Meal 42

Sauteed deer, green beans & home-made yeast rolls.  The beans were by far my favorite.  Two quarts of garden beans, couple cloves of minced garlic & chopped up bacon.  I put all this in a crock-pot for several hours & they were wonderful!!  The rolls were an easy yeast roll recipe that I found at cooks.com


QUICK HOT ROLLS
2 c. hot water
4 tbsp. Crisco
1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. yeast
5 c. flour

Put hot water in a large mixing bowl and add Crisco, sugar, salt, and yeast. Stir. Add flour, a cup or two at a time. Mix well. Leave in bowl and let rise. Make into rolls and place in a buttered pan. Let rise again. Bake at 375 degrees until browned, about 20-30 minutes. Quick, easy, and delicious!

So, that's 42 meals cooked....258 to go.

Meal 41

Last summer we went camping with friends & at one of our "community" meals, a friend brought this amazing baked cabbage.  I've taken her basic recipe & made it our entire meal for tonight. Thanks Jennifer for your inspiration!

One whole cabbage, onion & green pepper...all chopped coarsely.  Toss into casserole dish.  Chop one whole polska kielbasa into bite sized pieces & add to the veggies.  Pour on top one melted stick of butter.  Dash with seasoned salt & black pepper.  Toss thoroughly.  Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.  You will want to cover with aluminum foil. 

I'm also made garlic bread out of some leftover french bread.  And, hope to get a strawberry fluff made too...that's next.

Meals in between...

Friday night - El Mazatlan with two of our kids...one was out with friends.
Saturday night - had dinner with friends at our Married LIFE event...yummy pork tenderloin, potatoes, green beans & salad. Our kids were in 3 different places that night!
Sunday night - our date night, meal out.

Meal 40

Home grown steak, spinach salads & garlic bread!

Meal out...

We ate last night with friends at Joe's Crab Shack in Louisville....great fun after the state archery competition! 

Meal 39

Just made potato soup & cornbread...actually enough for us & a friend.  I really enjoyed knowing that I was cooking for another family too.  I don't do that enough & I know people really do appreciate that.

Potato soup was full of potatos, cream cheese, butter, cream of mushroom soup & cream of chicken.  It is delicious.  I made the cornbread in two different ways.  One batch (that was going to the friends) I made plain. 

The batch that is staying here I included habanero relish in....and wow, it's HOT!  Tony loves this, I don't so much.  Habaneros can be vicious so if you've never handled them, do so with care.  We raised these in our garden & turned them into relish just for the cornbread!  A friend of ours turned us on to this trick years ago, they would give us a pint a year until we finally became self-sufficient!!  Thanks Denise & Tim!

Meal 38

This meal was leftovers from the nacho bar...nachos, meat, cheese, sour cream...yummy!

Meals in between....

Pizza Hut was Saturday night....sunday night was burgers for date night.

Meal 37

This meal was prepared for my daughter's 16th bday party!!  Since I didn't know how many to expect we went super simple with a nacho bar....nachos, cheese sauce, meat & cheese sauce, salsa, jalapenos & sour cream.  All I had to do was brown the meat!  It was a great night.

Meal 36

Tonight I made meatloaf, garden corn & a fresh baked loaf of flax & sunflower seed bread.   The kids aren't thrilled with the bread.  I may try it again, I'm not sure, but I won't post the recipe until I know it's something we really like.

36 meals done....

Meal 35

Beef stroganoff....yummy.
Recipe already linked in Meal 10.

Meal 34

Tonight's meal is home made herb bread, garden green beans & Green River deer tenderloin.  Here's the recipes I used for the beans & the tenderloin marinade.  I'm with-holding the herb bread  recipe b/c it is something that I sometimes sell at our local farmer's market.

Deer Tenderloin Marinade:

1 c. water
1 c. red wine
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp. whole cloves
1 onion, sliced
1 tbsp. peppercorns
Grated peel of 1 lemon
Cover meat with marinade and place covered in refrigerator.


Green Beans:

2 quarts of home-canned green beans
1 cube beef bouillon cube
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon butter
1/8 teaspoon garlic pepper seasoning

34th meal....331 to go....290 days left in the year!

No cooking days

Three of the last four nights we were away from home at dinner-time:

Last night we went to the home of friends & had a marvelous supper!!  Grilled pork chops, awesome vegetables & home-made rolls.

The night before was "date night"....we chose drive thru food & enjoyed a scenic view while eating & talking...without interruption!!  Our kids were at my parents for supper.

The night before that was a quick mexican meal in a neighboring county where we were for an archery competition.

The night before that was....pizza at a children's event at our church.

So, I could've actually cooked that one date night meal....but I didn't.

Meal 33

Meal 33 was vegetable soup made from leftovers!!  A morph of the Paula Deen recipe I posted earlier.

Next night was Pizza Hut...any crust, any size, any style for $10!!

Strategy change up(Meals 28-32)

I've decided to change my strategy....from here on out, I'm not just going to blog the meals I prepare, but I'm also going to record what we eat in general...whether it was fast food, a meal prepared by someone else, etc.  I've decided that this will help me to see what it is that we really do??  I don't know if you're like me, but some weeks I struggle to remember exactly what we did for all our meals.  I certainly don't give it enough thought.  I think seeing it will help me to analyze where improvements need to be made.

A week ago, my husband had an accident & we actually had a couple of meals brought to us.  One night his sister made potato soup for us.  Another night a neighbor brought us meatloaf & vegetables.  Those were both wonderful!! And, they were meal 28 & 29.

Meals 30- was made over the weekend - it was chicken spaghetti (again!)
Meal 31 - was taquitos & mexican rice - it was wonderful!!
Meal 32 - was tonight's meal of ground beef patties, garlic bread & smashed potatos.

268 meals to go!!