Mandy and Jace

Well I have a meal plan this week but I’m not sure if we will actually eat the meals I have planned. Friday Jace woke up with the flu and was miserable all weekend. Sunday morning I woke up with the same thing. Today I am camped out on the couch with my with my two best friends right now advil and cough drops.

Here’s this weeks plan. We’ll see if we eat any of it.
Tonight: three meat pizza
Tuesday: Tex-Mex pork chops and rice
Wednesday: nachos
Thursday: take out after practice
Friday: date night.

Happy eating!

For some reason I always forget that there are other ways to make potatoes other than mashed. I could seriously eat mashed potatoes for every meal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, these potatoes come in second right under mashed potatoes. They are salty and tender and very, very good. You have to be careful not to overdo the salt. This recipe calls for rock salt which is the same salt you would use when you are making home made ice cream. Only use what the recipe calls for and if you don’t like things too salty you may put a little less. More is not better in this case. You can use any type of small potatoes in this recipe. I was originally going to use fingerling but my local grocery store was out so I used baby potatoes.



Salty Baby Potatoes
adapted from Alton Brown

1 pound rock salt
2 pounds baby potatoes, cleaned
2 quarts water
4 tablespoons butter
pepper
1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives

Put the potatoes, salt and water into a large pot and bring to a boil. Cook until they are fork tender, about 25 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the water, pour the butter over them and toss to coat. Top with pepper and chives. Serve immediately.

Can you believe we are almost done with January? It seems like yesterday I was planning my resolutions for this year. I am very proud to say that I am right on track. I have made it a point to run at least 5 days a week, I am eating healthier and taking time to myself. I have learned to do little things at a time that way they don’t all pile up on me. When I manage to do that I find that I have lots more time to sit and rest instead of spending hours cleaning and organizing. I am also realizing my priorities in life. I can either do 100 things decently, but not to the best of my ability, or I can do 10 things well. I would rather put aside the other 90 and focus on the 10.

Ok, enough rambling. This week I am trying a couple of new recipes. I am trying a vegetable casserole and a mandarin beef stir fry. If they turn out well I will be sure to post them here. Also, I am roasting two chickens. One to eat tonight and the other to cut up and use the leftovers.

Here’s this weeks plan.
Tonight: roasted chicken (brined and cooked like our turkey), fingerling potatoes and vegetable casserole
Tuesday: mandarin beef stir-fry with noodles
Wednesday: chicken pot pie (made with leftover roasted chicken)
Thursday: take out after practice
Friday: date night

Happy eating! What are you guys having this week?