Friday, February 3, 2012

Company for Dinner



We had an impromptu dinner guest tonight, a very enjoyable young man who drove in from Iowa to do some business with Tom.  I slightly panicked since my house is definitely not hostess-ready at this point. Then I remembered we were having pot roast. That's not too crazy. In fact, it's a pretty standard dish, I think.  I didn't have any potatoes, but I did find a few sweet potatoes, which I mashed up. I also steamed cauliflower, and mashed that as well, since I am staying away from sweet potatoes (1. vegetables should not be sweet. 2. I'm trying to lose weight). Regina and I were the only ones who at the fauxtatoes, though. ha ha 


I didn't have any type of dessert to offer either. I suppose I did have dark chocolate squares, and some berries in the fridge, but really... that's not a dessert to most of the world. Well... unless you're in France. They are weird there.


The rest of the day was snacking on nuts and salads. And a ton of water. 


I packed the kids some ribs (I made a dry rub rib in the crockpot a few days ago) and some primal approved bbq sauce. A good portion of raw vegetables. A trail mix snack. And a Larabar and 1/3 apple for breakfast. 


I didn't have any complaints. And no "I'm starving"s.  In fact, I'd say the last day or two the "can we eat now?!" phrase hasn't been uttered as often. So ... maybe their brains are turning the corner. 


I still have to figure out out to make the week flow more smoothly... when to go shopping, chop and prep foods, clean up... but we're still sticking to it. 


We are starting to venture out with new foods. So if you have a favorite dish, please share!

3 comments:

  1. Have you seen this? My kids love chicken cracklins, this seems like a great chip-like snack!
    http://www.foodrenegade.com/fried-chicken-skins/

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  2. These look awesome, Thanks, Sarah!

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  3. After frying or sauteeing meat in a skillet, learn how to deglaze the skillet and make a pan sauce. Even though the process is simple, there is opportunity for lots of variety. After you remove the meat from the hot skillet, keep it on medium to medium high and add some minced onions or shallots or leeks or garlic, etc. You may need to add extra fat to the skillet for this. When the roots are transluscent, but not too brown, add some alcohol like cooking wine, vermouth, brandy, bourbon, etc. Also add some broth. Mix the stronger alcohols with the broth before adding to avoid fire. Simmer and reduce until thicker and volume decreased by at lest half. Add some herbs like basil or tarragon or thyme, and then add some heavy cream. Simmer on low until thicker. Turn off heat and whisk in three tablespoons butter. Pour over meat, either altogether or over individual servings.

    Experiment with this. I have used leftover pesto to make pesto cream sauce for chicken, leftover tomatillo salsa to make a tomatillo-serrano-poblano sauce, and bourbon cream sauce for steak.

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