I had a plan.  I really did.  But you know what happens with plans...something always gets in the way.  This time it was just life.  The day to day stuff.

So here I am, a day late and a dollar short sharing the meal plan for the week.  But this isn't really what I want to write about.  And since of yet nobody is reading this, I only have myself to please.

Scratch meal plans.  I make em, I change em, I totally ignore them sometimes.  Boring.

Much more exciting is what is happening with my jungle.  I have cucumbers.  Actual cucumbers on my spiraling  cucumber plant.

How cool is this ?!?!?   Cooler still is that I'm pretty sure these flowers are attracting a hummingbird!  I've see him 3 different times.  He doesn't seem to be able to get to the cucumber flowers though.  This morning I bought friend for Bonnie Belle.  (That's my geranium...don't remember if I introduced you before.)  The Mandeville is sure to attract the hummingbird.  He is yet unnamed.  I'll take suggestions.  I'll share a picture when I see him.

Another cool thing is that I found out that it is perfectly normal that my Brandywine tomato plant hasn't set fruit yet.  I am partial to the flavors of heirloom tomatoes.  My Purple Cherokee has dozens of fruit, but the Brandywine is big and healthy with gobs of flowers.  But no fruit.  I googled this, willing to go to great lengths to encourage fruit.  This variety doesn't set fruit for 80-100 days.  We are still in this window.

Brandywine--her fruit could be 2 pounds.  Each.   It is sweet and tastes like my childhood.

Purple Cherokee.  This was a new find for me several years ago.  

Plump fruit from red to purple in color.

That bring you up to speed on my jungle.

I will tell you about dinner tonight.  Josh took Friday off as we were having the carpets cleaned.  One of the things we did was go to Trader Joes where I bought the cilantro chicken mini wontons.  I have infused 2 qts of stock (some mine, some boxed) with some Asian flavors.  We will be having wonton soup for dinner with a side of Chinese Roasted Broccoli.

That's what's cooking in my kitchen.  How about yours?

happy cooking

Monday got away from me.  I had planned to blog, but ran out of time.  That's true of so many things for so many of us!

But I do want to share my meal plan and even some recipes with you.  As I said last week, Mondays are meatless in our house.  Last week I was able to get the mushroom ravioli and I found  a parmesan "cream" sauce to go with it.  It was yummy.  There were no leftovers.  Yesterday we had pasta with my "gravy."  Italians call tomato sauces gravy and I am half Italian. So there you go.  We had red lentil pasta last night.  I got to have a little bit more for fewer WW points.  Josh didn't love the texture, I was okay with it.

I thought I'd share my gravy recipe with you.

• EVOO
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Tomato Paste
• Crushed tomatoes...from a can.  I like Cento.
• Salt, pepper, Italian herbs

I'm sure you noticed the lack of measurements.  That's not helpful and I'm sorry.  Last night I used about a tsp of oil, half a chopped onion, and 4 cloves of minced garlic.  I used fresh herbs from my herb garden and also added 4 or 5 Calabrian peppers.  It was also Cento's All in One tomatoes...kinda a chunky crushed. 

Heat the oil, add the onion on medium heat. Season with the addition of each ingredients...salt, pepper and herbs.  Add tomato paste; stir into onions till they are coated.  Mix in garlic.  Keep an eye on the heat...burnt garlic is bitter.  I added the peppers at this poin, too with another hit of the seasonings.  I'm talking about a pinch of Kosher salt and a grind of pepper and maybe a T of chopped fresh herbs (dried is much MUCH less).  Now add the tomatoes and stir.  Leave the lid a little off the pan and lower heat all the way.  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the pan.

Meanwhile, get your salted water boiling for the pasta.  Drop your pasta when you have a rolling boil.  Cook 2 minutes less than Al Dente.  Why?  Because you will transfer the pasta from it's cooking pot to the sauce to finish cooking.  A little of the starchy cooking water will cling to the noodles and help the sauce to cling to them.

We also had small salads...Caesar for Josh, roasted beets for me.  And we enjoyed Bake at Home French rolls.  A nice little a splurge for me.

So that was Monday.

Tuesday

I am grilling the main course and the broccoli.  This is a link to the chicken: 

 https://www.skinnytaste.com/korean-grilled-chicken-breast 

I have made this recipe before and we really enjoyed it.  The broccoli recipe came from WW.  Basically, you break into florets and toss in EVOO spray, salt and pepper.  When you pull after 6-8 minutes you toss it in soy sauce and lemon juice.  I am also making baked potatoes...russet for Josh, sweet for me.  My produce boxes have chock-a-block full of both kinds of taters.  We won't reach 70 degrees today, so heating up the oven isn't such a bad idea.

Wednesday is DateNight.  Not telling you my plans. You will have to come back on Friday to see the details.

The rest of my week is kinda busy.  I have to get my Friday chores done tomorrow as the carpets are being cleaned Friday morning.  Josh is taking the day off...can't be on calls when it's too noisy.  We are planning a nice afternoon.

This is what I'm cooking this week.  How bout you?

happy cooking!

 DateNight happened a few days ago.  I promised more details.  

Let's begin with cocktails.  They always happen, but are never a part of Instagram postings.  I made Josh a gimlet.  No picture, but I can share the recipe.  It's super complicated.  Are you ready?  3 ounces gin. 1 ounce Roses lime juice.  Shake vigorously and strain into cocktail glass.  It has to be Roses.  It's not a gimlet with fresh lime juice and simple syrup.  Bartenders these days want to convince you that it is. They are wrong. This is not a complicated drink (I was just teasing before). Don't make it something it's not.

Now my drink is different.  I am trying to enjoy smaller drinks and fewer of them, so I picked up this:

It was tasty.  Mild in flavor...Think LaCroix.  Did  it have any "kick?"  Think LaCroix.  It was refreshing.  At 3.6% ABV it was very light weight.  I could see myself enjoying them at a bbq or other outdoor event.  It was a happy experiment at 2 WW points.  I get just as "buzzed" though from my 0 point Diet Cranberry and club soda.😏  That's 0%  ABV.

Now on to the appetizer. I really enjoyed this.  So much, in fact, that I enjoyed Josh's too.  He was less enamored.

He did like the onions.  No surprise, they were Vidalias.  He didn't love the tomatoes.  I think that's because he is already anticipating my tomatoes. They are still a ways off, though.  I think the grape tomatoes will begin to be ready in a few weeks.  The Romas are slow coming in and the heirlooms won't be ready till September most likely.  I guess I should wait on tomato centric anything until my own are ready.

Main Course.  I asked Josh what he fancied for this week.  He said, "What about fish?"  I have prepared fish at home in the past.  We don't like (me especially) fishy fish.  I don't like my house to smell fishy.  But white fish are mild and frozen tilapia hardly smells at all.  So that's what I bought.  

WW had a recipe for tilapia crusted in potato flakes.  You read that right...instant mashed potatoes.  (I actually already had that ingredient.  It made fantastic "fried" chicken."  That's a recipe for a different time, though.)  It was okay.  There was a layer of seasoned mayonnaise between the fish and the potato flakes.  I have a love-hate relationship with mayo.  Mostly hate.  I just don't like the stuff.  In the end, I will make tilapia  again.  I will seek out a different recipe though.

I had planned broccoli with this meal as it was supposed to come in my produce subscription box.  But it didn't.  In fact the box, which is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday, didn't arrive till  Wednesday.  That also lead to dessert modification. More on that in a minute.  I always have frozen veggies.  So we had green beans.  (I had broccoli, but I prefer green beans.  The broccoli was only because I was supposed to get fresh.)  I roasted some little gold potatoes for Josh as well.

Dessert.  I actually wrote a recipe for dessert.  When I have perfected it, I will share.  This was not a perfect dessert in my book.

These are fruit stuffed wonton wrappers.  First, I wrote the recipe to have roasted cherries.  Had my box arrived as scheduled that's what they would have been.  Since it arrived late, I improvised with what a I had.  Peaches and blueberries.  A lovely combination, really.  I don't think it s visible from these pictures, but the bottom was very soggy.  Too much cooking spray is my guess.  I was modifying a savory stuffed wonton recipe that directed the pan be well sprayed.  In the future, I will spray less and bake on my sil-pat or parchment paper.  Also, as seen in the second picture, I think I over stuffed them.  Had I the cherries, I think I could have (by trial and error) achieved the correct "fullness."

I have the cherries now and I still have a lot of Wonton wrappers, so I will be working on this.  When I am satisfied, I'll share my recipe with you.

That's what's been cooking in my kitchen.  How about yours?

happy cooking :-)

First thing in the morning, before I look at my phone or make the coffee, I step out onto my deck to talk to my vegetable plants.  I think they like it.  Or maybe I want to think that they like . In any rate, I like it.  I check for flowers and fruit.  I come back in with that faint tomato perfume and sometimes my fingers are green from pinching suckers or pruning herbs.

It's not the only time I commune with them.  Usually, I water in the late afternoon/early evening.  Yesterday, I sat down in front of my Purple Cherokee tomato plant and thoroughly examined her.  She has had lots and lots of flowers for a little while now.  I was getting concerned that I wasn't seeing any fruit. Not worried anymore!

There is actually at least one other one, too.

My pepper plant was the first of my veggies to produce.  There are now 3 peppers.

That's the biggest one.  

You can see at least one more here.  There really are three, though.  There is also a sticky, white something on this plant.  Any idea what it is?  Thank goodness I have access to the webernet to find answers to my gardening queries.

My grape tomato plant is a trooper!  She has much fruit and more flowers!

My Roma and Brandywine plants have lots of flowers, but no fruit yet.  S'okay...flowers mean fruit.

The most interesting part of the jungle this year is my cucumbers!

Again, no flowers or fruit yet, but I am "training" them (there are 4 plants) to climb this "trellis" that my dad and I built. 

This is actually my second go at the cucumber plants.  Mom and Dad came at the beginning of May, before our frost free date.  As usual, they (Dad) planted my deck garden for me.  It was too early for the cukes...got too cold at nights and they died.

 

Another fun thing in my jungle is my herb garden.

A few years ago, my father-in-law built me a stair tread planter.  It is literally stair treads purchased at your local home improvement store.  We rotated it 90 degrees so that the "step" became the riser to better accommodate the planter boxes and make a smaller footprint on the deck.  This year, my dad made some repairs, stained, and replaced the planter boxes.   

This is the first of many "jungle" posts this year.  Stay tuned.

Today is Wednesday and DateNight is this evening.  That post will be on Friday, though there will be pictures on Instagram tonight.

This is what's growing in my garden.  How about yours?

One of the things that I learned about myself a long time ago is that I like to feel a measure of control.  I don't think that's unusual.  It's just really difficult in the world we live in.  

So I control what I can.  Like I make the bed every morning. And I make lists.  Lots of lists.  Grocery lists. To do lists.  I even made a list of blog topic ideas this morning.  It's kind of an obsession, but it makes me feel in control.  I actually relax a little when I make my list for the next day.  Maybe I'm weird.

One of the things that makes me feel super in control is meal planning.  It's not just helpful on my weightloss journey (although it really is key).   It allows me to be more efficient when I do my marketing.  I keep my lists on my phone and check things off as I get them.  I love checking things off!    

The topic of today's blog (and maybe all future Monday entries) is this week's meal plan.  This won't be super exciting, but here goes:

MONDAY  I have been making Meatless Monday meals for a couple of years now.  I married a real meat and potatoes guy.  He could eat beef everyday, but I won't let him.😊  He wasn't sure about this idea when I introduced it, but he's on board with it now.  Especially because Meatless Monday includes pasta.  And my homemade sauce.  That's the plan for tonight...Pasta.  If my market has Rana mushroom ravioli (for which I have a coupon), I may get a little splurgy.  Otherwise it will just be a regular short cut variety. (I don't do well with long noodles...messy eater.)  With Grilled Romaine.  Josh's will be Caesar, mine just with vinegar and oil.

TUESDAY We do our Family Worship evening on Tuesday evenings...before dinner.  This means dinner has to cook while we study.  This week I have planned a Mediterranean Sheet Tray meal.  Chicken thighs, cauliflower, peppers, artichokes, kalamata olives, onion, garlic, oregano.  Should be yummy and leave leftovers for Josh's lunches.

WEDNESDAY  This is DateNight.  I have a plan, but you have to wait.  Sorry.

THURSDAY  Chicken Fajita Salads with Grilled Corn.  I am trying to get us to eat more salads and this is one of our favorites.  Because the weather is so nice right now, I can prepare all of this on the grill.  And I may even do this on Wednesday.  

FRIDAY  If you've been paying attention, you'll notice some leftover potententials.  If I  play my cards right and we are not entertaining over the weekend, I don't have to cook again till Monday next.  We have a couple of take out places that we support regularly.

Hiya!  Long time, no see.  That's my fault.  Or I think I can legitimately blame COVID for this.  Josh is at the computer from 8-5 every day!  That's actually a good thing, thing though.  It means he has steady work.  I think that's good, don't you?

We were gifted a slightly used, but really nice, laptop a few months ago.  This was primarily to help us connect to our congregation meetings on Zoom a little more easily.  Now that we have it, I think I will revive my blog.  This excites me and makes me happy.  I hope you agree!

Last post I shared that I had rejoined Weight Watchers.  2020 was a good year...I lost 40+ pounds.  In '21, I keep losing and gaining the same 5 pounds.  Not throwing in the towel, though. I have another 15 to reach my goal.  Still adjusting and trying my best.  I really want to do this!  Goal is single digit sizes and smaller belly circumference.

To that end,  I have added walking to my routine.  I have been waking up stupid early.  Like 5:00.  Josh sleeps till 7:30.  Bless his sleepy head.  I just can't do that.  I try...believe me, I TRY.  Can't.  Don't know why.  So this past week it has been really hot.  And WW had a #walkingweek challenge.  So I hopped on that train and took a walk every morning.  I was home before Josh woke up.  The heat breaks this week, so I will be able to take my walk a little bit later, and some days take a second walk with hubby!  Yay!!!

I am still cooking, even creating new recipes! I still do a weekly DateNight on Wednesdays.  Instagram pics will be up by Thursday and I hope to blog in a little more depth on Friday.  My deck garden is thriving.  I'll post some pictures later this week.

But right now, I'm going to sign off.  It was really nice getting to chat with you.  I'll try to respond to any comments/questions you have.  Never know, something you say could spark a whole post.

Tata for now and Happy Cooking!

This Pandemic is getting tiresome

Lots of people have taken up new hobbies during this quarantine.  Not me.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I haven't.

I did order a needlepoint kit on Amazon.  That was 2 months ago.  I still don't have it.  It's coming from Great Britain. That was not clear to me when I placed the order.  Anyway, that's not really a "new" hobby.

What have I been doing?  My usual stuff.  Cooking, cleaning, riding my my stationary bike. (I can read while I ride.  More on that later.)

Things are different though. Josh is working from home.  We don't have a separate office space.  It's the study/office/lounge area.  And he has multiple conference calls each day.  That means loud chores, like vacuuming, have to happen on weekends or in the evening. Or using my food processor has to be carefully orchestrated.  

It's okay.  I still like him and on evenings when it's not too warm wet a walk together.  Which is good for both of us.

Actually, that leads to what I have mostly been doing during this pandemic.  Where many people are experiencing the Covid 15, I've actually lost more than 20 lbs! I'm doing WW again and am more committed this time.  Josh calls it the gamification of weightloss.  I think he's right!  I get x number of "tokens" each day. I can earn more and I get "gold stars" for playing well.

I've been doing this since January. I didn't incorporate exercise till April.  Usually my exercise is riding my bike.  As I mentioned at the outset, I can read while I ride.  I'm not doing anything crazy like Peleton.  It's just a recumbant bike.  So I've read the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Really enjoyed The Other Alcott (until the end, but no spoilers from me). I've read 3 or 4 others as well.

So that's what's up with you?  How are you coping with these always changing circumstances.