Food
I don't eat sandwiches very often but when I do it's memorable. My latest combination was inspired by needing to use up an avocado and pulling everything that I had on hand that would go well with it. That's Trader Joe's fire roasted pepper mix, mushrooms, pickled onion, cream cheese, the avocado, and a generous sprinkling of onion powder served on a Trader Joe's Everything Ciabatta bun.
We had fewer weeknight activities than normal this week so I did a rare weeknight home cooked meal for the fam. Hubs had a hankering for meatloaf, so I fixed him up.
This week was spring break, and we did a long weekend trip which meant that we needed a plan for long weekend food. At this point I'm a pro at planning solo long weekend getaways but scaling things up for four people caught me off guard. Usually when we go on vacation we buy groceries at our destination, but the place that we went was a bit remote, and since it was only two days I didn't want to spend any of our limited time shopping. I brainstormed Every.Single.Food.Item that we were going to need for breakfasts and lunches plus snacks, laid it all out and was horrified by how much food it was, packed it all up anyway, and we were set.
Friday dinner: take out pizza (the exact same thing we would have had at home!)
Saturday morning: hubs and stepson #2 made pancakes and bacon.
Saturday lunch: sammies
Saturday dinner: fancy schmancy dinner. Hubs & stepson #1 had steak, I had prime rib, and stepson #2 had fettuccine alfredo with mushrooms.
Sunday breakfast: "whatever you want" smorgasbord. With the remains of our staples, I cooked up two slices of bacon for everyone. Hubs made french toast, I made eggs and toast, stepson #1 finished the leftover pizza from Friday, and stepson #2 had odds and ends.
Sunday dinner back home: stepson #2 had a serving of pasta leftover from the previous night's fancy dinner. I had enough odds and ends to mimic a fancy pasta dish and use up his leftovers without going to the grocery store - woo-hoo!
I made a double batch of Damn Delicious one pot garlic parmesan pasta, which is my favorite creamy pasta. I've been keeping cooked mushrooms in the freezer, so I dipped into that stash and thawed two chicken breasts. I sliced the chicken into tiny pieces and dredged it in flour and seasoned salt, and then pan fried it in a bit of butter. When it was time to serve, I gave #2 his leftover fancy restaurant pasta, dished out the homemade stuff to the rest of us, and topped everyone with mushrooms and chicken. Oh yes you heard that right. After a good long stint of hating chicken yes I actually had (and enjoyed) it on my pasta.
Workouts
Week 2 round 2 of Iron is in the bag. Since I knew that I would not be working out this weekend, I simply did the Sunday workout early on Thursday. If I hadn't gotten it in, I would either have skipped it or just have done it on Monday.
I have to say that this weekend is a good example of everything that I don't miss about running. Just up and go away for the weekend without a single care of how to get my long run in, not bringing workout clothes, and no running shoes? It's a good life.
Watching
Not much to report for TV this week, except to show you the selection of DVDs that we had at our vacation rental. I couldn't have made this up if I'd tried.
Reading
Still happily chewing away on The 100 Years of Lenni and Margo. I don't want it to end - partly because it's great and partly because I have some assumptions about how a novel about two terminally ill people is going to end.
I finished Crying in H Mart and I'm giving it a qualified thumbs up - the qualified part is that a cancer memoir isn't for everyone. Apart from that, the writing is beautiful and there's a ton of food talk so this was a winner for me. It's been a while since a memoir has clicked with me like this. In recent years this genre has been hit or miss for me. There have been too many times when I've had a "whoa dude - TMI!" reaction.
See you back here tomorrow to chat about our trip
Ha, true enough, even I have to admit that there are benefits to not running. We will be leaving for Namibia this week and I'm thinking about how I'm going to wash my running clothes and all that stuff.
ReplyDeleteI thought of you because we watched "Hit and Run" on Netflix. It involves the same cast from "Fauda" which I know you liked. I still have to watch Fauda, it's next on my list!
Yay that you have this problem because it means that running is going well!!!
DeleteLet me know what you thought of H&R when you finish it. It definitely held my attention, but I had a few quibbles with it. Fauda is 10x the show that H&R was. Still, if they do a 2nd season I'll be there for it.
I love your "whatever you want" meal! We used to do that when I was a kid (and I guess now I just do it all the time) but we called it "fend for yourself" or "FFY" and we would all just eat dinner when we wanted, what we wanted, however we could get it or make it or find it. My brother and I often made top ramen for dinner on these nights which was not a normal dinner meal!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way you did about H Mart. You kind of know what you are getting going in so you know its not going to be a happy book, but it was still a good book. If you are not all done with sad memoirs, I also really liked In Love, which is a book about a woman whose husband gets early onset Alzheimer's. If you have had enough for now, maybe just put it on your list for down the road.
We do a lot of FFY around here too! And now I'm kicking myself b/c I didn't think to bring ramen for the kids...I mean yes I brought the Costco mini pizzas which are their #1 snack plus a ton of other goodies, but ramen would really have taken it up a notch.
DeleteYes I'd be interested in In Love...maybe because it was a plot point in another book that you and I have both read. I just need a few "happy" books now to balance it out.
I love those sorts of smorgasbord meals (we call it hodge podge at our house). So satisfying to clear up things from the fridge...and it's whimsical...and tasty!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE sandwiches. I don't eat them very often, either...but a good sandwich is so, so good.
Had to laugh at this: "I have to say that this weekend is a good example of everything that I don't miss about running. Just up and go away for the weekend without a single care of how to get my long run in, not bringing workout clothes, and no running shoes? It's a good life." My sister does a lot of long distance running and Ironmans and she is ALWAYS thinking about how to fit in bikes and swims and runs, even on vacation. It doesn't sound overly fun to me...but she loves it and is dedicated and does it. But I'm like: hand me a cup of coffee and a book and I'll be right here when you finish your 30 km run...
Running was my hobby for a long time, but the downside was that it was keeping me at home. Trying to fit in half marathon training with our spring break trip last year was one of the pivotal "hey I'm just not into this anymore" moments.
DeleteI am one of those people, well the runner, not the ironman. I actually really enjoy getting up before everyone else and getting in the 30 km run and then coming back and having coffee and book time after! However, the shoes and hydration vest definitely take up a large part of my luggage.
DeleteYou really know how to make a good sandwich! I was just at Trader Joes, saw those Everything Ciabattas, didn't get them and now I'm mad. You also know how to put together a good plate of pancakes- not sure if that was your plate, but I love the pool of maple syrup.
ReplyDeleteSo you're going through Iron again? You really can't go wrong with that. I'm going back and doing some of the workouts again as well.
I'm looking forward to the trip recap!
The boys are crazy for the ciabattas too, so thank goodness that Costco has huge bags of plain ciabattas - we're happy to give up the "everything" part in exchange for quantity.
DeleteYes it was my plate! If I'm having pancakes I'm not going to skimp on the syrup.
It's so good to be back to Iron. I can lift heavier weights now than I could when I did it the first time, and the workouts just feel right. I will do some of the other CG series eventually, but right now Iron/Beastmode is my home.
Because of my husband's weird dietary restrictions, we ALWAYS travel with food. We have a big Yeti cooler and we use it. The biggest issue for us is that even if we go somewhere with a kitchen (an Air BnB or whatever), we still have to bring cooking equipment because we can't use the equipment that's there because of cross-contamination issues, so we frequently resort to using pre-packaged, convenience foods to feed him. *sigh* I wish we could just be sort of normal sometimes. So, what I'm saying is that I hear you on how hard it is to think about every single bite you're going to put in your mouth for multiple days!
ReplyDeleteI've decided that if I ever finish Fuel (TWO DAYS LEFT!), I'm going to try Beast Mode. I considered redoing Iron, but before I go back to that I'm going to try something new.
Yes, having to bring cooking equipment would be a deal breaker. At that point I would have packed ramen cups for the kids, canned soup for the hubs, some freezer burritos for me, and have called it a day.
DeleteWoo hoo to the last 2 days of Fuel. I'll do a 2nd round of Beast Mode after round 2 of Iron.
This mushroom pasta situation you cooked up sounds so yummy! I love the combo of mushrooms and pasta.
ReplyDeleteIt was really good. It started with "ok, I have mushrooms so I'll add mushrooms" and then "ok, they like chicken so I'll thaw out some chicken". If every chicken meal that I cooked turned out like this then I would be chicken's #1 fan.
DeleteThat is a VARIETY of movies! Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI love love love the look of that avocado sandwich, minus the onion. Yum.
We just got back from vacation and we did cook a lot of meals, but the boys were quite helpful in all that. We had some great meals out though, which was nice.
I really like a mix of homemade meals and dining out. I can't wait to hear about your vacay!
DeleteDying laughing at the movies. Multiple generations, maybe? Also love the fend-for-yourself meals. It's awesome that the kids now can just... get what they want! Freeing for you, I hope?
ReplyDelete