Lunchy dinner

My daughter looked at me so earnestly last night and asked for blueberry jelly to go on her blueberry bagel for breakfast. Target carries plenty of strawberry, grape, raspberry and blackberry jelly, orange marmalade and a few other fancy schmancy preserves hovering at the $4 mark. They had a Smuckers orchard's finest blueberry preserves, 12 ounces for $4.29.

I bought it-- very good stuff.

For dinner tonight, we made tuna sandwiches since I didn't feel like cooking. My husband added cheese and crackers for some reason. We served with sides of veggie booty and my spiced peaches. Almond milk to drink and for dessert-- vanilla ice cream with the rest of the spiced peaches. I finally tasted them and they are really yummy.

Perfect for a peach sundae.

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.

Peach peel filling

When my mother-in-law talks, there are several topics where I always listen. Pie is one.

When she talked about canning peaches, she said they thick-peeled theirs and used the peels for pie filling. Well, I tried thick peeling my peaches by using a knife to cut a thin layer of fruit off with the peel (abouta 1/4 inch) and canned that as the base for a peach cobbler.

Because I'm an idiot who tried to process a quart jar in a 12-quart stock pot that really can only handle pints, the jar didn't quite seal properly. That meant we opened them today for peach muffins.

I had mixed the last handful of peaches in with the peels and after two days of soaking in sweet honey-plum syrup, you can't tell the peels from the fruit. After I picked what I needed for the muffins, my daughter ate the rest of the quart.

Honey Spiced Peaches

My mother-in-law brought some peaches yesterday. I decided to make Ball's honey spiced peaches and as usual I didn't read the directions correctly and made a mess out of the whole situation.

But I do have 2 pints of peaches.

And a quart that will become some sort of peach dessert or muffins today.

My mother-in-law said that instead of heating and peeling peaches, they thick peeled their peaches and used the fleshy peels for pie. I tried that.

Honey Spiced Peaches
Yields about 3 quarts

8 pounds small peaches
Fruit fresh
1 cup sugar
4 cups water
2 cups honey
3 sticks cinnamon (one for each jar)
1 1/2 teaspoons all spice
3/4 teaspoon whole cloves

Wash, drain & peel peaches. Leave peaches whole. Treat with fruit fresh. (I didn't leave mine whole. Didn't notice that until now. I also used lemon juice instead of fruit fresh.)

Combine sugar, water and honey in large saucepan. Cook until sugar dissolves.

Drain peaches. Cook peaches one layer at a time in syrup about 3 minutes each (missed this too).

Pack hot peaches into jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add one stick, 1/2 teaspoon all spice and 1/4 teaspoon cloves to each jar. Ladlehot syrup in, leaving proper headspace.

Cap and process 25 minutes in boiling water canner.

Pork with apples without apples and with peaches

I made an incredible lunch today from last night's leftovers and that made me realize that I didn't blog yesterday's meal. So, to try and remember...

- 5 thin boneless pork chops
- apple juice
- brown sugar
- canola oil
- country herb blend
- one can sliced peaches
- 1/4 cup Archer Farm lemon dill mustard

Cook the pork chops in one tablespoon canola oil, five minutes each side in the Le Creuset skillet.

Add about 1 teaspoon country herb blend, one cup apple juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, the peaches (drained) and the mustard. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and let simmer about 15 minutes. Add frozen greenbeans, serve when the greenbeans are cooked.

Now, with the leftovers, I chopped the pork and the peaches very small. I put them and the leftover juice in the skillet. Cook until. Add about 1-1 1/2 cups cooked spaghetti. Swirl with about 2 teaspoons sesame oil. Cook until noodles are hot, stirring constantly. Sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds.

Peaches and goodies

I wish I could eat as well as my daughter.

She's eating peaches (canned in pear juice), my homemade oatmeal/dried fruit/granola-y buttery desserty nonsense from Tuesday, and chocolate soy milk.

Fruit (and orange fruit at that!), carbs with some nutritional value, and protein and calcium in the milk...

I hate peaches, I rarely drink milk in any form... I just wish I could make myself mimic the eating habits I taught her.

Scrambled eggs for lunch

Because we're having vegetarian crôque monsieur for dinner, I opted for scrambled eggs and peaches for lunch.

I made three eggs for my daughter and I, which I scrambled and fried in a hot skillet that I had melted about one tablespoon butter and mixed 1/2 teaspoon organic four-color pepper and 1 teaspoon parsley.

Peach and Almond Pasta

Leftovers are often the key to stretching the grocery budget. After Friday's dinner, we had eaten all the pork with apples but we hadn't finished all the gravy. In this particular case, pork with apples became pork with peaches and apples (not to be confused with pork with peaches and snow peas) because we ran out of apples.

I didn't want to waste that yummy gravy so we heated it up and added slivered almonds. We served as the sauce for multigrain pasta. It was fabulous. Though raisins would have made it better. We didn't have raisins,

Also, went bike riding five miles this afternoon. My water bottle is plastic and it always tastes plastic to me. I hate warm plastic-flavored water. And I knew by the time I needed the water it would be very warm. To combat this, I brewed a glass of Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger tea and threw it, bag and all, into my water bottle with all the ice I could stuff in there and some more water.

The problem with a strict budget

A strict budget works for the purse strings, but no so much if you like variety. I have eaten enough ham and cheese for a lifetime. I have $50 left in my grocery budget for the month. We may be repeating the infamous $20 Aldi trips, especially the way this tribe's been eating lately.

Breakfast today: Leftover Bob's Red Mill cereal with jelly for the child and husband

Morning snack: My daughter wanted some vanilla yogurt (I buy only the 32 ounce containers) and leftover raspberries from my dinner party. I had my breakfast: the final serving of Bob's with the wine sauce from the raspberries.

Lunch: leftover peaches from yesterday and omelets of the leftover ham, some cheddar and a taste of gruyère with the ham heated and browned in butter and garlic pepper. So good we all wanted more.

Dessert: homemade sticky buns with super amounts of raisins and pecans (from the freezer)

For dinner, I need to make something chock full of vegetables as we've had lots of fruit and grain... Maybe a salad with vegetarian meat? Or bacon? I bought bacon (hard to believe, me, bacon) because I'd been reading about French potato casseroles... Mmmmm...

Fruit salad with honey-wine dressing

Today I get to make my fruit salad with honey-Vouvray sauce. I probably spent $35 on this fruit salad, so it is not cheap. $5 worth of strawberrys, $5 worth of raspberries, $2 worth of pears, $2 worth of lemons, $1.69 can of peaches packed in juice, $12 bottle of Vouvray, and $8 bottle of honey.

Okay, so the Vouvray is leftover from an earlier day, and technically the recipe calls for dry white wine. But I like Vouvray.

And the honey was a total splurge, but I had to try it, just once... and this French dinner tonight is a special occasion (which I will be fed a multi-course meal for free).

And hopefully, there will be some fruit leftover for the family...

The recipe comes from the internet. I've never tried it. I think it's from one of the "about" sites. I discovered it last year when I went looking for something for one character to make in one of my novels... And this sounded perfect. And the lavender honey is my addition, since the character at hand is a chef, and he's working in a well-stocked kitchen of someone who loves food.

Fruit with honey-wine sauce
http://frenchfood.about.com/od/salads/r/bastillefruit.htm
The web site recommends this for all your "Bastille Day picnics." Yeah. Alright, well, the exact quote is: "Accompany this luscious fruit salad with a baguette, assorted cheese, and a spicy-sweet sparkling dessert wine for a lovely Bastille Day picnic." Ironically, I tracked the original recipe to double-check the fractions and it added a kiwi. A kiwi isn't very French now, n'est-ce pas?

1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons plus two teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 pint strawberries, hulled
2 pears, cored
2 peaches, pitted
3/4 cup sweet cherries, pitted
1 kiwi (optional)

1. Process the first five ingredients in a blender until smooth. Chill for twenty minutes.
2.Cut fruit and toss with desired amount of dressing.

Now, I bought canned peaches because it is not the right time of year for peaches. For the same reason, I substituted raspberries for cherries. And I am not putting kiwi in a French fruit salad. I already mentioned that I have Vouvray and lavender honey... One review of this recipe suggested that the combination of honey and sugar made it way too sweet, and in light of the fact that I'm also using a sweet wine I will cut back on the honey. Maybe start with two tablespoons plus a teaspoon. But if I add sugar, I'm going to use organic sugar because it seems to have a better flavor. Okay, and my last comment is, am I the only person terrified to attempt "lemon zest?" I always skip it. I don't have a zester, though I do have a mini-grater... Maybe today I'll attempt it.

Baked Chicken and Fruit

As I mentioned another day, I own many cookbooks and I don't get to read them often enough to remember what I want to try... 

This particular recipe was the dinner I made when we had our first post-baby dinner party. Our neighbors had a baby one week older than ours so we shared this casserole one night. It comes from The Big Book of Casseroles by Maryana Vollstedt. 

Baked Chicken and Fruit (pictured before it goes into the oven): 

1 chicken, cut into serving pieces (3 to 3.5 pounds)

[I have always used about a pound of chicken breasts, cut into small chunks]

salt and pepper to taste

paprika [I don't have any today]

1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil [I use olive]

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

1/4 cup golden raisins [I use golden and regular, we like raisins]

1 cup pineapple chunks [I use one can]

4 peach halves [I use one can sliced peaches]

8 dried prunes [I skip]

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.

2. In Dutch Oven, over medium high heat, warm one tablespoon oil. Brown chicken until golden, five minutes on each side. Add more oil if needed. Add remaining ingredients. 

3. Cover and bake until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, about 50 minutes. Baste with sauce while cooking. Remove

 lid and cook 10 minutes longer. [I don't imagine the covering and uncovering is necessa

ry with my little pieces.] 

I made brown rice to accompany. My husband had three plates. I had three small scoops, which more or less equaled one big serving. My daughter ate one serving. I divided the leftovers into three containers: two containers each with one serving for an adult lunch and one big container with enough for all of us to have for dinner. If I had to figure it out, I would guess the whole batch cost less than $10 to make and more or less covered three meals for the family. 

"Pork with Peaches"

I thawed out the two boneless pork chops I had left from the pork with apples last month and planned to make "pork with peaches" or Cashew Pork with Pea Pods. It's a recipe I got from my college roommate. 

Cashew Pork with

 Pea Pods

1 pound pork, lean and boneless

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup orange marmalade

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

1 tablespoon corn starch

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon oil

2 cups pea pods

1 can peaches chopped

1/2 cup cashews or peanuts

1. Slice pork.

2. Make the sauce: Mix

 the juice, soy sauce, marmalade, corn starch and ginger. Set aside.

3. Cook the pork with the tablespoon oil. When cooked, add pea pods and peaches. Cook long enough to warm the center of the peaches. Add sauce. Cook until bubbly and thicker. Add nuts.

 

4. Serve with rice.

Now, as usual, I deviated from the recipe. I doubled the sauce, used a quarter of the meat, and used Hong Kong Stir Fry veggies (frozen) instead of pea pods. I didn't use marmalade but substituted applesauce. And I skipped the nuts. Oh, and I used apricots instead of peaches.

Then, I made gourmet Asian noodles and stir-fried them so they were a mix of crispy and soft and served them instead of rice.