Meal Plan

Posted on by Jordan

One of the many benefits of having a wife who is not only on board with the Dave Ramsey plan, but also a spread sheet enthusiast is that we have historical records of our budget (both planned and actual) going back almost to when we got married.

 

This means that we aren’t saying “boy it seems that we are spending more on food these days” we are saying “our food spending is %50 higher than it was two years ago!”

I have seen some numbers on the actual rate of increase in food prices, and while they are non trivial, they do not explain the change in our budget. So then the question is, how much of that came from adding Hannah, how much came from changing what kinds of food we buy, and how much is the actual price changing on us?

Surprisingly, it’s hard to know. We don’t have any real records of what individual items we were buying, or what meals we were eating over that time. While it would be wonderful to keep those kinds of records, it starts to seem more than a little silly to devote much time to it right now, given the other things vying for our time.

What I can do is post the meal plan I worked up for the week. I have gotten much more disciplined about doing a full week’s plan now that swinging by the store to grab that one thing we forgot about is a major pain. We don’t always end up making everything on the plan, but it at least gives a good framework to build a shopping list from.

  • Monday: Grill Burgers
  • Tuesday: Cabbage Skillet with ham
  • Wednesday: Carnitas
  • Thursday: Pesto chicken and pasta
  • Friday: Chicken and quina
  • Saturday: Stir-Fry

I would like to actually include links and or post recipes for the things that aren’t obvious like burgers, and in some fantasy world where I can spend 10 hours a week on this, I  would do cost per serving breakdowns as well. Here in the world of actual time constraints I think I will be happy with just getting the plan posted, and hope that it comes in handy down the road when I am trying to figure out if our eating habits are what is impacting the monthly budget 🙂

 

-Jordan

 

Creamy Huevos Rancheros

Posted on by Jordan

Ok, so I don’t really know if “creamy” is the right word, but I need to preface this recipe with something, because it isn’t like any other huevos rancheros recipe I have been able to find online.

Why was I looking online for those recipes? Because I had these memories of my mother making this amazing dish that had eggs, cheese and a chili sauce in it. I also remembered calling it “huevos rancheros.” Every recipe I could find by that name ended up being basically a fried egg topped with Mexican-esque toppings.

I had basically given up, and decided I had imagined the whole thing when I was looking through the cookbook my mom gave Heather before our wedding: More-With-Less. It had a recipe for huevos rancheros  that matched my memories! Not only that, but my mom had even added a note next to their version saying that it was one of my favorites growing up!

At this point I did some adapting, because the recipe called for six eggs and cooking down two large tomatoes!

The results are every bit as good as I remember. I left the Mozzarella cheese in the recipe, and it’s what I used in the picture, but next time I make this I will probably switch to using cheddar or cheddar blend as I feel it would go better with the Mexican theme, and the remaining slices in the package are more useful 🙂

Here is what I ended up with:

 

“Creamy” Huevos Rancheros:

(Adapted from the More-With-Less cookbook)

  • 1/2 can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 can tomato sauce
  • 1/3 cup diced onions
  • 1/3 cup diced green pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1T Chili powder
  • 1/4t cumin
  • 1/4t oregano
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 slices of mozzarella cheese
  1. Saute the onions, pepper, and garlic, with some olive oil until softened.
  2. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and seasonings.
  3. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes
  4. Crack eggs into the sauce, cover with cheese slices, then return cover to pot
  5. Leg eggs poach over low heat for 4 to five minutes

 

-Jordan

 

 

 

Toasted Asparagus And Pesto

Posted on by Jordan

(Technically this is a repost, as it went up a week ago and then got lost during some configuration changes)

 

Toasted Asparagus And Pesto
by Jordan

Sorry I failed to think of a remotely creative name for these, but we were looking for new ways to enjoy the great asparagus we have been seeing at the store as of late.


The batch pictured above was the second time I made these, and in my attempt to get nicely browned cheese on top, I ended up over-cooking the bread on that back row. All the same, the sandwiches or whatever you want to call them were pretty good.


Ingredients:

  •     Steamed asparagus
  •     Sandwich thins
  •     Pesto
  •     Provolone cheese

As the asparagus is steaming, toast the sandwich things, and then spread about a half-tablespoon of pesto on each one. When the asparagus is softened a little,  place a few stalks on each sandwich thin and top with a slice of cheese.

Place them under a broiler, and watch them closely

Enjoy!

If you are going to use a stone like I did, I recommend that you preheat the stone in the oven for a minute or two before loading on the sandwiches.

-Jordan

Grilled Pork Chops And Pineapple

Posted on by Jordan

I started this recipe with certainty that I was trying to reproduce something I have eaten before. After looking around for a while I wasn’t having much luck finding anything close to the pineapple slices over pork chops I was thinking of.

So I just kind of improvised:

First off I marinated the pork. I tend towards using garlic and pepper as my foundation for most marinades, but wanted something different when I knew it was going to be going with pineapple. Here is what I wound up with:

  • Olive Oil
  • Cinnamon
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Honey
  • Chili Powder
  • Salt
  • Water

I was happy with the end result, although it wasn’t a particularly strong flavor. While the marinade was doing it’s thing, I prepped a pineapple:

After cutting out the center of those slices, there really wasn’t much else to do except head to the grill.

Side note, as much as I like my little grill, it’s easy to see that four people is about the limit when you want a single-stage cooking experience.

I stacked them on the grill for the last minute or so:

I really think a slice of Swiss Cheese would be a good addition at this point, but again, I could not find any confirmation via an existing recipe online. I would have done it anyway, except this was already far too experimental considering we were having company… and I didn’t have any Swiss Cheese on hand.

The end result was that everyone liked them, and Heather liked them enough to say we should have them again sometime. That’s about as good as you can hope for I think.

Oh, and technically those aren’t pork chops, they are slices of a big pork loin that was on sale the other day, but I figure it isn’t too far off.

-Jordan

 

 

Valentine’s 2012

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I might not be exciting people. I say this, because it is the only conclusion I can really draw when faced with the events of Valentine’s day this year. That being said, it was a good day… Just not terribly exciting.

The day started off with Heather giving me Saint Petersburg the board game. We discovered this game over the weekend, at the West Des Moines Board Game Club. It isn’t the sort of game that ether of us would initially be drawn too, but thanks to the people at the game night, once we learned it, it was really enjoyable.

Before we got a chance to actually play the game, I tried out a new recipe: Stuffed Panko Crusted Chicken. I think it went rather well, and Heather stated that I should take a picture of it, so I must not be the only one who thought it came out ok.

We then played a lovingly contested game of St Petersburg… Pretty good for a work night 😉

-Jordan

Starting Off The New Year

Posted on by Jordan

I Started off the first day of the new year with the most important meal of the day:

I suppose this isn’t the most riveting reading, but I am getting a lot better at making omelets and wanted to show this one off.

 

 

With this particular year new year comes the climax of Iowa’s involvement in the public spectacle that is  political elections. I don’t think I can overstate how much I enjoy not owning a TV right now. All the same, we plan to caucus with the best of them this week. Perhaps I will get a post of of the experience… ether way I can make a mean omelet! 🙂

 

-Jordan

Preparations

Posted on by Jordan

Hi there!

Instead of posting over the past few days I have found myself working a lot more than expected, and in my free time slowly using up the contents of this picture:

(not pictured, 15 cups of flour large quantities of sugar)

You may be thinking “…but Heather and Jordan are always eating healthy things, and Heather doesn’t even eat sweets”

Right you are my friend! But what you haven’t considered is how much we wanted to create some Christmas traditions for ourselves. The plan is to finish baking several hundred cookies and then invite friends over to help decorate them. Hopefully sending the majority of the finished cookies home with the decorators. (Otherwise I am going have no choice but to eat them, thus feeling sick from too many cookies every day for weeks)

🙂

-Jordan

Skating And Cookies

Posted on by Jordan

It looks like I am just going to have to accept that winter is here.

This past weekend was full of winter activities, starting here:

Look at all those people lined up! You would almost think we started going to trendy places in town or something…

Well, no actually those are all middle school students and you just can’t see the line of min-vans dropping them off. The question remains, what could everyone be lined up to do?

Ice skate:

The rink wasn’t overly large, but it was outside, and downtown making for a fairly cool atmosphere. An atmosphere lessened by the surprisingly young clientele combined with the unrelenting inappropriate “dance” songs being played by the helpful live DJ.  (Then again maybe I am just getting old /sigh )

Heather and I went out to the skate rink with a few of her friends from work. Our little group had a great time, despite the unexpected atmosphere.

Note that we captured the entire city skyline in that picture 🙂

The next morning, we pulled together some cookie recipes and got the ingredients just in time for a friend of Heather’s to come over and bake with her. Six hours later, they had enough cookies to pass out to our entire building, and then some:

That night, we went out for dinner and wrapped up the night driving around some of the Des Moines hot spots for Christmas lights. I worry that we may be peaking early, but I am starting to feel ready for Christmas.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights all included knocking on doors here at our building to hand out plates of cookies. We tried a similar thing a few years ago, and didn’t meet with much success. I am happy to report that this year nearly everyone we tried was home, and we met some great neighbors!

-Jordan

The Actual Day, And Other Events

Posted on by Jordan

I know, the last post already covered my birthday, so I won’t go into much detail, but there are a few highlights I though should be covered.

It isn’t every day Heather does baking, and I don’t think I have ever devoted much blog space to her endeavors in that arena. Also, Heather doesn’t generally make desserts. Apparently turning 30 is enough of an occasion to warrant making a cake though.

I encountered this cake at a Church function about a year ago, and really liked it. Heather took note, and managed to obtain the recipe from the aforelinked blog. The results were every bit as good as I had remembered!

In passing I should mention that I thought it was cool that the recipe used a technique I sort of stumbled onto a few weeks ago. Because our oven’s “broiler” is just turning the top heating element on continuously, I started throwing the oven to broil for the last minute or two when making pizza to produce a more pronounced browning/crispy/almost burnt appearance like you would see from a restaurant pizza.  The cake uses it to more or less rend the butter and cream out of the coconut, leaving a great crispy texture on the top of the cake.

So, enough about food. What else have we been up to?

Well, Heather has taken family pictures for a substantial number of people. It’s still just a hobby for her, and she seems to really enjoy the process of getting to work with people, and produce something to remember this time with. She is really starting to produce high quality results with the camera.

And me? I am still working with the scouts. Just this past weekend I got to sleep in “Fort Pella” a sort of novelty structure standing on the grounds typically used for summer camp, but accessible to Troops during the off season.

It’s distinct in that whenever the troop has the opportunity to use the fort we don’t setup tents, and instead the boys sleep under the roof sections of the tower.

My role with scouts has changed quite a bit over the past few months. I now work directly with a single patrol of younger scouts, and am responsible for helping to provide the opportunities they need to actually advance in rank. The troop works really hard to stay true to the “boy led” philosophy of Scouting, but I had no idea how much of a balancing act that turns out to be. It’s probably more of a challenge to get all the adults on the same page as to what that means than to actually implement with the boys, but I think we are starting to find a good approach everyone is happy with.

aaand I should stop before this gets too introspective 🙂

Suffice to say that I am enjoying scouts more now that I have a more direct responsibility instead of simply being a warm trained leader body for camp outs.

-Jordan

Somehow Fall Snuck Up On Us

Posted on by Jordan

It has been another full weekend, for Heather and I.

I started off camping with the scouts, on a trip that included a bike ride

As you can see we brought a lot of bikes along.

The ride was along the trails north of Des Moines. The same trails that lead up to the bridge we rode over back at the beginning of summer. The only thing was, we rode past red trees, and through piles of leaves blowing along the trail. We were lucky in that the weather was great! It was cold over night, but by the time we had bikes going on the trail it was a wonderful fall day.

I suppose talking about a beautiful ride, and the wonderful colors would be more interesting with a picture or two. The problem is all the bikes you saw in that picture were being operated by scouts… not to say they were getting into trouble, but I wanted to keep an eye on things.

That and the fact that all I had was my phone. It’s a workable camera, but phones aren’t suppose to go on camp outs. Adults get to bend those rules, but the boys complain to no end about their oppression when they see you get your phone out and they realize they can’t.

I left camp early because I was doing sound at church. It was probably a good thing I came home when I did though, because the smoke alarm at the top of our fancy vaulted ceiling had decided it had problems and started beeping earlier that day. Heather was about ready to loose it by the time I got there. It did provide an opportunity to use the big step ladder we bought shortly after taking possession of our new place… although I can think of scenarios were we would have used the ladder for some great purpose that don’t also involve Heather having dangerously high blood pressure… Maybe next time it will just be burned out light bulb.

Sunday we had a few friends over to carve pumpkins!

… yeah pumpkins… I didn’t really think it was time for those ether, but apparently it is.

My artistic vision was somewhat hampered by my absolute lack of manual dexterity or and artistic skill, so imagine the one I am holding looks sleepy. When you consider that the face on mine tilts down and sort of leans… and then add a little imagination it’s a pretty good pumpkin I think.

Oh, on a somewhat related note, I discovered that if you make pumpkin bread, but leave out the pumpkin, the resulting product will be a rather dry spice-bread. Stop by the break room at work tomorrow you might get to try some, its not bad… but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind.

-Jordan