Have you ever had
Otherwise, we cooked at home if you can call me relying heavily on pizza, pasta and tortillas with cheese cooking... I'm ashamed, and I promise to be better, Mom!! This laziness caused us to have more food waste than we've had in a while. We threw away some produce, a few moldy pieces of bread but this I was kind of sad about:
I don't like buttermilk. I really, really don't. Makes me cringe just to think about it... But one of my girlfriends gave me an absolutely addicting killer recipe for creamy cilantro dressing (I'm yet to track the original recipe but this one sounds very similar). I cooked Mexican for a little get together with my sis' and best friend's families, so I doubled the recipe, and it was a hit! But it required only about a cup of buttermilk. Unfortunately, the closest store was completely out of the smaller containers (my luck!), so I had to buy the whole quart... of stuff I don't like... I was planning on making some pancakes but a week later more than half of the box of rancid stuff went down the drain...Yep...Silly me...
But I'll try to do better this week and, actually, stick to the menu. That's what planned so far:
Mon.- tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches (OK, not healthy but I was doing laundry all day!!)
Tues. - steak, steamed spinach and broccoli
Wed.- turkey tacos (bumped from last week)
Thurs. - Asian-inspired salmon, couscous, stir-fry
Fr.- cabbage and bean soup, rolls
Sat.- dinner with friends
Sun.- meatballs, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli
And what's on your menu this week?
EWWW, I hate buttermilk too. I keep a container of dry buttermilk powder in the fridge or just make some with milk and lemon juice for recipe's
ReplyDeleteI need to buy some dry stuff just in case too...
DeleteLena, instead of buying buttermilk, make your own by adding vinegar or lemon juice to sour the milk :) I have a killer recipe for Buttermilk Banana Bread that is the best I have ever made over the years. Here is the link to it: https://sites.google.com/site/northofwiartonrecipes/buttermilk-banana-bread
ReplyDeleteYour recipe sounds delicious, Cindy! I definitely need to make it!
DeleteI never feel like cooking. It is a big effort to get over this every time so I can really relate to your mood this week. As you probably know, buttermilk freezes well.
ReplyDeleteNo, I actually didn't know! That proves it how rarely I use it :)
DeleteThat is totally how my week has started. :) it is okay - we all have those weeks. For the buttermilk, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and then pop them in a freezer bag when you cannot use it all...because really who can!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know. I had no idea it was freezable...Duh! :)
DeleteGet ahold of some buttermilk powder next time. It keeps forever and will avoid the food waste issue.
ReplyDeleteOr make a red velvet cake or pancakes with the leftover buttermilk. ;-)
My mother use to chug the stuff...loved it! It makes me queasy just remembering that. lol
Ugh, it makes me queasy to read about it. The stuff is NASTY!
DeleteMy mom who lives in a Senior Lodge drinks buttermilk daily and if she doesn't drink it she likes to put it on her cereal... I am in the "don't like it" category but I do love to make Big Batch Bran muffins with it... Original Recipe is called Ice Cream Pail Bran Muffins in my family... that was back when a gallon of Ice Cream was really a gallon.. then Metric came in and the pail wasn't big enough for the recipe. LOL
DeleteI have had weeks like you have had....more often than I would like to admit.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried making your own buttermilk with milk and vinegar. I never buy buttermilk because I can't stand it, but when a recipe calls for it I make my own since it is usually only 1/2 cup or less.
That's what I usually do but I didn't want to mess up the recipe, that's why I got the real stuff...
DeleteI get into what I call 'cooking ruts' also. My menu plan doesn't always work out the way I plan it- sometimes I don't feel like carrying it out as I planned it or circumstances dictate it to be done differently. I just try to be easy-going about it and go with the flow. If something on my menu doesn't get cooked, I carry that meal into the next time I plan. It does stink though when stuff gets wasted- I've had that happen too. :(
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your meal plan this week sounds great! My mouth is now watering for meatballs- haha!
Usually I follow my menu plan about 90% every week. It's rarely 100%. I just try to use up what needs to be eaten. But last week it was more like 30%, and I don't have an excuse :)
DeleteYou know... I'm right there with you on the buttermilk. I dont even like milk, and the only milk I use in cooking is evaporated milk. I had found this recipe I was dying to make, which was a spinach lasagna thingy, and it required buttermilk. The smaller containers were way too big for my needs, so I googled an alternative, and people said to use cream (half and half), and it worked like a charm. Cream can be obtained in much, much smaller packages, and even then, I think I had to throw away some of the cream because it's not something I use... still, a lot less than what I would've had to throw away had I used buttermilk. I'll never know of the flavor difference, but it worked for me!
ReplyDeleteHuh, it's good to know! I don't think, cream would work for my recipe but it's nice to know next time I'll make spinach lasagna.
DeleteI think cooking has alot to do with what we feel like making! If my heart isn't in it, it doesn't turn out. My kids used to say I didn't "make it with love".
ReplyDeleteButtermilk is expensive and goes bad very quickly! I only use it in recipes. Here is a recipe to make your own when need-be:
BUTTERMILK
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup vinegar (or lemon juice)
Stir, and watch it thicken.
TIP: ***** This is good for cooking/baking. If you are a buttermilk drinker, you will not like this taste. You should buy buttermilk at the store.
Yes, that's the recipe I usually use. But I wasn't sure if it would work in this dressing recipe, that's why I got the real stuff. By the way, I can't leave comments at your blog for some reason :)
DeleteLet's just blame this on February, that is what I am going to do with all of my problems right now. It is the fault of February.
ReplyDeleteHuh, sounds like a plan :)
DeleteI found a site where you pay a small amount and you are sent menu plans, shopping lists, and assembly instructions with the idea that you spend an hour once a week preparing 5 meals for during the week. As I have never done any meal planning before I thought I would give it a try. You could send in your email and get a sample menu. I decided to sample the classic menu and our meals for this week are as follows:
ReplyDeleteMonday - Crispy Pork Chops (with mixed vegetables & green salad)
Tuesday - Monte Cristo "Sandwiches" (served with strawberries and strawberry preserves)
Wednesday - Slow Cooked Honey Sesame Chicken (served with rice & broccoli)
Not sure which we will have on what day but the last two meals are:
Broiled Steak Bites (served with baked potatoes & green beans)
Black Bean Enchilada Casserole (served with sliced avocado & green salad)
For the chicken meal we had tonight we forgot the sesame seeds and I forgot to add a cornstarch/water mixture to thicken it up, but it was still good. I didn't buy strawberry preserves as I wasn't sure if it just meant strawberry jam. It was still very good, but I think having something to dip it in would have been nice. For the Monday meal we forgot all about the salad until we were finished. I am liking it so far. We are done dinner so much earlier! Not sure yet if I will pay to continually receive recipe's or if we'll just figure it out on our own, we will see.
I wonder if this powdered buttermilk would work.
ReplyDeletehttp://practical-parsimony.blogspot.com/2014/01/saco-cultured-buttermilk-blend-powder.html