Eats & Treats: Weekly Menu, Mother's Day Brunch

Happy Mother's Day! 

Somehow I learned that to love people you feed them (in my family?? NEVER!), and my standards means I usually cook. I once created a new tradition for Christmas day in my family by being SUPER!Broke and giving the gift of Quiche for brunch. Since then, as I'm not a fan of Quiche, we have a tradition of me cooking the main dish for Christmas morning (usually french toast casserole AKA a less-sweet bread pudding). Everybody looks forward to it, and the gift giving becomes a lot easier.

Along a similar vein, Mr. Moon and I decided that rather than a drab card or just a phone call, we would like to do something special for Mum. My family usually takes one grandma and my mom out to brunch, but we decided we'd rather cook ours.

What was on our menu? Waffles (we have three waffle makers, it seemed like a good idea to USE them); quiche "of some kind"; biscuits & sausage gravy; ham; fruit salad (no whipped cream dressing--I'd never heard of anyone even doing that until Mum asked about it!). Notice anything missing from the table? Oh yes, that would be biscuits and gravy because I realized the menu had gotten excessive. Those biscuits will be baked for breakfast one of these days and I'll make gravy later.

How did it go?
The waffles came out great! Lots of leftovers for non-HFCS breakfasty goodness later.
*Tip: One batch of Bisquick batter would have been PLENTY! for four people. Noted.
Fruit salad was supposed to be cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, and watermelon. No dressing. I was disappointed in how un-ripened the cantaloupe was, dry and not-sweet, so it got a honey-lemon dressing. For which I promptly forgot the lemon. *ahem.* Anyway, I also got the kiwi and strawberries added when I realized we had plenty of fruit for all of us and didn't need to add the watermelon. So that will be for later in the week!

The goal for the quiche was for a vegetarian dish, since we'd be having meat elsewhere. I didn't want to cop out on a quiche lorraine. I also know I tend to make that dish somewhat more difficult than it needs to be, so I reined myself in. Sliced mushrooms, julienne onion, and garlic scapes with some shredded aged white cheddar. It was AWESOME! I went heavy on the seasonings in the egg batter, lots of nutmeg and mace and paprika, and even me the quiche-hater enjoyed the bite I tested. Also, thanks to Pillsbury Dough Boy for the pie crust because I am NOT a baker! (Eggs don't count as baking even if they're cooked in a pie crust in the oven. ;)

Ham was simple, a little orange juice in the pan and a little honey on the skin (which was pointless). Sausage also simple, slice roll into patties.

Mum was delighted, Mr. Moon got the quiche he's been asking me to make for the last two years, and Pops got the ham he loves so much. I was happy that everyone else was enjoying their meal, and didn't feel too bad about the sugar & carb overload because a) it wasn't even too bad; and b) holidays don't count.

---------------------------------
But What's For Dinner This Week?

The 'Rents are headed out of town on Tuesday at O'-Dark-Thirty in the morning, so Mr. Moon and I have the house to ourselves. All our usual "Oh Shit" meals are pretty well tapped out, and we got a good deal on meat last night on our way home (while needing to purchase another Oh Shit meal!) so we're stocked up on meat products (we each picked up a pack of pork ribs and steak that I still need to get frozen and labeled by owner). Pops teased me that we were probably going to put steak on the menu every night of the week they're gone. It was tempting...

But our focus this week is to save some money & time on not going out for groceries, and eat through some freezer stash so we can get to defrosting the freezer soon. Thus, the TV dinners & pot pie & hot dogs. Chili is from the last batch I made and froze into bags, so we'll heat that up and add some taco meat -- also frozen -- to eat off for a couple days. Those hot dogs will be chili dogs, and one of my favorite foods is chili nachos.

Mr. Moon is going to work through some of the stashed lunch meat on sandwiches, and we're going to try to get through as much of the stock of Mum & Pops' fresh veggies as we can. We actually don't have much in there -- just some green beans and tomatoes, a little cabbage and lettuce, and maybe a couple cucumbers, oh and I guess a few bell peppers and jalapenos (that doesn't seem like "not much"!) -- so we may make a run out later in the week for a few fresh veggies as needed but now that's kind of doubtful.

All in all, I'm enjoying the menus we've been putting together. Taking the decision-making out of the equation once I'm already hungry (which means I'm usually sick to my stomach by that point) means I actually manage to eat most meals every day. Planning lunches helped IMMEDIATELY with our budget because we kept buying stuff FOR lunch and then getting Mr. Moon halfway to work before we thought to eat it. Thus, fast food trips, and moldy bread and forgotten bagels and rotten lunch meat.The last two weeks have been much better, and I even managed to make myself lunch twice, without it being because I was feeding someone else!

Cross-posted to Menu Plan Monday!
---------------------
What are you cooking this week? Any fun vacation plans in the works? Did you do anything fun for Mother's Day?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Food Storage: Dry goods and Freezer goods, all in one day!

DUDE! Get On That Already!: Making a DIY Pot Rack

Menu & To-Do list: Sept 30-Oct 7