How to be efficient and gluttonous in one meal

At the beginning of every week, I take a peek into my fridge and make a mental note of all the "must eat soon" foods, and try to plan my meals accordingly. This week on the list is a pack of bacon we bought this weekend and didn't finish. Unfortunately I don't know a lot of bacon dinner meals, so I had to figure something out. Yesterday I defrosted a steak, but I didn't wind up eating it, so I figured that should probably work. You can put steak with bacon right? (Like a cheap knock off of a filet mignon?) So I fried up the bacon (my vegetarian roommate was amazed at how much fat comes out of bacon considering no oil was added), and threw in the steak and some Montreal steak spice. Yup, I fried the steak in bacon fat. =D I also made some pasta which I decided to fry as well (my mom used to fry pasta in butter to make it crunchy) .... so the pasta went in with the remaining bacon fat and steak juice. I know, it's pretty gross, but LOOK how many uses I got out of the bacon!! I also used the same water for pasta cooking and broccoli boiling... so all this came from 1 pot and 1 pan. I know frying with bacon fat and steak juice may sound disgusting, but I totally have no regrets. This tastes awesome. Also, check out how pretty pictures are on my new camera!!

So to summarize,

Efficiency = reusable bacon fat and boiling water

Gluttony= having all your food covered in bacon fat 

Pure satisfaction = eating this meal

Hopefully the elliptical will take care of the rest...

Squash anyone?

So 4 weeks ago when I was grocery shopping at Thanksgiving, I realized that I had never really eaten many of the autumn vegetables. I got the ambitious idea to try making some, even though I'd never really eaten them before. So here's my attempt to make acorn squash (though I'm not even sure if it counts as a vegetable...?). I kiind of let it sit around for a few weeks, so I was debatin whether it would still even be good to eat, but turns out it was!

It was a super easy recipe - ingredients = brown sugar, maple syrup (roommate's), margarine. The most interesting thing, I think, is trying to cut the damn thing open. I have this huge knife that I looooove because it cuts through carrots like cotton candy, but it took me FOREVER to cut the squash open! I think there must be a better (and probably safer) technique that I missed somehwere. Anyway, after cutting it, I made cuts on the inside so that the ingredients could seep in. And they also all sink to the bottom, so apparently you're supposed to drizzle the most on top (though it'll sink in anyway). 

So here it is, sitting next to a leg of chicken I made (but not very excitingly... with bbq sauce). I'm proud to say the meal was decent, and my hopes for making autumn food weren't squashed =)

Salmon to the rescue!

Thanks to some rather fun activities this weekend, I proudly woke up at 1 this afternoon when my mom called me (and I tried my best to fake having been awake for hours). So I went to defrost a chicken around 3 (thinking there's no way its gonna defrost in time for dinner), then realized that we're cooking together tomorrow night (stay tuned for INDIAN night!!). So there wasn't a point in making an entire chicke...back up plan? Salmon!! I have to say, sometimes my parents can get to me, but when I remember they do things like buy 2 for 1 salmon and then cut up and individually package it so it's easy for me to cook, I remember how much love they have. So I defrosted a piece and made salmon with a mayonnaise/mustard/spice mix on top, some brocolli and the remainder of the cheesy bread sticks from Friday, and voila! A decievingly balanced meal... to contrast the 4 pizza meals I've had in the last 2 days. Anyway, I don't think the picture does it justice, but it was delicioiusssss. 

October recap

Ahhhh it's been so long since I posted! Okay I'm gonna use busy-ness as an excuse, but I also know that deep down (maybe not that deep down), I'm lazy. So here goes... a 2 week summary of everything I've cooked! Unfortuantely I've also kind of been lazy with cooking, but there are some epic feasts in here. 

1. SUSHI NIGHT! 

(Thursday October 7) 

What happens when 10 hungry Asians get together? Sushi!! Not just sushi, but 3 kinds of sushi - California rolls (I think... crab meat, cucumber, avocado right?), salmon cream cheese rolls (with on-sale-"pseudo" smoked salmon...) and candy sushi (best idea ever)! All I can say is... make sure the rice cools! And it's a lot stickier than you think it is, so it's hard to make it really thin. Otherwise, this was friggin delicious =)

 2. Thanksgiving!

(Sunday, October 10)

I loove Thanksgiving because it means apple picking, turkey, latkes, and lots of family!! So we went to get apples this year like every year, and I made apple pie/crumble, just like every year. It's a super easy recipe that I found in a grocery store flyer when I was like 8, and probably the only recipe I have memorized by heart. On top of that is my mom's turkey, my yummy but smelly to fry latkes, and this year I tried making yams au gratin and the stuffing too. After this meal was over, I ate pretty much the same 4 items for every meal for a week in an effort to finish it. But it was still yummy!

3. Tonight's junk food fest

(Friday October 22) 

Coupons make me do things like order the following just for myself: 1 extra large pizza, 1 cheesy bread, 1 large bottle of coke. Yup, I know, the cure for the cold is gluttony.

The test of patience

Ahh okay I'm getting lazy with posting and cooking. Last night I just gave up all together and went to a free-food event for dinner. Tonight we're getting together to make sushi.... so excited! 

I think the reason I got lazy is because of the meal I made two nights ago - the ribs that took FOREVER. To be fair though, I woke up at 7 (pm) and still decided it was a good idea to make ribs, and decided to skip the boiling step (which my mom does, but people say makes the ribs less tasty?). I decided to broil them instead, as recommended by some rib site, which took... a little longer than I expected. I added potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff, and did half of them in a premade bbq sauce and half in one that I tried to make from ketchup, honey and mustard (kind of the only ingredients I had...). I don't think it mattered though, because everything kind of mixed together in the water/sauce. 

Anyway, they were pretty good/edible (that's really all I ask for), but unfortunately I didn't eat them til 11 when I was bordering on hunger insanity. But I loooooooove ribs so it was still worth it =). So here's my final product...check out how much the wheatgrass thing has grown!! And as usual, here's what I put on the ribs. 

Ribs (duh) 

Water/chicken broth (to broil)

Garlic (still stolen)

Onion 

Potatoes (red and white, 4 weeks old and still good somehow...)

Salt, pepper, spices

Legitimately made prepackaged BBQ sauce

My shot-in-the-dark BBQ sauce of ketchup, mustard and honey

Pancakes by design and last minute salmon pasta

This actually happened yesterday, but there was too much to post in one. So yesterday my roommate and I decided to make pancakes for breakfast! We had no chocolate chips, so we separated some of the batter, added cocoa powder, and made designs! We're not cakemasters (name of TLC show anyone?) or anything, but we tried. We'll perfect it!

Banana swirl! 

                                          

 

Bullseye/concentric circles 

Square checkered pancake 

(we'll work on this one...)

and.. 

Smiley!

When dinnertime rolled around, I frustratingly had to throw out Thursday's congee because it had a weird smell, possibly from the bok choy sitting in it too long. I also threw out fried tofu and this vegetable whose English name I don't know that I bought in August. Quick solution when there are no vegetables left? Pasta! 

So here's my attempt at salmon pasta. 

Penne (the box tells me it's smart) 

Salmon defrosted and baked 

Alfredo sauce (also stolen from roommate) 

Dill chip dip (really need to get some dill)

Milk (should have added more, sauce was kind of thick)

Frozen vegetables

This was somehow even better when I reheated it for lunch today =)

Homecoming weekend splurge

Somehow almost as soon as Friday afternoon rolls around, I feel the need for junk food. So a few of us head out to Boston Pizza. (Try the spicy potato/fry appetizer thing! The name escapes me.) I didn't take any pictures of food, so here's a glimpse of the drink my roommate had, vanilla something (I'm really bad with the names today..) but I know it was also good! 

Saturday was all homecoming celebrations. First chocolate chip pancakes and porch climbers (beer, vodka, lemonade I think?? = gets you drunk way faster than you think it does). Then the best chicken fingers and sweet potato fries ever. And at the end of the night, the loaded perogies and fries here. So... goodbye progress from exercise =( But man was it a good weekend.