I can find.  I used to run a coffee shop, so I'm pretty adept at tasting coffee.  (My favorite days at Seattle's Best were when I trained new employees on the espresso machine.  I got to taste a million espressos!)  Well, next to my standard coffee maker, I saw a jewel. For $10 more I could get the exact same machine, but this one had a clock and a programmable delay!!!  Imagine my shock and awe! I grabbed it up and booked it home!  Here's some more exclamation points!!!!

The next morning, for the first time since I used my Senseo as my alarm clock in college, I had the gorgeous black gold, bean juice, brew, drip, morning mud, liquid lightning, warmer upper, coffee ready and waiting for me when I got up:

I LOVE COFFEE!!!

Kill the Kitty!

Yet again, I'm too tired to blog.  Enjoy the cute videos of Corgan killing the kitty.

Foodie Friday: My Name is Stuart and I'm a Smoker

My name is Stuart and I am a smoker.  I’ve just recently started being enslaved by this addiction but I hear that the first step is admitting you have a problem…so there it is.

My first smoking experience wasn’t your typical encounter.  I did not start small.  I decided to go all out and try my hand at a brisket.  I brined the brisket for 24 hours and then let it sit in a dry rub for another 24 hours.  The dry rub consisted of the following:

½ cup paprika
¼ black pepper
2 tbsp garlic power
2 tbsp onion power
2 tsp cayenne pepper

I then smoked the brisket at 210 degrees with hickory chips from Friday at 6:00 Pm until Saturday at 10:30 AM.  The internal temperature reached 195 and held there for a couple of hours while the connective tissue broke down.  I then took the brisket out of the smoker, wrapped in tin foil, dropped it into a cooler, and let it rest for about 90 minutes while I drove it up to Austin for my family to enjoy at our Easter gathering.  Here is the evidence:

 

 

Overall, I felt it was a great success for my first smoke.  I want to try another kind of rub since I didn’t get the…”traditional” Texas flavor that I was looking to achieve. 


Here is my challenge to the readers: post your best brisket dry rub recipe and tell me why it is better than everyone else's recipe.  The person that makes the best argument will win the opportunity for me to use their mix on my next brisket and get all the kudos from my family on how awesome it tastes. 

Colorful Clock Project

Forever ago (in a land when I had time) I decided that I wanted to put a clock up in the loft/playroom, because it drove us nuts checking our phones for the time.  Corgan is obsessed with our cell phones so every time we take them out she throws a hissy fit when she doesn't get to play with it.  I searched the web for cute, primary or rainbow colored clocks and came up with nada!  In true Fits & Starts fashion, I decided to make my own. 

I found a blank spot on our wall and decided that I wanted this thing to be huge.  Our loft is decorated with some of the stuff that was in my nursery when I was a baby.  Mom had it decorated with rainbows, and she kept a lot of the things. We also figured this would be gender neutral in case we have a boy in the future.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some 6 inch wooden numbers.  They come pre-cut and sanded so all I had to do was paint them.  I used tempra paint (which is awesome stuff!) and color coded the numbers using dots so I wouldn't mess up my pattern. After three coats of paint, I sprayed them with a polyurethane coating so that they are slightly glossy.

Voila! I used a store bought set of clock hands, again from Hobby Lobby, and put a sheet of yellow scrapbook paper as the backing.  I used padded, two-sided tape that you use in scrap books, and they stick really well.  The clock hands have fallen down so I need to actually mount them with nails, which I'll get around to at some point.

And here's Little One enjoying her things (like a little tornado), while I know that we're one hour to lunch! This must've been taken on a Saturday since it's 10:40 and she's still in her pajamas :)

The 'Peeping' of St. George

Each year our assistant priest likes to prank us over Easter by 'peeping' our offices.  This year we sought revenge :)  Below you will find the poem (Fluffy is our office canary) that he wrote and our response along with pictures...
________________________
Twas the Vigil of Easter while Fluffy was asleep
When all through the office came the colorful Peeps
They peeped and they hid, and they hid and they peeped
And all through the night, the Great Vigil they keeped

The stone was rolled back that bright Easter morn
And the Peeps are all bright...no longer forlorn
As Fluffy starts singing, their faces they show
But where they are hiding, I do not know

So shout to the whole earth Christ Jesus is raised!
And that from every corner His name shall be praised
So with joy in our hearts this great day we will keep
Hallelujah! Christ is risen! Happy Easter my Peeps!
__________________________

The peeps waited.

Quietly.

Silently.

Hushed.

Each of them remembered the loving hand that had plucked them from their packaging. Each of them remembered the gentle touch that placed them so delicately in their hiding place.  And each of them remembered the maniacal laughter that filled the room before they were left alone.

Who would do such a thing? Who would take innocent confections away from their friends and leave them alone in the dark?  One Brave Soul, ‘peeped’ in the night.  “Is anyone out there?” Several ‘peeped’ back, “We’re here! We’re alone!”

“Fear not!” yelled the Brave Soul. “We are not alone! We have each other, though we cannot see one another. We must find one another again!” Scuffling. Scurrying. Slipping.  Each peep began stirring; heading toward the sound of the Brave Soul.  Small trails of colored sugar began to meander around the shelves, desks, and carpets of the cavernous rooms.  Little trails of hope as they wound their way to each other.  Brave Soul was waiting. Brave Soul would lead the way.

It seemed like hours, and probably was, but they all made their way to where Brave Soul had first peeped, “Welcome back, friends! We have found each other.”

“But who would do this! Who would make us go through such torment?” cried one.

“I know who.” Brave Soul sounded, “And I have a plan.” The other peeps fell silent.  “The one who dared to separate us is not here, but he will return.  We must lie in wait. Follow me!”

The other peeps cheered the plan and followed Brave Soul down the dark hallway.  They skittered in silence as they headed towards the man’s office.  Who knew when he would be back, but they would be waiting.  They would be ready to confront the man with the maniacal laughter.  They would be ready to make him pay...

Easter Weekend

What a weekend!  After a weird week (see yesterday's post), the weekend was full of fun and family as we celebrated Easter.  Technically, we started on Wednesday evening as Stuart began preparing his brisket, but we'll give you those details on Foodie Friday.  The actual events of the weekend started at noon on Saturday with lunch at Stuart's aunt and uncle's house up in Austin.

Grams (Janet) got Corgan a new Easter bonnet from the dollar store as a joke, and my little one still hasn't taken it off!  

 Corgan and her grams!  Gotta love the cute little pig tails that she's finally letting me put in her hair :)

  Uncle Philip and his girlfriend Louise.  Aren't they cute!

 Stuart and his smokin' brisket!

Corgan and her second cousin, Hilary.  Hilary was Corgan's nanny for the first 6 months, and its always fun to see her reaction to how big Corgan's getting.

Next up, we drove across the Hill Country and headed over to my mom's house to celebrate Easter and my brother's 31st birthday.  We got to spend time on the gorgeous patio with my parents, my brother, and my grandparents.  What an evening!

 Corgan doing her favorite thing with her Gigi and Grandma: reading!

We had a little visitor :)

The next day was Easter, and we had a great day at church. Corgan got to participate in her first Easter Egg hunt and she did way better than I thought she would.  She actually went searching for eggs and had a fabulous time shaking them like little rattles!

 I told you she didn't take the hat off!

 Corgan and her Grandma. And hat.

 Corgan and her Dada!

Corgan and her Mama.

Yummy eggs!

And she's already learning to share :)