Week in Review

This might be the month in review; April has gone so fast.  First there was spring break and then 2 feet of snow.  It was just so surreal.  However this past week has been a fun one and really quick; the beautiful weather helped too.  Last weekend it was mother daughter weekend for my daughter's sorority.  It was so much fun to go down over night and enjoy some really good food and time with my oldest girl. She'll be home soon for summer.

This past week for lunch I tried a new recipe for a chick pea salad sandwich.  Okay, it really didn't work well as a sandwich because my bread at school fell apart, but as a salad it was nice change of pace.  

For a wet and rainy Friday snack my middle daughter and I stopped at our favorite coffee shop.  It was after 5 p.m. so I thought it might be nice to have a glass of Pinot Noir, and we split a maple scone.   Nice way to start the weekend.

We also went to Bizarre after Dark.  This was a new thing for me, lots of food trucks, street entertainment and a few bands.  We weren't quite dressed for the weather otherwise we would have stayed longer.  However I did have a really good 5 way chili burrito.  

And of course what weekend would be complete without some baking. I tried a new recipe for biscotti from Dorrie Greenspan and changed it up a bit.  My new creation was cinnamon mixed nut biscotti.  

Hope your week and month was as good as mine

 and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Are we done yet?

Well this weekend had the worst snow in April history for Northeast Wisconsin.  We broke records left and right.  The snow started late Friday night and finally stopped Monday morning.  Most of the time the wind was hollowing too.  I had never seen anything like it. I felt like I was living the Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The small mound by the door is my small Big Green Egg and the larger mound is the XL one. 

Selfie I took by one of the medium sized mounds after a parking lot had been plowed out. 

 Luckily I decided to go to the grocery store on Thursday after work; so we had plenty of food. So of course I decided to try out a new recipe, roasted red pepper and feta muffins.  So I didn't have all of the ingredients, but I added some sun-dried tomatoes to my muffin and the cheese was a mix of feta and chèvre. Actually it was a great way to use up leftovers.  I decided to pair it with tomato soup.  I had leftover tomato sauce I had made for meatballs last week so I knew I could use that to start and some kale pesto that would be great in it too.  To my pan I added another 14 oz can of tomatoes, 14 oz can of chick peas and salt and pepper.  When it came to a boil I just used my immersion blender to make a great soup.  I have 2 more days worth for school and enough muffins too.

Kale pesto

Hope your weekend wasn't quite so snowy.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth

What I ate this week breakfast and lunch

Well I decided to keep a journal of what I ate this week like many other bloggers have done. I love reading about what others are eating for inspiration.  At first I thought I'd include all 3 meals, but honestly I always forget to take pictures of dinner.  Maybe that should be a goal for the next blog post or maybe the next month.  As I've said in other posts I really try to streamline my work week by making a breakfast or lunch that lasts for the majority of the week.  Well that wasn't the case this week.  I decided with the large amount of leftovers from the previous week I might eat some of them too for lunch.

Monday breakfast: Granola that I made for last week and never finished.  I topped it with baked apples and Siggi's plain yogurt.  If you haven't tried Siggi's please do. It's lower in sugar than most yogurt and has a great thick texture.  I like it way more than Greek yogurt. Oh and of course the obligatory cup of coffee.

Monday lunch: Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup.  I topped it with peanuts and sour cream. I also had a small bowl of pineapple and water to drink

Tuesday breakfast:  My favorite avocado toast with a sunny-side up egg and coffee.

Tuesday lunch: leftover vegetable soup and a piece of sourdough bread. I took my leftover broccoli and cauliflower, added chicken stock brought it to a boil and pureed it with my immersion blender.  I topped it with olive oil.  I didn't take a picture because it really doesn't photograph well.

Wednesday breakfast: repeat of Monday with the last of the baked apples.  So now I have a little more room in my refrigerator.

Wednesday lunch: The last of the sweet potato carrot soup and pineapple.

Thursday Breakfast:  I ate the last of the pineapple, hard boiled egg that I made the night before and sourdough toast with ricotta and homemade apricot jelly and of course coffee.

Thursday lunch: leftovers of confetti spaghetti casserole and braised celery that I made Tuesday for dinner.

Friday breakfast: My daughter made an Indian dish of tomatoes and okra and homemade wheat bread.  So I had that with a hard boiled egg.  I always need a bit of protein and of course my coffee.  

Friday lunch: left over chicken tetrazini from Thursday night. My recipe has mushrooms and celery in it so I didn't bring an extra fruit or veggie.

I hope this post has inspired you a bit for a weeks worth of breakfasts and lunches. 

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

March Round Up

Well I have no real reason for not posting recently.  It's not like the weather was so wonderful that I was outside everyday after school, but maybe I tried to be.  This month included our family's spring break; my eldest who is in college was also home.  So spring break meant a little get away to one of my favorite places, Door County. I took this picture at Fish Creek as you can see it was still quite cold, but it was sunny and nice to get outside.  This trip also included at walk in Peninsula State Park and some attempts at finding new coffee shops.  Unfortunately many places were closed  since we were there during the week.  However it's always nice to get out of town, sleep in and take some relaxed walks.

What happened in our kitchen?  Well my husband had a great idea of trying to make fried perch at home.  This is something I have fallen in love with, but I can't find just a perfect restaurant for the meal.  However I can't take the credit here, he nailed it.  The fish was still light without being greasy.  I served it with a quick salt and vinegar coleslaw, my pickled corn salad from the summer and roasted potatoes.  Delish!

Further kitchen adventures included huevos rancheros from the Cookie and Kate blog.  I served mine with all of the toppings, yes to the avocado and cheese. I would highly recommend this recipe as a nice fresh change of pace to your breakfast routine.

As for wine, we found an inexpensive source for a new house wine, Meridian chardonnay.  If you haven't tried this brand it's a very easy to drink chardonnay with almost anything. And at most stores it runs under $10 a bottle.

Bon Appétit and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth