Sunday, March 30, 2014

Rain Has Never Looked So Good

Here we are on a drippy spring day, watching many Facebook friends post snow pictures. These are friends who don't live all that far away from us. It's a reminder: cold rain is nothing exciting, but it doesn't need shoveling or salt. I'll take it.

Last week: With my husband leaving on his second business trip, I used Sunday to "stride ahead" and get a lot of cooking done. I nuked all the broccoli so we'd have sides for the week. While the steaks marinated, I made the taco meat for Tuesday so we'd just have to heat and eat. And I tried the Pinterest roasted garlic-parmesan cauliflower. It was delicious--but I think cardboard might be good with salt, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan cheese puddles! Those are some magic ingredients right there. One thing I do need to remember: when a recipe says it "works great" with the "stuff in the green can," it needs truly teeny parm, not the shredded we usually use. It slid right off and formed crisps on the pan. Really--not a problem at all, because yum. But it didn't adhere to the cauliflower like the picture either. Will I make it again? Probably. My husband might like it if he ever got to try it but it has one dealbreaker ingredient for each kid (cheese for one, cauliflower for the other).

Getting lost in the shuffle: I know we will get used to my husband being away for a night or two but for right now, it's really hard on all of us. Having to just reheat dinner instead of making it from scratch was an enormous boost. I am going to remember that for future trips. I can already tell that this is going to be incorporated into my being so much that when I look back on this, I will be startled that it was ever a revelation.

Last week also marked the halfway point of Lent, which was somehow hard to believe. I am way behind on the 40 bags challenge but then it was time for the consignment sale and I thought I'd caught right back up.  I had 6 bags of clothes and toys ready to leave the house so that was huge. My closet looks so much better and so does the bedroom in general (I had some of the bagged-up stuff hanging out there for way too long).  And then I missed the sale. I feel like an idiot but I just didn't have the mental energy. More successfully, while it didn't yield a bag of anything, I cleaned out all the drawers in the kitchen island--removed old directories to elsewhere (they are still useful for babysitter numbers, etc. that I don't have in my phone yet), re-re-re-organized the junk drawer (still too much stuff in there but at least it's better), and found the first communion prep book whose disappearance was a mystery to me (and in plenty of time to finish--booyah!).

This week:

Monday:  Joanne's pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, broccoli.

Tuesday: how I love thee, Taco Tuesday. Oh--this is our sad month where we miss the Lego build for the baseball game. Not looking forward to the minute that gets figured out. Hopefully tacos will be an ok consolation dinner.

Wednesday: spaghetti

Thursday: leftovers (including beef stroganoff from Sunday from this recipe)

Friday: These meatless Fridays are annoying. I am fine with them, it's all those other people I have to feed. (One Catholic's shocking confession: Lent is a pain!) I still didn't make the soup so maybe it's time.

Have a happy week everyone!

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