Menu Plan 10/27 - 11/2, 2014

This week is interesting. GolfDad has cellulitis (a staph infection of the skin) and has to spend 2+ hours every early morning and another 2+ hours every late afternoon getting IV antibiotics at the IV therapy lab at the hospital.  This has been going on for three - four weeks, but recently he's been having some extreme light sensitivity/blurry vision issues (probably a side effect of all the antibiotics), so one or both of us has been driving him back and forth to the hospital, which is a 30 mile round-trip.  The evening infusion really interferes with a "normal" dinner time. Also, he's pretty worn out from all the treatment, the pain from the infection, the travel to and from, etc., so I have also been basically performing a "meals-on-wheels" service for him and delivering a meal each day that he can heat up.

SO, I had to get creative for this week. I made the tortellini soup that was on last week's menu today, as planned, but we ate it for "linner" as about 2:30 in the afternoon. That soup makes a LOT, by the way! Mr. Mamie, GrandmaT, our friend PhotoKay (who was over for a couple of hours today) and I all had big helpings; I took enough for two meals over to GolfDad's house; and the three people who live here all have lunch for tomorrow!

Also today I made two other meals that we ALL (including GolfDad) can eat for the next couple days: White Chicken Taco Chili and Honey Sesame Chicken (along with a big pot of white rice) - both of those made enough for lunch/dinner for all four of use for Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday will be another CrockPot meal that can be delivered to GolfDad and which should provide dinner and then lunch the next day for everyone: CrockPot Cheesy Pasta and Beef (I'll brown the ground beef the night before, and then put it together Wednesday morning).

Thursday I have a teeth-cleaning appointment, so after that I'm planning to make turkey tacos because they got bumped last week (we had Costco pizza one night).  See last week's menu for details on those.

Friday is Halloween. Mr. Mamie and I traditionally have a "date night" on Halloween - I live within the attendance boundaries of my school, and in order to keep the number of kids who know exactly where my house is from growing exponentially, I prefer NOT to be home handing out candy!

Saturday I'm planning to make Three-Cheese Beef Enchiladas during the day. It will probably be a "linner" situation again. We really like homemade enchilada sauce from the same site that the enchilada recipe is from. It's soooooo easy to make and yummier than canned sauce. I have cream cheese to use up, which is one reason I'm going with this particular enchilada recipe.

Sunday it's going to be pot roast with carrots and potatoes in the CrockPot. I usually do the "three envelope roast" approach - it's kinda weird-seeming but it turns out great!

Have a good week... hopefully things are going to calm down around here!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Meal Plan October 20 - 26, 2014

Another week, back to the routine! My two-day (plus the weekend) "fall break" was nice, though.

Monday: Cowboy Spaghetti.

Tuesday: Chicken Enchilada Soup, which is already made and in the freezer. I have an Association meeting, so something easy is ideal.

Wednesday: Loaded baked potatoes, which for us means whatever toppings might be lurking around in the fridge (shredded cheese, maybe sour cream, frozen veggies). Sometimes we open a can of chili beans to go on top as well.

Thursday: Turkey tacos, using homemade seasoning, homemade taco sauce, and oven-baked tortilla shells.

Friday: Grilled sausages and oven fries.

Saturday: Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.

Sunday: Tortellini Soup.

Yes, soup is on there three times - we happen to really like soup for a meal, and it makes great school lunches!

Also, I plan to bake some Chewy Oatmeal M&M Cookies - thanks to my cousin Tasha for the recipe!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Menu Plan 10/11 - 10/19

Sunday 10/12: Stuffing Meatloaf... because I am lazy but I crave meatloaf! Adding a glaze of 1 cup ketchup + 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce + 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Monday 10/13: Ranch Chicken, Bacon, and Potatoes Casserole.

Tuesday 10/14: I get a yummy Durango's salad at an Association Executive Board meeting, Mr. Mamie gets Wendy's, and GrandmaT gets to fend for herself.

Wednesday 10/15: One Pot Chili Pasta. I'm think that this will make plenty of extra for lunches while I am off for Fall Break!

Thursday 10/16: Creamy Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas with Mexican Rice.

Friday 10/17: Grilled burgers or sausages with sweet potato fries (frozen ones from Costco, sooooooo good!).

Saturday 10/18: Copycat Panera Baked Potato Soup.

Sunday 10/19: CrockPot Italian Beef Sandwiches.

And during Fall break I cannot WAIT to make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins!!!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Meal Plan 8/4/14 - 8/10/14

It's a rainy Sunday in Southern Utah, and we're enjoying it!  We still went to the local dog park this morning, as is our routine.  Peanut chased the ball relentlessly, regardless of raindrops falling on her head.

Going home we took the "back," long way around Sand Hollow Reservoir.  Didn't see any boats out on the water yet, but I am sure that there will be some by this afternoon.

School starts in just a WEEK! Truly, this summer has flown by faster than ever.  This week I have Association "stuff" going on, we start contract time at school on Wednesday, and we have our back-to-school night on Thursday. SO MUCH still to do before the first day on the 11th!

But, we still have to eat dinner, so here's the plan:

Monday: Grilled London Broil, marinated [in 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 TBL ketchup]; baked potatoes; green salad. 

Tuesday: Very busy with Association stuff - contract ratification meeting and training event for our building reps, which will include dinner. Mr. Mamie will help me tote n' carry and then will probably go off and eat at Wendy's. Grandma will be on her own with leftovers or something from the freezer.

Wednesday: Grilled honey mustard oregano pork chops, never-mushy rice, green salad.

Thursday: Taco soup in the CrockPot, green salad.  I will freeze a bunch of portions of taco soup for school lunches. This is back-to-school night so it will be perfect to walk in the door and have dinner be  READY.

Friday: Grilled burgers (we got some pre-made patties for a good price at our local grocery store) and either frozen sweet potato fries OR ideally fresh corn on the cob if I can find some good ones.

Saturday: Grandma leaves for a week's trip to see her OTHER grandchildren in Kansas; Mr. Mamie is (re)scheduled for a sleep study at the pulmonary doctor's office. So I have no idea what dinner will be... maybe we'll go out before he has to be at the doctor's. Let's hope THIS time the technician doesn't fail to show up!

Sunday: TBA... this is the night before school starts! We'll have to see what kind of energy and enthusiasm I can muster up. Probably either breakfast for dinner or pizza from Costco, hahahaha!

Have a great week!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Slow Cooker Taco Soup

Slow Cooker Taco Soup 

I modified this slightly from a recipe I found years ago somewhere on the Interwebz. Unfortunately I don't have the original source, but I thank whomever it was... we make this soup OFTEN! It freezes really well in either Ziploc bags or plastic bowls. It is a GREAT make-ahead meal for camping as well!

    * 1 lb ground beef 

    * 1 onion, roughly chopped  

    * 1 pkg ranch-style dressing mix  (or equivalent amount of homemade mix)

    * 1 pkg taco seasoning mix  (or equivalent amount of homemade mix)

    * 2 cans diced tomatoes w/ green chilies (undrained)

    * 1 can pinto beans 

    * 1 can black beans 

    * 1 can kidney beans - or another can of either pinto or black beans (I don't like kidney beans!)

    * 1 can corn (regular or cream style) OR 2 cups frozen corn 

    * 2 cans of water (use the bean cans; equal to 4 cups)

    * grated cheese, sour cream, and/or cilantro for garnish 

    * tortilla chips 

Brown the ground beef and drain as much fat as possible. Return it to the pan with the chopped onion over medium low heat. Stir in the two seasoning packets. Cook just a little longer until the onion is softened.

Transfer the beef mixture to a slow cooker and add the beans, corn, tomatoes/green chilies, and water. Cook on LOW for 4 - 6 hours (depending on your slow cooker).

Garnish as desired when serving.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Meal Plan 7/28 - 8/3, 2014

Monday: Grilled sticky coconut chicken, rice, green salad.  This is a new recipe. I am using Costco frozen boneless/skinless breasts and started marinating them Sunday morning. I am going to cook the rice with the leftover canned coconut milk (about 1 cup) along with my usual homemade chicken broth. There should be some leftovers to make a couple of school day lunches for the freezer.

Tuesday: Cream cheese chicken enchiladas, Mexican rice, green salad. Half of the enchiladas will go in the freezer for a later meal.

Wednesday: I have an Association board meeting (I'm now Vice President, ye gads) and we will have dinner at the meeting. Mr. Mamie and GrandmaT will have baked spaghetti that was portioned off from an earlier meal this summer, put in a  casserole dish, and frozen just for an evening like this!

Thursday: Either eat out or get a pizza from the Costco food court to bring home. We have a lot of errands and appointments on this day.

Friday: Vicki's turkey burgers (my stepmama's recipe, yum!) and oven fries. Just put all the burger  recipe ingredients in a bowl and mix together with your hands (Mr. Mamie does that for me). For the burgers, we use ground turkey from Costco, which is usually packaged in around 1.25 pound portions. We follow the recipe and just use whatever the amount of ground turkey is in one package, and we make SIX patties. Make sure to put a divot in the middle of the patty so it doesn't turn into a ball on the grill! Then FREEZE the patties on parchment paper, and once frozen completely put them into a gallon Ziploc.  We just take out the patties and grill from frozen - works GREAT.

Saturday: Goulash and green salad. Half of the goulash will be frozen as a casserole for a later meal.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner, specifics yet to be determined. That is the usual procedure here on Sundays.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Meal Plan 7/21 - 7/27, 2014

More than one person has asked if I would ever blog again, especially meal plans.  I'll try to get back in the habit!

Here was last week's plan:

Monday: Refrigerated cheese tortellini and marinara sauce from Costco. Their jarred marinara sauce is GOOD! Green salad on the side.

Tuesday: Tacos using a "soft taco kit" I got as a present from a kid during Teacher Appreciation Week in May (my love of tacos is well-known in my classroom).

Wednesday: Frozen chicken patties (from Costco) as sandwiches on Kaiser rolls with Annie's Organic Shells and Cheese and green salad on the side.

Thursday: Spicy garlic lime chicken on the grill, lime rice, corn/black bean/Ro-tel [drain/rinse one can black beans, drain one can corn, dump into pan with one can Ro-tel tomatoes and heat], green salad. We used Costco frozen boneless/skinless chicken breasts. Mr. Mamie and I ate ours with the chicken chopped up and combined with the other stuff in corn tortillas as tacos.  I put several small containers of chopped chicken/rice/beans-corn-toms in the freezer to use on big green salads as school lunches.

Friday: Haunani's French bread pizza, green salad. I've known Haunani since I was 12 years old... I love that we can trade blog recipes in our 40s! ;)

Saturday: Swedish meatballs using frozen Costco meatballs and a sauce I have modified from a few different recipes, served over egg noodles; green salad on the side.

Sunday: Sausage biscuits and Mamie's skillet potatoes.  The leftover sausage biscuits are being put in the freezer for school day breakfasts.  We are out of both lettuce and most fruit, so there wasn't much of a "healthy" element to this dinner! Time to go grocery chopping, clearly.

 ~Mamie
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Swedish Meatballs

I hate the process of making meatballs - it's so gross, and then I never want to eat the meatballs after going through the ickiness of making them. So I buy the big bag of Italian seasoned frozen meatballs at Costco and use them for anything meatball-related. This seems to work fine, so I see no reason to change! ;)

I've tried a few different recipes for Swedish meatballs, and finally came up with this:

Meatballs: Just use the Costco ones! About 20 - 24 oz of meatballs by weight. Bake them in the oven as directed while you're making the sauce.

Noodles: 8 oz of dry egg noodles, cooked. Boil noodles once you have added the meatballs to the sauce. The meatball and sauce  flavors will "marry" while the noodles are cooking.

Sauce:

• 2 cups beef broth
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 Tbl soy sauce
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground dried rosemary
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1-1/2 tsp basil

1. Whisk flour into milk, creating a slurry
2. Combine flour/milk mixture, soy sauce, and beef broth in a large saucepan, whisk together.
3. Add the sour cream to saucepan, whisk and cook on medium for a couple of minutes.
4. Add all spices to saucepan, whisk to combine.
5. Cook sauce on low-medium until thickened, whack/stir occasionally.
6. Add meatballs to sauce and let them simmer while noodles are boiling.
7. Drain noodles and return to pot; poor sauce/meatballs on noodles and stir gently to combine.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Mamie's Skillet Potatoes

Back in about 1991 I lived in an apartment located on the corner of Genesee Avenue and Fez Street in the "Golden Triangle" area near UC San Diego. My roommate was a delightful young man from my social group with whom I am still in touch with via Facebook. Since his ascension to membership in the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles he is now referred to jokingly as "Local Celebrity ___________ ___________ " which cracks me up every time.

ANYWAY, Local Celebrity as we'll call him, made delicious breakfast potatoes.  I have continued making the same basic style of potatoes for the last 20+ years. This is how I do it:

Scrub several potatoes russet potatoes and pierce with a fork a couple of times. bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or so. Remove from oven and cut in half length-wise to cool.

Once cool, cut potatoes into largish chunks. Finely dice a small onion and a couple of cloves of garlic.

I use a large cast iron skillet (yes, on my glass cook top!) and some bacon grease (which I save in the fridge); you can use whatever skillet and oil you have/prefer. Sauté the onion and garlic lightly in the hot grease/oil.

Add potatoes; stir by "flipping" so you don't mash up the potatoes a whole bunch. Get the onion/garlic distributed through the potatoes.  Season with fresh-ground salt and pepper, then sprinkle  some ground cumin on the potatoes to taste.  Flip the potatoes around and season again.

Let cook on low for 10 minutes or so, then sprinkle with grated sharp cheddar cheese.  Let the cheese just melt down into the potatoes for a few minutes, and then devour the deliciousness!


~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Review - The Circle (Dave Eggars)

The Circle by Dave Eggers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So glad I'm finished with this one, because it has invaded my dreams every night for over a week. In describing it to my husband when I was about 1/4 of the through I used the phrase "totalitarian utopia" - a phrase which is seemingly oxymoronic but in reality os totally accurate. Later in the book almost the very same combination of words is used to describe what will occur upon "completion" of The Circle, a time in which the "criminality of privacy" will become the norm. The book is neither subtle nor even terribly clever in presenting its views, and the writing itself isn't necessarily stellar (Eggars is certainly capable of better), but - BUT, the novel's reflection of the direction in which our society is moving, and its prescience in drawing a picture of the future should Google, I mean THE CIRCLE, achieve "completion" is terrifying.

View all my reviews ~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Easter Sunday Hike 2013

On Easter Sunday morning we hiked the Confluence View trail from the lava cliffs down to the Virgin River. Part of the trail goes through the old city dump, which was interesting! We checked the iPhone for nearby geocaches but didn't really hunt for any. The weather was perfect - low 70s, sunny, the lightest of breezes.  The dogs were able to be off-leash and were sooooooo happy! They got in the river, got dirty and muddy, climbed rocks, chased lizards, and generally had a great time.

Mr. Mamie and Copper along the trail.

Mamie and Peanut at the trailhead.

 Doggies on the shore of the river - they both ended up wet and muddy!

See the little mountain goat? That's 'lil Peanut - she's a great rock scrambler!

HAPPY EASTER!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/15/13

I'm still miserable with sinus stuff... UGH.  We did manage to load up the car with recycling and dogs this morning and head into the BigTown. Recyclables got dropped off and then we took the dogs to "their" park. BIG DAY for Peanut - she actually got in the little pond!  A "yoot" who's often there with his mom and dogs is always happy to throw the ball for Peanut, and today he tricked her into the pond by - yes, tossing her ball into it! Why didn't we ever think of that?!  For the rest of the time we were there Peanut was willing to put her paws in and take a few little drinks, and she went after the ball in the middle of the (tiny) pond a second time.  We're pretty happy about this development, as the warm (hot!) months are arriving and it will be much better for Peanut if she's willing to get in the cool water at the park.

Most of the day was spent doing laundry, reorganizing some stuff in our bedroom closet, and completing other random tasks.  Niece was here for a good part of the day, and when we took her home around 6:30 p.m. we decided to check out some nearby caches.  There is a fishing pond between our neighborhood and that of the Igors', so we stalked around there a bit - lots of "muggles," so we decided to return another time (and besides, I was only wearing purple Crocs on my feet and wasn't up for any real tromping around).

Mr. Mamie located another possibility near the intersection with the highway, so we went the extra tenth of a mile to check it out.  It turned out to be close to this sign, which is slightly nostalgic for me because before Wombat and GolfDad officially moved here, they parked their 42 foot "house car" (as Nephew used to call it) here on a couple of occasions while visiting.  We had some fun times at the picnic table when Niece was barely a year old and Nephew was a kindergartener!  Anyway, here's the sign:

Isn't the sky pretty?

The cache, called Locate, was a quick and easy find.  From the cache site I turned to the northeast and got this photo:

I love the light at this time of day!

Only two more days left of Spring Break.... :(

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

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Happy Pi Day! I spent it moping around with a head like a lead balloon - truly the worst sinus pressure/headache I think I've had since moving here from California. The Wombat and I both used to suffer terribly during "Santa Ana season" in Southern California.  I thought I had mostly rid myself of that business, but apparently not. UGH.

So, no hiking or geocaching or adventuring for us today. :(  Instead I stayed home and read, dozed, and puttered in the kitchen.  In celebration of "Pi Day" I baked an apple pie - recipe straight out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, including crust. I did modify it by using two Granny Smith and two Gala apples, and did a crumb topping instead of a top crust.

Our yummy, if not beautiful, apple pie.

With St. Patrick's Day coming up it was also time to think about Irish Soda Bread. We combined the two holidays and had our soda bread today, using this recipe. I skipped the caraway seeds and raisins and subbed one cup of dried cranberries. Also, I made my own sour milk as we didn't have buttermilk and there was no way I was going out of the house to buy any. The recipe called for sour cream, which I have never used in soda bread... but I will henceforth, as this is my new go-to recipe. It is WONDERFUL! We ate wedges sliced off while the bread was still warm from the oven, just plain, and mmmmmm! I think it will also be delicious for breakfast tomorrow toasted with butter and jam.

Fantastic Irish Soda Bread!

Dinner itself was this beef stew, made with two good-sized leeks instead of the onion, no rutabaga (!), and no green beans, but EXTRA carrots. YUM! 

The stew beef I took out of the freezer was in a two-pound package, so since I only used one pound for the stew I'm going to turn the rest of it into Szechaun Beef tomorrow and add it to our left-over sesame noodles from last night (to which we added steamed carrots and toasted sesame seeds). I'm already looking forward to it....

Here's hoping that everyone's Pi Day was pie-tastic!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/12/13

Yesterday wasn't very exciting. Mr. Mamie spent most of the day at the office, and I had a big assignment to work on for one of my classes.  We didn't head out for any fun until 4:00 p.m.

After doing a couple of work errands for Mr. Mamie, we decided to just try one "virtual" cache before taking the GeoPups to the dog park.  The Washington City History Lesson  is close to Mr. Mamie's offfice, so we checked it out - very interesting! I've driven by it hundreds of times but never stopped to look at the statues and read the information.

 Getting a history lesson while geocaching.

I saw this video on the Geocaching.com blog the other day and thought it was really cool.

That about sums up the day... here's what the doggies did while Dad was gone and Mom was glued to the computer:

And now it's time for me to get back to work on my assignments, otherwise there will be NO MORE FUN during this break!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/11/13

It's Spring Break, so we are able to fit in a little weekday geocaching! We are hoping to hit up some local sites every day this week.  We started yesterday by heading into the desert less than a mile from our house to find Somewhere - Even Here. Mr. Mamie's brother Insamity was with us, enjoying a few last hours of sunshine and family time before heading back to Texas. We put the iPhone in Insamity's hands, hoping he'd get "hooked" on the fun and then get his wife and daughters into the game too. 

The cache site was in open desert, and the terrain was FULL of stickers - we ended up having to carry the GeoPups most of the way! Peanut didn't mind, as she is a tender baby, but I think Copper felt a little like his manhood was being insulted. Better than paws full of stickers, though.

Insamity did a great job locating the cache, and we signed the log and left our card. We then followed a conveniently located dirt road back to the RAV, sparing the doggies' paws (and self-esteem).

Geocaching brothers and pups.

We headed to the dog park then (after a stop at Maverik for sustenance, of course) and once again tried to locate a cache that is hidden there, to no avail. Somehow we're just missing it! Part of the challenge is that there are so many two- and four-legged "muggles" around, and we don't want to be too conspicuous as we poke around in bushes and under sprinkler valve covers. Perhaps another time....

After some doggie playtime and a quick trip to Mr. Mamie's office, we dropped the dogs off at home and picked up Insamity's luggage. Then it was time for the drive to Las Vegas, which for me meant making a nest in the back seat consisting of snacks (almonds and Smarties, weird combo I know), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on my iPod, my awesome camping/travel pillow, and the iPhone so I wouldn't miss a single Twitter/Facebook/Instagram update during the two hour drive. Insamity was delivered to his flight back to Dallas in a timely manner, and we proceeded on in search of geocaches and food.

After locating a convenient Roberto's, we ordered dinner and plotted some caches. We first tried a microcache close to the restaurant called HorzonAZ, but could not find it. Our previous luck with urban microcaches has not been good (The Wheels on the Bus and Sportsman's Paradise being prime examples), so we accepted defeat and moved on.

A picture of my delicious rolled taco dinner!

Next we tried the nearby Sun in the City and had success without much trouble. No photo because there was no way to do it without revealing the cache location.  

 

At this point it was 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time (though only 5:00 in Vegas), so we decided that we had better start heading north.   Along the way we used the Geocaching app on the iPhone to see what was around us, and it is AMAZING how many caches are located along the I-15 corridor in the middle of NOWHERE! At Moapa we drove into the desert on Piute Nation land to see if it would be possible to make a grab, but it was getting too dark.  We continued on home and saved several future possibilities on the app as we drove through the Virgin River Gorge - there are a ton of caches around Cedar Pocket, and that's an area neither of us has ever explored, so we're pretty excited.

Even with only two actual finds, it was a fun day of geocaching and adventuring!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)