Slowly trying to get into the groove with cooking again.
My current goal is to lessen/eliminate food waste and go meatless and less meat for some of the meals, but hopefully not compromise protein intake and flavor. I did this frequently when we lived in the Keys and food was so expensive. I realized early on it was an easy money-saving step. Current bird flu projections make it seem like it would be a good idea, just in general, to lessen my contact with meat anyhow.
Night 16 - I bought a 4 pack of chicken Italian sausage at Aldi's the other day without a real plan for using it. It looked good to me. I made sauteed sausage, then added an entire bag of spinach to the same pan to wilt. I served this with cubed oven-roasted potatoes (just seasoned and oiled and roasted on a pan at 375) and with sauteed mushrooms and onions. I also steamed some frozen green beans and made a green salad. I only had a couple tablespoons of mayo in my Duke's mayo jar so I threw in some ranch seasoning, a splash of milk, and some sour cream to make a quick dressing for the salad.
Even accounting for roasting the potatoes this meal only took about 30 minutes to make. If you cut your potatoes into small enough pieces you can roast them very quickly, probably even faster in an air fryer, but I was making a LOT of potatoes, so I used my full-sized oven.
The sausage was good, maybe a little on the salty side. There were only 4 sausages in the packet and 4 of us, but I cut the sausages into circles and there was plenty for everyone. Between the green beans, the sausage, and even spinach there was plenty of protein in the meal and it was tasty as well.
Night 17 - If you ever find yourself with stale corn tortillas, I highly recommend making your own tostada shells or chips with them. For tostadas you simply heat some oil (an inch or two in a skillet) and get your tortillas in there, allowing them to lightly brown on both sides. Place them on a paper towel-lined plate and immediately sprinkle with salt. For the tostada topping I cooked 1 pound of hamburger meat with chopped onions and bell peppers, once those were cooked through I added a can of drained black beans. I seasoned everything with taco seasoning and topped the tostadas with the meat mixture, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream. This took about 25 minutes altogether. I defrosted my hamburger meat in the microwave as I fried my tostada shells. When I freeze hamburger meat I place 1 pound into a quart-size baggie and smash it down to a thin even layer. Then I freeze it flat in the freezer. They defrost very easily and evenly this way, I can even cook them from frozen if I am making a crumbled application like taco meat or spaghetti sauce and time is very short.
I am writing everyone I know in Florida about the congressional races happening on April 1st. Josh Weil and Gay Valimont are running in the 6th and 1st congressional districts, respectively. Trying to get out the vote for them.
1444 dinners to go.
#KeepGoing
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