I freaked out at Barny this morning about expired yogurt in the fridge.  I wasn’t mad at him for it, but I was angry that we let food go bad.  There is absolutely no reason for that to happen.

I’m the one that cleans out the fridge most of the time so I’m the one that throws away old deli meat that we never used, leftover fish that no one ate, and Pillsbury crescent rolls that were two months past their expiration date (3 of them).  Along with the crescent rolls that I threw away yesterday was the expired yogurt.  It was six weeks past its expiration date.  It’s yogurt that Barny loves. There’s no reason he didn’t eat it. It just sat in the fridge, never getting chosen for one of his snacks.  I’m not saying that it’s just Barny who’s letting this stuff go bad; I can eat these foods too, and just don’t. I would say, however, that I’m the one who really tries to eat leftovers.  I’ll take them with me to work for lunch the next day. With Barny, leftovers will just sit in the fridge, and he’ll make a sandwich.  Even if it’s a REALLY delicious leftover.

I shouted about it today, but then we were able to have a talk about it (although I was still quite excited, and probably appeared to be mad at him).  I really hope that our talk leads to us really trying much harder.  We’re getting half a share of vegetables from North Forty Farm in Townsend, so we really need to be cooking with a lot of vegetables. It bugs me when we go to pick up all our new vegetables, and we still have three cucumbers in the fridge from last week (and got two new ones!). So tonight, I chopped one up and ate it as a snack!

Barny and I already are getting pretty good about our food habits.  He’s been cooking every night, while I get to sit around and relax after work.  It is awesome, and I really appreciate it. To help out, I’ve agreed to plan the meals (he doesn’t like having to think about what to make).  We have a Google Calendar where I write our dinner menu, and it gives the name of the recipe.  He then goes into our Google Docs, and opens the document called “Recipes”.  It’s a spreadsheet of recipes that lists either the URL where the recipes can be found, or which cookbook to find the recipe in.  The ones we make, I write our rating (1-10).  Some we’ve made, a lot we haven’t.  I collect them using allrecipes.com, and my cookbook collection. On the allrecipes site, I sort the reviews by their ‘helpfulness’.  I then take the most helpful comments (e.g., ‘add more spices’, or ‘less lemon juice’), and add them as a “preparation note”.

Another part of our new dinner routine is sitting at our kitchen table.  It makes us talk, and it’s nice to sit across from each other every night.  It’s much better than sitting on the couch in front of the TV.  Barny has also been taking photographs of all of the meals, and wants to blog about it once a week.   We even had a contest with Maria to see which of us could take the best photo of our meal!

Oh, and we woke up early twice last week and Barny cooked a hot breakfast!

I really enjoyed the pizza, but my dad thought it tasted too much like bread, and not enough like pizza dough.  He liked his homemade pizza better, but he bought his dough.   So really… his wasn’t fully homemade, and mine was.  So there!

I put everything in the bread machine under dough cycle again, and it was a lot different than the Italian bread dough.  This was a LOT stickier and I had a hard time getting it out of the container.

Then, I had to scrape out all the stuff that was still left in the container.

Then I started to cover it with flour and knead it a bit, when I felt something hard.  “Uh Oh, What’s that?”  I thought.  Oh, it was the little spinny thing that is suppose to be in the bottom of the container!  (I got my camera covered in lots of flour taking these pictures!)

After the dough sat for a bit, I rolled it out and placed it on the pizza peel (the wooden spatula thing).

Then I decorated it with sauce, cheese, peppers, scallions, mushrooms, and some deli ham we had in the fridge (for my dad).

I mixed some cooked TVP with tomato sauce and added that to a portion for me.  My mom wouldn’t try any until we looked up exactly what TVP was.  It is soy.  Now she is “not afraid of it”  and will eat it more willingly.

Here is the pizza cooked!  The second pizza was in the oven at 500°, the first one was only in at 400°.  The higher temperature was much better.  I also brushed the second pizza’s crust with olive oil.  So which of these made the crust better?  My mom thinks it was the higher temp.  So 500° it is!  I really enjoyed the pizza even though my dad said it was too “bread like.”  I like bread, so I was ok with it.

I did make a HUGE mess in the kitchen, and got flour everywhere.  This was a very messy and time consuming dinner.  That was the only down fall.  Oh, and getting the pizza off the peel and into the oven was also tricky.

Homemade Pizza

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

1. Put all ingredients in bread machine following the instructions of the bread machine.  Flour is the second to last ingredient, and then the yeast is last.
2. After dough is done, separate into how many pizza you want.  I did two small ones, which was good cause a large one wouldn’t have fit on my pizza stone.
3. Once separated, leave the dough alone, covered for 10 minutes to let it settle.
4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, and form on the pizza peel (or a wooden cutting board, or a clean piece of thick cardboard.
5. Decorate pizza with toppings
6. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
7. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

I’ve been eating soup everyday for lunch lately, and I decided it would be best if I just made my own.  It would be healthier and more affordable.

Can of tomatos - $1.39 (the big 28 oz can)
Two cans of beans - $1.32
Pasta - $.32
One onion - $.34 (I’m guessing on this one)
Other ingredients - $.50

Total: $3.87  Makes 7 one cup servings.  $.55 per cup.  I eat two cups for lunch of the canned soup, but I’m not sure how much I will eat of the homemade.  Perhaps less soup will fill me up more.

The Market Basket cheap soup that I’ve been buying (cause it really does taste as good as Progresso) is $1.29 a can (16 oz).  $1.10 vs $1.29 sure isn’t that big of a difference.  But I was able to package up a soup for lunch tomorrow (I’m working at macy’s), I put two tupperware things in the freezer, each containing two cups, and then another cup is left over in a bowl in the fridge for someone else to enjoy.

Vegetarian Pasta Fagioli

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 2 (15 ounce) cans cannellini beans
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (or 4 teaspoons dried)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup ditalini pasta

1. Heat oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until onion is tender.
2. Add undrained tomatoes, undrained cannellini beans, broth, parsley, basil and pepper to pan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Let boil for approximately 1 minute and then let simmer for 10 minutes, covered.
3. Add pasta to pan and simmer approximately 15 minutes or until pasta is tender. Serve immediately.

Makes seven cups of soup.

The process in pictures:

Making homemade vegetable broth!  I used one vegetable bullion cube, some carrot slices, and some onion peel, and added it to a bit over three cups of water.

Straining the broth so I would only get the liquid.  Dylan was my photographer for this shot.

Adding the spices.

Glass of wine while the soup simmers?  Don’t mind if I do!

The finished product.

And a close up.

We were going to have lasagne Wednesday night, but when it came time to make them, I couldn’t find the noodles, and after I called mom, she told me that dad wasn’t coming home anyway, so she and I should just make a frozen Bertoli dinner we had saved in the fridge.  Fine with me… I was late making the lasagne anyway (cause I was at the gym).  So I tossed the frozen thing in the oven, and noticed that it was frozen into a big chunk, just like a lot of our other food.  Meaning, it had defrosted a bit and then refroze from us being without power for 12 days (don’t worry, I moved all the food we saved to a friend’s house who still had power).  So far, none of us have gotten sick on anything we’ve eaten (and I’ve eaten stuff that we left in the freezer and fully defrosted after 12 days).

Thursday night turned into lasagne night.  That last time I made lasagne, we invited over three friends.  The six of us were able to finish the entire thing, and anyone who’s made lasagne knows that they are huge.  With only three of us eating it on Thursday, I knew I didn’t want to make a full lasagne, even though in the past, I always make a huge one.  My mom says “We’ll have lasagne for dinner, and then again for the next four days.”  It’s depressing how huge they are, and how much we have left over.  We usually freeze some, but it still makes boat loads.

I decided to try something different.  I decided to make two mini lasagnes.

I placed two 8×8 pans next to each other, and so I wouldn’t confuse myself, I just said “Ok, just think of it as one big pan.”

(Don’t worry, I only added a tad bit of woolite, for that delicate clean taste)

This white pan wasn’t as perfectly square as the clear one, so I had to trim the lasagne noodles a bit.  At first, I had the trimmings discarded on the side…. but then I realized that they were noodles, and they’d cook, so I threw the little pieces back in.  The white pan we use quite a bit, so I cooked that one, so we’d have the pan for later use.  The clear pan I rescued from our lazy susan.  It was being used to hold onions.  I washed it, and made my second lasagne in it.  The onions wouldn’t miss the pan, and I knew my mother wouldn’t, either.  Into the freezer it went, not to come out until we were desperate for food and no one wants to cook.  I foiled the top, and added instructions on how to cook.  It wasn’t until later that I realized it would have to cook longer because of the whole frozen aspect.  Barilla online suggested defrosting it for 24 hours in the fridge, and increasing the time to 1 1/2 - 2 hours.  So this can’t really be a spur of the moment dinner to just toss in the oven out of the freezer (but watch me try!)

The lasagne in the white pan came out beautifully, and we still have some left over, and this was just HALF a lasagne.  Luckily, tomorrow is Saturday so we’ll all be home for lunch.  It will get eaten up real quick!

I’m very proud of my resourcefulness, and the fact that we have a whole lasagne left over!

For the recipe, I just used the one on the box of the no boil lasagne noodles.  Next time I think I will try something a bit more adventurous, and more homemade and doctored up.

Lasagne:

1 (9 ounce) box of barilla no-boil lasagne noodles
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) container semi-skim ricotta cheese
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 lb ground beef, browned
2 (27 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce

Preheat oven to 375.

In bowl, combine beaten eggs, ricotta cheese and two cups of the mozzarella cheese and parmesan.
Set aside.

In a 13X9X3 pan, spread 1 cup of sauce on bottom of pan.

Layer in the order, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles (they will overlap), then 1/3 part of the ricotta cheese mixture, half the browned meat (if using, I did not), 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1 cup of spaghetti sauce.

Next layer, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles, 1/3 part of the ricotta cheese mixture, and 1 1/2 c. sauce.

Next layer, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles, remaining ricotta mixture and remained meat, 1 cup of sauce.

For top layer, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles, remaining sauce, and remaining 1 cup mozzarella.

Bake covered with foil for 50-60 minutes.

Uncover and continue cooking until all the cheese is melted on the top (about 5 minutes).

Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

If you are using a pan that is only 2″ deep (like I was) just make 3 layers to avoid boiling over.  You will have 4 lasagne sheets left over.  Save them.  Once you’ve used three lasagne boxes, you’ll have 12 sheets saved up, and that’s enough for one more lasagne!

Here are the directions for using a 2″ deep pan:

1. In bowl, combine beaten eggs, ricotta cheese and two cups of the mozzarella cheese and parmesan.  Set aside.

2. In bottom of pan, spread 1/2 the sauce from one jar.

3. Layer in this order: 4 uncooked lasagne noodles (they will overlap), 1/2 of the ricotta cheese mixture, half the browned meat (if using, I did not), 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and then the rest of the first jar of spaghetti sauce.

4. Next layer, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles, 1/2 jar of second sauce, and one cup of mozzarella.

5. For top layer, 4 uncooked lasagne noodles, the rest of the ricotta mixture, the remaining sauce, and remaining 1 cup mozzarella.

Bake as stated above.

My practicum went really well.  I was there from 9am - 1pm.  We saw two clients for a whole intake assessment (50 minutes), and then another patient of my supervisor’s stopped in for a few minutes to chat about starting counseling again.  I just sat there the whole time, and observed.  I need to understand and watch the practice first, and then I’ll be able to do it myself!  I have to audio record myself in these sessions, and I need people who will allow me to record them.  That might be pretty tricky, and I hope I don’t have problems with it. But I only need to have three sessions recorded.  I need the first one by mid March.

I can’t go back tomorrow, because I have to babysit at 10:30 until 3ish (yay money!)  Unfortunately, my supervisor is going to Aruba on Thursday, and won’t be back until March 2nd.  I’ll have just under two weeks to get my first recording.  I can definitely do that!

After I was done at 1pm, I went home and had lunch.  Then, I went out to run some errands. I went to the Salvation Army, and didn’t find anything that looked good. Then I went to Michaels and I finally bought my yarn and needles for my afghan.  I bought size 50 needles, and the largest ones I have ever used in the past are size 13!

Here’s a picture of me with three sets of needles.  The blue ones are size 8 that were the first ones that I ever knit with (I made a scarf).  The pink ones are the biggest I’ve used in the past, and the huge red ones are the ones I just bought.  They’re called “Speed Stix.”  They’re so large that it makes knitting go faster.  But the afghan will probably be holey. But I think that’s what makes it an afghan.

I’m so excited to get started!  I have eight skeins of yarn that I have to roll into balls (it makes it easier to knit with).  The total of all my stuff came to $43 (I bought a cute pack of note cards for $1 - they have an ‘R’ on them and they’re blank inside).  I had a gift card that I got from Dylan for Christmas, and I figured I’d just front the rest in cash.  After the gift card went through, I only owed $3!!!  Dylan had gotten me a $40 gift card!!!   I called him to thank him, and told him I was able to buy everything with the card. Yay Dylan!

I stopped at the library and picked up 5 books.  One of them is Angels and Demons, which I want to read before the movie comes out in May.  I’ve heard from many people that it’s much better than the DaVinci Code. I think the other four are all memoirs.  I’ve like to read memoirs lately.

On to dinner!  I used the Sloppy Joes recipe that I got from the Low Iodine Cookbook.  My mom and I both give it 5/5 stars.  It is SOOO delicious.  Absolutely amazing.  I ate it on one hamburger bun, open faced, and doubled up on my meat.  It was so messy!

Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef or turkey or Quorn (beef only for LID)
1 small chopped onion
1 small chopped green bell pepper (cut really small)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup (to make it LID compatible, use no salt ketchup)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Combine first three ingredients in large skillet. Cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble, scoop the fatty water out of the pan with a spoon.
Add rest of ingredients to skillet and mix. Simmer 15 minutes.
Serves 4-5.

You know how good it was?  It was so good, I licked my plate clean.

Megan and I have a history of licking our plates, especially if there is pie involved.  I’ve gotten in the bad habbit of doing it even when there is no pie involved.  I physically had the plate up to my face, licking it with my tongue.  I was in the middle of talking to my mom, and she didn’t even flinch.  I think she’s used to it, too.

Dinner with Larry (the veggie pot pie) was great!  I did all the work myself, and made the veggie pot pie, mashed potatoes, and a mixed green salad with spinach.

I modified a chicken pot pie recipe.  Here it is:

• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas   (or four cups of any vegetables)
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine all the vegetables. Add water to cover and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the same saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Slowly stir in the broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.  Remove from heat and set aside.
   
4. Put the bottom pie crust in the pie pan, dust with egg whites, and cook for 5ish minutes.  (this makes sure it isn’t doughy) - do this step while the liquid is thickening
   
5. Mix the vegetables into the milky liquid. Pour entire mix into pie dish. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush with egg whites.
   
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes (on a cookie tray to prevent spills), or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.If the broth and milk isn’t thick enough, the pie will come out wet and will be hard to serve.  It will still be delicious, and will thicken once it cools a bit.  To make a chicken pot pie, cut vegetables to 2.5 cups, and one pound cut chicken.  Add raw chicken to the vegetables, and boil all for 15 minutes, instead of 10.  You can then also use chicken broth.  Four cups of vegetables would be good, and any kind of vegetables.  Even a bag of mixed frozen vegetables would be great.

We ate the entire pot pie!!! After dinner, we had to admit to Larry we didn’t have anything for dessert.  I mentioned that we had ice cream in the freezer, but we didn’t have any chocolate syrup or whipped cream.  I got out my computer, and found a super easy recipes to make chocolate syrup! (I had to cut it down, the original recipes served 32!)

* 1/4 cup cocoa powder (not sweetened)
* 3/8 cup sugar (3/8 cup = 3 oz, a bit under 1/2 cup)
* 1/16 teaspoon salt (half of a 1/8 teaspoon)
* 3/8 cup water
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

I got out some frozen strawberries we had in the freezer, defrosted them in the microwave, got out some peanuts, and we cut up a banana.  We were able to make banana splits!  We thought we had no dessert, but we ended up having a fabulous homemade dessert.  The chocolate syrup came out great.  It was a fantastic meal.  All aspects.  Plus, my dad did all the dishes!  That’s one thing I love about cooking, no one ever expects me to do the dishes!

Look at the empty pie dish in front of my dad!  That bowl with the red in it are the strawberries!

This was my bowl of ice cream.  It’s a bit messy, but it was yummy!

_______

In non-food news:

I applied to be a substitute teacher today for the Fitchburg Public School system.  I think I should also apply to the other two local towns, Lunenburg and Leominster.   Being a sub would be good hours for me, and I’d still have time for class, and to do my practicum.  I would also get very good experience working with kids.

I think I have decided that I want to do my internship with hospice (working with people who are going to die within 6 months).  I would be able to work with a wide range of clients.  Elderly who are dying and their families, and also younger people who are dying and their families.  Possibly even children who are dying, or working with young children whose parents are dying.  I think that it would be extremely hard, but I also think it would be extremely rewarding.  I think I will learn a lot about life, and about death.  There are hospice places in Leominster and Fitchburg, but I think I should venture out to Worcester.  It would be neat to work in a new community, and perhaps I will be motivated to go out after work.  Also, I definitely won’t have money to pay for an apartment to live anywhere else.  I need to stay living at home, and save all the money I possibly can.  I had to pay my Visa bill today (for my tuition bill); it was $1700.  I am just now starting to freak out over money.  The good thing is that I haven’t been buying anything lately.  My only expenses are gas (but barely), car insurance ($150 a month), and my cell phone ($60 a month).  I need to make at least $250 a month to break even.

I would like to go tomorrow to buy yarn for the afghan I want to knit.  Yarn is on sale (still $4.50 a skein, and I need 8 of them!) at Michael’ s Craft Store, and I have a gift card.    This is the afghan I want to make.  I like the colors, but I will make it without the fringe, because I read reviews that said it was annoying, and frayed a lot.

I am slowly getting things done.  I finally clearled out my magazines and put them in the recycling.  And of course, another Marie Claire arrived in the mail today.  D’Oh!  I got my oil changed this week, only 3,000 miles late!  D’Oh!  I cleaned my room up and bit (and completely made my bed - I never do that!).  I still have two piles of trash that need to be cleared out, including a hair dryer that I broke, because it fell off my bed one too many times (I would fall asleep with it at the foot of my bed, and kick if off). It was slowly breaking in half, and I kept having to push it back together.  Things would rattle inside, but it never caught my hair on fire.  This last time, it made a horrible noise and I smelled smoke, so I unplugged it and threw it in the trash.  I vowed to not buy another one, because we have two other hairdryers in the house that I can use.

I also want to rearrange my room.  It feels like time.  If I do, I’ll be sure to post before and after shots.

These are all little things, but it feels good to accomplish things.