Once a week?

I don't know what has happened that I haven't cooked... I made a pot roast in the crock pot yesterday with a combination of beef broth and vegetable stock. I didn't like it. The family loved it.

Today's school lunch:

• Leftover beef with jus in the thermal container
• raisins and chocolate covered dried plums
• carrots
• 100% juice fruit punch juice box
• A slice of whole wheat processed sandwich bread with butter

Breakfast was milk, banana cake with almonds and an apple.

Pumpkin Pecan Crêpes

I finally got a chance to revisit pumpkin crêpes.
I forgot the thing I always forget. When I make crêpes, they work best if I get the Le Creuset skillet and grease in lightly but completely with butter, get it good and hot- a hair over medium, and then do not add more fat as I could. Dry and hot seems to be the secret to keeping crêpes from sticking. At least for me.

Today, I made half the recommended sauce for these crêpes, and added about 1 or so cups of chopped pecans. I also reserved some extra pumpkin from the can to substitute for one of the eggs in the traditional crêpe recipe. So where my traditional crêpe recipe calls for two eggs, the pumpkin recipe only has one. More details in the second link below. 

The pumpkin filling and sauce:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/pumpkin-maple-crepes.html

The pumpkin crêpes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-crepeslessons-learned-from-le.html

Envious of my daughter's lunch

I want my daughter's lunch.

I packed her a juice box, an apple picked from a local orchard, a snickers mini, and the entrée is a special salad:

• romaine
• organic ranch dressing
• sunflower seeds
• dried pineapple
• smoked pork
• sharp cheddar

What we've eaten and what we're plotting

Breakfast lately has been multigrain toast from Target, with real butter, apples from the local orchard, chocolate soy milk and cashews. Do I need to say mornings have been hectic?

My husband has been eating a lot of peanut butter, because when he doesn't come home for lunch he prefers not to heat up his lunch since they removed his preferred microwave.

My daughter has grown enamored with school lunch, so that's why you haven't seen any posts on that.

My culinary genius is going under-used.

The leaves have turned. Halloween is just around the corner.
I want pumpkin.

Maybe these:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/pumpkin-maple-crepes.html
or these:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/07/pumpkin-scones.html
or these:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/10/apple-pancake-wraps-with-sausage.html

I had planned to make a white pizza with spinach for dinner tomorrow, a frozen one from Target I got on clearance, since tomorrow is dance, but I may have more time to cook then and be able to make some sort of pumpkin crêpe... Stay tuned

Provolone and pork mac and cheese

Tonight I made a quick mac and cheese with some smoked pork chops my mother-in-law brought over from the butcher.

The mac and cheese sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1.5 tablespoons flour
• about three tablespoons heavy cream (all I had left)
• about 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• about 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• about 5-6 ounces extra sharp provolone
• 2 cups two percent milk

I heated one fairly large smoked pork chop and cut the meat into chunks and added that and about 1.5 cups frozen peas into the cheese sauce. I also included about three tablespoons pork drippings from the skillet in the sauce.

I used a regular box of rotini, mixed it up in a pyrex casserole dish and baked it for 30 minutes at 375. Because I wasn't home to watch it, it got a tad crispy on top but the bottom was juicy so mixing it all up before serving solved that problem.

Target shopping

Okay, so I spent $26 on groceries and $10 on an 18-pack of double roll Cottonnelle and $2 on cat food at Target today. My TargetRED debit card came today and I had to try it out. The RED card, either credit or debit, allows anyone to get 5% off all Target purchases everyday. I also have my 10% employee discount which allowed me to buy:

• Archer Farms Organic Tortilla Chips with Flax Seeds, sale price $2.50 minus an additional 15%
• Archer Farms General Tso's Potato Chips (damn impulse buy!), sale price $2.50 minus an additional 15%
• Dole Romaine Lettuce with carrots (bagged salad), $2.24 minus an additional 15%
• Hunts small cans of tomato sauce with oregano, basil and garlic, two cans at 37 cents each, minus an additional 15%
• Market Pantry 16 ounce cans of tomato sauce, three cans at 57 cents each, minus an additional 15%
•  Market Pantry multigrain sandwich bread, $2.75 minus an additional 15%
• Diet Coke with lime, the 12-can pack I think, $3.66 minus an additional 15%
• Two percent milk, half gallon, $1.84 minus an additional 15%

• Eggs, 18 large, $1.94 minus an additional 15%
• Archer Farms soymilk, half gallon, $2.44 minus an additional 15%
• Silk Almond Milk, vanilla, half gallon,  $2.69 minus an additional 15%
• Market Pantry cheddar cheese, two eight ounce blocks, at $2.19 each minus 50 cent Target coupon, minus an additional 15%
• Frozen pizza, white with spinach, $4 minus an additional 15%

• Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties, two boxes at $3.34 each, minus an additional 15%
• Sauve kids, 22 ounce of shampoo/body wash, $2.51 minus an additional 15%

Crazy Carrot 'Taters

Comfort food with a twist...

On the plane to France I had a special purée of potatoes and carrots. I liked it. So, tonight when I was faced with some potatoes at the end of the line and a plethora of carrots, I decided to mash them all.

• six potatoes, sliced and cooked (skins still on)
• 1 pound carrots, cleaned and cooked
• About 1/2 to 3/4 cup heavy cream (decadent I know, but I ran out of milk)
• 1 teaspoon organic four color peppercorn
• 2 containers of Papa John's garlic sauce

The cream and garlic sauce probably contradicts the healthfulness... but they were yummy.