7 Quickish Takes - Second Friday in Lent

1.

In an effort to wean Jill off asking for chocolate every time she goes number two in the toilet, I got these Sunmaid mini-snacks.  Teeny tiny boxes of raisins.

She got so angry when Edmund tried to tell her that raisins come from grapes (and are not chocolate), that I plummed a vintage Sesame Street clip from my own upbringing to explain it to her. She's watched it ten times at least.



2. I'm sharing this Meatless Meal Stand-by (Old Faithful) again, so I can hop on the Lenten Meal Plan Link-Up.

Lemon-Pepper Pappardelle with Tuna and Capers

All the three ingredients are non-perishable items, unless you want to get fancy with freshly chopped Italian parsley.

one 8 oz. package of lemon pepper pappardelle, cooked according to package directions
two 7 oz. can of tuna in olive oil, undrained  
lots of capers

Mix all ingredients.
The end.

All you have to do is boil pasta.  Open one can (The olive oil gets dumped in too.) and one jar and you're done! 

It only serves 4 or 3 of my pasta-loving people, so I have to triple it.  You can only get lemon-pepper pappardelle at Trader Joe's, as far as I know.  The Chef has made it with regular pappardelle, a drained can of diced tomatoes, capers, olive oil and garlic and no tuna, because he's my pickiest eater.  He likes to complicate things.  

I think it's fine served all by it's lonesome, or it's nice with a Caprese Salad and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  I recommend the Kim Crawford.

3. 

I finished knitting this lace shawl last night!   Technically, I have to complete the last row and cast off, but we are nearly there.  There are only one to three mistakes on average in each row of the lacy part.

I learned the hard way that I can knit tired in front of the tv if it's Once Upon a Time,

but not if I'm trying to watch/listen to Endeavour or Foyle's War.  Those Masterpiece programs are too engrossing.

I'm on Ravelry, an idea exchange site for knitters, crocheters, and other textile/fiber arts peoples.  Only recently did I realize that I am supposed to CONTRIBUTE my projects, patterns, etc. to Ravelry.  I have only been using it for my own selfish purposes, such as getting the pattern for my Leila at Like Mother, Like Daughter inspired shawl.  Imma try to change my wicked ways.

My next project is this baby cardigan in this yarn.

I love Debbie Bliss yarns.  They are so cumpy.

Cumpy is a word coined by Peter when he was wee small.  It means snuggly-comfortable.

I think we should incorporate cumpy into the English language.  We say it all the time around here.

4.  Don't miss my giveaway of ALBACFC aka A Little Book about Confession for Children by Kendra Tierney.  Rafflecopter away right here. And don't forget to check out the other literature-loving bloggers' book reviews!

5.  Did you read Dwija's fashion piece this week?  I politely disagree with #3.  Crisp woven tops keep me from feeling like a stuffed sausage casing.  However, I heartily concur with #1, long cardigans.  Not too long though.

I just got this jacket from Destination (The Only Bricks and Mortar Store in the US that is Dedicated to) Maternity.  It's sort of like a cardigan, but more of a super-trendy-classier-than-a-hoodie jacket.  I may or may not have worn it every day this week.  It matches every single one of my solid long sleeve uniform tees from Old Navy.  Unzipped, it hangs just right and looks tres chic.  I never zip it, mostly because they only had a size small in the store and it's a bit snug zipped.  It makes me feel verry fancy.

If you order online, don't forget to go through Ebates for free cash money!

6. I spent 75% of my grocery budget last week at Ulta.  I'm an expert at rationalizing things like $75 for four Clarisonic brushes is way better than spending $25 for one Clarisonic brush. Plus Ulta has those reward points, so every time I shop there, it's like I'm printing money.

I needed mascara.  I have long blonde eyelashes, and I love Bare Minerals Flawless Definition mascara. Flawless Definiton doesn't gum up my eyelashes like thickening mascaras do.

Also, I can wear the NOT waterproof formula and I don't get raccoon eyes by the end of the day.  Not waterproof mascara is important so I can easily remove those rows of tiny dots on my upper lid after I put it on.  #longeyelashproblems

It makes total sense that if I'm going to spend $20 on mascara, I might as well spend $39 and get this whole One Hot Mama kit.  Money well spent, because I love everything in it:  the blush, the gloss, the under-eye-brightener, my mascara, and now Jill has a new bag for her princess dolls.

For meals, I cleaned out my deep freeze and served that turkey I bought way back when, a frozen lasagna, grilled chicken breasts on a bed of Friday's leftover quinoa, peanut butter crackers.  This week I did the right thing and spent the money at food stores like I'm supposed to.

7.

Before I went grocery shopping, I de-gunked my entire refrigerator.  I magic erased all those weird red and blue skid marks off the walls and I scrubbed the dried olive juice off the door pockets.  It wasn't too difficult since it was nearly empty anyway.  Oh! And I threw away everything that expired in 2013.

No one can consume this much feta before the exp date.

Why do I buy industrial size containers of feta?  Why?

I'm counting this as part of my 40 Bags in 40 Days, even though the only "donations" were to the garbage man and the recycle bin.

Hopalong to Jen and Conversion Diary Rodeo and check out the ladies behind the Lenten Meal Plan Posse too.

7QT: Opan Lenten Style

1.  Peter realized on the eve of Ash Wednesday that Lent is ACTUALLY FORTY DAYS, if you don't count the Sundays (because every Sunday is Easter, yada yada yada).

He told me this amazing fact in a state of wonder and disbelief.

But, Mom, I counted the days on the calendar, and it is EXACTLY forty!  Does this happen every year?

Peter has gone to Catholic schools for thirteen years, and is supposedly ready for college.  He even did well on his ACT and SAT, where I guess "How many days are actually in Lent?" is not part of those tests.

I thought it was hit or miss, like some years it's forty-two days and some years it's only thirty-seven. Whoa!  HOW DO THEY MAKE IT EXACTLY FORTY EVERY YEAR?

You could hear the sound of his mind blowing up at least two doors down.

Yes, all of my children are blonde.

2. One of my more popular posts about Meat Fridays, ironically (did I do that right?  That's ironic right?) included another mind-blowing fact.

Bone broth is not meat.  Chicken broth, beef broth, these items are not considered meat.  When you're making vegetarian minestrone tonight and realize you don't have vegetable broth, don't worry.  Broth is not meat.

My resident expert explained it like this:

Basically, in the 1917 code (of Canon Law) you could not eat soups made from meat. A revision to this part of the law happened in 1966 but omitted the phrase on soups made from meat. Under canon law this is called derogation and the part of the former law that is omitted in the new law is no longer binding.

This is in Canon Law, folks.  Or rather, it ISN'T in Canon Law.

3.  Nowhere in the rules does it state that you can only have clear liquids on a day of fast.  

I don't know where some people got this crazy notion (Mom), but you can have liquids between meals, whether or not they are clear. If your liquid is a glass of milk or an opaque Guinness, you're just as good as the person who is drinking iced tea or Bud Light or water.

If you choose the Guinness, you are getting less calories than if you chose skim milk or orange juice, and less alcohol than lots of other beers, but I digress.

Canon law, as it written today, does not mention clear or opaque liquids.  Canon law DOES refer you to your own diocesan rules.  My diocesan rules specifically state that liquids including milk and fruit juices are allowed.  My diocese makes no reference to the opacity of the liquids.

4.

Looking for meatless meal ideas?  I can give you some good ideas here (the bulk of my ideas on the topic), here (if you're near a Trader Joe's, this is a good one), here (meatless and gluten-free migas), and here (Potato and Egg Tacos and Spicy Quinoa with Kidney Beans, Corn, and Lime).

I bought a Ninja Blender sometime in the last year, and I've been very impressed with the small cookbook that came with it.  Here is a list that links to lots of soup recipes from that book, and most of them are meatless.

5.  We were listening to The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, when I heard for the very first time that the 10 plagues sent to Egypt were in direct correlation to 10 ancient Egyptian gods!

Peter probably already knew this and would make sarcastic remarks about my mind being blown by something so obvious, and it is!  But seriously, did you know that the plague of darkness is for Ra the sun god?  And the plague of boils is for Isis the goddess of healing?  Google it.  Lots of sites have charts for this.

6.

The Prince of Egypt is streaming on Netflix right now.  We watched it a few weeks ago for our Ancient Egypt Unit Study, but Jill wanted to watch "the Moses movie" again this week when she was ill.

And she wanted me to watch it with her.

How could I refuse my poor little pneumonia baby?

I forgot what a great movie it is and for once, the critics at Rotten Tomatoes agree with me mentioning the "stunning visuals" and "first-rate voice cast."

I think the songs are superb.  Definitely not the ear worms you get in Frozen.

It should definitely be part of this list of our Holy Week movies.

The story of Moses from birth until leaving Egypt is fairly accurate.  There are some scary sequences when Moses realizes what happened to all the other baby boy Israelites the year he was born, and also that last plague is very grim, but Jill wasn't phased.

Jill loves the parts with the baby in the basket and the wedding.

I like the parts with Moses and the burning bush, the wedding, and the jaw-dropping parting of the Red Sea scene.

7.  My favorite part about the Prince of Egypt movie is this song:

especially this line, "A man's life isn't judged by what he builds or buys..."

which gave me great comfort in the wee small hours on Ash Wednesday when I had a freak-out and wrote this:

Waking up at 3:18 am.  Wondering if I'll ever catch up on my photo albums.  Wondering if the basement will ever be clean.  Wondering if Edmund will ever go to high school.  Wondering where to put the new baby's dresser.  Wondering why I am so durned hungry at 3:18 am on ASH WEDNESDAY!  I had banana cream pie last night for crying out loud!

Wondering if Jesus will share some of my workload.  Wondering which of my worries is actually even worth worrying about because I read somewhere recently, probably a FB meme, that a man's life isn't judged by what he builds or buys but look at your life through heaven's eyes.

Wait.  Googled it.  Not a meme, but that animated Prince of Egypt movie from way back in 1998 that Jill made me watch with her when she was sick.

I think Jesus is trying to tell me to screw the scrapbooks and the basement and go eat some night cheese.

Linking up with Jen and the cool kids.

7 Quick Takes Mostly About Food

1.

Apparently last week was Doughnut Week!  And no one told me!  And I read ZERO blogs about doughnuts!  It's like I just missed Christmas or something.

Imagine me singing this.  Right now.



Fortunately, I follow @CatholicFoodie on Twitter and he linked to this piece about Spiced Banana Donut Holes on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.

Yes.  I said on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.  These donuts are made with whole wheat, so that makes them a health food.  They are also made with bananas which also makes them a health food.  Eating one of these is like eating kale.  But better.  Because it's a donut.

Don't like bananas?  Healthy. Delicious. also did a Salted Peanut and Honey donut recipe this week.  I can only imagine that Salted Peanut and Honey donuts taste like a Payday married a Krispy Kreme and they had delicious little babies.

2. Catherine at Catholic Mom Apologia linked up to my weekly What We're Reading Wednesday Virtual Bookclub, and mentioned that she read a borrowed book on Kindle.

WHAT!?!?

YOU CAN BORROW Kindle BOOKS FROM FRIENDS?

Did you feel that minor earthquake?  Like tectonic plates just shifted?

YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE A KINDLE TO BORROW OR LEND E-BOOKS!  You just have to have the free Kindle app!

So, I have a copy of Laura Pearl's Finding Grace that I would like to loan to somebody, because I really like Laura and everybody loves her novel.

I would also like to borrow somebody's Kindle copy of Rebecca Frech's Teaching in Your Tiara, because I'm new to this homeschooling thing, and my tiara keeps slipping down over my eyes when I'm demonstrating math on the dry-erase board.  My email is in the right-hand sidebar if you want to be a borrower or a lender.

3.  The Show 24, Pork Shoulder Roasts, and the Easiest, Most Delicious Dinner Ever.

Have you ever bought Pork Shoulder Roasts from Costco?

They come two to a vacuum-sealed package, and they are roughly the size of human heads.

Patrick and I have watched exactly one episode of 24 ever in our lives.  It was the episode where Jack is toting a human head around in a duffle bag.  I believe the part of the human head, may have been played by a pork shoulder roast.

I know.  I know.  Everyone says it's a great show, and normally not that gruesome, and that we should give it another chance.  One of these days...

Anyway, pork shoulder roasts, aka Boston butt roasts (which come from the shoulder not the butt, c'mon Boston butchers!  What the heck?), are very inexpensive.  They can also be very work-intensive.

It takes a lot of hours to cook one of these heads roasts, and you don't want to be off by an hour or two come dinner time.  Not around here.  You could lose your head.

I had a brand-new double-head package in the fridge and googled "easiest pork shoulder recipes."

This Pork Roast Recipe is what I found, and made, and Patrick said it was the best pork shoulder roast in the slow cooker that I've ever made.

Here's what I did:

Trimmed off some of the thicker pieces of fat, because there is a lot of fat on a pork shoulder roast.

Put the roasts in the slow-cooker.

Shook Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce all over the roast, about 10-12 shakes.

Shook some dry rub over my now wet roast.  I used Penzey's BBQ 3000 rub, but salt, pepper, and paprika would have worked just fine too.

Turned the slow-cooker on low for 10 hours.  TEN HOURS!

Approximately 9.75 hours later, I used a slotted spoon to remove the tender morsels of meat and put them on a cutting board where they shredded easily.  I removed some more of the remaining fat.  Poured a little of the de-fatted juices back over the now-shredded meat, and served a side of TJ's tortellini and a skillet Mexican corn salad.

We used the leftovers to make pork tacos, but they would work well with soy sauce over rice, or on a bun with barbecue sauce too.

5 and 6. That last take was not-quick, so I'm counting it as two.  I'm counting this quick take as two too, because it has two recipes in it.

Have you ever seen this 20 Meals from Costco for $150?

I've only made two of these recipes and both were vegetarian, and both were surprisingly good!

The Potato and Egg Breakfast Tacos are my Friday morning staple now, minus the apples, plus the salsa and cheese.

And last night, I made the Spicy Quinoa with Kidney Beans, Corn, and Lime.  Even my pickiest eater (Patrick) ate a big bowlful and said it was good.  He also said it could be better, if it had slices of grilled strip steak on top.

I ate my quinoa dinner with cotija cheese.  Susan doused hers with Frank's Red Hot.  Patrick sprinkled chipotle chili powder on his.  But the main thing is, we had no leftovers.  Except for Jill's untouched bowl.

7.  If you're not following me on Twitter or Instagram (see those cute buttons on the sidebar again), you're missing out on gems like this:

Which carried the caption:  Guess I'm not the only one around here with a bun in the oven.

Go see Jen and the more timely quick-takers.

Meatless Mania

A friend of mine started a Facebook group asking for meatless meal ideas for Lent.  However, I just gave up Facebook for Lent.

Just Facebook.  Not blogging or reading blogs or online shopping or Words with Friends.  Just Facebook.  Among an Easter basket of other assorted good intentions.  We'll see how it goes.

Since I cannot share my meatless meal planning with her on Facebook, I will share with everyone here!  Huzzah!  (One of my intentions is to use more colorful words like "Huzzah!" instead of the colorful words I usually use.)

Meatless meal planning at Chez Housewifespice is more involved because the Chef does not eat fish or cheese.*

*Unless the cheese is on pizza, in ravioli, in Nickson's Smoked Cheddar Grits, in pasta, or good parmesan.  He says he's allergic.  (eyeroll.)  Huzzam.  One of my intentions was not to roll my eyes at or about the Chef.  Flurbt.

So, here is a link to a good meatless pasta entree that I love, and I don't love pasta.  It's that good.  The smoky sundried tomato flavor mimics bacony goodness.  Plus cream.  I adore cream.

Also, on the menu this month is another one of these.

This one is for Mediterranean Herb Crusted Tilapia.  I can either wait for a night when the Chef is not home to make this, or I'll serve a side of gnocchi with it.  Costco has some delicious gnocchi, vacuum sealed, super easy to make.

I'll also try to sneak in an Asian Sesame Salmon.  I adore salmon.  If I could eat salmon daily, I would.  The Chef says it smells up the house.  I am NOT rolling my eyes here.

The Chef is a lost cause, but I have done an excellent job creating non-picky eaters.  With one exception.  Peter won't eat any fruits except apples and grapes.  And he'll eat strawberries, but if and ONLY if they are dipped in dark chocolate.  He says he's allergic.  Hmmph.

Maybe my kids' aren't picky eaters because we never do the jarred baby food thing.  Babies eat what we eat, just milder versions.  Everyone has to taste everything (except the Chef, no eyeroll).  If you don't like what's for dinner, you may have cereal, toast, or a peanut butter sandwich.  In Edmund's case, a soynut butter sandwich.

Once, Susan declared that she no longer liked Chicken.  Any Chicken at all.  Chicken nuggets, fried chicken, chicken piccata (The Chef's Chicken Piccata is divine), chicken noodle soup, chikin in a biskit crackers, you get the idea.

We did what parents sometimes have to do.  We ridiculed her out of it.  We use sarcasm and humor as parenting tools.  We laughed at her.  Then she laughed at herself.  Now, she eats Chicken.

Edmund tried the same thing with Soup.  He refused anything in the Form of Soup.  It didn't matter what kind of soup it was, if it was served in a bowl with a spoon, he wanted no part of it.  He was a little too young to appreciate mockery, so I did what any parent would do.  I ignored him.  I kept serving soup.  He eventually realized that either I was never going to make a separate entree just for him, or that we serve some fine soups and he was missing out.  Now, he eats Soup.

Back to meatless meals, I will make this at least once during Lent.  Cause it has Lent-ils.  Hee-hee.

Curried Lentil Burritos with Cilantro-Scallion Spiced Yogurt

Originally from Cuisine at Home April, 2005

This is a fabulous meatless meal, perfect for fish haters.

This recipe is written to serve 2 people, but I have tripled, quadrupled and quintupled it with great success.  You just have to know your way around fractions.  And since the magazine said it would take 45 min to make 2 burritos, the time lengthens somewhat for each tortilla you have to fry.  It’s a labor of love.

For the filling-

1 T. vegetable oil:

¼ c. onion, diced

1 t. curry powder

1 t. jalapeno, minced

1 ½  c. vegetable or chicken broth ( Chicken broth does not violate the meatlessness of the dish for Church purposes.  Just ask Catholic answers, or my husband.)

½ c. tomatoes, chopped

½ c.red potatoes, cubed

¼ c. brown lentils

1 bay leaf

½ c. frozen chopped spinach, or 1 c. fresh spinach

Juice of ½ lime

Salt to taste

Saute onion, curry powder, and jalapeno in 1 T. oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook until onion begins to brown.  5-8 minutes, stirring often.

Stir in broth, tomatoes, potatoes, lentils, and bay leaf.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until lentils are tender, 20-30 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare the spiced yogurt while lentils cook.  Finish lentils with spinach (if using frozen spinach, no need to thaw it first), lime juice and salt.

For the Spiced Yogurt-

1 c. cilantro leaves and stems

¼ c. scallions, sliced (white and green parts)

2 t. fresh ginger, chopped

1 t. sugar

¼ t. ground cumin

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Juice of the other half of the lime.

Salt and cayenne to taste

½ c plain yogurt (Please not the nonfat kind.  Eeewww.)

Process all ingredients except yogurt in a food processor until minced.  Stir herb paste into yogurt; chill until ready to serve.

For the tortillas-

1 egg

1 T. milk

1 T. chopped fresh parsley

10”tortillas

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Blend egg, milk, and parsley in a pie plate.  Heat a 12” nonstick skillet over medium high heat.

Dip the tortillas in the egg mixture.  Fry in 1 T. vegetable oil until golden brown on one side, about 1 min.  Flip.  Sprinkle with 1 /4 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese and continue frying until second side is brown, about 1 minute; transfer to a work surface.  Add another T. oil and repeat for all tortillas. 

To assemble the burritos, place ¾ c. filling on the lower third of each tortilla, then roll the bottom of the tortilla over the filling to cover.  Fold in both sides and roll to the end.  Serve with the yogurt ladled across the top and sprinkled with chopped parsley to look pretty.

Everyone loves it.  No fish, no eggs, and it's darn tasty.  Lots of work though.  

And my last meatless-fishless-cheeseless meal is Vegetarian Black Bean Chili.  This isn't my recipe.  I can't find mine for some reason.  But this recipe looks an awful lot like the one I use.  

I'd call my mom to get the original recipe, but she just had a hip replacement, so she won't be able to get up and find her copy, and my father and brothers are no good at that sort of thing.  I could wait until my baby sister gets home from school.  She's eleven.  Yes, I have an eleven year old sister.  Weird.  I know.  But I don't want to wait that long to publish this post.  Baby J is going to wake up any minute.

This recipe is especially like mine in that it involves lots of chopping.  Get some kids to do those parts.  Edmund loves to chop.  Edmund loves knives in general. Add some serrano or jalapenos to the skillet with the onions , if you like spicy things.  We like it hot here.  Don't let the kids cut the chili peppers though.  Of course, you already knew that.

Maybe I will get the Chef to make a guest post to share his Pasta Puttanesca recipe.  Don't google translate Puttanesca.  It's not a nice word.  But it's a good pasta dish with black olives and capers.  Capers are my favorite vegetable.  

Tonight I'm serving  Falafel Pitas.  I picked up falafel at Costco, when I went nuts for packaged vegetarian items.  I also picked up veggie burgers (in the kids' lunches today) and some spinach/chickpea patties that looked good.  I might try the spinach/chickpea patties in pan covered with spaghetti sauce and topped with mozzarella and parmesan.  Sort of a vegetarian Chicken Parmesan.  I'll let you know how it goes.

If anyone has a delicious potato soup recipe to share, I'm looking for one.  Or if you'd like to share how you meet the meatless challenge, I love comments.  And I'm off Facebook, so I'm sort of desperate for adult interaction.