Last week was our first week of owning one car.  I.E. Can we be patient and kind enough to each other as we each have to stretch and rearrange our schedules and face our damned American entitlement to certain freedoms?

So far, the answer is yes, we can.

We’ve had fun, actually.  One morning the boys were up early (well, they’re always up early.  Abe has decided to set his internal alarm clock to no later than 9am.  EST.  Yeah.), so we bundled them up in their jammies as drove Hubby into work in the dark. They were so quiet, looking out the window at the cars driving by.

Another day we were scheduled to pick up Hubby after work.  Which was fairly amusing that morning when I was running around, getting children dressed, feeding animals, feeding children, working out, getting ready, gathering stuff for bible study and JJ’s school meaning taking lunches with us, etc.  I sat down, opened my Bible, spoon in hand to eat my Bob’s Red Mill High Fiber hot cereal with rice powder, chopped almonds, blueberries, cinnamon, and ground flax seed.  “So, what are you thinking about the car today?”  Really?  You want to talk about that right.now.?

I sigh, close my Bible, set down the spoon, and launch into a whole schpeel on how I think it’d be good to try living with one car for now, and look at saving up to get a little newer used car, and that the boys and I really weren’t that inconvenienced by it so far, and that there’s a few things we could take care of in the house once we get our tax return, and, and, and, and.  He watched me for a while, quite a while, before interjecting:  “But what I want to know is what are you thinking about the car today?”  I tilted my head, much like a confused puppy:  “I don’t understand what you’re asking me.”

“What.Are.We.Going.To.Do.With.The.Explorer.Today.?”

“Oh, I’m dropping you off at work and picking you up at 5.”  Picked up my spoon, opened my Bible, and ate.

That evening I had scheduled to make a quiche:  mmm, love me some eggy, cheesy goodness.  But I got tired. And I thought:  “Hey!  We’re doing pretty good with our one-car experiment!  We’ve saved some money!”  My automatic thought:  so let’s go spend some (such a good little transplanted Southern girl).  I piled the melting-down kids in the car and drove to Wendy’s.  Ordered six items off of the value menu:  two chicken nuggets (which are now 1.29 – so much for the dollar menu), two fries, two jr. bacon cheeseburgers.  This fed three very happy boys.  Sitting in the silence of dinner, noting that I wasn’t hearing any “yuck!”s or having to give Abe the Hairy Eyeball for dropping his food as an offering for the dog or asking anyone to sit up, sit still, take a bite, now’s not the time to talk about playing Innianna Jones on the Wii, I wondered how long it would take me to hear something, which was said literally ten seconds later:  “Mama, this is the best dinner EVER.”

Thanks.  Thanks, son.  So Dave Thomas, my son would like to thank you for the best dinner ever, with all your transfats and preservatives.  Now I know how my mama felt when in high school we’d badger my folks into getting Wendy’s instead of “making” mom slave over the stove.  But six bucks for one night of no cajoling or whining but rather happy faces and yummy noises:  I can deal with that.

I’ve already deviated from this week’s menu plan due to a) aforementioned eastern standard time children and b) using up last week’s leftovers.

When I had Abe, I was gifted many wonderful, thoughtful things.  But one friend really hit the mark:  Burt’s Bees baby bath products, something I can’t remember for JJ, and The Best of Cooking Light cookbook for me.  Seriously:  does she know me or what?  So, this week’s menu is planned out of this cookbook.

Monday:  Cheese eggs, apples, buttermilk biscuits; Monte Cristo sandwiches (turned into waffle pb’n'j), bananas; Greek Style Shrimp Scampi, Greek salad, garlic bread, applesauce.

Tuesday:  Strawberry orange muffins (turned into Banana Split Surprises due to the early rise and the begging children); Chicken nuggets, garlic fries (turned into Waffle French Toast sticks – hmm:  perhaps I shouldn’t have doubled that waffle recipe Sunday night ); Cheese souffle w/Fresh Corn (but probably will be leftover scampi cause dang!  it was yummy!), green beans, bread

Wednesday:  Spicy pumpkin bread, cheese (which, now that I’ve opened a two pound package of, I’ve discovered that neither child likes Colby Jack.  One likes moz and chedder; one only likes cheddar.  Sigh), peaches; Quesadillas, salsa; Vegetable Lasagna, salad, bread

Thursday:  Leftovers; PB’n'J, apples, crackers, fruit snacks; Leftovers

Friday:  Buttermilk Pancakes w/sauteed apples, sausage; Homemade granola, yogurt; Chicago-style pizza, applesauce

Saturday:  Overnight French Toast Souffle, cheese; Leftovers; Fettuccine and Tofu with Finger-Lickin’ Peanut Sauce

Sunday:  Leftovers; Leftovers; Waffles with Two Berry Syrup, sausage

Sidenote:  so I was looking at the frozen pizza offerings at Freddies the other day to stock up for the Hubby.  I went to grab the standard Totinos Combination pizza box, missing the days when they used to cost 99 cents.  I used to get that and a two liter of Diet Coke all for 1.98:  well balanced meal – ah, the gut rot of college.  Now the standard price is 1.29.  Stinkin’ inflation.  But as I went to grab the box, I noticed something:  it was *considerably* smaller.  I picked up another flavor:  it was bigger.  They’re working on phasing out the bigger boxes.  So now not only do they cost more, but they’ve shrunk the box.  Now that *definitely* is against the American Constitution, I’m certain. 

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This is a week of transitions.  JJ is transitioning into a “blended reading group” at school (meaning he’s beyond sounds, but not quite reading.  Although he certainly can spot the words “Lego” and “Indiana Jones” from miles away).  Abe doesn’t know it, but he’s going to be transitioning to a non-pacified sleeping situation.  This could be a painful thing, yes, but he’s already waking up multiple times a night, so if I’m going to be up, I might as well get my goals taken care of.    Hubby and I are transitioning to A Frankly UnAmerican Lifestyle, i.e. life with one car.  Each day presents a new set of obstacles to weave our way through, but so far we’re doing okay (you know, 36 hours into it).

And of course during this week of transitions, the events presented for these seven days are abnormal.  Hubby has appointments for his achy shoulder.  I have, not one, but two (yes, TWO) conferences I get to go to an exercise the non-mama parts of my brain.  But what happens when appointments, conferences, and school times collide?  [Enter the "shunk" noise always present at the end of Lost, or maybe the "beep beep beep" of 24].

This week I decided to pull out the big guns for meal planning, the biggest cookbook I own, the staple of every kitchen for decades (or so says the cover):  The Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  The amount of recipes to work with was so much grander than those of the kids’ cookbooks that part of me wanted to put my head under the couch and say, “Um, I dunno:  what do you want to eat for . . . ?”  But then I realized that tons of sections were unapplicable:  canning, meats (red meat pathooey), vegetables (my kids?  green food?  I laugh in your general direction).  So I went for some pretty basic recipes, but figure the goal of the week is mostly to get through the week.  And that ain’t bad.

Monday:  French Toast, cottage cheese, grapes; Chicken quesadilla, bananas; Dijon Chicken Strata, cheese bread, corn – but I copped out of this and made chicken spaghetti with ingredients that Hubby got as a Christmas gift from some vendors.  Cause vendors give gifts.

Tuesday:  Oat Bran Muffins (again:  copped out.  Everyone, I mean *everyone*, was up at 6:15.  Cranky.  Hungry.  So we did Surprise Banana Splits from JJ’s cookbook, and I made the muffins later this morning for snacks); Nachos, applesauce, veggies; Huevos Rancheros, lemon bread

Wednesday:  Granola, yogurt; Grilled cheese, bananas; Leftovers

Thursday:  Leftovers; Peanut butter and jam, string cheese, apples; Quiche, salad

Friday:  Banana berry smoothies, blueberry cornmeal pancakes; Homemade hot pockets, apples; Jerk Turkey burgers, baked fries

Saturday:  Double apple coffee cake, cheese, grapes; Leftovers; Leftovers (or maybe Chan’s:  mmmm, Chinese food)

Sunday:  Leftovers; Chef salad, soup, veggies; Overnight waffles, scrambled eggs

Ps.  So we have no cable but receive tv signals over the air.  My favorite new channel at the moment is Ion because there’s a channel of all-kids shows, all-the-time.  Except the run infomercials all-the-time.  And I’ve been informed that I NEEEEEEED to buy some pull-up machine, some contraption that makes food stack up, and some squiggly art thing.  I NEEEEEEED to.  And I have flashbacks of my friend Hannah clinging to the “Wanna see how fast he’ll run?  Tell him you’re pregnant!” poster from our Health II class, saying she NEEEEEEEEDED it.  Ah, our needs.

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Last week I sat down one afternoon, while one certain Little Man was sleeping and the other certain Little Man knew he could not come out of his sanctuary until the little hand points to the four and the big hand points to the twelve, to meal plan.  I thought doing a week honoring Auntie Rachael Ray would be in order.  Whenever I watch her shows, I find myself thinking, “That looks so good!  And so easy!  I could do that!”  And she has the kid organization Yum-O:  right up my alley!

Except when I looked at the recipes last night that I selected for the week, I got tired.  Man, she’s high maintenance!  I know she says she’s not, but boy howdy:  the shopping list was beginning to look like I needed to hit up Kitchen Stadium, and that somehow is not in the budget.

So I turned to a different cookbook, a “borrowed from my mama” cookbook (aka I borrowed it and probably will keep it for a while longer . . . you know, than the year+ I’m working on currently), a cookbook that has fun little stories in it:  More-with-Less:  Suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited food resources.  Now the shopping list?  Ah, so short.  And yet things still sound yummy (at least to this mildly weary cook).

Monday:  Whole wheat pineapple muffins, cheese eggs, apples; Blueberry Oatmeal; Chicken cheese casserole, cauliflower bake, bread, applesauce

Tuesday:  Apple cinnamon crunch cereal, yogurt, blueberries; Swiss eggs, cinnamon raisin toast (from Bob’s Red Mill:  yum), banana; Crusty Mexican bean bake, nachos makings, applesauce

Wednesday:  Zucchini bread, cottage cheese, pineapple; Quesadillas, raisins, veggies; Baked lentils with cheese, corn cheese bake, bread, banana

Thursday:  Leftovers; Pb&j, corn chips, apples, string cheese; Leftovers

Friday:  Apple walnut pancakes, cheese eggs, peaches; Mini pizzas, veggies, apples; Oven fried chicken, sweet potato fries, veggies

Saturday:  Leftovers; Leftovers; Lasagna roll-ups, salad, cheese bread

Sunday:  Applesauce bread pudding, string cheese; Leftovers; High protein waffles w/pineapple sauce

Snacks:  Fluffy vanilla pudding; Cobbler; Wheat germ balls

I think I have frostbite on my fingers from raiding the freezer.  I’m actually being proactive in remembering to thaw things:  novel idea!  It’s just so easy to look at a recipe the hour before a meal, get ready to make it, and then realize that the main ingredient is frozen solid:  oops and not-so-tasty.

I’m also interested to see how using more beans and grains goes over:  my family has never been big into eating meat, but still – I doubt a lentil has intentionally passed our lips anytime in the past few years.  But what if it’s covered in cheese?  EVERYTHING’s better covered in cheese.

Interesting noticings of the past week:  JJ loves pancakes (eats them for snacks!), hates waffles; Abe doesn’t mind waffles, hates pancakes.  JJ loves fake sausage, hates scrambled eggs; Abe, the exact opposite.  But both inhale their fruit before any other food touches their lips:  gots ta love those carbs.

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Today is Martin Luther King, JR Remembrance Day:  peace and justice be with you!

To celebrate Hubby got the day off.  Actually, Hubby gets the day off because his employer got a few concerned looks when they didn’t observe the day, so after two plus weeks of vacation, he gets a long weekend.  Makes sense. 

I, however, did not get a notice from my employers that I got the day off and therefore forgot that he had the day off (because everything relates to me, obviously), so it was a bonus for me.  But when taking into consideration planning for meals, I try to be a little more Adult-Like in my choices when he’s around (not Adult-Like as in Adult-Video-Like, just not “let’s make people out our salad parts” like).  So today he’s gotten to enjoy Gingerbread French Toast for breakfast (which someone could not comprehend that it wasn’t Gingerbread Men Toast, but ate it even though it lacked the form of a homo sapien) and Two-Color Nachos for lunch – not too shabby.

Last week, as I said, went fairly well.  I got some definite “mmmm”s from the Cheeseburger Pizzas and the Pumpkin Soup from the Hubby.  The Midde Man ate his weight in Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes.  The Littlest One decidedly does NOT like pancakes.  And only likes waffles as a vehicle for getting sugar-free syrup to his dainty, petite shrieking mechanism.  Joyous.  I switched out the Sweet Potato Enchilads for Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos and have found a new happy place for my belly.  Must make a batch for the freezer.

This week we are enjoying a selection from Mollie Katzen’s Honest Pretzels.  And honest to goodness, I’m going to try to make her preztels. Wish me luck:  yeast and I aren’t often on speaking terms.

Monday:  Gingerbread French Toast, scrambled eggs, apples; Two Color Nachos, peaches; Tomato Soup with Crunchy Croutons, Grilled Cheese, applesauce

Tuesday:  Corn Muffins (with leftover rhubarb from a coffee cake I made for WBF), scrambled eggs, apples; Pita Spirals, pretzels, raisins; Torn Tortilla Casserole, salad

Wednesday:  Smart Cookies, yogurt; Grilled Cheese and Broccoli, blue corn chips, banana; Not-From-A-Box Mac’n'Cheese, veggies, applesauce

Thursday:  Leftovers; PB&J, apples, string cheese; Leftovers

Friday:  Yogurt Pancakes, cheese, bananas; Turkey & Cheese rolls, apples, veggies; Honest Pretzels, pepperoni dipping sauce, raisins

Saturday:  Brunch and Lupper with folks

Sunday:  Leftovers; Leftovers; Cinnamon Waffles, bacon, applesauce

I think I’m ready for the weekend already . . .

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As I type this, both boys are asleep.

!!!!

I know!  And we didn’t even go anywhere or have any extraneous activities today!  Well, at least the little tykes didn’t, unless you call being forced to go outside in the cold to get some fresh air because THERE’S NO PRECIPITATION ENJOY IT!!! overly tiring.  Which they did.  Since they came in five minutes after being sent out.  No worries:  they were sent back outside to learn to endure. Just call us the Suburban Wilderness Training Facility.

So, my week of meal planning is coming to a close.  I would say it’s been fairly successful!  Foods were sampled and found wanting, which I expected, but many foods were wholy consumed.  None of the recipes were fairly complicated or time consuming.  JJ was able to watch or at least supervise on the counter (getting out “his” knife to chop up an onion:  takes a while with a butter knife, and it’s a bit of a squishy process that’s soon abandoned).  Abe was able to smear these foods in his hair and then fling them off of his tray just as easily as with the other foods.  We’ve had leftovers that have been eaten; we haven’t had to slog our way through too much of anything (nothing like two people trying to put away a lasagna:  oy, that’s a heavy week).  And I still like my kitchen!

I’ve even planned out food for next week:  gasp!

I’ve also implemented something else into my weekly regime:  exercise.  Yes, yes, I’m back on the Leslie Sansone wagon, walking away my pounds.  I’m finding I exercise more when it’s not my goal to exercise, as in “hmm, it’d be *nice* to exercise, but that’s not my goal this week.  My goal is meal planning:  everything else (exercise, implementing a cleaning schedule, intentionally parenting my children, etc.) is just icing on the cake – or the overnight coffeecake that I’m preparing tonight.  It’s not a “have to”:  it’s a “get to”.   I’m sure many of you wonder why things have to be so complicated; some of the people who live in my head wonder that as well.  If they ever learn to agree, it could be a fantastic, or fairly frightening, thing.

So:  two goals this week – meal planning, exercise.  One intentional, one kinda subversive.  Like exercise saying to meal planning, “Take that!  I’m a priority, too!  Thbththht!”  Poor, overlooked second child.

Like the poor second child in my house, who has learned to take his shrieking abilities to a new level.  Now With Ear Drum Shattering Abilities!  Able To Infuriate All Other Individuals In Seconds Flat!  All Without A Blink Of An Eye!  For Three Easy Payments Of A Tub of Cottage Cheese And A Banana!  Directions:  look at said creature with a hint of anything other than adoration, or have said creature come within touching distance of another short genetically-similiar creature, and the piercing sirens begin.  To turn off:  bark, “USE!YOUR!WORDS!” and expect a look of scorn that would impress an adolescent male, or flick the mouth, to which shrieking turns to sobbing and anguish.   Which is less deafening, but more Grandmother-sympathy-inducing.  Weigh your options carefully.

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A brief moment of silence:  one child has returned to school, another child has a pacifier in mouth since he’s (I’m) not ready for a nap until the return of the other child, and Rick Steve’s show about Wales and Scotland is winding down.  Time for a breather.

When the family and I descended upon my parents, my mother asked me if I had any goals for the week.  My thoughts:  sketch out potential garden ideas for the summer; explore the realm of home organization.  I did neither.  Well, Mama sent me home with a gardening book, and I’ve been reading blogs about home organization and emergency preparedness.  But as with so many New Year’s resolutions, I find it hard to move from the prep stage to actually implementing anything. My life is kinda like a Food Network show with all the bowls prepped and stations ready, but lacking that Dynamic Personality to whirl them into something “oh so delicious and tasty!” (as JJ likes to comment about his bagel pizza with the cheese and pepperoni taken off.  Yes, that would be a spaghetti sauce bagel:  yum).  I think I get hung up on the whole Dynamic Personality to mix and create:  I’m looking for the Next Food Network Star, but in reality just need a short-order cook to come kick me into gear:  something’s gotta be better than nothing.

So I did move from planning to doing in one realm of my life:  meal planning (and I wonder why the food illustration came to me so readily? ).   JJ and I were gifted a Kids in the Kitchen cookbook at Christmas time.  Technically it came in *my* stocking, but I shelved it with the rest of the kids books in hopes that JJ would find some recipes he’d like to try that would expand his palate beyond bread and cheese . . . or just bread.  Of course, the first recipe he came upon that we tried was a candy cane parfait – not necessarily the odessey of flavor tasting I had in mind, but it was a start (short-order cook, short-order cook).

On Sunday night I realized I hadn’t been on a real grocery shopping trip in about three weeks.  The last time I forged to the store, I had to drive through ginormous snow potholes to find out that the store had no eggs, practically no bread, but an abundance of non-professional shoppers wandering the isles, particularly those who required the use of the really slow and really wide scooter grocery carts that cannot be easily passed.  It was not pretty.  So, having gotten past that experience (mostly), I started crafting a list of food stuffs.  Then I realized, hey:  I could actually be intentional about this.  I mean, some people plan out their meals every week!  And grocery shop to that!  And stick to it!  And actually know the answer to, “What are we having to eat?” beyond, “I dunno:  bread?”

I’ve tried to meal plan in the past, but my Next Food Network Star always gets in the way.  “Let’s make it ethnic!  From different countries each night!  And healthy!  And low-carb!  And from all these cookbooks!  With lots of ingredients!  That will only ever be used in this once dish, but now you have an entire bag full of corriander seeds that you’ll never ever use again!  And keep it within a budget!  And make it oh so pretty and appetizing!  And local!  And organic!  And under thirty minutes!  And . . .”  Finally, on Sunday night, I slammed the dressing room door on my little NFNPrimadona and let in Vinnie, the short-order cook.

Vinnie cooks from one cookbook a week:  less choices create less of a deer in the headlight situation.  This week, since it’s Vinnie’s first week and all, Vinnie is cooking from one children’s cookbook.  The recipes are simple; the children can participate; and Vinnie can get a lay of the land.   And Vinnie’s already thinking ahead, planning on using recipes from this site for the next week:  a little more variety, but still very kid-friendly, which also helps the kids get to know Vinnie and not throw food back in his face (which he minds less that the NFNS:  her feelings get hurt quite easily).  We want everyone to be friends:  please.

This week’s menu looks as such:

Breakfast

• French Toast Sticks
• Pancakes, cheese
• Jam Muffins, eggs
• Leftover breakfasts (it’s Bible Study morning:  only time to throw food down the hatch in between getting dressed at the breakfast table)
• Banana Split Surprise
• Overnight Coffee Cake
• Leftover breakfasts

Lunch

• Cheesy quesadillas, apples
• Bagel pizzas, carrots, raisins (missed out on the other stuff:  JJ had friends over.  Well, the big kids got pizzas, and the little kids got raisins, so it all evens out)
• Grilled cheese, pineapple
• PB & J, banana (lunch in the car on the way to school:  must be portable and known to be acceptable)
• Tortilla roll-ups, Cream Cheese Fruit spread with fruit
• English muffin pizzas, applesauce
• Leftovers

Dinner

• Fiesta Nachos, salad, bananas
• Spaghetti pie, applesauce, bread
• Baked mac’n'cheese, green beans
• Leftovers
• Chicken Bites, Baked Fries
• Chili (slow cooker, just cause I’m craving it), bread
• Waffles (potentially a Sunday-night tradition:  start the week off carb-happy)

It’s not totally well-rounded, but Vinnie learned a lot of chefing from his whole-grain relatives, and he’s making substitutions.  You would think it’s an easy transition to make for the little people, but when you wake up each day to PB&J, even something like French Toast Sticks can be hard to stomach.

I would let you know how we’re doing, except that Vinnie has inspired Abe to do his own chefing which consisted of throwing the full cat food bowl into the full cat water bowl, and I have a bit of washer-girl duty to put in:  sigh.

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So the past few days, I’ve been a little manic in the kitchen.  I used to be part of a meal swap but stepped back for a bit in order to look at what it means to eat glocally.  But now we don’t have yummy freezer meals to prepare, and I don’t seem to remember this until a few minutes before the Hubby gets home, plus my creative spark is just gone.  So this weekend I cooked.

I’ve made:

• applesauce in the crockpot
• beans in the crockpot
• moroccan lentil soup in the crockpot with beans from the crockpot
• applesauce bread with the applesauce from the crockpot (can’t link:  I actually got that one from a cookbook – gasp!)
• applesauce muffins from (see above) (but with whole grains and no frosting)
• blueberry muffins
• amish puffed cookies with butterscotch chips
• amish puffed cookies with white chocolate chips (because the Hubby thought the flavors would be better)
• sausage and bean casserole with beans from the crockpot
• a triple batch of waffles
• a triple batch of pancakes

Some of these things were consumed; most were frozen.  And yet, my itch still hasn’t been satisfied.  But after running the dishwasher every day (and having the last load not really clean because I got a little too creative with my stacking so the Hubby graciously hand-washed everything), I’m thinking it’s time to lay down the kitchen utensils.

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So y’all know I dig baking.  Lately in the evening JJ looks at me and says, “Bake cookies?”  How can I say no to that?

I really enjoy baking cookies.  They’re quick, they smell good, and people make yummy noises.  Cakes are finicky, pies are messy, and bread — well, bread has that whole “living thing called yeast” in it, and the yeast *knows* if you’re scared of it (which I am).

But I’ve had issues with oatmeal cookies.  They spread with these nasty clumpy oats all over the place.  Or they’re a lump (she’s lump, she’s in my head), and nobody makes yummy noises for lumps.

This evening, however, I’ve found a winner.   I’m simply linking to the recipe instead of copying because a) Little A is sleeping and therefore I should be, too and 2) I’m lazy.

But, in typical Dren fashion, I did change a few things.

• No orange peel – too messy.  I used a dash of orange extract.
• I used three extra large eggs instead of four large eggs (when Freddies has a buy one/get one free coupon on eggs, you don’t question the size:  you accept and make due)
• No pecans.  Not that I wouldn’t enjoy adding them.  But others in the home are not fans of nutsinfoods.  And we’d best keep the peace, especially since the cookies are packed up to go to his work tomorrow.  Plus, I don’t have *real* pecans (i.e. from Georgia):  my southern relatives (living and dead) would not allow anything less to enter their abodes, so neither should I.
• I used white chocolate/chocolate swirled chips with a few white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips thrown in.  Oooh, living on the edge.

Enjoy!

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So a friend keeps posting yummy pumpkin recipes.  And I can’t be left out of the foodie bloggy goodness!  I’ve made this recipe for a couple of friends recently, including my mama and her friends who were getting away for a little coastal vaca action this weekend.  Apparently it was a big hit, and these women have very discerning palates.  So here’s the recipe, and I’ll add my variations, because y’all know about me and recipes:  they’re just a “guideline with room for interpretation”.

Downeast Main Pumpkin Bread

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7×3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

VARIATIONS:

• Okay, so I substituted grape seed oil for the fat.
• I used 1/2 brown sugar, 1/2 white sugar – about 2 1/4c. total.
• I’ve thrown in vanilla because, hello:  vanilla is yummy!
• I’ve substituted white whole wheat flour to give the illusion of “healthiness.”
• I’ve made it with dried cranberries and put a sugar/cinnamon topping on.
• I’ve also poked holes in the top and drizzled caramel sauce on.

Mmmmm:  pumpkin goodness.

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This week I made eight lasagnas. Correction: in two days I made eight lasagnas. True, I made five on Thursday and three on Sunday – needed the time in between to get back to my innate non-domestic nature (“I’m at home with the me. I am rooted in the me who is on this adventure” – name that flick. You win no prizes other than my admiration, cause man, that’s a great flick). But still: eight. That’s a lot. No, it’s not a lot if you run a food business or are an Italian grandmother or work the lines at a grade school cafeteria or are part of a church “hey! Great idea: let’s have an Italian dinner night and recruit all of our hardest church volunteers who are already too busy to come slave away in the kitchen so that they’ll be too tired to enjoy this feast that really they need the most” dinner night.

It’s that time of the month again: Meal Coop Time. These past 30 days I’ve spent pondering what my next Kitchen Attempt would be. Initially I thought quiche: eggs are always on sale at Safeway, it’s easy to make if you use the Bisquick blender recipe, but then the doubts started to creep in: it’s not healthy (but man does it slide down easy), and does quiche freeze and reheat well? So in typical Dren fashion, I freaked out, scrapped the idea, and turned to an official make-ahead and freeze cookbook. But not just any make-ahead and freeze cookbook (I’m picky, can you tell?), but the make-ahead and freeze cookbook from the experts: Cooks Illustrated. I mean, they made 35 batches of mac’n'cheese to get the best one you can make ahead. I’m trusting them.

A recipe for Mushroom and Spinach lasagna jumped out to me. It could be that it didn’t have meat and would be a little easier to make. It could be that they only used mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses instead of ricotta, and those cheeses just *happened* to be on sale. It could be that the last dish we had in the freezer from the coop was a lasagna (but totally different – meat and ricotta – traditional – yummy), and I was mentally trying to figure out when it would be consumed before the onslaught of food happened on Monday morning.

It’s so weird to shop and think, “Nope: can’t buy it. Need more room in the freezer.” Or to contemplate, “What should I make for JJ’s meals? Let’s first look in the freezer.” Yes, we could purchase another freezer, and I’m working on that: one thing at a time, people. Simply learning to cook in mass quantity is enough: rearranging JJ’s room to put gear into Half Pint’s room that we’re also rearranging is enough: pulling stuff out of storage in the garage to put in Half Pint’s room so that the garage now looks like a burglar came in and ransacked it but with very discerning tastes against clothes bigger than 0-3 months and baby gear advised for use only by older babies is enough: rearranging the rooms so that I can rearrange the garage so that I can find room to put in a freezer will come in time.

So on Thursday I embarked on making the lasagna. Now, this is why I am dumb.

• I haven’t made this recipe before.
• I haven’t ever made a lasagna before.
• I have bought enough ingredients that I’ve committed to the recipe.
• I’m hormonal and have a contorting belly the size of a small moon.

But this is why I am smart.

• I didn’t make the sauce from scratch. They said I didn’t have to, so I didn’t.
• I bought pre-grated cheese.
• I did not embark on a meal that required a lot of vegetable cutting (see aforementioned hormonal/bulbous belly and add in loose joints that drop everything and can’t unscrew the lid of the jelly jar (or any jar) after Hubby uses it).
• I only made two lasagnas at first.
• I did it during the morning when I’m at my most optimist/rational/Miss Congeniality self.

But this is why I am dumb.

• Because the first venture went so well, I decided to make three more lasagnas that day.
• In the evening.
• I ran out of pre-grated cheese and decided using the two pound blocks I had would be a good idea.
• I hand-grated them.
• Because of the grating, I could no longer open up jars of sauce (I barely could anyway), but because I’m German/Irish/Scottish, aka stubborn as hell, I tried. And I hurt my hands.
• I grated my thumb knuckles. Yes, that would be on both hands.
• I spent so much time on my feet that my knees swelled to the size of my thighs: I was like a life-size Lego figure, but with a small moon under my shirt.
• My husband was downstairs the whole time and could’ve helped. But I didn’t ask (again, see aforementioned German/Scottish/Irish comment).

So, after a wonderful massage from my Hubby and a rest from my kitchen, I returned to the stove/assembling station on Sunday. Preshredded cheese had been purchased, Hubby opened my spaghetti sauce jars, and I managed to whip those suckers out in about an hour. It almost took that long to rearrange my freezer to fit seven lasagnas in the small space. Yes, seven – not eight: there are eight families in the meal coop including us, so I made a lasagna for our family. Because if I was doing all that cooking, why not do more? Because if I was making meals for others, why not for my family? Because there was no more room in the freezer. Because if it was horrible, I could always bring gift certificates to Papa Murphy’s to the exchange on Monday morning.

Last week we finished Beth’s yummy lasagna. On Saturday we had a meal with friends: manicotti, chicken and pesto pasta, and salad. Sunday we ate some of the lasagna. That brings us to today: a freezer full of glorious, wonderful, ready-to-go meals. . . . except that my gut has had it’s fill of real food and just wants eggs and toast for dinner. Sad, isn’t it?

So, no more cheese: no more sauce: it’s time to come off of the flavor train for a little bit and re-engage in my college/single/first three years of my married life lifestyle – nothin’ but snackin. But feel free to come over if you’re hungry: I have lots of yummies that all fit into my freezer (barely).

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