Bagel Day

Today my daughter and I pooled our resources to buy an $8/bakers dozen of bagels.

Came home and husband cut them all in half for freezing. Each family member gets half a bagel per serving. A bagel packs a lot of carbohydrates and calories so half is perfect for a sandwich, a pizza bagel or peanut butter toast.

Today we hadn't had breakfast and we were out running errands so we made egg sandwiches around 11 a.m.

Mine:
- 1 from-the-farm egg
- Morningstar breakfast strips (veggie bacon)
- velveeta (a gift)
- spinach dip
-buffalo blue cheese dip
On half a toasted jalapeño bagel

Bagels and peaches

The interface still has some issues, so let's hope this works.

My budget goals for September are still on track! Since I found six dollars in my wallet this week, we counted some change and went for bagels. Yesterday we had ooey gooey egg sandwiches. Today we each had half a salt bagel, toasted, with cream cheese and the Market Pantry six Italian blend cheese from Target that I adore. And spiced peaches I canned August 1.

Now, this is my first 'opening' of stuff I canned without assistance, but if my family contracts botulism in the next few days, we know why.

On a serious note, the peaches smelled fabulous and my daughter ate almost the whole pint.

Sandwiches and salad

Got an applewood smoked ham quarter for $3 at Target. It's certainly not a quality ham or a big ham, but it's sliced for sandwiches and has 1.66 pounds. I heated it with water in the crock pot.

We made sandwiches on bagels from NY Bagel & Deli in the 25th Street shopping plaza, leftover mozzarella from Calandra's in Nazareth, and that kale-zucchini-cream cheese dip from Lost Gourmet at the Pheonixville Farmers Market yesterday.

We served with an Asian style salad that began life as a Fresh Express Very Veggie with some greens and sorrel from my garden, dried peas, dried pineapple, cucumber and Newman's Own Ginger Sesame dressing.

What to do?

I have been plagued with hunger again lately. Part of this is because I haven't eaten enough at meal times before I get hungry... So in that case it's my own fault.

Yesterday, I had apple fritter toast followed by my homemade nut-heavy granola. Recognizing this as carb-heavy, I had the last two eggs from the farm... and was starving an hour later. My daughter suggested a trip to Wawa, and my husband suggested red meat...

I didn't have any better ideas.

With guilt in my heart, I ordered myself a roast beef sandwich with cheddar on an everything bagel with lettuce, tomato, pepper, oregano, and creamy horseradish sauce and a big old side of potato chips. I was satiated and didn't eat for the rest of the day. But I hate the prospect of resorting to nitrate-laden, processed lunch meat. What specifically satiated me? The heavy caloric content? The massive amounts of protein? The fat?

Hmmm... maybe I'll make some huge veggie sandwich with avocado and sprouts and see if that has a similar effect. There must be healthier ways to feed my body... without resorting to piles of soy analog sandwich products or processed meat.

Egg sandwiches

Yesterday morning I went for blood work. I came home and had breakfast with a neighbor: half-caff coffee, cheerios with skim milk, cranberry juice and grapes.

Because I had started the day with a fast, I was starved by noon, so I made my husband and I egg sandwiches with ham, gouda, and egg on a bagel. With Girl Scout Cookies from the freezer for dessert.

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.

Houseguests and harvests

I had a houseguest for the holiday weekend, and this wasn't the kind of houseguest you sit around and cook for. This was the kind of houseguest with whom you go out gallivanting.

Because it was my best friend Shannon who now lives in Virginia, where quality Italian is scarce and Northern treats like bagels not made with any sort of authenticity, the first item on the agenda was one dozen bagels from New York Bagel and Deli.

Ah, bagels. Feast of carbohydrates. Flexible superfood.

When I had gestational diabetes, I couldn't even look at a bagel without my blood sugar spiking.

But half a bagel with melted cheddar cheese is a fabulous snack reminiscent of a soft pretzel. Tuna melts on a bagel could stop my heart. My crock pot spinach dip or hummus on half a toasted bagel... Egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel... Cinnamon raisin bagel with some sort of nut butter for breakfast.

My husband made me an egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel with tomato and basil feta. That was amazing.

But now the holiday picnics are over. The houseguest gone.

The entire family contributed to a dinner fit for this 95+ degree Pennsylvania day...
My husband made Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We heated some leftover sausages from his mother's 4th of July Picnic. And my daughter and I went into the garden and harvested the first vegetables from the garden: green beans! We washed them and cooked them, leaving them still al dente and I thought they were fantastic.

My daughter, who never likes fresh green beans, didn't like these "very much" either, so I let her dip them in Wegmans Ginger Sesame vinaigrette dressing.

They disappeared.

Sandwiches!!!

I am so excited for dinner. I'm feeling a tad under the weather and I'm not sure whether it's allergies or a cold... Since sneezing and running nose seems to be the main issue, could just be allergies.

I mentioned to my husband that I would really like a simple sandwich, as in from the deli counter, and he volunteered to run to Giant. (Must be partially because he was home alone with the little one all day.)

I am so thrilled with tonight's meal plan. We're each having half an asiago bagel with soy mayo, lettuce, honey turkey, deluxe ham, smoked guoda and cheddar and vegetarian bacon. Sides are Dole bagged Italian Salad with garlic croutons and some sort of red wine vinaigrette and Veggie Patch Spinach Cheese bites, which we're trying because we had a coupon.

egg sandwiches on garlic bagels

We had egg sandwiches on garlic and vegetable bagels for breakfast and leftover crockpot mac and cheese for dinner...

Broccoli omelettes

For dinner last night, I was starved. I called my husband from the office and said, "Make Food!"

He took the remaining everything bagels from the freezer, buttered them and layered them with frozen vegetables in cheese sauce and real cheddar cheese and baked them and topped them with bits of Morningstar vegetarian chicken nuggets. It was awesome! (And for dessert we had more pineapple tatin.)

For lunch today, I made a huge omelette of broccoli cheese and some cheddar, sprinkled with romano cheese. I served with sliced dates, tea and my 'flea shampoo potatoes' (sliced potatoes from a can cooked in oil, soy sauce and parsley).

Hummus lunch

Apparently my husband wanted hummus for the celery we had in the fridge, but didn't tell me until the stalks had gone limp. So, we're taking hummus (the roasted red pepper, parsley hummus I made yesterday) and Ritz crackers, pieces of everything bagels, and carrots.

Tuna bagels

We only had toast for breakfast this morning, and then my daughter and I went off on an eight-ish mile bike ride... When we got home, my husband had prepared tuna on bagels with melted cheddar (daughter got half a bagel, husband and I got 3/4 each). After that and some water, we had bananas and I had a cup of tea.

Garlic Bagels

I had no ideas for lunch when I left to take my daughter to her kindergarten class. When I returned, my husband had come home from work and made garlic bagels with cheese and veggies. He had gone to the bagel deli over the weekend and he thought we hadn't had garlic bagels in a while.

So he toasted them in the toaster, then layered with colby jack cheese and sprinkled with mixed vegetables and garlic pepper. The mixed vegetables were carrots, green beans, lima beans and zucchini, odd for a bagel topping but hot and edible.

And to top it all off, he kissed me afterwards! Garlic or no.

And we hit Thursday...

So, our daughter solved our dinner dilemma last night by requesting nachos. We made them with mango salsa, black olives, cheddar cheese, beans, and tomatoes from the garden.

This morning for breakfast we each had half a cinnamon raisin bagel with cashew butter.

My daughter considered yesterday's yogurt with mix-ins a "deluxe" breakfast, so I upped the ante for lunch today: Vanilla yogurt with cinnamon grahams, peanut butter crunch, AND dark chocolate covered almonds, grapes, and now she's eating an apple. The kid never stops...

I have fresh French-style honey-wheat bread on its second rise. After my daughter gets out of school, I plan to run to Wegmans for some fancy cheese and some fruit for a pre-birthday dinner for my husband.

September grocery shopping

We needed some serious food. Normally I would wait until tomorrow to keep the August tally more within budget, but with my daughter and I both starting school today shopping seemed like a way to keep us both occupied.

I took my daughter to New York Bagel and Deli in the 25th Street shopping center for her "before school" breakfast. We spent $5 on bagels. She picked blueberry with blueberry cream cheese and I had jalapeno with egg and cheese. I had $7 left and a baker's dozen bagels in $8 so I couldn't out my change and came home with a stash.

Then we went to Giant. Blue needed greens. We needed fruits and veggies. I had a $4 off $45 purchase coupon.

I spent $80, which considering I had no list and couldn't be real thorough with sales/prices... is good.

We bought (in 30 minutes):

• Motts no sugar added mixed berry applesauce (has actually vitamin C, many others don't), the individual servings, which I normally don't advocate. $1.89
• Minute Maid no sugar added Apple Strawberry juice boxes (10), $2.79
• Hunt's Fire roasted diced tomatoes $1.09
• Bush's black beans, two cans at 83 cents each
• Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil, big bottle, on sale for $5.79
• Whitehouse Applesauce, I forget the funky flavor, but similar nutritional content to Motts, $1.89
• Barilla whole wheat pasta, five boxes, at $1 each
• Peaches packed in pear juice, 15 ounces, 2 cans, 99 cents each
• Pears, packed in juice, 3 cans, 99 cents each
• Kidney beans, three 15.5 ounce cans, 59 cents each
• 16 ounces cashew butter, $5.24 (normally $7)
• petite diced tomatoes, 14.5 ounces, 2 cans, 65 cents each
• box of raisins, $1.77
• canned chunk pineapple, 99 cents
• black olives, $1.27
• small cans of no salt added tomato sauce, 4 cans, 35 cents each
• 16 ounces of pasta shells, 2 boxes, 75 cents each
• two pounds bananas, $1.32
• 2 pounds broccoli, $2.49
• 2 pounds gala apples (4 apples), $2.85
• pint of blueberries, $3
• prepackaged very veggie salad, $2
• prepackaged greens for Blue, $2
• strawberries, $2.49
• Pillsbury ready made pie crusts, 4 crusts, $4.70 - $1 coupon = $3.70
• Light and Lively Cottage Cheese, $3.49 (big one)
• Very Vanilla Soy Milk, 64 ounces, $2.85
• 32 ounces vanilla yogurt, $1.79
• 16 ounces of Wisconsin cheddar, $3.65 (damn it, I thought this was on sale for less than $3)
• dozen extra large eggs, $1.19
• soymilk, 64 ounces, $2.39
• tampons, $2.50
• Suave Kids Shampoo/Conditioner/Body Wash in watermelon, 22.5 ounces, $2.74
• 15 ounces of lemon juice, $1.49
• Canola cooking spray, 5 ounces, $1.50
  
• Kidney beans, big can,
  

Weekend laziness

Yesterday was my last official day at the YWCA and, as such, I ended up in the office for about 10 hours. It's scary when you have one day to finish everything unresolved. Unlike when you quit a job, my "seasonal" position will resume in August and I will have to finish what I started then. So, if I make a mess, I'll be the one cleaning it.

So I called my husband at 5 p.m. to tell him I hadn't left the office yet and he asked if he should start dinner and I said sure. He made fried egg sandwiches on bagels.

Then after our daughter went to bed, we each had a glass of Veuve Clicquot (from a small $25 bottle I bought for my birthday) to celebrate my summer vacation. We spiked it with Chambord (kir royale, anyone?) because oddly, these last two bottles of champagne had tasted more like sweet beer. Blasphemy, I know.

This morning, my husband made us each "magic toast." (See the last grocery entry involving the Giant...) And for lunch we'll have the leftover bag of Dole salad, with something to make it an entrée. (I so wish we had sunflower seeds.) For dinner, we have friends coming over that offered to buy pizza while we watch the first season of LOST...

A favorite unorthodox breakfast

This morning we had one of our favorite unorthodox breakfasts... Half a deli bagel, toasted, with melted cheddar cheese. Served with a side of chunk pineapple.

Veggie Bacon Sandwiches

My husband made us sandwiches for lunch. They are toasted sesame bagels with melted cheddar cheese, Morningstar veggie bacon and for condiments--commercial guacamole dip for me and for him commercial spinach dip.