Sadly, I am still pregnant! I’ve been having consistent, painful contractions for almost two weeks now, but my midwife confirmed on Monday that I haven’t progressed at all since we left the hospital. It’s seriously annoying, and our home life has been totally up in the air. I thought writing out a to-do list might help me get back to “normal” until I finally go into (productive) labor again.
Jason felt the need to add a task for me:
Too bad it doesn’t work that way, right?
{ 5 comments }
I made my mom’s chicken pot pie for the first time recently.
I’ll be the first to admit that this is NOT a recipe you can come home from work and throw together. It’s a labor of love, and you’ll probably want to reserve it for a weekend or a lazy day at home. But oh my, is it worth it! Whenever my Nana comes up to visit, she always requests my mom’s chicken pot pie. It’s nourishing, comforting, and tastes even better the next day.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, 3 – 3 1/2 lbs
1 bay leave
1 tsp dried thyme
Butter or olive oil for pan-frying
1 whole yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
2 cups chicken stock (you’ll make this with the whole chicken; no need to buy any)
4 tbsp EACH butter and flour cooked together to form a roux
Salt, pepper, and thyme to taste
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
Directions:
Poach the chicken for 30 minutes in a 4 qt pot, with enough water to barely cover. Allow the chicken to cool in the liquid. Remove the chicken from the pot, reserving the liquid. Take the chicken off the bones and set aside. Replace the bones in the cooking liquid and add 1 bay leaf and 1 tsp dried thyme. Cover and simmer for 1 hour – this will provide you with the chicken stock (plus lots extra for the freezer!)
Shred the chicken, then cover and set aside. Heat a bit of butter or olive oil in a large frying pan and saute the onion, celery, and carrots until browned. Put the fresh parsley and chicken broth into the saucepan. In a small separate pan, prepare the roux. Bring the vegetables and stock to a simmer, and thicken with the roux. Add shredded chicken and season liberally with salt, pepper, and thyme to taste.
Place in a deep baking dish (a large pie plate works well). Roll out the pie crust into a circle and gently place on top of the chicken mixture. Lightly crimp the edges and make decorative cuts on top for ventilation. Bake on top of a cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 425, or until crust is lightly browned. Serves 6 generously.
{ 5 comments }
I have had just about zero interest in cooking lately, and as a result we’ve been getting takeout too much and eating what we call “scavenge-y dinners.” (A couple nights ago I had Caesar salad and two buttermilk bran muffins.) It doesn’t help that I’ve been having fairly consistent contractions ever since we left the hospital A WEEK AGO, so I keep thinking I’m going to go into “real” labor any minute. And that doesn’t exactly inspire me to plan ahead.
But, we must eat, so I planned a menu and I’m hoping to stick to it as much as possible.
Breakfast:
-Cold Cereal
-Fruit Smoothies (I’m trying to start getting more fruit and dairy in my breakfasts, so I plan to have a small fruit smoothie with my cereal each morning)
Lunch:
-Plums, Sugar Snap Peas, Pitas With Hummus (Jason)
-Fruit, Leftovers, Whatever’s Around (Me and Simone)
Dinner:
-Buttermilk Roast Chicken, Caesar Salad, Lizy’s Dinner Rolls (2 Nights – didn’t make last week)
-Cheese and Pineapple Pizza (2 Nights – still didn’t make last week!)
-Monastery Lentils, Beer Bread (2 Nights – still didn’t make last week…this is getting embarrassing)
-Spicy Thai-Style Noodles With Tofu (2 Nights – actually already made this over the weekend and it was delightful)
-Beef Tacos, Pico de Gallo + Guacamole, Tortilla Chips (2 Nights)
Dessert:
-Apple Pie, Vanilla Ice Cream
{ 4 comments }
Staying home all day with a small child can be difficult.
Leaving aside the constant, grating cries of “Mom! Mom! Mom!”, it’s really tough to hold yourself accountable. I get distracted very easily…I’ll start unloading the dishwasher, only to find myself dealing with laundry or puttering around online. I’ll decide to get the house cleaned up, start working on it, and then plop down on the couch instead.
A few weeks ago I remembered that when I was a kid, my mom had a little kitchen timer. It was small and black, with a white dial. She usually used it as a tea timer. When I got to thinking about it, I figured, why not use it as a productivity timer? Just set it for 30 minutes and focus on being productive until it rings. When the time is up, I can sit down and be a little lazy without guilt.
I tried it for a few days with our oven timer before taking the plunge and ordering a mechanical timer
Does anyone use a timer for motivation?
*I even called my mom to ask her if her little black timer still existed. It does–she says it’s going on thirty years!–but she still uses it, so I invested in my own.
{ 14 comments }
When I first looked at the ingredient list for this soup, I was skeptical. Very skeptical. But because every single recipe I’ve tried from Love Soup
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs yams
1 lb parsnips
1 lb carrots
2 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup grated or chopped fresh ginger
Olive oil
2 large yellow onions
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp curry powder
3/4 tsp ground cumin
Dash of Indian chili powder
1 lemon
1 tbsp tamarind paste (or an extra lemon)
1/3 of a cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, doesn’t matter)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
3-4 cups vegetable broth (may or may not be needed)
Optional garnishes: chopped roasted peanuts, cilantro
Directions:
Peel the yams, parsnips, and carrots. Roughly dice them into pieces no larger than an inch or two and place them in a large soup pot with 6 cups of water. Add a teaspoon of sea salt and the ginger. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour. At that point, check to make sure all the vegetables are tender.
While the vegetables are cooking, chop the onions and saute them in a smaller pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, stirring occasionally. When they’re soft and translucent, add the garlic and a pinch of salt and continue cooking for another 15 minutes or so, until the onions and garlic are both light golden brown. Add the curry powder, cumin, and Indian chili powder, stir, and then add the onion mixture to the soup pot. Deglaze the pan with a bit of water or broth and add it to the soup pot.
Stir in the juice of 1 lemon, tamarind paste (or juice of an additional lemon), the peanut butter, and the cilantro. Stir your soup to determine whether or not you need to add broth; I didn’t, as my soup was plenty moist and would have been very thin with the addition of broth. At this point you can puree your soup, but I’m lazy and just used a potato masher to lightly crush the vegetables. It wound up with a nice texture, not too baby food-ish but not too chunky either.
Taste the soup and correct the seasonings with more salt or lemon juice if necessary. Serve hot, garnished with cilantro and a few chopped peanuts. Serves 8.
For more meatless meals, please check out the rest of my Frugal Meatless Meals series. You should also visit Meatless Monday’s recipe archive.
{ 3 comments }
