What's Cooking 2 January 2022

January has seemed to be a very long month! Not sure how this happened, time overall is odd.

Still cooking a lot, every day at least once. I made the bread from King Arthur and it came out very well. The directions were very clear and the dough was very wet. But follow the recipe and you'll be fine.

I decided to stretch out my menu plan and try to wait to grocery shop until February 1. I seemed to have enough produce to allow us green things. I warned my husband there might be some weird things on the menu.

I saw that I had asparagus and they looked nice so Chicken and Asparagus Stir Fry. I had some rice left from the beef and broccoli but made a little more with a plan for fried rice with the leftover rice.

I worked a bridal registry event Sunday so wanted easy food for dinner and fried rice worked. No recipe but while foraging I found a small head of broccoli, a red bell pepper, 3 green onions, a yellow onion, garlic, some boneless pork chops, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger. Dinner. And leftovers for breakfast.

I had purchased zucchini last time grocery shopping with the intent to make Zucchini Pie and the zucchini were fine. I had pie crusts in the freezer so thawed one. Having the crust done makes this so much easier. Dried herbs work but I did have a little fresh parsley.

Leftovers for breakfast.

One day I decided "no green things" and made potato pizza. So very good. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen but my browsers will not let me link, they are keeping me safe. I'm not sure why.

Maybe rosemary counts as green.

The freezer was my friend. I had Philadelphia Pork from Christmas and had added the broccoli rabe when I froze the pork. Sandwiches that included a green vegetable!

My after school cooking program started on the 27th so no cooking after that. I love the hallway, we get there a little early to avoid the car pickup line. We have a short wait for the science room.

We made three warm winter foods - chicken and rice (a very old personal chef recipe) , lemon ravioli and beefaroni (my mom's). I started to take pictures, the setup while we waited student arrival.

No, I have no photos of the actual food. We were busy! And then hungry, and then going home. Of course I was not cooking once home after washing class dishes. Freezer chili to the rescue. This chili was excellent the first time and maybe even better from the freezer. Sour cream, shredded cheddar and the best tosatadas shells (chips were out last shop).

Husband had a zoom meeting after dinner, I thought epsom salts, lavender oil and the tub was a good move for me. I use the highly technical option of putting my ipad in a freezer zip bag so I can read while relaxing. Cats locked out of course.

I'm thinking grocery shopping Tuesday. Friday is covered with chicken piccata pasta and I'll add some fresh spinach for green. Saturday I'm going with crispy cheese pizza, dough is resting in the fridge as I type. I think I can do some kale salad.

Sunday and Monday are to be determined. Need to check out freezer, I'm pretty sure I have frozen spinach, maybe some fresh peppers and I have fresh cabbage. Fish tacos one day?