Lost my mind

The last few days have been full of quick meals like vegetarian chili, food from the freezer, tuna sandwiches and homemade French fries.

Some really yummy scrambled egg wraps with raspberry salsa and Morningstar vegetarian sausage.

Child has an ear infection again so we're limiting dairy.

Today we ventured out to use a discount coupon for 6 Dunkin donuts for $3.

We ate them all.

Today is partially a celebration since we did fabulously with the September grocery budget. We spent about $120 on dining out, which included my husband's birthday dinner and several highly discounted Starbucks drinks.

We got pizza once and maybe steak sandwiches once.

Grocery budget will come out to less than $150. But the freezer is totally empty, the garden depleted and a friend recently brought fresh broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. And crackers.

Packing Wednesday

Today's school lunch is whole grain mini chicken corn dog nuggets.

Um, no.

I packed my daughter popcorn for snack, butter bread, unsalted cashews and vanilla roasted almonds, homemade fruit salad with gala apples, white grapes, strawberries and mango nectar/raw local honey sauce, and a V-8 fusion strawberry lemonade (a treat)

Crôque monsieur Américain

My daughter has been hungry for "French grilled cheese" as she calls crôque monsieur, but since I don't have cream, or fancy ham, or an extra $15 to buy good gruyere... I whipped up an Americanized version that satisfied about 90% as much as the original.

Now, if you need measurements, I'm sorry because I don't have a clue.

I started with two tablespoons butter in my small Le Creuset saucepan. I mixed in about two tablespoons flour and melded them together over medium high heat with a rubber spatula.

I splashed in soy milk and half and half, and then cheddar, provolone, Romano and Parmesan until smooth.i added a large pinch of nutmeg and some fresh ground black pepper.

I ended up with about 2 cups cheese sauce.

In a cake pan, i toasted 6 slices of bakery bread, placed 1/3 slice gouda on each, topped with two teaspoons tuna, and then topped each with two teaspoons sauce. I added a slice of cheddar to each. Another two teaspoons cheese sauce. Put lid on.

Then I sprinkled fresh cauliflower and garden peppers into the bottom of the pan. I covered each sandwich with sauce then doused the vegetables lightly.

Baked 10 minutes at 475, then broiled until bubbly.

Child makes ravioli

Child made ravioli tonight. Her father needs to be the instructor chef because he claims I don't let the water boil well enough.

Spinach ravioli in red sauce.

Sausage and apple vegetarian waffles

I promised my family a pancake breakfast. I told the family they could pick the variety. They picked waffles. My husband suggested the funky French sausage waffles. When I started to gather the ingredients, I noticed something horrible.

We had one tablespoon of butter in the house.

HOW COULD SUCH A CATASTROPHE OCCUR?

So, we walked to Bottom Dollar and bought 4 pounds of butter at $2.09 a pound.

The waffle recipe is based on this:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/apple-sausage-waffles.html?m=1

But since there is a universal law that I cannot make the same meal twice, here is the new version.

Keep in mind this is based on a French gaufre recipe and I think gaufre might be French for "dripping with butter."


- 1 egg
- 1 single serving applesauce
- parsley
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup oats
- 1-2 cup diced apple
- 3 Morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties, broken into tiny pieces
- 1-2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar

I think that's everything.

Forgotten blogging

Last night I made a scrumptious dinner of sirloin steak, cooked in the cast iron skillet with some butter and fresh ground black pepper. Our vegetable was store-bought jalapeño poppers.

For breakfast we ate the last of the sweet potato/ pumpkin casserole.

Lunch was Lebanon bologna.

Snack was popcorn.

And now a dinner of tuna quesadilla and our homemade corn salsa with organic yellow corn tortilla chips.

Healthy Snacks

During a breakfast of open-faced Morningstar breakfast patties on half an English muffin with a sprinkle of cheese and a big glass of almond milk, my daughter looked at me and said, "I asked my teacher about the granola bars."

Now let me set the stage for this. Third grade in our little community-based elementary school (urban setting and the kids theoretically walk to school), the third graders move to what I imagine is the last lunch. 12:05.

Unlike when I was in school, they get a snack break at 10:20. The state of Pennsylvania has mandated that each school pass a wellness policy.

Bottom line: snacks must be healthy.

Granola bars, Go-gurt and pretzels appear to be the most popular choice. According to my daughter, that is.

We take carrot sticks. Or homemade corn salsa and organic blue corn tortilla chips with flax, or fruit, or goldfish pretzels with dried cranberries, or graham crackers.

Etc.

The teacher has deemed the oatmeal "breakfast cookies" inappropriate because it smells, looks, tastes, sounds and quacks like a cookie.

My daughter wants to fit in. So she wants granola bars.

I make granola bars, homemade, but sometimes they look like cookies.

So I warned daughter that our granola bars might not work for school.

She asked the teacher.

Teacher replied that if *I* said it was healthy, it was healthy.

Yeah, me!