Dinner This Week - 09.28.14

Last week included a trip out of town for work and a trip out of town for fun so dinner plans were nonexistent. This week is a little crazy in our world, too. Monday is my sorority meeting. I'm super excited to be back advising the professional sorority of which I was in as an undergraduate student after a break. Sigma Alpha is a tremendous opportunity for young women with a heart for agriculture. I'm even more excited that for tomorrow night's sisterhood event, they opted for yoga! I need it this week. :)

Tuesday is a big work day. The Nebraska Department of Roads is building a bridge about 2 1/2 hours from the office with a lot of innovative technology meant to reduce the time and cost of building a bridge on a low-volume road. I'm hosting an open house for roads professionals at the construction site. In addition, we are broadcasting a live web cam with time lapse photography that has been a bit of a headache this week. Fortunately, we installed with time to fix before too much happens on-site.

The middle of the week is quiet, which is good as Friday is a licensure exam for my job ... a six-hour exam with a six inch stack of study materials to go with it.

The rest of the family's schedule is normal this week except that harvest is ramping up and and G is starting to get busier at work, too.

Dinner this week will hinge on our ability to plan and execute! Here goes ...

Sunday

Beef stew with fresh potatoes and carrots, garlic bread, watermelon, and apple crisp

Monday

Dinner out!

Tuesday

Breakfast for Dinner - Scrambled eggs and toast or French toast or Apple pancakes

Wednesday

Grilled bacon-wrapped sirloin filets, grill-roasted broccoli, fruit, and garlic bread

Thursday

Greek chicken, veggie TBA, watermelon

Friday

Dinner out!

Saturday

Sausage, potato and green bean skillet dinner and fruit

Leftovers Refashioned - Ham and Beans over Cornbread

The plan posted on Sunday went a bit awry this week. The grocery store trip did not yield many of the items on the list from the ad ... one of the consequences of shopping after the deli and meat counter are closed near the end of the ad week. (I also see that I left Wednesday blank which is OK, I guess, since I think I had Cheerios for dinner that night.)

One of this week's improv dishes utilized a leftover meaty hambone from the freezer and some pantry staples. For cornbread, I use my store brand mini-box that goes on sale for 2/$1. To dress it up, I'll add a cup of shredded sharp cheddar or another strong cheese.

Ham and Beans over Cornbread

• 1 meaty hambone left over from previous meals. I store mine in the freezer for future use. If frozen, I always thaw before slow cooking.
• 2-4 cans low- or no-salt beans ... I used one can of black and a can of great northern.
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tbs. worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves pressed, grated or minced garlic
• 1/4 c. dehydrated onion flakes
• 1/2 c. beef broth

Combine all ingredients in a sturdy Dutch oven over medium heat on the stovetop. Allow to simmer until the sauce thickens and the ham bits slide easily off the bone.

Remove the bone and discard. Remove any bigger-than-bite-sized chunks of ham and chop or shred into smaller pieces. Return ham to mixture. Serve hot over prepared cornbread.

You may notice this isn't hot or spicy. To bump it up a notch, include red pepper flakes or your favorite hot sauce.

Dinner this Week - 09.14.2014

Fall is upon us, well, at least it has been. Temperatures in the fifties late last week but predictions are back up to eighties by the end of the week. We are going to start making the transition to cool weather foods while enjoying the last few weeks of CSA.

Sunday

Chili and cornbread

Monday

Barbecue ribs, baked beans, potato casserole and grapes

Tuesday

Chicken nachos, homemade guacamole and pears

Wednesday

Thursday

Dinner out

Friday

Chicken and noodles, CSA veggies, and pears

Saturday

Spaghetti with CSA veggie sauce and garlic rolls