Author: jesser

The slacking on the cooking continues, sort of. I still do it, mostly, even when I don't feel like I've really got my A game, so that's something I guess.

This week I finally tried a Green Monster. What is a Green Monster you ask? It is a smoothie with LOADS of spinach in it. Yes, I typed that right … SPINACH. And it makes it green! The internets have been abuzz about them for a few weeks now and I decided I had to try. So I chunked SPINACH, milk, a frozen banana and a bunch of assorted berries into the blender and hit “liquefy.” Sure enough, lovely green smoothie. Best of all, and I swear this is true, it tasted AWESOME. Other than the color, I don't think I would have known there was spinach in there. It just tastes fresh and nice. Tabby wanted to try her some, so I poured her a toddler-sized cup, which she promptly drank and asked to be refilled. I've made a couple more since. They are excellent.

What else is going on in the kitchen? I made Chicken Enchiladas yesterday. They were pretty tasty and I am having leftovers today. Loki must have liked how they looked too, because he scarfed down most of the second tray I had cooling on the counter. He's on my bad list now.

Strawberries have been super cheap and AWESOME recently. I got them for $.97/lb at our local organic market on Saturday and I must have purchased about 5 lbs. They are practically gone already. I've just been serving them with dinner or topped with a little yogurt for breakfast.

I am having one last go at the lamb stew soon before it is too hot to want such things (we might be there already, actually). I want to try it in the crockpot this time, cook it up on the stove a bit and then leave the simmering part to the crockpot. We're also going to have shrimp fried rice, which is quick and easy and maybe a spinach fritatta since I bought a ton of spinach at Costco.

Next week will be a fridge/pantry clear out week since we're heading to Nashville mid-week and everything must go. But I think we'll start up the grill when we we get back. I'm particularly looking forward to some blackened fish.

I'm a bit off my game right now. Matt was gone all last week (longer than usual, actually), which never helps. Then Ben was sick over the weekend, the kind of sick where he only wanted to be snuggled. He is doing much better now, thankfully. 24 hours fever free, an all-clear from the doc, who could not see anything wrong with his ears or a sign of strep and a much-improved mood.

Anyway, not really sure what the heck we ate last week. I made a fritatta at some point, which was pretty good. I also made blueberry muffins to go with that fritatta and for the playdate we hosted on Friday. They turned out wonderfully, even after I subbed half whole-wheat flour and half applesauce (for the oil).

This week I'm once again endeavoring to use up what we've got. I bought a couple of quiches at Costco on Saturday, not knowing if we'd have them for dinner with my family or at another time, and so those need to be eaten (along with the leftover blueberry muffins). I also have everything I need to make black bean (& tofu) quesadillas and we've also got the ingredients for sweet & sour meatballs.

Also, I finally made the crackers two weekends back. They turned out really well and everyone loved them! Mine were not nearly as pretty as the cute triangle shapes, but it didn't much matter. I would definitely make them again, but I'd probably use some better cheddar cheese (the stuff I picked up from Sunflower was kinda salty).

Up next week? Well we'll sort that out soon enough, I'm sure.