What we ate: June 23-27

Monday

leftover-from-Sunday Thai-barbecued chicken and pork loin, salad, bread

(PE ate at a friend's house.)

Tuesday

TA had braces tightened that afternoon, so we ate soft food.

refried beans (pintos mushed up with oil and fried garlic), guacamole, soft (pressure cooked) white rice

What PE ate:

soft rice with raisins and pecans, slice of provolone cheese, fresh peas, strawberry keifer

Wednesday

PE had a friend over for dinner who is as picky as she is, but who will eat any kind of breakfast food.

Two main dishes: 

• For girls, M and friend's mom: omelets with sausage, fresh chives and Swiss cheese, garlic bread

•For D (who had eggs that a.m.): sausages with sauteed broccoli and garlic, thin spaghetti, garlic bread

vegetable side for omelet: broccoli (some set aside from other dish) with sauteed celery

Thursday

leftover spaghetti turned into Asian-peanut noodles (adding mushrooms, matchstick carrots, chopped zucchini and tofu, and served with soy sauce-peanut sauce)

What PE ate:

matchstick carrots (set aside, uncooked), noodles with shredded cheese, fresh tofu 

Friday

cheese foccacia with basil, calzone (with mozzarella and salame), sauteed spinach with pine nuts

What PE ate:

calzone, peas

What We Ate: June 16-20

Monday

leftover (from Sunday night's dinner) Mexican pork tenderloin, refried beans, tortillas, frozen spinach sauteed in olive oil with pine nuts

What PE ate:

quesadilla, peas

Tuesday

multi-pizzas: 1 small foccacia; 2 ham-swiss cheese calzone; medium 2-cheese pizza with homemade tomato sauce; frozen green beans

What M ate:

PE ate 2-cheese pizza but M. couldn't eat any without any goat cheese handy, so she stir-fried some broccoli and chicken breast with garlic and soy sauce

Wednesday

We went camping...and ended up eating out when the campfire went out

Thursday

(after getting home late and tired...)

marinated chicken breasts (which didn't get cooked Wed. night), broiled; sliced zucchini dipped in cornmeal and fried; gnochi

What PE ate:

Trader Joe's chicken potstickers; peas, tofu chunks

Friday

Double-duty dinner: PE had a friend over--they wanted a "breakfast supper." They had:

scrambled eggs, toast, baked sausage, orange juice; later, for dessert, fruit salad

The rest of us had:

sausages sliced up, linguine with tomato sauce (leftover and frozen from Tuesday's dinner), salad, fruit salad and cookies for dessert

What We Ate: June 9-13

Monday

This is the first day we can't remember what we had--we know it had something to do with plain sausage and spicy sausage... PE ate the plain

Tuesday 
Another power outage... dinner started on the stove and then left unfinished as we scrambled to find a restaurant with power

Wednesday
pasta primavera with leftover, cut-up chicken breast (and any vegetable hanging out in the fridge, including broccoli) -- this was going to be dinner on Tuesday

What PE ate:
noodles with cheese, chicken, green peas

Thursday

foccacia - one pie with shredded mozzarella (half with sausage and fresh tomato, other half plain); one pie with goat cheese, tomato, dried basil; tomato-vegetable soup with sour cream; green beans.

What PE ate:

part of half-pie without tomato, carrots

Friday

frozen/thawed out/frozen spaghetti sauce with black olives, on thin spaghetti; leftover foccacia; leftover green beans

What PE ate:

foccacia

2-Minute Ranch Dressing

[I mentioned making ranch dressing in one of my "What We Ate" posts but now I can't find it. Someone asked me for it the other day, so I'll give it its own post. As I said in that post, if you make your own yogurt and always have it on hand, making your own ranch dressing is a logical step since you already have half of the main ingredients.]

Note: equal measure here means one-half cup, one cup, etc.

• equal measure of yogurt (any kind) or buttermilk or sour cream (if you only have it and don't mind it being rich)
• equal measure of mayonnaise (any kind)
• few sprinkles of dried garlic powder (you can use fresh garlic, but it will have to be used right away)
• squeeze of lemon juice or a little vinegar, to taste (you'll need more vinegar if you use sour cream)

Other possible additions:
dried onion powder
dried or fresh chives
herbs, like fresh or dried oregano or basil

Make it in a measuring cup so you can measure, stir and pour from the same container.

When you've used what you want right away, put in a glass jar for the fridge. Depending on how much vinegar you added, it will stay fresh for a couple of days, sometimes longer, but it's best to use up within 5 days--so don't make much more than you can use quickly. One-half cup portions usually works for us.

Once you see how easy this is to make, you'll wonder why you were spending $3 for a bottle for store-bought--and this way, you avoid the MSG.

Tip: This is an easy thing for kids to make and they like to experiment adding new flavors each time.