Leftovers and Planning

I know that I said I plan on eating at home more, but if I cooked something new everytime I eat at home I would have soooooooooooooooooooo many leftovers! Tonight it a leftover night. I have yummy leftovers from Cheddar's. I had a wonderful lunch on Friday with my old friend Kendra. We have been friends our whole lives. Our parents knew each other other before we were born. Kendra and I were in kindergarten and 1st grade together. Throught my move to Bixby, her move to Texas, high school, and college years we have stayed in touch. Unfortunately we don't get to see each other more than a couple times a year it is always wonderful catching up. So tonight's leftovers are from our great lunch.
Sunday is also my planning and shopping day for the upcoming week. Growing up  my mom would go to the grocery store EVERYDAY. That is exhausting to me! I also do much better eating at home if I plan ahead. I am more tempted to run through a drive-thru if I don't have something planned and already purchased ready for me to cook at home.
I found a great new app "Menu Planner". I enter the recipes I am going to use for the week. Place the meals I want on each day. It also takes the ingredients and creates a shopping list for me. I'll let you all know how long I keep up with this method ;)  Update: I like the planning part of this app but don't like using the list part. I still like just using paper for my list. I can organize it better by aisle on paper. Yes, I know my close friends are laughing that I organize my list by aisle.


Here is my plan for this week:

God's Plans

As you can probably tell from my blog title, Cooking for One, I am single. Oh gosh the dreaded "S" word ;) At times I have an easier time saying that word than other times. Surprisingly right now even though it is the holidays it isn't too tough to say that. There are many reasons that are making it easier right now. God has been incredible showing me over and over that He is in control and has an incredible plan for me. This morning I read the best quote, "No matter what your age or stage in life, God has great plans for you--plans beyond your wildest imaginings. You may be tempted to think what you're doing right now doesn't have significance, but when you place your life before God, anything is possible." (Margaret Feinberg)  It was such a great reminder to me! I hope that no matter what your "age or stage"...college student, single teacher, worn out mom chasing small children, exhausted doctor, retired and relaxing, you name it... you realize that God has an amazing plan for you as well!

Chicken Noodle Soup

 



Tonight I used a soup package that I found at Reasor's for Chicken Noodle Soup. It looked good and seemed pretty easy to make. The instructions call for using 7 cups of water but I knew that would make too much soup. So I only used 4 cups. As the soup is cooking I cooked one chicken breast. Once it was done I cut it up and added it to the soup. Then let it cook for another 15 minutes.

 

 

Here is the soup package. Sorry it isn't facing the correct way, I'm still not sure how to fix it.

Here are two of my favorite kitchen tools that I use quite often. The first is a spoon holder that attaches to the side of the pot. I like it a lot better than spoon rest, I think those make a big mess.

 The second is a meat hook. It is hard to see in this picture but there is a small hook on the end of this. It is wonderful for picking up raw meat/chicken and turn it over. I've also used it on a grill and it works great!



Here is the outcome of tonight's adventure of cooking for one....

It taste really good and is perfect to warm up after a cold day! I only have about 2 extra servings left so I think tonight's was a success :)

Goulash

I have heard that your taste buds change throughout your life. I guess that is true because as a kid I HATED goulash. I think it is because my mom would just throw anything into the pot and call it goulash. However, today as I was looking for recipes to use my new Dutch Oven  I saw a few different ones for goulash and they all looked wonderful.

Maybe they looked good because it was cold and snowy outside.
So...I took a few recipes and combined them together to make one that sounded good to me.
The first mistake I made was going to Reasor's during our two hour snow "storm".

Everyone was acting like we were going to be snowed in for weeks. I finally made it out of there with everything I needed.

1 lb of hamburger meat
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 bag of elbow macaroni
2 garlic cloves
1 tbs of italian seasoning
1/4 cup of diced onion
2 bay leaves
2 cups of water As I was cooking it I thought 2 cups was way too much water however it cooked down A LOT. You might want to add 2 1/2 cups of water.
1 1/2 cups of uncooked elbow pasta
Salt, pepper, season salt, and garlic powder added as you like


To start off I cooked the hamburger meat in the dutch oven. While that was cooking I chopped a few onions. Once the meat is done spoon of any grease. Luckily I didn't have any grease since I used lean meat. Then add onions and let them cook for a few minutes. Finally add the rest of the ingredients except for the pasta. Put lid on dutch oven and let cook for 20 minutes. Then add pasta, put the lid on, and cook for another 20 minutes. Turn off the heat & allow the micture to sit about 30 minutes more before serving.


Well it turned out pretty good. Next time I won't cook it as long once I add the pasta. Since I cooked it so long this time the noodles are a little too soft. But other than that it was good!
However, it was a fail for cooking for one. Even thought I reduced the recipe it was still way too much! Next time I will have to use even less.

New Adventure

I have decided to start a blog about cooking for one. I feel like I always have such a hard time finding recipes for one person and thought it would be fun to share my adventures. I also thought it would be a good way to stay accountable to cooking more at home and eating out less. My goal is to cook/eat at home 5 nights a week. I plan on sharing what I eat every night whether it is at home or out. I might share other adventures of living life as one.