Friday, August 12, 2016

Food for Thought

I meant to post recipes last week, but that Friday just sort of got away from me.  Today, in an attempt to jump-start my mood I decided I'd tackle a few things.

I put some bed linens (one of two sets anyway) that were waiting to be space-bagged in the bag - I'll get the air sucked out Monday when I drag the vacuum upstairs for cleaning.  I asked hubby if he'd made room in his newly outfitted garage for his ham radio equipment, and if so, did he have room for his laptop equipment.  He did, and now that pack of stuff is out of the living room.  I took photos of the "box cars" and broke down one - I caved at the look on the 7 y.o.'s face, and dragged the bigger, more time consuming one down to the basement.  Where in a week, I'll end up dragging it back upstairs to disassemble it for the trash anyway.  I steam-cleaned the family room carpet.  It was beyond hideous, but now it's all nice and fresh looking.  Is it wrong I just want to stand and gaze upon it?  Finally, with a prepping eye to the coming holidays, I set up a batch of Cherry Bounce.  My first batch.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm aiming, as the blogger said, for above hooch and below cough syrup.  I may also set up a batch with a vodka base, that I saw in a follow-up post.

In a bit, I'll have to run the 17 y.o. out for a sports physical.  We've got our usual dinner.  Then I'm taking the boys up to my sister's for her outdoor movie night.  We were planning to go cheer on my brother-in-law in a triathlon, tomorrow, but it has been moved, for the second week in a row, to next weekend because of the threat of rain and flash flooding.  So, I have a whole Saturday to fill.  If I push myself again, I may be able to get to the basement, which I've decided I'm just going to do my thing, repairs to the ceiling be damned.

Whether you're looking at a full weekend, or a day that's now open, here are a few recipes that are quick to prepare and good.


I made this Sweet Cucumber Salad as a side to the chicken below.  I'm trying to be more thoughtful, more often, on sides.  This one was easy and had a nice sweet taste that balanced out the buffalo-spiced chicken.


I'm not a fan of Buffalo Chicken, but my kids and hubby like it.  I made this for an In-Law Dinner, and they aren't fans of heat either.  I opted to drizzle only a little bit of the Buffalo Sauce on the chicken and then served the majority of the sauce on the side.  This worked well.  Those of us not liking the spice, got a taste, while others were able to douse to their hearts content.


Mangoes have been on sale, I have cilantro growing in the gardens and I had deli ham on hand, so on a lazy night everything came together to make Ham Mango Quesadillas.  Super easy.  Super tasty.


I'm not sure what caught my eye about this Three-Cheese Veggie Pizza, but whatever it was, I'm glad it did.  It was really tasty.  The 7 y.o. snarfed it down.  The 17 y.o. ate it, cautiously, because it has his nemesis - squash - on it; two kinds just to really mess with him.  I made the Italian dressing - it's one of the dressings I make from scratch from this pantry cookbook.  I couldn't find the bread sticks for the crust, not even plain, so I just made my regular dough and added a teaspoon each of garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the dry ingredients.  A few more minutes, but worth it.  Lots of flavor and a meatless meal for the week.


Two kabob recipes in two weeks for dinner.  Both had pineapple.  My defense - one has sausage and a different marinade.  The Sausage and Chicken Kabobs I've made before and are really good.  A salty, tangy marinade combined with the sweet of the pineapple.  Yum.


This seems to be the Summer of Slaw because this Three-Pepper Coleslaw made its appearance with the kabobs above.  I opted not to use green peppers (I'm the only one who likes them, the others tolerate them.)  It was light and fresh.


If you make Key Lime Mousse Cups, you might need to double, the already sufficiently sized, recipe.  My family horked these down.  I also had more filling (about a cup) than phyllo cups.  I had planned to make some mini graham cracker crusts to put the remaining filling in, but someone ate the filling.  All the filling.  I have no idea what they put it on.  My guess is they just ate it with a spoon.


I said I was in a rut, which usually translates to my menu with super simple recipes.  These Salsa Ranch Chicken Wraps were more chopping than anything.  I used regular tortillas because we always have tortillas on hand.  They were nice and filling.  I got veggies in the kids.  They were toasted in butter.  A win-win for everyone.


When the kids aren't in school there's a lack of desserts in the house.  It's usually whatever was left over from an In-Law Dinner; and that only lasts a day or so.  So when I had a craving for cake, I was out-of-luck.  I toyed with my go-to mug cake - a deep, rich chocolate thing.  But being too lazy for using the oven, I searched my Pins and found this Snickerdoodle Mug Cake.  Super yummy.  Moist and light.  Craving settled.  Until the next night when I needed another one.  I used a wide-mouth Mason jar because my straight-sided mugs weren't tall enough, and my big-enough mugs weren't straight enough.


Another week.  Another pizza.  This time Baja Chicken Taco Pizza.  Lots of flavor.  Nobody seemed to mind it wasn't pepperoni.  I used my go-to dough and my homemade taco seasoning.  I also used my homemade ranch dressing (another one from this book) which was probably thinner than one made with store-bought, but it worked fine for us.  Actually, we used the leftover to drizzle over the top.  I opted not to put the lettuce on it.

I'm off to prep for dinner.

Happy Friday,

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