First, I feel duty-bound to inform you that last week’s spinach artichoke chicken was a bust. I don’t exactly know why it was a bust, but it was.
The spinach artichoke dip or sauce or whatever you want to call the element containing the creamy spinachy artichokey goodness was quite delicious. But the chicken… well, it suffered, and the whole dish suffered in empathy. I made enough to have leftovers, but when it came time to reheat the leftovers and eat them, I was filled with such revulsion I ended up a) making fish tacos with frozen fish sticks one night and b) ordering Chick-fil-A another night. And then I ended up throwing out the rest, which made me feel extremely guilty and wasteful. (I did scrape off the rest of the spinach artichoke element and ate it by itself; it was yummy.)
The other issue – besides the chicken, which was very tough? and also didn’t really seem to complement the sauce somehow? even though chicken is so neutral I have no idea how this is possible? – was that some of the artichoke hearts were… inedible. So that you would be eating along and then all of a sudden you realized you had been chewing for ten thousand years on a particular leaf. That was wildly unpleasant. I used the frozen artichoke hearts in a bag from Trader Joe’s and maybe that was the issue. It really kind of put me off of artichokes, though, and those have always been such a treat.
Since I raised the issue of extracurriculars in my Dinners This Week post last week, I also feel duty-bound to update you. We had our first (nearly) full week of extracurriculars and we survived. It was rough going though. Although it was also a Call Week and it was also a week that Carla was recovering from a nasty respiratory thing that resulted in a lot of coughing, so she and I didn’t get a lot of sleep.
This week has to be better, right?
I am also experiencing that free-falling panic that often accompanies September, which only just started and yet is also somehow two-thirds done. I have several freelance projects all due at once and then another one coming up in a couple of weeks; I have a big volunteer event looming in the near-distance and preparations and meetings have begun for that; we just had two family birthdays and two more are coming up early next month and one more after that; I am finally getting the ceiling repaired so we’ll have workers taking over our kitchen for a bit; then there are ALL the fall holidays one right after another and I feel as though I am already behind. Plus, in that time my husband and I have a pre-planned mini-getaway and I am trying to figure out if we can go visit my sister-in-law to see a performance she’s in even though the dates we could possibly make that work are the single weekend in between the big volunteer event and Thanksgiving. I don’t mean to complain, because it is all good stuff. It is just A Lot and it all stresses me out.
I did buy my husband one of his birthday gifts already, so there’s that. But the rest of the uncompleted tasks are in a big, teetering stack and I don’t know what to grab first because everything is going to come toppling down on my head.
Let’s think about food!
I did not make lentil soup last week. The weather went from cool and rainy to 80+ degrees and sunny, and hearty soups no longer sounded appealing. I am back in Salad Mode, at least until I remember how much work salads are to put together.
Dinners for the Week of September 19-September 25
- Greek Marinated Chicken with Something Green, Probably Zucchini: I saw this on Instagram and immediately wanted to try it. In the Instagram video, Laura Vitale simply combines all of the marinade ingredients in a blender and blends them together, which is a relief because “use a mortar and pestle” is otherwise a reason for me to skip a recipe entirely.
- Greek Farro Salad: I am feeling really into farro right now? I will make an extra couple of chicken breasts on Greek Marinated Chicken night so that we can have this salad.
- Fall Chopped Salad with Some Sort of Protein: Another salad, and another Instagram find, this time from Healthy Girl Kitchen. Her recipes are vegan and I am not vegan, so there will be a little variation in the way I make my salad. For instance, I might add shrimp? Also, I don’t have any butternut squash on hand, so I may skip that part. I absolutely HATE chopping butternut squash – they are so hard and I am always afraid I will chop my hand off with the knife, or that I will send a shard of squash straight through the window (they tend to fling themselves away from the knife, when I can get it through the rind). My grocery store sells pre-cubed squash but one package was $5.49 and, while I appreciate how much labor is required to cube that squash, $5.49 is too much for me to pay for what is likely to be my least favorite part of the salad. I suppose I could look for frozen cubed butternut squash but I didn’t and I am not eager to return to my grocery store anytime soon. Last time I went I FORGOT TO WEAR A MASK and I am still reeling from that. Like… WHAT? I have worn a mask in a grocery store for TWO YEARS at this point, how did I just… forget?!?!?!
- Tacos: ** Alert, alert: very quick weight loss talk ** The thing about tacos is that I love them with my whole heart. I want to put them on the menu because they are easy and everyone loves them, and because they SHOULD produce enough leftovers for a second night. However. I tend to overeat tacos. It’s as though you put a taco in front of me, and suddenly my body is certain this is the last time I will ever have access to a taco, and so I eat more tacos than any person should eat. I have a fond memory of being invited over to my schoolbus driver’s house when I was in elementary school, along with all the other kids on her route, for a taco night. (Yes, I suspect this is a little unusual, and yet my parents okayed it as did other parents of other children. Small town life, I guess.) And I ate TWELVE TACOS. As an elementary school student. Please understand that I do not eat twelve tacos when I make them at home, that was a one-time feat of extraordinary stomach stretchiness, but I do really, really like tacos. For most of my life, I have just… eaten however many tacos I want. But that’s not in line with trying to lose weight. I think it is reasonable to eat tacos, but that it is also reasonable to not eat ALL the tacos. So I am trying very hard to tell myself that just because things like tacos exist in my house right now, doesn’t mean I need to eat them. And likewise, that just because I am not eating tacos now does not mean I cannot eat them later. (This point is to prevent me from scarfing down leftover tacos for lunch, which I usually do as well.) Furthermore, I am not going to die if I only eat two tacos. I’m just not. (I am being hyperbolic; I never feel like I am going to die by restricting myself to X tacos. But I do feel a deep, deep longing for more.) Anyway. I am going to put tacos on the meal plan for TWO NIGHTS and ZERO lunches and it is going to happen.
Do any of these meals seem particularly in line with “easy” or “quick” (aside from the tacos)? No, not especially. So we’ll see how quickly it all falls apart.
September feels like such a hectic month; you are right on the free-fall. I mean, it’s the 19th. The 19th! I keep thinking “x just happened” and then I realize that x happened six weeks ago. What the what. Sorry that Carla has had a respiratory thing. A cold just went through J and his entire friend group. Probably the entire school. One of the few good things about the last two years was that the kids were always masked at school and no one caught so much as a sniffle. It feels like we are going to Make Up For That Now. Hope this week is less hectic for you!
“I am also experiencing that free-falling panic that often accompanies September, which only just started and yet is also somehow two-thirds done.” I AM HERE TOO. GAH.
IT IS THE WORST SARAH
Chicken is the reason we mostly stopped eating meat. It just was…always a terrible a texture. I guess I don’t know how to prepare chicken other than to put it in the crock pot and obliterate it until it’s a mush. So, I feel you on the weird chicken outcome. It’s just so unpredictable.
I do feel like September has just gone by so quickly and I don’t know what I’ve done with the month. What is even happening?!
Oh, tacos!! My minimum consumption is 3, but I can easily EASILY eat 5 tacos and not feel overly full. I sympathize!
They are so good, Wendy!
Do you listen to “The Lazy Genius” podcast? She did an episode recently about meal planning and fall schedules. My main takeaway was: identify where and when you’ll eat, then plan the meals to fit. I am now leaning in whole-heartedly to sandwiches in the car one night a week.
I can relate! I’ve got a full plate for the next few weeks and in theory everything will get done but I’m at the point where I just have to take it day by day and hope for the best.
Ugh this is exactly why I hate cooking chicken. There are a dozen things that can go wrong and mess everything up. I’m not vegan either but I’ve been cooking a ton of vegan food and “unveganizing” it to suit the ingredients that I have on hand. Hey I take meat out of plenty of recipes too so it all balances out right? Right now I’m kind of in taco burnout from the one million times my stepson made them for dinner this summer but I have plenty of other things like that where I’m either eating all of it or none of it and moderation is not an option.
Your September and the next few months does sound hectic! But you’ll get it all done, I have no doubt!
I’d like to know your taco recipe, if you don’t mind. We find ourselves eating more of the taco/chili foods because they’re easy to make and last a couple of days. But I also wonder how I can improve them.
I took a class for work (to get my CPE) a couple of weeks ago called Time Management. We all know it — but actually sticking to it is harder. Like “Do the BIG ROCKS” first…but sometimes the BIG ROCKS are harder and so we find ourselves doing the small ones instead. Anyway, I can definitely relate to feeling overwhelmed.
I usually make a big batch of this: https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/homemade-taco-seasoning-recipe-taco-seasoning-mix/ Although I do often use taco seasoning in the package. Then I just heat up/break down some ground beef until brown, add the seasoning and water, cook for as long as I can stand it, and add to store bought taco shells, and top with veggies. My daughter and husband like to smear a soft flour tortilla with sour cream and then attach it to the outside of a hard shell, but I am a hard shell purist.
I also love black bean tacos – heat canned black beans on the stove with a pinch of oregano, garlic powder, chili powder, and a bigger pinch of cumin. I like those in soft flour tortillas.
Doing small rocks makes me feel like I am accomplishing SOMETHING. But I definitely get the point of making progress on the big stuff.
Thank you! My meat taco recipe is very much like yours….but we do add canned chili (or black occasionally) beans on the side, using corn tortillas. I bought some hard shell ones a few times and really enjoyed them! And we tend to get lazy about veggie toppings. We usually put salsa and sour cream and slices of avocado on top and call it good. I use ground turkey both for our tacos and chili. My son continues to be picky — but he came home for the weekend and asked if we have ground beef. I don’t know what he wanted with ground beef but he was starting to eat the meat tacos in the summer (mostly with grilled flap meat and cut up in small pieces on a mini/street taco corn tortillas). I told him I have not cooked with ground beef in forever so we don’t have any. I’ll make sure to buy some for next time he comes home to visit; I had an inkling he wanted tacos with ground beef.
The BIG ROCKS they talked about are what are the most important to you — not necessarily large tasks but could be… and ones that weigh the most in your mind.
In full disclosure, I do season with oregano, cumin, coriander and smoked paprika and then add a bit of the taco seasoning packet. But my son can taste the cumin so when he’s home (like he was for the summer), I have to think twice about it — but it never fails…he wants some when I decided he won’t want any so I season with cumin and then not eat any when I’ve only seasoned with the packet. Maybe he remembers when I added cumin and decides he doesn’t want any even when I tell him I didn’t add cumin. He’s less picky than when he was a toddler and even teen but his taste buds haven’t fully accepted certain flavors, I guess.
Thanks for the rocks clarification. 🙂 Sometimes they feel like boulders!
Love hearing about your taco toppings. I canNOT eat a taco (or a hamburger, for that matter) without lettuce! Or hot sauce. I also like shredded cheddar on my beef/bean tacos, and onions on the beef ones, although I can take or leave onions on the bean ones. My daughter and husband like all the same toppings except they dislike onions and eat tomatoes instead.
The few times I did lettuce was when we made a taco station at my dad’s for a big family gathering…so it was complete with all the toppings that are most popular — and 3 different proteins (ground turkey, shrimp, flap meat), with flour&corn tortillas and hard taco shells. I really did enjoy the lettuce!! But somehow, I get too lazy when it’s just the 2 of us because my husband says he doesn’t care if we do add or not. But he does love fresh onions on his. I sauté minced garlic and diced onions then add my protein because I don’t like fresh onions. 🙂 I do love cilantro so more often than not, I chop up cilantro to add to our salsa. I’m also particular about the salsa — I buy from the fresh section the kind that has non-mushy tomatoes. I can’t stand mushy salsa; I want solid tomato cubes in my salsa. Anyway, all that to say I will make an effort to have lettuce on my tacos and thank you every time! LOL
It’s been 70s and 80s and sunny so I agree with your feeling about hearty soup. I love making chili but it has to get colder! Weirdly, I don’t like tacos very much especially in those hard corn shells. I don’t mind a soft shelled flour one although I tend to prefer them vegetarian since I don’t enjoy the taste or texture of hamburger.
I’m sorry I missed so many of your posts. Stupid, Bloglovin’. I’ve added your posts to Feedly.
I love your story about the twelve tacos. I will always remember you when I eat tacos. ❤️
Lol! Thank you! 🌮🌮🌮
So I would NOT do the weekend trip away between your big volunteer event and Thanksgiving unless it was super super super important… But 3 busy weekends in a row leading into the holiday season would stress me out way toooooo much. So I would give future Suzanne a break and say you can’t make it to the out-of-town performance…
If it makes you feel any better, I had to throw out the black bean soup I made last Sunday. It was so awful honestly. I composted it which made me feel slightly less guilty. But it was just not good, which sucked because I puttered around w/ it for hours on Sunday!
I love tacos, too. I limit myself to 2, but I eat them on corn tortillas since I have a gluten intolerance, and corn tortillas are only good if they heat them up in a pan before assembling the taco, which I do while the meat is browning and then I wrap them in foil. So there is no temptation to have another one because it would require too much effort to take more tortillas out of the fridge, heat them, etc!
Oh no! It is the worst when you have to throw out food, especially when it took a long time to prepare!
My husband is fully on board with your idea about NOT attending the performance, and I think you are right that it is SMARTER to decline to attend, but OMG I am having so much guilt. SHE IS NOT EVEN MY SISTER.
The weekend away is… done and dusted. It is just me and my husband, and it is a gift from my parents, who will be staying with Carla.
Ahh, I was thinking the weekend away w/ your husband was a different weekend from the SIL weekend! For sure do not interrupt your precious couple alone time! A couples weekend away sounds glorious and should recharge your batteries for the holiday season!
I hope so! 🙂
Quick and easy? Nope those recipes don’t seem that way to me. They might be tasty, though. But that’s not the question, right? I’m beginning to sense the September free-falling panic of which you speak. I seem to be a little behind with it, probably because it’s unusually warm here, more like summer than fall.
Oh Ally, I hope you can soak it up (the summery weather AND the lack of fall free fall) as long as possible!
The hard part about tacos, for me, is that I try to make sure that tacos are a way to shovel more veggies into myself. So adding a diced onion and peppers, fresh-made pico de gallo, guacamole, shredded cabbage, etc., so I feel less guilty when I realize I have eaten 6 tacos.
But cabbage expands at an absurd rate and we might use 1/8 of a cabbage per taco night and while cabbage DOES tend to last in the fridge for a while, I am not sure I am willing to eat from the same head of cabbage for 8 weeks straight. Even a bag of pre-shredded cabbage lasts too long.
The weather here has warmed up again as well and I am glad we spent time last weekend to get 20 taquitos (chicken, peppers, onion, spinach, cilantro, shredded cheese) into the freezer, as well as baked ziti and a squash pasta bake. Those will require some level of effort in the form of pre-heating the oven and thinking about the whole concept of dinner more than 20 minutes before we want to shove food in the food hole.
Cabbage does last too long. But also, somehow, when I PLAN for it to last a long time, it does not. A temperamental creature, cabbage.
Have you ever had “real” Mexican tacos?? Like in a good corn tortilla, with onion, cilantro and salsa on top? Mmmm those are the absolute best. I like them with steak best but really I do not discriminate against any tacos. 😉 My kids like the American style tacos too and they do make for a nice quick meal. (Though like the good dual Mexican/American citizens that they are, they probably prefer the real Mexican ones best.) My husband is always rather appalled by the whole “lettuce on a taco” thing, because that’s unheard of in Mexico. In fact, he said he had never even seen a hard shell taco (like the Taco Bell style ones/kind they sell in the boxes at grocery stores) OR lettuce on a taco until he moved to the U.S. in his mid-20s. 🙂 All that being said, I actually really enjoy an American taco now and then, complete with ground beef, cheddar cheese and lettuce! Lol!! My hubby is usually a pass on those, although he will occasionally buy Taco Bell if he needs a quick lunch! Gasp! Hahah… he says “when in Rome….” Hehe! (He just might not admit it to the rest of his Mexican family, as Taco Bell may = blasphemy). Ha!
Haha! No, I have never had an authentic taco! But I do loooooove the American style tacos.
Ohhh…that’s my favorite type of tacos and how we usually have ours, except we use ground turkey. When we grill steaks, though, our leftovers are always cooked as steak tacos. I do grumble that good cuts of meat (tenderloin or Prime NY steak) should be eaten as steaks and not tacos. Ha! Anyway, this is how my son first learned how to eat tacos — Mexican-style street tacos (but hold the onions and salsa LOL) since we are in San Diego and there’s an abundance of places that cook it this way around here. It’s so funny, though, now that I think of it…my late MIL, although she lived in SD for about 10yrs, when she came to visit us 10yrs ago, did not like the tacos that was served to her at a restaurant that was made like this. She was looking for the ground beef and prepared like Taco Bell does; maybe she had forgotten since she had left SD at least 15yrs prior. My son would eat Taco Bell, too, but no toppings…just the meat. Anyway — fish tacos Puerto-Nuevo style…also so yum! Do you make those, too?
Your story about eating 12 tacos made me laugh! I am also inspired to make tacos for dinner soon. We eat them often in Mexico, but rarely at home. I love your recipe suggestions as I’m always looking for new recipes. I made the Greek Farro salad last night, with a few modifications. Added some fresh diced red pepper & celery to up the veggies. I also just served over mixed greens rather than mixing all together. It is really good! (however I was shocked at the price of farro! It was $12.50 Canadian or close to $16 for 1 1/2 lb bag. Yikes!) but it was yummy, and good for you, so….
I can only eat one taco at a time now because of diabetes, but I remember bingeing on tacos (not 12, though!) when I was breastfeeding my eldest and I was hungry all the time.
What a bummer about the Spinach Artichoke meal. I hate it when that happens! I’m bookmarking the greek marinated chicken; that looks right up my alley.
Regarding all your upcoming stressors, you can only do one thing at a time, right? Try to hit one or two a day; then maybe that is the best you can do.
The getaway sounds fun, though. Just don’t hit the taco bar 🙂
I only agree to getaways that heavily feature tacos 😉 🌮
Oh bummer, spinach-artichoke chicken sure sounded delicious…
P.S. I love farro! I love that TJ’s carries it.
I laughed so hard at your taco story. I so relate. I mean I never ate tacos at my bus driver’s house, but I do like them. No matter what, I find that when I serve tacos the entire family over does it, so I don’t think you are alone. We go through so much meat. I’ve started buying a package of taco seasoned rice to make alongside the tacos so everyone just settles down and eats a normal portion. Really when it comes to tacos, there is no normal portion.
September has flown by. That might be because my kids just started back to school the Tuesday after Labor Day. Building under construction.
Crockpot meals are my go-to on busy nights. I admit though, they usually involve chicken.