Broccoli salad

I found this recipe and wanted to try it. Since I had a BBQ to go to I did - but being me I can't leave enough alone. :P

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
1 bag of pre-shredded broccoli slaw
6 slices turkey bacon, fried and chopped
2/3 cup of craisins
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix the first six ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add in the slaw mix, 5 of the chopped bacon slices, and craisins to the bowl and toss together.
3. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with the last slice of chopped bacon.

I loved it, as did everyone at the BBQ. :D

Fresh salad

Our garden is producing big time, which has me very happy.

Today I made a very simple but flavorful salad.

1/4 head of lettuce chopped up
1/8 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh basil
1/2 tsp fresh mint
1/4 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/16 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp EVOO
1 splash of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste!

American Congee

Congee is an Asian breakfast dish that has a base of overcooked rice and a bunch of essentially anything else.

One of my favorite meals right now, is my own version. I have a hard time repurposing rice when it is left over from a prior meal, but this works well.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2c cooked rice
half a medium onion diced
4tsp butter, separated
1tbsp EVOO
salt and pepper to taste

1. I first dice up the onion and microwave the rice with half the butter to warm it up and hydrate it a bit.

2. Then I heat up my sauce pan on medium heat with the EVOO, once warm I add the onion. Mean time I scramble the eggs.

3. Once the onions are cooked to desired consistency (which depends on my mood) I scoop that over the rice. Then I add the remaining butter to the sauce pan, wait for it to melt, and put in the eggs.

4. Once the eggs have been cooked to the desired doneness, I put it over the rice/onion mixture.

5. Mix it all up with salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Harvarti Grilled Cheese

Tonight I was on my own for dinner - hubby is working. I've fallen out of cooking lately, so doing anything - especially when I get home nearly at 9pm from work! - is rare. I had noticed that some cheese was getting that white crustiness so of course that needs to be eaten soon! When I came home - after salivating at the thought of this cheese and thinking how to make it more than just simple grilled cheese, I found we didn't really have bread.

Luckily, we had english muffins! For the record, I do not recommend using english muffins for grilled cheese. :( I had used the cut sides to be the outside of the sandwich - that meant the cheese oozed over the domed part. Not so easy to flip either. :P

The cheese I used... Oh the cheese! A pesto havarti!

How did I make it more than the run of the mill grilled cheese? Caramelized onions.

Aside from the fun of flipping and oozy, melty cheese all over the place it was the best darn grilled cheese I've had in a long time. :D

Challenge wrap up

Amounts:
week 1 $28.98
week 2 $25.00
week 3 $54.49
week 4 $25.77

Total: $134.18
4 week average: $33.54

Allotted total for challenge: $200
Personal challenge total goal: $100

So, I on the whole did close to my personal challenge, but only made it once and still easily met the Challenge goals. I'm ok with this. :)

Week 4 Shop

We menu planned this week. Between that and the list we ended up buying:

2lb bag of bell peppers
1 package strawberries
2 green tomatoes
1 bunch green onion
2 loaves of whole wheat bread
1 leek
1 package of salad mix
6 yogurt cups
2 boxes of pasta
generic apple cider vinegar
2 dozen eggs

Last night I made a pie, this week we'll also be making a quiche and some crepes - all use lots of eggs! We'll also have stuffed peppers one night. We'll do a salad with the quiche and friend green tomatoes with the stuffed peppers. Yum. :)

Per the receipt:

We spent $25.77
Saevd $7.30 (only one coupon for the yogurt)

So we just missed my weekly goal but met the challenge goal.

Week 4

Week 4 we may redeem ourselves. There is very little we need. Looking at the prelist, there were only three items we would buy this week: bread, juice, and pasta. We'll see tomorrow when the final list is produced.