30-Day Challenge
to
Eat at HOME!
Today marks 10 days of the "Eat at Home Challenge". I am glad to announce that so far, we've made it! I will admit, this weekend was challenging and we were definitely missing our Saturday Chick-fil-a! Aaron did want to take a walk to 7-eleven on Saturday afternoon, but restricted himself to just a Rolling Stone magazine. I'm proud of us and hope that we can build on this success for the next 20 days! I've been collecting recipes that are quick and easy and I must say that I think the realization that making dinner doesn't have to be a huge ordeal has certainly helped in this challenge. For the first few months of our marriage, I placed and unnecessary expectation on myself to make these amazing, from scratch, big meals for us. Well, I'll tell you what, that got us no where except stressed and upset! I've enjoyed this past week of having the refrigerator, freezer and pantry stocked so that I can just come home and throw something together. No stress and pretty good! Some of our recent favorites have been soup in a bread bowl (Panera gives extra bread to Aaron's school on Tuesdays!!) a lot of chicken and fried rice and fresh veggies from a field trip Aaron's class took to a local farm.
In other news....Aaron surprised me with a super awesome gift to celebrate 1 year since he proposed! As all New Orleanians know, food is such a huge part of that culture and that did not rub of lightly on us! So, on Saturday, Aaron presented me with a gift that reminded me of all the great restaurants we enjoyed together!
The last two weeks in New Orleans, Aaron made a huge list of all the places we had been together and then ventured out all over the city to gather business cards, menus and other tidbits from them! He made the comment that the best part about this gift is every time we look at it, we see another story of our time spent in the city where we fell in love! What a sweet guy!
Now, if only we could narrow it down to just 2 or 3 for when we return to NoLa in November!
So impressed with the 30 day challenge. Please keep me updated!!!!!!
ReplyDelete2 meatloaves:
ReplyDelete2# ground beef
1# ground pork
2 large onions, diced
2 sleeves crushed soda crackers
2 eggs
6 tsp catsup
3 tsp mustard
2 tsp Worcestershire
salt & pepper to taste
Put into your largest mixing bowl or stew pot. Wash your hands. Now mix it all together thoroughly with your hands. Next fill a 1 quart ziploc bag as full as possible, and freeze. Put the rest in a buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 90 minutes.
You can do the mixing during the halftime of a ball game, and you've got 4 or 6 meals all together. You can slice it cold and wave it for a really quick meal, or cold sandwiches are good, to.
Spaghetti sauce
1# mild Italian sausage
1 large diced onion
1 head of garlic, peeled and diced.
Put all three in stew pot and start browning. While it's browning:
1 pint white mushrooms halved or quartered, depending on size.
1 green pepper, diced. You know how to clean a green pepper, right? Cut off top and bottom and clean out everything that isn't green. Then halve longitudinally, and cut into strips. Chop the strips.
2 small cans tomato paste
1 medium can tomato sauce
1 #10 can peeled, diced tomatoes.
When done browning, pour off the grease.
Add everything to the pot
1/2 tsp each, oregano, basil, & thyme.
S & P to taste.
Let simmer, covered 30-60 minutes, uncover, and check your spices. Make sure you can taste them--so add if necessary. Simmer uncovered til desired consistency if necessary.
This will serve at least two, even four meals. Easy and quick to reheat. You can freeze some if you want, but it keeps well on the bottom shelf of a refrigerator, next to the beer.
Good luck, you're getting to 30!