The definite winner

Green bean, barley, chickpea, feta salad from last week's menu plan

Of the recipes from last week, carbonara was the definite winner. Only the fact that the menu plan was published here for all to see kept me from making it every day for the rest of the week. And David did not try to stop me, either.

Isn't my parsley chopping so profesh?

I remember having attempted carbonara after my favorite high school English teacher gave me my first cookbook as a graduation gift. (Part two of the gift was supposed to be dinner at Chez Panisse, but for some reason it didn't work out and we ended up at this lovely Tuscan restaurant on College, which - sad to say - is no more.) It was The Silver Palate, which I still reference from time to time. From it I learned to make cream soups, the very best lemon and carrot cakes, and a few other fancy dishes. 

As great as The Silver Palate is, my first time making carbonara from there was not. I was living at home at that time - probably the summer between high school and college - and I had at that point not really cooked for my parents. (Most of you already know how amazing of a cook my mom is, so really there was no need.) As you can imagine, debuting as a teen cook with an Italian dish in an Asian home could be considered, well, risky.

Uh oh. Different bowl = evidence that we ate it another time last week.

Anyway, since then I've been gun shy about carbonara, but this recipe has changed my perspective. Before this week I had no clue how to cook the eggs without scrambling them. (And I believe in my first experience, it turned out the opposite, with unbelievably runny sauce. Yuck.)

The secret is to cook bacon in a pan until crisp, then swirl in minced garlic just enough to warm it and release its fragrance. Time your pasta so you're ready to add it at this point. To save on dishes (and to ensure that I don't forget to reserve some pasta water), I transfer the pasta over with tongs (rather than using a colander). Following the recipe, I mixed the pasta with the bacon-garlic greasy goodness over heat and then when ready to add the egg/parm mixture, I removed the pan from the stove and whisked in the eggs. Finally, a few scoops of pasta water to loosen it up and make a delicious, creamy glaze on the noodles.

Make sure you plan other meals so you don't end up eating this all week! It can't be good for you. (Well, not that kind of good.)

Spaghetti Carbonara

from Tyler Florence 

1 pound dry spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.

We had gorgeous weather last week so we took Theo to Silver Lake. So much fun and we are READY FOR SUMMER!

P.S. I have changed the settings to make it easier to post comments here. You no longer have to log in our use a Google (or other) account. You can sign your name or leave it anonymous. (I'll know it was you, Sharon.) However, I did set up comment moderation so it will take a moment for them to show up as I'll have to approve them after I'm emailed a notification. 

Here to report

I'm here to report that I successfully completed my mission for last week. Other than swapping Tuesday and Wednesday I followed my menu plan exactly. (Well, that and I didn't actually eat potato chips on fend-for-myself night. I guess you could call it a metaphor, as I did eat mac and cheese from a box.)

From Tuesday, which became Wednesday:

lemon-braised chicken with white beans and mint pesto

grabby, chubby hands

The other meals were decent, too, but the surprise was the potato, chile, corn soup. Brothy and light, yet rich and full of flavor, we were delighted by bowl after bowl. I'm not a huge corn lover (yes, just like I don't love zucchini), so I accidentally "forgot" to include it. The chips, cheddar, and avocado were perfect toppings but I was surprised to find cilantro missing from Amelia's list. We had some and I felt that it made the dish.

I highly recommend this easy, delicious, and cheap dish. (What more could you want?) Since it's not a very photogenic soup I have not included proof here but instead copy-pasted the recipe below for your viewing pleasure.

Here's my plan for this week:
Monday: Carbonara and spinach (maybe a cream of spinach soup??)
Tuesday: Green bean, chick pea, barley, feta salad with spiced vinaigrette (plus I'll pick up a rotisserie from Costco)
Wednesday: Chicken pho from the rotisserie carcass, plus broccoli cooked in the broth
Thursday: Italian sausage and spinach lasagna (though I'm not sure if I'll make it in the crock pot)
Friday: Broccoli rice casserole (plus chicken if there's any leftover) - anyone have a recipe they like?

Amelia Morris' Corn, Chile and Potato Soup
from Bon Appétempt [my additions in brackets]

2 pounds potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
½ cup water
1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo
2 avocados
1 to 2 limes
1 (16-ounce) package frozen corn (not thawed) or 1 large can (between 340-450 grams) of corn
Tortilla chips
Grated cheddar cheese
[Chopped cilantro (my addition)]

1. Rinse, scrub, and peel the potatoes. Chop them into 1- to 2-inch pieces. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and give it a few pinches of salt and a bit of pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, 4 to 5 minutes.

3. Add the potatoes, chicken broth, water, and 1 teaspoon salt to the pot. Raise the heat to high to bring to a boil. Mince the chile using a fork to hold it steady as you chop. Add the minced chile to the pot. Once the soup is boiling, take it down to a simmer; simmer until the potatoes are very tender, 15 to 17 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, dice the avocados and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the juice of half a lime. Set aside.

5. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the soup—just until coarsely broken up. Add the frozen or canned corn and simmer for about 2 minutes more, until heated through. Turn off the heat. Add the juice of the other half of the lime.

6. Ladle into bowls and top with a nice heap of tortilla chips, avocado cubes, and shredded cheddar. [And cilantro!] Serve with wedges of the remaining lime.

Tell me what to do

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I recently checked out Fresh20, which offers (at a small cost) a menu plan for every week utilizing 20 fresh ingredients which you can shop for at the beginning of the week. Everything else comes from your pantry, so the food costs are pretty reasonable.

Despite being an organized and frugal mama, I have long dreaded "meal planning." It has always seemed to backfire on me, not providing me what it is purported to do. I felt too constrained by it, and even when I allowed myself to just plan the rough outline (i.e., five meals that could be on any five days, not specifically assigned to a day) I still felt like it took the fun and creativity out of it, and heaven forbid I have a craving for something and the groceries I already purchased go to waste. (Languishing celery! how we mourn for you...)

Anyway, lately I've been kind of feeling blah about cooking. (I know - crazy, right?) The flipside of being one who LOVES cooking and feeding my family (and friends, who, if you are one of them you know you are our extended family, really) is the depressing feeling when there isn't a plan or any inspiration to come up with one.

Fresh20 offers a trial of one week's menu for free but I was still very nervous about doing it. I think it's really a control issue for me. Letting someone else decide what I was going to cook and eat, for a whole week????

But when I thought about it, I figured, what is there to lose? I tried to focus less on what I was giving up (supposed control, haha) for the possibility of what I could gain: peace of mind because I didn't have to plan, less waste because of planning ahead, consequential savings, new recipes and tastes, and food on the table (duh).

I figured, I can do anything for one week. It was actually nice to have a challenge, to see if I could stick to something for a week. (Maybe most moms would sigh with relief to be given a menu plan, but oh my goodness it was hard for me.) I told David (but really I was just telling myself), at the end of this week, I can decide what worked for me and hold on to those things. I said, maybe I'll like the menu as it is and want to purchase the plan. Or maybe I'll like the concept of planning things out and doing shopping only once and I'll continue to do that. Or maybe I won't change my opinion on menu planning but just learn a new recipe that I enjoy. Either way, I won't die. Right? (I really had to reassure myself of this one fact.)

Lemon-thyme ricotta latkes with sauteed brussels sprouts. They didn't kill me.

Well, I'm here to report that I liked it (*cringe*), and it really did work for me. I didn't love any of the recipes enough to make them for company, but here's what I did love:

• only having to go grocery shopping once.
• in fact, truthfully, not having to go grocery shopping at all. Since there was one list and one stop, I asked David to do it on Saturday and he was happy to comply.
• and it only costed under $50*. (Granted, we did do a mostly vegetarian week.) I had heard budgeting described before as giving yourself a raise, but I felt like following a menu plan was giving us a raise! We usually allocate $100/week for all our food and household expenses.
• knowing that all the ingredients needed for dinner were already in the fridge and all the recipes printed and stapled together. I could put together dinner during nap (while watching Netflix on the iPad) and be ready when David got home.
• no stress, no thinking.

I think before having a baby, I treasured thinking/planning/creating/having-a-blank-slate. (Ha!) And now, in this stage of life, I guess I'm thankful for someone to just TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

Like I said, since I didn't specifically find the recipes anything to write home about, I don't think I'll be paying for the product. (Plus, there's no way on earth we can go a whole week without eating rice!)  Instead, I'm committing (at least one week at a time) to menu plan. In fact, as accountability, I'll tell you what I'm making this week:

Monday: Red Lentil Soup with rice and leftover Easter lamb!
Tuesday: Lemon Braised Chicken & Beans with Mint Pesto (with rice, again!)
Wednesday: Corn, Chile & Potato Soup
Thursday: David is on-call so I will probably eat potato chips for dinner
Friday: Chicken-and-artichoke penne (from April's Southern Living)

Eep! I'm becoming that mom! Do any of y'all feel like you are "selling out" when you menu plan??

(Can you tell that I'm the baby of the family?)

(Speaking of baby, look who fell asleep during independent playtime this week.)

Yes, that is condensation in the tupperware(?!) from his sweating!

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*shopping receipt proof. We did buy one $4.99 rotisserie chicken from Costco to supplement one of the leaner meals.