a lot of beef week

the nachos with leftover brisket, pico de gallo and leftover chili listed below

it ended up being a beefy week - wasn't feeling super creative so i used up what i had. and i had a roast and lots of ground beef - so all but one supper had beef - that is a first. am definitely going with chicken and fish next week ;)

my list of dishes with recipes and pics in the links...

breakfast
omelette- pesto and cheese
yoghurt and fruit
fruit salad
rotate

snacks/lunch
cantaloupe
pears
bananas
coconut rice crackers
veggies and dip
leftovers - lots and lots of leftovers
salads
apple slices with caramel sauce
maltesers ice cream
kale chips
sushi lunch for my birthday

suppers

• burgers and salad
•  slow cooker chili
• baked brie with apple slices and salad
• slow cooked texas style brisket - i pretty much stuck to the recipe and made

1. brisket tacos with pico de gallo,
2. then had brisket in a salad,
3. and finally nachos with leftover chili, brisket and pico de gallo

i share my weekly meal plans at orgjunkie.com - you can find hundreds of meal plans on menu planning mondays there...helped me get back into meal planning.

cupboard raid burgers

i just made do for these burgers - managed to only spend a few $ on fresh fruit and veg - so the burgers had more of a meatball consistency, but good flavour if not the perfect burger texture.

ingredients
1.5lb lean ground beef
2/3 pack onion soup mix
1 tbsp chicken base
1 tsp mexican chili mix
1c rolled oats (i use organic, seems to be okay for my wheat-gluten hating ways
2 eggs
1.5c cornmeal

just all in a bowl, mixed with my hands and formed into 10 good sized patties for the bbq

baked brie and salad

lazy supper
just bought some brie and added a salad to the mix.
simple.

brie on greased baking dish

ingredients - brie, garlic, pear on top, butter, apple slices for dipping

spread butter and 1tsp minced garlic and then added pear slices

salad - i added brown rice cracker crumbs for crunch

in a 325 oven for about 20minutes

easy and tasty for me and dh. the boys had leftover rice and spaghetti sauce

vanilla and maltesers ice cream

3c half and half
2/3c sugar (used turbinado)
1tsp vanilla extract
2c chopped maltesers
- melt sugar in a saucepan with the half and half on low - about 15min - refrigerate until cool, mix in vanilla
- into the ice cream maker for 25min - at that point, slowly pour chopped maltesers in.
- scoop into a freezer-safe container - should be ready in about 3hrs

...omg - this is the most flavourful ice cream i've made yet. slowly melting the natura sugar turbinado gives it something of a caramel taste. love love maltesers. this reminds me of the vanilla malteser ice cream i used to buy at greg's on bloor street in toronto...over a decade ago (loved the taste of it that much)

kale chips

i've read raves about using kale to make some healthy chips...so i took the plunge - bought, cleaned, took excess stems off a bunch of kale...the rest led to a disappointment, so be warned...it set off my cranky.

ingredients
1 bunch kale - washed/trimmed
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
olive oil

toss in a bowl with enough olive oil to lightly coat. on a baking sheet in a single layer and in a 275 oven for 15-20min until kale crisps.

...okay, my cranky revisited - why, why, why do people love these? the recipes i saw called for salt, or salt and oregano, and yes they had crunch but yuck - not a good chip replacement.
these are now sitting in the fridge while i decide what to do with them. i think i will use them in a soup and save a few to crumble on top. they taste ok, but i love REAL potato chips and i will take a bowl of the real, get my butt off the couch and work them off later rather than eat this healthy version.

a rare, and unexpected NEVER AGAIN

my 5yr blog-aversary

i started this little blog 5yrs ago today. even in my first post i was interested in sharing a recipe (for a steam inhalation).guess i should be buying something wooden to celebrate (instead i bought some alexander keith's white beer to try)

...and about 400 posts later, 2 kids later, a new-old house later, many travels later, many changes in treatment techniques later...here it is. wonder what amazing things the next 5 yrs will bring (i sense i will have 100s more recipes blogged ;)