Lunch is sauteed cabbage and red peppers with kielbasa. I've made this three and four times since spaceman was out here in mid August. I cannot get enough sauteed cabbage! For some reason, it REALLY does my body good (not like milk).
This past weekend, though it was slated to be "finish purging the bedroom and bathroom" weekend, actually ended up being mostly a "batch cooking" weekend.
My daughter, a senior in high school, is in the obese category and we are trying, repeatedly, to learn more interesting cook-from-scratch and batch-cooking recipes. She's picky, very picky. That meal pictured above.... she WON'T even taste it... because it has red peppers in it. Sweet, delicious, YUMMY red peppers!!! *smh* Someday perhaps she will... (I hope).
Anyway, just to give you an idea of how involved this whole batch cooking is...
We bought a paleo book and companion cookbook. We each spent time going through the recipes, putting stickies on pages of recipes we want to eventually try. This was a month or two ago. haha This past week, I told her, pick out a couple meal recipes and a dessert, make an ingredient list, and I'll go shopping after work Friday to pick it all up. Then Saturday, we'll cook after her soccer game. Sunday I planned to work on purging my room.
Did you know Whole Foods is a MAD HOUSE on Friday evenings??? Yes. I think there were, not one, but TWO wine tasting stations in the store as I walked the aisles not knowing where these obscure ingredients would be. Having resisted standing in line for wine, I checked out at $122. I suppose that's not too bad considering it IS Whole Paycheck (as a friend of mine, Tidbitz, likes to call it). Still, I didn't find a couple of items that I was sure I would also not find at my local grocery (Whole Foods is near work, not home). So I scampered off to Health Foods Unlimited to see if I could find those, and I did.
The goal had been to get all the grocery shopping done Friday night. It didn't happen. By the time I arrived home with the "expensive groceries" after my long commute, it was 8:30 PM and I was NOT unloading, putting away, and heading off to the local grocery for rest of our list (cheaper there).
Saturday morning came peacefully though, and I made some scrambled eggs with tomatoes from the CSA (community-supported agriculture co-op). After a quick shower and throwing on some comfy clothes, I was off to meet the girl child (who had left earlier) at the soccer field to watch her game and, inadvertently, met her boyfriend's father for the first time when I "happened" to sit next to him on the sideline.
After the game she and I planned to split up. She would tackle washing the dishes that had piled up since the dishwasher quit actually cleaning dishes, and I would tackle that last grocery trip. After spending too much time and an ungodly amount of $ at Meijer, we were already running short on time to do "all day cooking". So... we pushed it back to Sunday, my cleaning day. *sigh*
Fortunately my older sister, who has a huge case of what she calls "basement-itis" showed up to both go through my garage sale boxes of books for titles she may want to take and to help me with my bedroom. She's a Type A Goddess, I tell ya! We made major progress, and I feel my room is now "reasonably" ready for spaceman's arrival (THIS) Saturday. Except, the house still needs cleaned...
So Sunday, FINALLY, cooking day arrives!
And here's where the story gets visual... photos!
Even though rain threatened in the distance, we decided we didn't have enough time to bake EVERY recipe in the oven back-to-back. So, we put two out on the fire, well... on some charcoal in the fire pit.
The man child dusted off his scouting skills and built, tended and determined when those dishes were finally done.
Yes, we have a pallet mostly burned. I'm still working on that. ;) Rest assured, we don't cook over burning chemical-laden pallets.
Yes, we have a pallet mostly burned. I'm still working on that. ;) Rest assured, we don't cook over burning chemical-laden pallets.
I lost track of time, so I really can't even tell you how long the pot roast was in the dutch oven over the coals.
The second recipe to be slow cooked over coals was sweet potato wedges, which we foil packed.
Mmhmm, pot roast. This dish was INCREDIBLY delicious, although, I'm not a fan of beef.
This was some kind of flat bread made out of, I think, tapioca starch. The girl child was in charge of all the recipes, and that included telling me what she needed me to do next. I may have read a part of one of the 5-6 recipes we made yesterday, but that was it. She was the chief cook. This one... she wasn't impressed by. I, on the other hand, cannot eat grains, so I kinda liked it. I'm slightly deprived.
This one was basically pork chops and apples, but with some fennel, too.
There was another recipe of chicken thighs with a hand-mixed spice rub. THAT WAS REALLY GOOD, but I have no photo. :(
And last but not least, for our immediate consumption, some soaked & grilled, CSA-grown corn on the cob.
And that, my friends, was enough to wear me out!
