Leftovers

For lunch, I decided I was going to use up just about everything I could in the refrigerator. A green apple, cauliflower, pecans, grape tomatoes, grapes, red onions, and mayonnaise (something had to tie it all together). It was actually okay. And then I ate the rest of it later in the week and it was still good.

Chia Watch 7

These are my Chia herbs. They are supposed to thrive at 65 degrees with direct sunlight. I don't cannot provide them with a 65-degree climate that has direct sunlight. I have a sunroom that's approximately 102 degrees with plenty of sunshine or other rooms that about 90 degrees with plenty of shade.

I think the end is nigh for my Chia herbs...

Pita Sandwiches

Anyone see a running theme yet? On this particular night, we came home to use up the pitas, baby arugula, and othe vegetables I had bought earlier in the week. Oh, yeah. And the turkey...

Pasta with Vegetables and Turkey

LV made this and, of course, didn't think it was worth taking a picture of. When I got home, I thought it was great. Mmm... No cooking required.

Salad for One

I don't remember why I was on my own for dinner, but I decided that as long as no one else was going to be around to complain about vegetables, I was going all out. Baby arugula, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and maybe something else. Plus feta cheese melted in pita wedges with a side of the "Age of Love" premiere? It was like my own private bachelorette party.

Nachos

I put this lunch together for myself and LV thought it was just looked too good not to shoot. I don't really know how I had room for lunch...

Happy Father's Day!

It looks like we're preparing to feed an army, but this is my version of the Big Breakfast for LV. (There were leftovers. Though not many.) With bacon grease splattering everywhere, there wasn't much room for Scrappy to help out. She mixed the pancake batter and was done. I probably could have had her peel and shred potatoes for the hashbrowns, but I wasn't in a teaching mood. It was far too early for someone who is definitely not a morning person. (I had to set an alarm...)

To get Scrappy to finish her eggs (which had way too much Mrs. Dash (I thought it was going to come out more slowly)), we said, "When you finish your eggs, then you can feed the cats."

Boom. Eggs were gone.

First the cats ate bacon for breakfast. Then in the afternoon we decided to give them some water. Then we decided we wanted to catch the kitten (who now has two eyes open). I told LV to go upstairs and get some more turkey ham. Although our napkin tied to a long piece of curling ribbon had been enough to get me close enough to grab the little guy, I chickened out. I was hoping with the food, I could get a second chance.

I chickened out again. After petting his head and announcing how soft he is, I realized he had black specks all over his forehead. Not a place fleas normally lay eggs, but, all the same, they reminded me of when my cats had fleas.

So, the little kitten (now with two eyes) still lives in the garage. Maybe I'll grab him tonight.

Chia Watch 6

Chives are supposed to take a noticeably longer period of time to develop compared to the other Chia seeds, but I fear we will only have two Chia Chives. All the seeds seem to be on the surface now, where they won't grow. I had followed the instructions (sort of) to plant them below the surface of the Chia® Growing Sponge... When did they leak out to the surface without me noticing?

Turkey Pizzas

LV had a dinner to go to, so I was on my own. I decided to try to use up the rest of the bread, topping it with BBQ sauce, turkey (Perdue Shortcuts Carved Turkey Breast is my new favorite thing), and mozzarrella cheese. Then I stuck it in the toaster oven for a really long time. And forgot to reset the timer back to normal. LV's PopTart was charred this morning. (But the little "pizzas" were really good!)

Chicken in the morning...

So, we bought all kinds of groceries to always be prepared for dinner. But things always seem to expire or be forgotten by the end of the week. The chicken was set to expire the 6th, so instead of waiting to see if it would still be okay that night, I just started cooking it that morning. When we came home from work that night, all the hard work for preparing dinner was already done. And the next day, we had more chicken, pasta and asparagus for lunch.

Chia Watch 5

The little guys are all still growing. Except Chives. I don't know what its deal is.

Hamburgers with Parmesan Potato Wedges

I really wanted to make hamburgers. And not the "take a pound of ground beef, divide into quarters, place on grill" kind of hamburgers. I wanted to make the kind that look like your mom made them--onions and peppers and other nonsense mixed in by hand. There's something really gross about having chile powder stuck under your nails, but LV raved about the burgers.

I used a toaster oven to make the hamburgers, which seemed odd but at least they were cooked all the way through with no charring. We ate the leftovers two days later. They were a bit tastier coming from the broiler.

Chia Watch 4

Herbs continue to grow... (I swear these are different pictures than on Chia Watch 3. At least, there's a real difference when you're the one watering them twice a day and wondering if they're ready to come out of their sandwich bags.)

Turkey-Ham

LV really wanted turkey-ham for breakfast. He also wanted a fried egg after seeing the breakfast sandwich I made for myself the day before.

There's so much meat that comes in a package of turke-ham, we (I) ended up feeding some to the little one-eyed kitten in our garage. He wasn't thrilled to wake up and see me, though. So he ran away and some bigger stray cats ate the food.

Lemon-Capers Sauce (minus Lemon and Capers)

We had pork in the house, but I didn't feel like breading it--that just didn't sound good with the bottle of Chardonay we had just bought. So, I thought I'd try to use up the capers that were in the fridge. They smelled funny. And the garlic was spongy. And there was no lemon to grate. So, it's pork with olive oil, white wine vinegar and red onion. At least the rice turned out much better than it has lately.

Chia Watch 3

They all seem to growing now...

Happy Birthday, Star Wars!

LV woke up early to make breakfast for me on my birthday--shopping for milk, slicing fruit, creating the perfect omelette. It was all very lovely and I had no complaints (except having to toast the not-so-toasty bread on my plate).

Then I made an ice cream pie... We completely forgot about it after I opened SingStar Pop. Scrappy went to bed, and then I realized that we hadn't taken out the pie. She had already sung Happy Birthday enough times I didn't feel like anything was missing.

Chia Watch 2

Dill (foreground) and Sweet Basil (end) are growning well. Their sandwich bags can be removed for a few hours. Parsley is still too small. Chives grow below the surface, so I can't tell how they're doing. I only know that I don't see them. And their sponge hasn't taken up much water.

Burnt Rice

I got really wrapped up in updating my portfolio site and completely forgot about the water boiling on the stove. It occurred to me that I should probably add more water to the pot now that so much had been converted to steam, but I decided not to. A small silly voice in the back of my head said the rice would absorb the water faster if there were less water to absorb.

LV is never allowed to complain about how bad his rice is ever again. This was sooooo bad. White rice just shouldn't be brown and crunchy.

The broccoli was fine. (Though, not if you ask Scrappy.) The pork was better. (She brushed it with BBQ sauce before we broiled it.)

I don't think Scrappy ate dinner that night because she helped make it so much as she just needed to eat something that wasn't junk food. Her class trip to a baseball game that day turned into a parade of chips, pretzels,and popcorn followed by ice cream after school. (I was willing to get water for all those kids, but not Dippin'Dots. I still wanted ice cream after school.)

Leftovers

It's been a while since we made any Chef Boyardee at our house. A really long time in fact. When Luis asked me to combine the macaroni & cheese and meatballs in spaghetti sauce that were sitting in the fridge, that's all I could picture. He asked me if that was gross to combine the two. Um... Isn't that why The Chef is so popular with kids?

Chia Watch 1

We thought it would be a good idea to plant something with Scrappy. Now we have a Chia Herb Garden. They make it hard to go wrong. Water the sponges (yeah, sponges), sprinkle the seeds, cover with a sandwich bag, wait.

Something Colorful

We decided to start cooking regularly again, but we weren't looking to make life hard on ourselves so we bought some Perdue chicken that was ready to be thrown into salads or casseroles. The pasta & vegetables that LV had made in April was good, so I decided to try it again with fresh vegetables. I thought Scrappy might want to try the asparagus since she had added it to her book of vegetables (a collection of pictures she's cut out), but she ate only chicken and frozen veggies with her pasta.

Pork with Melon-Tomato Relish (pt 2)

I don't know why I wasn't around when dinner was being made, but I gave LV directions on how to make the pork with melon-tomato relish and how Scrappy could help. I got home late, dug right in, and then realized that it was really pretty and much better than the time I made it. After I said as much, LV argued it was much better when I made it. We decided that food is just better when you don't make it for yourself.

LV Cooks (with some help)

Yesterday I prepared a bunch of wings for the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight, but never actually put them in the broiler. After having LV cut celery and broil the wings himself, I've decided I could start some sort of prepared food business. Right after I get those photography and illustration businesses going... Side business or not, I still have another set of wings for tomorrow's 24/Heroes-fest.

I was still working on the photo/illustration thing when dinner time rolled around, so LV and Scrappy made pork and rice. I didn't cook it, so I thought it was wonderful.

Grilled Cheese

I don't think I've given up cooking... I just have other things to focus on right now--like whether Ashley Tisdale's lyrics "You see my body, not who I am" make the kind of song I want Scrapy dancing around to. (I don't care if everyone else in 1st grade loves to dance and sing to "Sexyback," the song "He Said, She Said" is definitely not making it on the abridged version Headstrong.) But here we are with a grilled cheese sandwich as the only thing I've cooked in the past week. Wee...

Pasta and Vegetables

I was going to be coming home late from class, so LV wanted to know what to make. I suggested pasta with frozen vegetables. That's not a meal for LV, so he threw in the leftover chicken. It was really good.

Pork (and more Pork)

I didn't realize until I started catching up on posts that we've eaten an unusual amount of pork lately. This is broiled pork with Maple Sugar Pepper (or something like that) and egg noodles. There's really not much else to say about it. Except that I'm getting along quite well with my new flash, seeing as the pork from late March looked quite unedible compared to the pictures from this batch.

Chicken with Lemon-Capers Sauce

After having some awful sinus infection/allergy nonsense for like two weeks, LV and I decided to throw caution to the wind and go get a bottle of wine. We still had a bottle of capers in the fridge and bundle of parsley I'd completely forgotten about, so I decided to remake the sauce from Valentine's Day for sauteed chicken. It was quite lovely. We ate it in front of the TV...

Chicken Fingers, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots

Lately, the only thing less likely than us sitting down to eat at the table is all three of us sitting down to eat at the table together. So, when Scrappy showed up on a Wednesday and it just so happened that I had left the office at the same time as LV and there was something in the fridge that could be made in a hurry, it was like the planets had aligned and someone had muttered the proper chant. LV dropped his bag, walked over to pick up Scrappy, and dinner was ready to hit the table by the time they walked in the door. It was too perfect. Then the little one decided she was just going to chew the carrots but not actually ever swallow them. And life was back to normal.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

LV swears he is not cute. But I thought it was absolutely adorable when I came home from my photo class and found him eating dinner at the table. (We never eat dinner at the table anymore...) So I took many pictures, but decided to crop him out to save myself from having to hear about his hair or how un-cute he thinks he is. (Sooooo cute!)

Biscuits (and Pork and Green Beans)

"What should we have for dinner?" LV asked the little one.

"Biscuits."

There was some point, eons ago, where I had decided I was going to make biscuits from scratch. This was so long ago that no grocery stores had cream of tartar because everyone had already rushed in to stock up on holiday cookie ingredients. So, "biscuits" for dinner threw me as an answer.

"We can't have just biscuits," I said. "What should we have with our biscuits?"

"Pork."

"What else?"

We'd already covered both of Scrappy's food groups, so the menu should have been done in her eyes. Surprisingly, though, without much prompting, she offered up green beans as the vegetable. Not the fresh ones she had tried earlier that day and found rather icky, but frozen green beans. I don't know why frozen, but we to the store and she stated again that she'd prefer frozen.

Now, books will tell you to make children feel involved--help find ways for them to contribute--but I still didn't believe that Scrappy would eat the way she did when she planned and prepared dinner. The photographic evidence suggests that not only did she eat her biscuit but also her green beans before finishing her pork. Making dinner as a family... Crazy.