Once a Month Cooking

Menu Monday has been replaced (on Wednesday!) with Once a Month cooking this week! I thought I would try it to see if it would help me with some time management issues. I worked almost all day yesterday and all I really want to say is that I never want to touch a raw chicken breast again! It was a long process...more getting ready than anything else. I sent my dear husband to the store to buy 30+ chicken breasts. While many of you are imagining that this simply entailed a trip to Wal-Mart where he picks up 3 or 4 bags of frozen chicken breasts, this is NOT the way it's done here. Here the idea is fresh is best...and I do agree with that to some extent. I love fresh veggies and fruits and herbs. The ideal way to shop, according to the locals here, is just before you start to cook a meal. The idea of buying groceries for a week is outrageous! I get so many criticisms about how full my cart is when I head to the grocery store. On top of that, Tim had to pick out the chicken breasts and bag them himself. This week, they were unsplit and still had the tenders on them. So all I can say is, I have a great man who would go and do this for me!
So yesterday, I spent the day splits, cleaning, separating, and de-boning gobbs of chicken! In the end, I probably prepared chicken, pork, and beef for 15 meals. We'll see how that helps!
Last week, I mentioned my world famous (well, at least our house famous!) Baked Eggplant Parmesan. It's a great way to eat more vegetables and to save on the budget. When we were back in the US, we ate this a lot since eggplants were $1.45 each at Kroger. The first couple of times the kids picked at it, but now they eat it like crazy! Some people don't like the texture of the skin, so if you don't, just peal the skin before slicing. We can 2-3 eggplants in the US. Here the eggplants are Asian so they are different, thin and long, so we can eat 3-4 depending on how big they are. I don't have any specific measurements I just keep mixing the bread crumb mixture until I finish with eggplant.
For the breading: bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, a little salt, garlic powder, and shredded parmesan cheese (we don't use a lot because it's expensive and can only be bought in a couple of places)
I start with 2 eggs and some milk whisked together.
Slice the eggplant in half inch slices. Soak the slices in cold water for about 30 minutes, this takes the "bite" out of the eggplant. Then drain the eggplant.
Spread a little bit of Olive Oil on a cookie sheet.
Dip each eggplant slice in the breading mixture, then the egg mixture and then the breading again. Then place the breaded eggplant slices on the oiled baking sheet. When the sheet is filled up, drizzle the eggplant with olive oil and then bake at about 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned and crispy. It takes us two cookie sheets to bake all of ours.
I serve it with whole wheat penne and a good chunky spaghetti sauce.
Hope you enjoy this lighter version of Eggplant Parmesan!

Ready for Easter

Sometimes, living overseas, I have a hard time feeling "in season." Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Fourth of July are not celebrated in the same way here. So as Easter is coming up I was getting a little mopey...no new Easter dresses for the girls and nice pants and vest for the boy. No Easter candy or seeing everything in pastels. No "displays" to remind me that its coming. Last night I was thinking about that when I overheard the kids singing in their room. Suddenly it hit me what they were singing: "What can wash away my sin, Nothing but the blood of Jesus." And now, while I still like all those other things, I am really ready for Easter.

Menu Monday

I don't have a long post today, but if all goes well, I should be posting more than once this week!
This week, I'm working on eating more simply. It's easy for me to pick meals that take a couple of hours of preparation. See I LIKE piddling around in the kitchen. But I've been thinking lately, it's ok for me to spend the afternoon cooking once in a while, but perhaps I should come up with some "faster" ideas!
This week we'll be having spaghetti and meatballs, leftover split pea and barley soup with bread, bbq sandwiches with mashed potatoes and green beans, and burritos. On Tuesday nights, Tim heads out to a local English corner, and he usually eats in the stalls near there. I usually either cook fried rice or get noodles from the corner. This week, I'm letting them eat leftovers, and I'm having pesto pasta....I love pesto! Also, we are heading to a birthday party for a couple of our friends. I get to bring eggplant parmesan. So it's starting up to be a busy week.
In thinking about faster ideas, I've been thinking about those who have a cooking day once a month and cook many meals to freeze for the month. I'm wondering if any of you do this and if you do, what kind of things do you cook, beside casseroles, I have a hard time finding a lot of those kinds of things.

Menu Monday, a New Favorite and Pictures

So my New Year's Resolution to post more on my blog has really been hit and miss. So here I am cramming a week's worth of blogging into one post. Sorry, I suppose it's a bit long...

This week we have decided to eat out a couple of times. One night we are headed to a local minority street for some "pulled noodles." It's really neat to watch the men make the noodles by stretching them out. And then we decided it was time to have some Mexican food at Peter's (whoo-hoo!). Other than that we'll be having split pea and barley soup, shrimp salads, and bbq chicken sandwiches. I figure that telling you all what we eat for breakfast and lunch is getting a little redundant. We'll also be celebrating a birthday at a friend's house.

And lastly, I'm going to try my hand at corned beef and cabbage on Wednesday. I figure that I might as well celebrate St. Patrick's Day. If it's worth eating, I'll post more details on it next week!

I have to admit that I love Rachael Ray recipes. I'm not a huge fan of her talk show, but I love her recipes. This week I stumbled upon a new(er) recipe of hers for Chicken Divan. I'm posting it below with a few changes.

• about a 1/3 sliced almonds, toasted and then set aside until serving
• 1 qt chicken stock or broth
• 1 zested lemon or 3-4 tblsp lemon juice
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, or about a tblsp thyme (I'm guessing, I didn't measure)
• 4tblsp butter, divided
• 11/2 cups white rice
• 1 1/2-1 3/4 lbs chicken breasts or tenders
• a little more than 1/2 cup all purpose flour...again, I didn't measure
• 1 tblsp poutry seasoning
• 2 tblsp olive oil
• a large bunch of aspargus (alas, I couldn't find it, we had peas with it instead)
• 6-7 button mushrooms
• 1/3 cup white wine (you can substitute chicken broth if you don't have it)
• 1/3 cup whole milk, half and half, or cream (I had whole, the other is expensive here)
• generous tblsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tblsp fresh tarragon or 1 tblsp dried
• 2 scallions chopped

Bring 2 3/4 cups of chicken broth, zest of lemon, and 1 tblsp of butter to a boil. Add rice. Cover and simmer on very low heat for 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, season chicken with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Dredge in flour. Heat in a large skillet 2 tblsp olive oil and 1 tblsp butter. Over medium to medium-high heat, cook the chicken until the juices run clear. Remove from the pan and set aside, covering to keep warm.

While cooking the chicken (if you have more than two burners, unlike me) bring about 1-2 inches of salted water to a boil in a shallow pan. Add the asparagus and cook for about 4 minutes until just tender but still bright green.

In the skillet used to cook the chicken, melt 2 tblsp of butter. Add the mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes. Whisk in about 2 heaping tblsp of flour and cook for about a minute. Whisk in the white wine and burn off the alcohol by cooking for about a minute. Then add the remaining chicken stock and the milk (half and half or cream). When the sauce bubbles and starts to thicken stir in the mustard and tarragon.

This really is one of the best recipes I've had in a long time. The only complaint I have is that I had enough meat for another adult, but no where near enough rice! Next time I will double the rice recipe. It sounds a little complicate, but it's really not. She said the recipe could be done in 35 minutes, and I think it took me about 45. I will admit that I re-wrote her directions because hers were not very clear. I hope that mine are clearer and that if you try this you will enjoy it as much as we did!

And last, but not least, here are some pictures from this last week.

Ellie's new make-up application technique. This is lipstick on the cheek.

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but Lydia's hair is very, very curly. One night after bath, I styled Lydia's hair VERY big. The 80's are back, baby!

This week I washed the girls' sheets. While they were off, Lydia grabbed the mattress saver and played with it. She was doing her "workout" on it. And when she was all done, she rolled it up neatly and put it on my yoga mat.

Menu Monday and More!

We're back to Menu Monday. Finally, our house is back to "normal" whatever that might be. So it's back to eating actual meals instead of stuff just thrown together! So here's what we're eating this week:

Monday

Oatmeal with bananas

Noodles

Lemon Pepper fish, spinach, rice pilaf

Tuesday

Bagels

sandwiches

Orange pork chops, mashed potatoes, veggies, applesauce

Wednesday

Eggs and Toast

Chinese

Chicken Divan, rice, asparagus (please, Lord, can I find some?) or peas

Thursday

Bagels

Grilled Cheese

hamburgers, fries, green beans

Friday

muffins

noodles

Broccoli cheddar soup, bread

Saturday*

Cereal

Sandwiches

Chicken Nuggets and fries

Sunday

Eggs and Toast

Eating out

leftovers

* I wanted to make a note, Saturday, March 13, is a day of fasting for our company as they are choosing a new president. Whether or not you choose to fast, please try to think about it on that day. It will be a decision that will change things all around the world! Hope you all have a great week!

Chinese food for any day

Before we moved overseas, I attempted many times at Chinese food. I found it to be entirely intimidating...and most always ended in a plate of mushy, soggy food. After 5 years, I'm finally to the point where my dishes turn out...but only if I stick to the simplest of dishes. So I thought I would share a step by step on fried rice...a favorite of our kids!

First make a big pot of pice. I usually make about 4 cups of (dry) rice if it's just the kids and me, or add another 2 cups if Tim around. Always better to have too much than too little! You can make it up to a couple of days ahead. Use whatever kind of rice you like...just not instant. I'm not sure that anyone over here even knows that there is such a thing! It just won't do!

Next, vegetables. I'm using carrots and cucumber. Cucumbers here a bit different. You can use scallions, peas, fine cut broccoli or cabbage...whatever your family with eat. You'll also need garlic and ginger. Finely chop the garlic or press it and shred the ginger. I couldn't find ginger yesterday, so I used powder as a last resort. Fresh ginger is much better. You only need about an inch piece, peeled. A little goes a long way. In the grocery store, don't be shy about breaking off only what you need. I heard Martha Stewart recommend doing that, and have done it ever since, because I only use it every once in a while.

I used one and a half chicken breasts. First, I sliced them and then chopped it more finely.

Mix the chicken with soy sauce(NOT lite), and if you can find it Mushroom soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Let sit while you stir fry the veggies.

I once heard a Taiwanese chef on tv say that it is stir fry not "stare fry." The key is to constantly move it and not to cook too long, maybe 3 minutes at most! I only used a bit of oil for this part.

Pull the vegetables, add more oil and stir fry up the chicken. Make sure it cooks through...still will only take about 5-7 mins.

Put the chicken in with the vegetables in the separate bowl. Fry up some scrambled eggs, I used 2, with a bit of soy sauce. And add to the chicken and vegetables.

Now, add quite a bit of oil. I would say a quarter of a cup to a half a cup. I know it's not low fat...nothing here is! Add the rice and stir until its been well coated with the oil.

Then add soy sauce and mushroom soy sauce (again it's not necessary, but it makes the dish look quite a bit darker, so if you don't have it, yours should look a lot lighter.)

Stir fry until well mixed, then add all your other stuff.

Mix well.

And eat!

The key is to work at it bit by bit. I hope you enjoy!