Monday, July 14

what's for dinner?

that was a question that plagued me all day today. Monday's are not good days for me. I work and don't get home till around 2, and then I have to leave at 4:30 to take Clay to his drum lesson. I walk back in the door around 5:45, met by starving children and a starving husband. Lately the weekends have been crazy too, so I don't have much of a plan or many leftovers to go from. Then there is the issue of produce.

A huge part of why we get a farm share is so that we really buy very little produce in the summer. I have bought only one or two onions since we have joined the farm. Those were to grill since we have chopped onions in the freezer to cook with. That's 2 onions in over 3 years. I bought a bag of potatoes last spring. Again, those were the first in YEARS. We really try to eat what we are given and not really buy much else. I do have a fridge full of vegetables right now, but I didn't have a lot of time to deal with things. In the past I have prepared casseroles to bake while I am at the lesson, then we have a hot dinner waiting for us. It was just too hot for that today. And I didn't spend any time prepping things for dinner when I came in from work today, because I was scrubbing my wood floors.

So here's what I had to work with in the meat department:

leftover grilled pork sirloin steaks

leftover roasted chicken

leftover shredded chicken in BBQ sauce

eggs

bacon

my veggies on hand?

onions

garlic

zucchini/yellow squash

yukon gold potatoes/new red potatoes

kohlrabi

green beans

carrots

lettuce

fennel

leftover turnip puff

leftover broccoli salad

There was a time when I would have really just wanted to order pizza or get burgers on a night like tonight. Instead I ran in the door at 5:50. I sauteed some onion in olive oil, then added diced new potatoes. While they cooked down a little I chopped 2 yellow squash and sliced the pork sirloin. I added that to the skillet too with a little chicken broth, covered it and let it simmer for 10 minutes. I reheated the turnip puff and pulled out the broccoli salad, too. By 6:15 we had dinner on the table. whew...

and I felt better for using what I had. I didn't defrost any extra meat since I had some cooked that I didn't want to go to waste. Tomorrow will be interesting again because I have an interview at 4 that will take about an hour. But I have more time at home to prep what I am doing. I am really in the mood to have chicken pot pie with that leftover chicken and some carrots and potatoes. We'll see what I do. It's supposed to be like 93 tomorrow so I don't know that I want to bake in the afternoon.

As far as the summer squash bread I made on Saturday goes, I decided I really don't like the way I made it. So I will tweak it again. I had used honey, and I just didn't like the honey taste in there. I want to make some zucchini banana bread tomorrow. I'll be putting a few different recipes together. I'll let you know how it turns out. And the sandwich bread I made the other day is AWESOME. But I want to do it again, to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

One of the things I am so grateful for was growing up on that farm and learning how to go to the kitchen, look at the available foods and create something that tasted wonderful from them. And that was before the days of stir-frys and fritatas! I can't stop telling you how much I enjoy this creative Mama in the kitchen blog...it is a slice of life that really warms my heart every time I read it.

noelle said...

Thanks, Kathy. I think that's one of the skills I am most thankful for, too. There is a TON of food here, so how can I make it into something tasty and satisfying? And not doing the same thing every night is a challenge too!

Kathy said...

I could swear I asked you about the turnip puff and wondered why I never heard from you as to what it is...but obviously, after looking back at this post, I must have just dreamed that I did! So, dear friend...how do you make turnip puff?