Frozen Foods

Hi.

It's been really cold here.

Our homes and infrastructure and deregulated power grid are not made for this, so it's late and I'm sitting in the living room with the fire roaring, our heat turned down to 60, everything but the TV unplugged and off, and everyone snuggled under blankets watching Star Wars.

We've played Scrabble by firelight, held a blow dryer on our kitchen pipes for 3 hours to thaw our sewage line (and the pool equipment, and Landon's bathroom pipes, and... my blow dryer has been used on my hair about four times since Covid began but has been the real MVP of the great freeze), and pulled Maggie out of the fireplace so many times it is clear she has absolutely no survival instinct at all.

I have a full post pending - we've had a family quarantine, Valentine's Day fun, snowpocalypse adventures, and more, but it's late, we're conserving energy and I still need to convince Maggie to go poop in the snow before bed.

DFW is suffering along with the rest of Texas in these epic cold temps, but we have been so fortunate to retain power through it all. Our annual trips to Colorado meant we had snow gear and sleds and we've been making the best of these chilly stir crazy times, while getting frequent updates from friends and family elsewhere in the state without power and/or water.

Desperately hoping everyone gets access to power and water soon. In the meantime, here's the menu I meant to post last week and keep looking up in my drafts folder to refer to this week:

Fri: Meaty Spaghetti (my easy meal when everyone is hungry and I'm scraping the back of the fridge; cook ground beef in diced onion and garlic, drain, add a big jar of marinara sauce, extra oregano, basil, and garlic salt, splash of heavy cream, and cooked/drained whole wheat spaghetti- mix all together and serve with parmesan); Field Greens Salad with Apples and Beets (and crumbled goat cheese, candied pecans, and homemade balsamic vinaigrette).

Sat: Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, I used store bought apple chips and pre-grilled chicken, made my own candied pecans, and added cooked farro and it was SO good. (Thanks to Shu for this recipe link!).

Sun: Valentine's Day Pot Roast, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots. (The kids were going to make us dinner, and still will one day soon, but with the freezing weather I decided having something cooking in the crockpot would be ideal and it was cozy and wonderful as always.)

Mon: Chicken Rice Casserole with extra rice, broth, and a bag of frozen mixed veggies. (This was solid, but nothing amazing.)

Tues: Bean and Cheese Burritos (with canned refried black beans instead of homemade pinto; all rolled up and lined in a baking dish, topped with a bit of sour cream and cheddar and baked for 20 mins at 350), avocado on top, frozen mixed vegetables on the side. (These were great!!)

Wed: Smoked Sausage, White Bean and Spinach Soup, served with homemade crusty bread.

Thurs: Baked Feta Pasta, with pasta and tomato cream sauce for the kids.

Fri: Homemade Pizza (still loving this Detroit Style, so might do that; or go simple with this recipe for the crust and everyone making their own).

Sat: Sunshine Citrus Avocado Salad, with grilled salmon (assuming we can get to Costco by then).

Sun: Oven Jambalaya, green beans, cheddar biscuits.

Mon: Italian Chicken Soup, extra beans and veggies, bread.

Tues: Beef Tacos, rice, beans, toppings. (I have a late witness interview, so James and the kids will be pulling this together after lessons end.)

Wed: Greek Chicken Wraps, roasted potatoes, naan, extra Greek veggies. (Same; I'll assemble the salad during lunch and someone will bring me a plate to my desk at dinner time).

Thurs: Birthday Dinner!, desperately hoping for mild weather and nachos on a patio, but takeout will work too. What's important is that I will not be cooking.

Fri: Pizza?, probably. I'll have conducted four witness interviews that week, including one on my birthday, so we may actuallybe crazy and order pizza from a restaurant- who knows!

Stay warm everyone,