Goodness, everyone is looking all sparkly and shiny at the Grammy’s tonight. I’m firmly planted on my couch, with a portable heater trying to warm up. Sherlock is being recorded because I want to watch it when I have time to properly squee at the screen. Yep, that’s a thing I do. I also talk at the television. I try to hold back in movie theaters, but sometimes I’ll start laughing at the wrong parts, and that’s pretty much just as bad in terms of theater going etiquette.
This afternoon I was on top of my meal planning game! I find that it makes for a better Monday when I’m not starving and I’m prepared for at least three days of quality eating. I prepped a few meals, made a batch of hard boiled eggs, planned out most of our lunches, chopped carrots, cucumbers, and bell peppers, and broke down a whole pineapple instead of wasting my money on the pre-cut stuff.
And then I made my breakfast of the week: the broccoli kielbasa frittata. If you look carefully, the picture above of my prep work isn’t the same as the finished frittata below. That’s because I’ve been making this dish once a week for the past month, and I haven’t shared it with you yet, and finally I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably should know about it. First, I preheat the oven to 400 before prepping the ingredients. I steam a bag of Trader Joe’s organic broccoli florets – it’s 12 ounces – and nestle them in a cast iron pan lined with tinfoil which I’ve oiled. [The first time I did it with tinfoil that I hadn’t oiled, and it stuck. The second time, tinfoil oiled, and it came out perfectly. Today, I forgot the tinfoil, oiled the cast iron, and now I have egg plastered to cast iron. Say it with me: oiled foil. Butter would probably work just dandy as well.] Then I cut up half of a Trader Joe’s smoked fresh turkey kielbasa – 6 ounces – into tiny cubes, and scatter them around the pan. I season the broccoli and kielbasa with a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. I prepare my egg mixture – anywhere between 4 and 8 eggs depending on how many I have on hand – with a few spoonfuls of water or milk, whisked with a fork. I season the eggs, pour them on the broccoli and kielbasa, and tap everything down with a spoon, making sure that egg has permeated between all of the cracks. I then pop it in the oven for about half an hour, until the frittata is set. I turn it out, cut it into four pieces, and let it cool, and then eat it for breakfast for four days. (This is flexible – you can really put any pre-steamed veg in here, or omit the sausage). As for the temperature – sometimes I cook it at 350F for 40-50 minutes if I’m cooking something else in the oven at the same time.
This week’s meals are made up mostly of the bits and bobs that needed to be finished up in my fridge. Last week I made a large pot of chicken stock that I hadn’t used up, so two soups are on the menu.
Week of Sunday the 26th
Sunday: Tomato soup and spinach salad. By tomato soup, I mean a half a jar of Rao’s, simmered with my home made chicken stock. I cooked a little bit of orzo and added that to the pot. Salad had a quick balsamic vinaigrette.
Monday: Pork tenderloin, with roasted cumin carrots, greens, guacamole and salad. I’ve been sitting on this pork tenderloin for a few days, and finally decided to cook it. I chopped the carrots into wedges, and tossed them with cumin, chile powder and salt, and roasted them for 40 minutes before adding the pork and roasting it until done.
Tuesday: Chicken tortilla soup (minus the tortilla). I simmered a pot of Rancho Gordo black beans with a shallot, then added the chicken stock, cumin, salt, and some leftover salsa. Everything cooked for about 40 minutes, and I added some rotisserie chicken that I’d saved in the freezer from the last time I got those two-fer chickens at Whole foods. Okay, it’s buy one, get one half off, but two-fer sounds more exciting than BOGO. I hate that acronym.
Wednesday: Girl food. Devon will have already eaten by the time I get home from the gym, so it’ll likely be a massive heap of garlicky greens topped with some tomato sauce and whatever protein source I have lying around.
Thursday: Burgers over salad. Lots of herby freshness – mint, parsley, whatever else is left in the fridge, and some crumbled pancetta bits that I made a few days ago.
Friday: Out.
–– Sam
