Soup, asparagus and Zoku pops

So, child is heating up some Italian wedding soup on this cold rainy day. We're roasting asparagus in the oven with coconut oil, garlic powder and fresh ground four color pepper.

For dessert, we're going to attempt Zoku quick pops, watermelon outside with a vanilla coconut milk/farm fresh vanilla yogurt core.

Fat Tuesday

I had no idea what to make for dinner so I swung through Target after a long shift...

I grabbed steaks, vegetables, strawberries and creme brûlée for my Fat Tuesday celebration.

My total bill came to $25.92.

- 4 small Angus steaks, $10, regularly $15.98
- fresh express iceberg garden salad, $1.47
- Green Giant fresh asparagus $2.49, regularly $3.49 (and was not in as good of condition as I thought when I bought it... Sad face)
- fresh strawberries, 1 quart, on sale for $2.49
- archer farm steam-in-bag broccoli, on sale for $1.89
- 2 boxes of Archer Farm creme brûlée (each with two servings), $5.99 each

Subtotal: $30.32
Team member discount: - 3.04
REDcard savings: - 1.36

What did I do with it?

When I got home, I touched off my enormous pépé mug with chai, and washed the asparagus. While my husband cooked the steaks with just a little garlic pepper and Italian seasoning, I cut some slits into the asparagus and spread some extra virgin olive oil and garlic pepper on them on the cookie sheet. I preheated the oven to 450 and really roasted that asparagus to a golden brown.

Then I split two raspberry Chobani "bites" with dark chocolate into three bowls and garnished with fresh strawberry slices.

That was the first course. The second course was a big old plate of salad. Third course was the asparagus.

Husband prepared the fourth course, the steam-in-bag broccoli drizzled with sesame oil and the steaks.

Dessert is the creme brûlée prepared by the child.

The wine is local apple wine from Stroudsburg.

Bacon stuffed green veg potatoes

My husband is making baked potatoes with butter, asparagus, Brussel sprouts and farm fresh bacon.

I'm so hungry!

Cheater dinner of scallops

Tonight is my last psych lab. Last night of a quick dinner before running out the door to attend a three-hour night class.

So, over the weekend I used some coupons at Target. $1 off an Archer Farms purchase of three dollars or more... I got the bacon wrapped scallops, regularly priced $6.99.

In the frozen veggie aisle, many varieties of Green Giant Steam-in-bag vegetables are on sale this month for 5/$5. I can't use any of them with butter or cheese sauce so I decided to try the plain asparagus tips.

Add that to the brown rice my husband made for dinner last night and voilà!

Baked mashed sweet potatoes and omelets

Since we have an extremely tight budget as of late, we're using the last of our roasted asparagus and spinach for yet another meal. That means I've made three meals from one box of frozen spinach and one sale bunch (12 ounces) of asparagus.

For three people, I used six eggs, a touch of half and half and a pile of spinach and asparagus for the omelet. Once the omelet got fairly solid, I added a thin layer of extra sharp cheddar.

As an unusual side dish, I mashed some sweet potatoes and baked them at 375 for about thirty minutes. Here are the ingredients I used (and it turned out fabulous):

- one egg
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- about 1 cup Very Vanilla soy milk
- 29 ounces canned sweet potatoes, syrup drained
I beat that until smooth and added:
- one handful regular raisins
- one handful golden raisins

Roasted Asparagus French Bread Pizza

I made homemade bread today, something I've blogged about many times before. AND I roasted the rest of the asparagus just like I did a couple days ago.

Then for dinner, I sliced some bread and prepared garlic bread/white veggie French bread pizzas.

Ingredients:
- French bread
- butter
- minced garlic
- spinach
- broccoli
- roasted asparagus
- black olives
- ranch dressing

Method:
Preheat oven to 450.
Slice bread and arrange on cookie sheet.
Combine butter and minced garlic. Spread evenly over bread. Toast bread about five minutes in oven.
Combine broccoli, spinach and enough ranch to get the veggies wet.
Remove bread from oven. Pile on ranch mixture, top with cheese. Add some asparagus.
Put in oven about five minutes to get cheese melty.
Remove from oven. Add move asparagus, black olives and more cheese.
Return to oven. Cook until hot and melted.

OMG Roasted Asparagus

I have mixed feelings about asparagus. I love good asparagus. But poor asparagus is stringy, bitter and can trigger my gag reflex.

I didn't have the highest expectations of this fresh asparagus, it came from Target after all. On sale $1.59 for 12 ounces. Grown in Mexico.

I sliced the asparagus down the middle, not straight through, just enough to let the butter in. A small cut. I used my pastry brush to coat the asparagus with the scallion butter I made earlier. (See previous post)

I roasted for ten minutes at 450, sprinkled with fresh ground black pepper and some fresh ground sea salt.

Return to the oven five more minutes and voilà! Best. Asparagus. Ever.

Post MFA interview shopping

This morning turned out crazy, and awesome, as our family overslept by about 80 minutes.

Not I haven't been blogging our food purchases since we've been so short on cash it's been the grab-exactly-what-we-need-to-survive mode. And use everything in the cupboards.

I mean everything. Soon we'll be eating the fruit I canned last summer for breakfast.

Now, I needed the car today for my MFA interview at Cedar Crest College. That meant getting everyone up and out of the house in twenty minutes. I could have dropped a Quaker Oatmeal bar in everyone's hands since I bought a box over the weekend or one of the chocolate chip Clif bars I bought on sale a while ago.

That wouldn't provide quick coffee. So we zoomed out of the house in 15 minutes so we could save 5 minutes to stop at Wawa. Husband and I got egg sandwiches and coffee. Daughter got a tuna wrap. For breakfast.

I tried to pay with my Wegmans shoppers club card. Got my visa and paid the $11 tab.

My interview went well, got to chat writing and sit in the sun. Wondering if I'll end up with a sunburn... It was noon.

Stopped at Target for a few things and only a few since I only have $50 left in my checkbook. It's Étienne's 53rd birthday today and I'd like to bake him a cake. Since I normally torture him (he's a protagonist from my manuscripts) I thought it'd be nice of me to... well... be nice.

At Target, I bought:
- asparagus, fresh, 12 ounces, $1.59 (yes, I put it in a cup of water after I trimmed the ends)
- blueberry breakfast bread, $3.79
- 3 large cans tuna, $2.19 each
- Archer Farm multigrain bread (I have to start baking my own again) $2.50
- canola oil, $3.39
- big bag of sliced almonds, $4.49 (seriously? Sigh.)
- old orchard 100% juice frozen concentrate apple raspberry, two at $1.59
- Silk PureAlmond vanilla, $3
- silk unsweetened soy milk, $2.99
- quart of heavy whipping cream (for the imaginary frenchman's cake) $3.99
- 8 ounces of extra sharp cheddar
- Hostess strawberry cupcakes, in case I don't bake the cake $2.50

Subtotal: $40.48
Team member discount: -4.06
RedCard discount: - 1.82
Total: $34.60

Dad's almost steak dinner

Dinner with Grandma and Pop-pop on the mountain was an awesome success. My stepmom was still raving about the pork from our previous dinner, and one again she could not believe that she ate vegetables! In this case, asparagus.

I kept things as simple as I could since I was cooking in a strange kitchen-- a new experience for me. My step-mom's stove has a slight slant opposite the one my stove has and in sink is across the room from her stove, which in my house, the sink and stove are neighbors.

Now, the ingredients for dinner probably cost between $16 and $20, to serve 5. Most of the ingredients came from Aldi. I splurged and bought a $12 bottle of French brandy (St. Remy, since I can't afford Hennessey).

The menu: steak au poivre (pepper steak in a brandy cream sauce), mushrooms, parsleyed potatoes and asparagus in lemon-dill sauce. 

Problem strikes right off the bat when I open the meat and see I got some sort of flank steak instead of real steak. It looks like the kind of meat you use to a make a real steak sandwich that's not a chip steak.

I worried what my dad would think, but I couldn't waste time on that. This was dinner and I had to make it. My husband trimmed the fat off and I turned my attention to my work-in-progress. I started the Le Creuset skillet on low with a smidgeon of extra virgin cold pressed olive oil from Forks Mediterranean  Deli. I spread it with my fingers to cover the whole pan and when it got hot I added a tablespoon of butter and the small can of mushrooms I picked up at Aldi. I sautéed them for a few minutes and added probably about three tablespoons of brandy and about 2 teaspoons of my organic four-color peppercorn that I've had for a while.

I opened three cans of whole new potatoes and drained them. I'm a relatively large saucepan I melted six tablespoons of butter with close to a tablespoon of dried parsley and a sprinkle or two of Italian seasoning. Then I added the potatoes and let them cook on low for the entire remainder of the cooking time. 

In a Pyrex dish, I arranged one bag of frozen asparagus spears (also Aldi) which I thought had thawed out during the drive. In a small saucepan, I combined about three tablespoons butter, the juice of one small lemon, and a teaspoon or two of it's a dilly seasoning, a former favorite McCormick spice that I'm almost out of. I poured this over the asparagus and the fats instantly re-hardened. Yeah, the asparagus was still frozen. Oops. So I put it in the oven on 250, my temp for holding the steaks.

So, now the steaks. I removed the mushrooms from the skillet and put them on the holding plate to go in the oven. The steaks have been seasoned on both sides with more four-color peppercorn, thanks to my husband's help.  We toss them in the skillet and their thinness and their lack of fat make them stick in the now hot pan. I quickly add two tablespoons of butter. 

I flip each piece of meat every two minutes because they are so thin, removing them to the holding plate when I think they're done enough not to make anyone ill. By the time all the steaks are done, I add some olive oil to the skillet and try to loosen the glazed bits. I add another 3 or 4 tablespoons butter, drain the meat juice from the holding plate into the skillet and replace the meat in the oven.

The asparagus is still frozen. But the plan is to microwave briefly and "fluff."

Back to the sauce... The butter and meat juices bubble and when they start to boil, I added the 1/2 cup brandy.  I reduce it down as the recipe says, 2-3 minutes, by half I think, and then I add 3/4 cup whole milk (my step mom doesn't have the constitution for heavy cream.). I repeat the boiling down. 

Then, we microwave the asparagus and serve everything. Everything disappeared. Everyone had seconds of everything. Except me. I don't like mushrooms. 

Meat Bagel with sesame sautéed asparagus

For lunch today I fried some beef hot dogs in the skillet, with lots of asparagus spears from the freezer.

I cut the dogs in half length-wise so they would lay flat on a open-faced bagel sandwich, each sandwich requiring 3/4 of a hot dog sliced in this manner.

The meat itself was a gift from a friend.

I toasted a half bagel for each of us, put ketchup on it for the child and husband (horseradish mustard for me) and put the slices of meat on top. Then I sprinkled on some shredded "Mexican blend" cheese and warmed it slightly in the microwave.

I removed the meat from the skillet (it had been cooking with the asparagus) and added about a teaspoon sesame oil to it. I also sprinkled four color pepper and garlic salt on the asparagus and cooked it until thoroughly hot and brown on one side.

Despite the perceived kid-friendliness of these open-faced sandwiches, my daughter thought they looked awful and smelled worse. She picked at them for a half hour and then announced she didn't like the beef knotwurst or whatever it was.

I have the only kid in America who loves meat, loves sausages, loves bacon, but hates anything remotely hot dog-ish.

Asparagus

I steamed a pound of asparagus tonight. I forgot to store it in a small glass with an inch of water like they always recommend, but it was prime asparagus so it was salvageable. Heloise-- the syndicated columnist with the helpful household tips-- recommends rinsing the asparagus in cold water, then snapping the wooden ends off, by bending and letting the stalks naturally break wherever they break.

My husband will eat the woody pieces, so it's a waste for me.

I placed the pound of asparagus in the steamer for 15 minutes. Then, I heated a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in my Le Creuset skillet.

Then I placed the steamed asparagus in the skillet, sprinkled liberally with garlic powder, ground about 3/4 teaspoon four-color pepper and added less than 2 teaspoons butter. And sauteed for five minutes.

Great stuff! (Even the little one loved it!)

Chicken à la diable with Asparagus

I made Chicken à la diable for lunch to use the four chicken breasts I thawed for last night's dinner. Click on the chicken link below to see the recipe. I more or less followed it today, except I added some Indian Chili Powder into the bread crumbs for kick. I used the last of my homemade breadcrumbs and had to add some storebought to make it work.

The asparagus. Well, I meant to glaze it with olive oil and bake with the chicken. Except the olive oil came out too fast so it may be heavier than I wanted. I sprinkled library with garlic pepper, my four-color peppercorns and some sprinkle parmesan.