Mexican cornbread

Today I didn't really do much - slept in till noon.

After hours surfing the blog-o-sphere, I found a lovely looking recipe at Novel Eats. I had most of the ingredients so I decided to make the Mexican cornbread. Pookie is a huge fan of cornmeal, corn bread, corn mush *eww* etc. I made it with just the bare bones items, so it's an onion and jalapeno cornbread. I plan to serve it with some spicy black bean soup I have in the freezer.

B- almond milk (1), 1/2 nana (1), 5 strawberries, Spinach (1), T flax seed
L- Chinese bbq pork (3), potato (3), oil (1), salad with light dressing (1)
s- lf popcorn (1.5)
D- la tortilla factory corn torilla x 2 (4), 1/2c FF refried beans (2), lettuce & tomato, salsa verde

We received a call from boo's pa's doctor. Lots of a bad juju around this tumble down the stairs. Aside from breaking his knee he has bleeding on both sides of his brain. They don't believe he will live past the next couple of days. I feel pretty awful for pookie and his pa, and wish there was something I could do to make it better.

Sunday cooking

Today boo (almost) finished sanding the basement walls while I did my usual Sunday cooking. I made a big salad to eat throughout the week. Then I made up a triple batch of "Ultimate veggie burgers" from Vegan planet for boo's lunches. I also found a pretty simple bread recipe, and made up a batch of that as well.

Friday, I made some almond milk (ran out of soy milk). It tastes pretty good in my breakfast smoothie, so I will likely just keep making that (goodbye silk!).

Boo's Pa fell down the steps (again), and broke his leg. I think last time he broke his hip. I don't think it's even been 6 months since the last time. It is very frustrating that this keeps happening to him (as I am sure he'd agree). We have offered to move all his things from the upstairs room downstairs, but he doesn't want his things moved. It's a bit of a pickle and he is grown so not much we can do. Just keep visiting him at the hospital I guess.

10th -

b- almond milk (1), 1/2 nana (1), 4 strawberries, spinach (1), 1T flax
l-leftover baked chicken leg (3), brown rice (3), steamed veggies (1)
d- Ramen (8)

11th-

b- breakfast burrito (6)
l- Boca spicy chicken patty (3), Arnold thin (1), sweet tato (3), icbinb (1), salad with light dressing (1)
d- spaghetti squash (0), broccoli & cauliflower (1), Seitan (2), teriyaki sauce (1)
s- lf popcorn (1.5)
s2 - natures path pumpkin granola bar (1.5) , pookie ate half lol

Veggie Curry worries

As per "the plan" I set some veggie curry from the freezer. Now I know that potatoes will change texture etc in the freezer, and I don't go out of my way to put them in there. I saw someone else had it listed as part of their once a month cooking vegan plan, so I ninja'd it as a cheap vegan meal to get us started. That said, we both sat down to eat it and just couldn't. I usually joke that my pookie is like mikey who will eat anything, but this appears to be his culinary equal to kryptonite.






Having abandoned the plan, he decided to just fend for himself, and chose triscuit thins and some colby jack cheese. I was a little discouraged about the meal, so I decided to stick to the vegan meal part of the plan. I grabbed a homemade sausage (turned out to be one of the eight andouille sausages that I had made & forgot to sort), 1/4c of the tofu sauce, 1c cooked whole wheat pasta, and 1c steamed normandy blend veggies. It was fantastic!

When I made the sausages I had a bit of a snafu, might as well share. It required a steamer. I have one but just the microwave tupperware one lol. I also have a metal strainer and a huge stock pot. I just assumed that I would be golden so set to making them. Turns out I should have made sure that the strainer would fit inside the pot all the way. While I still gave it a go (since the sausages were ready for steaming action!), it didn't quite turn out. The other two batches I put into a bag and refrigerated. The next day was our grocery day *thank heavens*, so I bought a steamer. So some of them are spongy and some are apparently delish!

B- Breakfast burrito (6), mango lightfull smoothie (1)
L- Andouille sausage (2), 1c steamed veggies (1), 1c ww pasta (3), tofu sauce (2)
s- LF popcorn (1.5)
D- leftover baked chicken drumstick (3), baked potato (2), salad with light dressing (1)


The tofu sauce link is to the original recipe. I however have changed it quite a bit so my (counts) will never be accurate when compared to the ingredients in that recipe.

Menu plan for the month

We have slowly been eating up the meaty goodness from our food stores. I made a menu plan a week or so ago. I have even stuck to it so far! That's usually where it goes wrong. I write it all down, but then don't follow through.

I think it helps that I also used the menu plan to decide what to buy at the grocery store. I do have a fair amount of surplus food in the freezer and pantry if I want to go off script. I am trying to have at least two veggie meals each week, one fish meal, and the rest is set to get rid of, erm, eat up the meats.


I keep this on the fridge so I remember to set out anything that needs to thaw. I also find it helps keep pookie in the loop as to what's for dinner. I write over the bits I've used with things I am running low on.

We are on box two, the baked chicken legs. You'll notice the Thursday meal I had to change.. couldn't find any canned pumpkin at the aldis. I had to change the ziti in box three, and the sushi night also had to be canceled as Meijers was out of nori.


B- aldi's soy milk (2), 1/2 nana (1), 4 strawberries, 1T flax, spinach (1)
L- baked chicken leg , no skin (3), sweet potato (3), Salad with light dressing (1), Peachy cream lightful smoothie (1)
s- lf popcorn (1.5)
D- kroger brand fish sticks x 6 (5), arnold thin (1), potato (3), oil (1), normandy blend veggies (1)

April 5th & 6th

5th-

B- 1c soymilk (2), 1/2 nana (1), 4 strawberries
s- lf popcorn (1.5)
L- ww pasta (3), homemade sausage *1/8th recipe* (2), 1T tomato paste, 4 olives, &1t capers (1)
D- breakfast burrito (6)
s2- nature's path organic flax plus granola bar *pumpkin* (3)

6th-

Today was a divide and conquer sort of day. I tackled things in the kitchen while boo sanded one of the basement walls.

I made one tester batch of the black bean burgers from Veganomicon. I keep reading they are the tops, but pookie is pretty picky about his veggie burgers (fingers crossed!). I also made a couple recipes from La dolce vegan, namely a double batch of the worchestershire (it's a word you never know when to end, amirite?) sauce, a quadruple batch of her seitan, and the sweedish rye bread. I had four apples that I needed to use up and little inspiration, so I made a double batch of hearty steel cut oats to freeze.

The best vegan mac n cheese should be named something else, lol. It was tasty with my veggies tossed in it, but I made a point of calling it pasta with tofu sauce (no, I am not very creative). Can't have boo thinking that was the best I could do mac n cheese wise! I liked the sauce and made up a batch for the freezer (split into 1c portions). I cut the oil, added extra tofu, cut the nooch, and so my (count) will be different from the linked recipe.

B- 1c soymilk (2), 1/2 nana (1), 4 strawberries, spinach (1), 1T flax
L- best vegan mac n cheese *1/12th recipe, modified recipe quite a bit* (5)
steamed mixed veggies (1), salad with light dressing (1)
s- lf popcorn (1.5)
D- mexican pork & veggies (5), sweet potato (3)


Edited to add that the boo is very much a fan of the veganomicon black bean burgers, saying "I like them as well as the Chickpea burgers." - High praise indeed.