what’s cooking?

yeah, that’s not my kitchen.  i wish.  our deeee (wait for it, barney stinson-style) lightful kitchen is a one-and-a-half butt kitchen, which means you can get about 1.5 people in the kitchen, as well as about 1.5 dishes on the counter and then it’s at its limit.  and what with the ZERO drawers, cracked floor tiles, poorly grouted counter which traps food in it for eternity and no windows — DREAM COOKING SPACE.  right there.

but that doesn’t matter, because some excellent things are cooking in there this week.

that, and it does contain the periodic table of spices.

but more on that later.

for no other reason than this is something i like to know about other people and because, well, i need to put it together for the week anyway, this is what’s cooking around here for the week, not laid out in daily fashion because we’re orderly and all, but seriously, we’re never that organized.  i will always be the girl with some crumbs in the bottom of my purse, know what i mean?

also, a HUNORMOUS thanks to my mother who graciously came and cooked/prepped nearly everything below, and to my long-suffering husband who will cook/prepare everything below for us due to my zombie foot, named for the bizarre coloring the puffyfoot has now taken on.

we’ve had friends bring us some meals this weekend when, upon accidentally slamming my fingers in the car door on an evening drive designed to get me out of the house for once, the husband shouted and shook his fist at the sky proclaimed that he needed a break.  we realized that him taking care of everything that i take care of AND having a seriously full workload this week (with no imminent end in sight for my recovery), we needed a bit of help.

our friends brought us great take-out (seriously, chick-fil-a counted as great take out 🙂 and frozen pizzas and whatever they could to tide us over the weekend until….

mom came home.

the second-best three-greatest-words.

my mom was on a much needed vacation last week to visit her best friend, and so missed our mini-meltdown over the weekend, but came right over and spent nearly all day monday cooking food for the week for us — using our food and a bit from the grocery store.  that might not sound like a big thing, but i tell you, a few nights of take-out or other meals is fine, but then i just long for the food that we eat.

our recipes.

our food, not going to waste.

our favorite dishes, served on our dishes.

when you are laid up like i am, it’s small things like that that make a big difference.

so here’s what’s cooking around here, and email me [saradarlingblog [at] gmail [dot] com] if you want any of the recipes and don’t want to troll around the internet like i do looking at all the delicious food blogs out there.

note: all meals homemade unless marked.  names with a * come from mark bittman’s uber-awesome cookbook, how to cook everything vegetarian.

BREAKFASTS:

grapefruit

homemade granola, adapted from orangette’s recipe

mountain high vanilla yogurt

green smoothies

LUNCHES:

mom’s chicken salad sandwiches (this chicken salad rules, and uses up the last of the chicken meat we had — apples, onions, celery…so good.)

falafel in pitas with tzatziki*

veggie burgers (mom-made and dr. praeger’s are our favorites)

blue cheese potato salad*

leftovers

veggie sticks

DINNERS:

quinoa/black bean stuffed bell peppers

salads (most every night)

BBQ roasted veggies with buffalo/blue cheese patties

spinach/feta penne pasta

artichokes/spinach/sundried tomato pizzas (homemade dough)

mom’s mac & cheese casserole

lentils w/ potatoes and curry*

chocolate chip cookies (slightly adapted) (yes, for dinner!)