With the holiday season behind us, everyone is back into the normal routine. Eating from scratch is not easy and I added the challenge of giving up soda to my list this week. It doesn’t get more unnatural and toxic than soda but I’m hooked on the stuff!
I’ve been drinking copious amounts of water with lemon and fear I’ll become bored with that soon. Unfortunately, I cannot find anything else that I want to replace soda that isn’t high in calories, full of chemicals or gross. Sadly, I have turned to the web in a desperate search for a homemade Coca Cola recipe. For now I’m holding strong, but I’ve tried to kick this nasty habit many times and have failed. Stay tuned, it’s only a matter of time before I embark on a quest to recreate this flavor at home (or I’ll cave).
Week end summary: We made it through the week’s menu without any major cooking blunders.
- The mushroom risotto (inspired by one of our Disney favorites) was delicious as always!
- The lasagna turned out well and we were able to freeze half of it for an easy future meal.
- Stir fry was very quick but left me hungry in the evening. It’s a good meal but not one I plan to repeat soon.
- The beef tacos were a hit and Eric stepped up to the plate and hit a home run with from scratch tortillas. If you missed this recipe, definitely check it out!
- The creamy chicken and rice soup is the ultimate comfort food and not one person complained about eating it again on left over night (or for lunch too!).
- Homemade chicken tenders didn’t happen. I got home from work late and Eric didn’t feel well on Friday night. I did curse our only from scratch pledge as I opened up the pantry to limited options for quick meal substitutes. Keeping basic staples on hand is very important! I whipped up a quick chicken in white wine sauce that took only about twenty minutes.
Phase I: Bread
I did not get to making wheat bread this week but made Italian bread instead. I am disappointed by how quickly these homemade breads turn to rocks and have yet to come up with a good storage strategy. Eric did make some croutons out of the second loaf of Italian bread.
Eric uttered the words, “Let’s buy a baguette” while we were having lunch at Panera today. We held strong and walked out of there without it and I made dinner rolls instead. We do need to try either bagels or English muffins very soon so that we can have some different breakfast options. For now, the plan is to make blueberry muffins for this week. I have uncooked dinner rolls in the freezer and waiting for Wednesday night’s soup. And tomorrow I’d like to make both wheat and white breads. Whoa! No turning back!
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