Meal Planning, Curried Lentils, and a Random Story

The Husband and I plan our meals for the week ahead of time, trying to maximize use of ingredients we already have and the new ingredients we will buy on our weekly grocery trip.  I build the grocery list and meal plan simultaneously, trying to create a week's worth of healthy, interesting meals as thriftily as possible, using the same set of ingredients for multiple recipes without being repetitive or boring.  I also make a point of having one totally vegetarian meal and one meal that has a salad as a main course each week, even if that means spending a little more or buying a few specialty ingredients I can't use in other things.

For example, next week's meal plan will be:
Pasta with Ham and Peas
Ham and Broccoli Cheddar Quiche
Citrus Shrimp Salad
Thai Pineapple Fried Rice with Shrimp
Sweet Potato Crockpot Chili

We will also make a week's worth of breakfast burritos and freeze them for use throughout the week.  This plan is great because there are only two expensive ingredients involved... the Turkey Ham and the shrimp.  We will buy a turkey ham, use a third in the pasta, a third in the burritos, and a third in the quiche.  So, a $6 protein purchase goes toward two dinners and a handful of breakfasts.  Same with the shrimp... we'll buy a $7 bag of frozen shrimp, use it in the salad and the fried rice.  We could always do better in terms of budgeting, but this kind of meal plan fits neatly in the intersection of our priorities... health, frugality, variety, flavor and quickness.

Today's dish is one of my new favorites for vegetarian night.*  It's cheap, easy, and since I make it in the crockpot, it's ready when I get home from my Zumba class and am starving!  I serve over rice, barley or couscous, which I make a day ahead or The Husband makes while I'm Zumba-ing.


Curried Lentils

Nouns:
1.5 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
4 carrots, peeled and grated (grating takes forever, and I usually load up the crock before leaving for work in the morning, so I just run the peeled carrots through my mini food processor, or use bagged shredded carrots)
1 small onion, diced
2 tbsp curry powder
1 veggie bouillon cube
2-3 good squirts of ketchup (okay, if your gourmet sensibilities are offended, feel free to add tomato paste, vinegar, sugar and salt instead... but ketchup is easier)
3 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Verbs:
Put everything in the crockpot.  Turn on low.  Go to work.  Come back.  Eat.  I left mine for almost twelve hours, because I have long days involving a commute and then the gym, and it was fine.  It will be ready to eat after about 7-8 hours if you're in a big fat hurry, though.



* I can never eat lentils without thinking of my friend Todd, who lived with me and my dear friend Miriam the summer before our senior year of college. That summer Todd subsisted almost entirely on lentils, since they are basically the cheapest protein source you can find and Todd was even more broke than your average broke-ass college student.  This is not Todd's lentil recipe.  Todd made his lentils palatable by covering them in salsa and sour cream, making a pinkish vomitous mass.  These lentils actually taste good and only resemble vomit a little bit.  Yummm.

This is photo of Todd and the Husband at my wedding.  There were no lentils involved.

Fleas!

This is Moby:

He has fleas.

He has never had fleas before, and I don't know where he got them, but we are coping with our very first flea infestation, and boy, it sucks.

First of all, the mea culpa:  I have been a little lax with the Revolution treatments, but it's been winter, and we've never, ever seen a single flea on either cat before...

Anyway.  Fleas.  So, The Husband and I are attempting to de-flea the cats and house, and so far the process has been eventful.  Moby had a bad reaction to the first round of flea medicine, largely because he contorted himself in a feat of Kitty-yoga in order to lick it off his back.  We had a fun emergency trip to the vet together. I didn't get a picture of him foaming at the mouth, but I should have.  I was too scared I'd poisoned him to think of preserving another Special Moby Moment for posterity.  Next time.

So, we've been washing every single washable thing in the house... our clothes, blankets, pillows, towels... anything the cats have access to... which is pretty much everything.  Spencer doesn't even have a dresser, just shelves, and so his entire wardrobe is cat bedding, and now a possible flea egg problem.  After copious hours of research on the internets and a chat with our vet, we have adopted the following solution; it represents our compromise between wanting the fleas DEAD and GONE, and wanting to keep ourselves, our pets, and our house relatively chemical free.  We'll let you know if it works:

1. Revolution on both cats simultaneously, repeated religiously every month.  This is the only toxic element to our solution, and probably the most important phase of Operation De-Flea

2. Vacuuming everything, then disposing of the vacuum bag immediately.  Repeat daily.  As the vacuum bags get more expensive and i become less paranoid, I may keep the bag in the vacuum for several days of vacuuming, but stick a flea collar in there.  The collars are cheap, and while they are toxic and scary, they can't do a whole lot of damage from inside the vacuum, right?

3. Steam cleaning the carpets.  Apparently the hot steam will kill the flea eggs left behind by vacuuming.  Our carpets could use a deep clean anyway, also thanks to Moby.

4. Diatomaceous Earth-- sprinkled over the unwashable places the cats insist on sleeping on, on the carpet (wait 24 hours, then vacuum... again), in the crevasses of the couch, etc.  

5. Washing everything... blankets, sheets, towels, clothes, rugs, linens.  We may end up going to the laundromat, because doing this one load at a time in our eensy washer is taking FOREVER.  In the meantime, I have the unwashed stuff in plastic bags so the if there's flea eggs on there and they hatch, or flea larva that metamorphose, then the bugs aren't going anywhere until it's their turn for the washing machine.

I hate fleas.

I love this

Aunt Esther's Rum Cake

I could write odes to Aunt Esther's rum cake.  It is delicious.  It compares only to Aunt Esther's lemon cake and Aunt Esther's chocolate mousse in its deliciosity.  Have I mentioned that I really miss living close to my Aunt Esther?  I really really miss it.

mmmmmmmmmm.


Anyway, for my birthday I usually make a version of Aunt Esther's Rum Cake, but instead of Rum, I use Irish Cream.  Because, you know, St. Patrick's Day and all that.  Yes, my birthday is on St. Patrick's Day!  Whee!

Here's the cake:

Nouns-

For the cake---

4 eggs

1 box yellow cake mix

1 package vanilla pudding mix

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup Irish Cream (or Rum)

baking spray with flour- lots!

1 fancy bundt pan

chopped pecans or walnuts

For the glaze (yes, there's glaze!!)---

1 stick of butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup Irish Cream (Or Rum!)

Verbs:

Preheat oven to 325.  Spray the crap out of your bundt pan with the baking spray.  Every little nook and cranny should be coated in baking spray.  Then, pour about a half cup of chopped pecans in the bottom of the bundt pan.  Mix the remaining cake ingredients for 2-3 minutes until a thick, smooth batter forms.  Pour the batter into the pan.  Bake for 45-55 minutes.  Top of cake will be dark brown... don't worry!  The inside is yellow, moist and delicious.

Then, boil the first three glaze ingredients together for 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and add the Irish cream (Or Rum!).  Then, invert the cake onto a plate, and poke holes all over it with a toothpick or skewer.  Then, brush the glaze over the cake until it is all absorbed.  This is even better the next day!

Party Food! Canapes, hors d'oeuvres, etc.

At our recent party, we served the delicious baked brie in whiskey sauce that is always a hit, and some fun finger foods. We got paper lunch bags and filled them with popcorn (it was an Oscars party, so this was kind of movie-theme), put out some quesadilla wedges and salsa and some store-bought potstickers alongside a big platter of veggies and dip.  Two new things I tried that worked really well were candied pecan gouda canapes and mini caprese salads served on thin slices of baguette.

Two-fer Party Pleasers:
Nouns:
1 baguette (I used whole wheat) thinly sliced
4 oz Fresh mozzarella
12 fresh basil leaves, rinsed and dried
6 cherry tomatoes
4 oz smoked gouda, thinly sliced
1 cup pecans
1/4 sugar
1/4 spiced rum
olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
salt
pepper

Verbs:
For the Candied Pecan Gouda Canapes- over medium heat, simmer the sugar and rum together, stirring well. I know this isn't really how you candy things, but it works fine and tastes delicious.  Once the sugar rum mixture is bubbly and the sugar is mostly dissolved, stir in the nuts until well coated.  Scoop out the nuts with a slotted spoon and spread on waxed paper to cool and harden.  While they are cooling, spread slices of gouda on half the slices of baguette.  Then, top with a few of the candied pecans.
For the mini caprese salads, simmer the balsamic over medium low heat until reduced by half.  Meanwhile, slice the tomatoes in half and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 350 for about 15 minutes (I used the toaster oven for this).  Spread thin slices of fresh mozzarella over the remaining sliced baguette.  Add one roasted tomato half, one basil leaf and drizzle of reduced balsamic to each.  Serve on a pretty platter.

Confessional

I read a lot.

Now, I understand that in terms of vices, this is not particularly impressive.  However, the amount I read is an ongoing joke between me and the Husband, because there are times when I behave... a teense irrationally with regard to my books.  First of all, I read a lot of series books, and become... invested in them.  I become involved.  So, if I am reading Book 1 in a series, and don't have immediate access to Book 2, I might become... upset.  Neurotic maybe.  A little crazy.

But, knowing that I can be somewhat unreasonable in this way, I have made allowances.  I always request a full series from the library at a time, and I work hard not to even START Book 1 if the rest aren't already on my shelf.  See?  Totally manageable. Not crazy at all.

But recently, this particular coping mechanism backfired a little bit when I finished a book much more quickly than I thought I would an the next one hadn't arrived yet.  It was tense, but I managed to just read a totally different book.  And all was well... right?

Well, no.  Because then I needed to have immediate access to ALL OF THOSE as well, and a few books I'd backordered from the library ages ago coincidentally happened to arrive all at once, and so when  went to the library to pick up my holds there were...

26 of them.

TWENTY SIX.

The librarian brought them out on a cart.  They offered to help us out to the car.  Other librarians gathered to gawk.  I thought my husband would die laughing.

So, now we have a bet about whether I can finish all 26 before they have to go back to the library... roughly 6 weeks from now.  Wish me luck!

Peanut Sauce

My husband LOVES this peanut sauce.  I think it's because, unlike many peanut sauces, it is not cooked, so the oils don't separate out.  Also, he loves it because I leave out some of the coconut milk and leave it thicker than many peanut sauces, and he likes to eat it with a spoon.  We serve it over hot rice, chicken and veggies, and it melts beautifully over the food.  No need to heat it.  You need a food processor for this.

Peanut Sauce
Nouns:
1 cup all natural peanut butter
1 can coconut milk
1-2 inches of raw ginger
4-6 cloves of garlic
1 bunch scallions
1-2 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp fish sauce
1-2 tsp chili garlic sauce
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rice vinegar


Add the scallions, garlic, and ginger to the food processor and pulse until chopped finely.  Add the rest of the ingredients, reserving half the coconut milk.  Blend until smooth.  Add remaining coconut milk gradually, tasting to test for desired flavor.  Serve over hot rice, chicken and veggies.