To do: Make tea, bread chicken nuggets, further laundry...

Loaded 10-cups vegetables soup is my new goal in life, to take something that hearty, nutritious and glorious in its silky cheesiness...and buy the vegetables necessary to concoct it.  You see, I'm all out of everything, been that way for awhile.  What with trips to Minneapolis to bond with cute cousins, empties the fridge like no tornado you've ever seen, makes you get rid of stuff and use up stuff automatically.  Love it when my fridge flows with my life's mission.

To cook that soup requires celery, potatoes, carrots, and oh yes broccoli.  Even half a cup of chopped onion is thrown in with 4-6 slices bacon and a daring but doable four cups of sharp cheddar cheese, Jesus!  Is honored with half a teaspoon dried mustard, a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper.  The milk, flour, and butter shouldn't complicate the extradition of roasted vegetable pasta sauce, with balsamic calling all the shots and making mortal enemies.

1-1/3 cups of sour cream later, 2/3 cups softened butter

Carving carrots IS my forte after all, and so I'd better get on it.  Cooling on the stove is a last-minute easy-peasy chocolate chip cake, cooked wa-a-a-y longer than the blogger recommended. What's up with you Mel, I got a toasty browned cinnamon sugar encrusted chocolate chip decorated DESSERT for my family.  It's a Monday after all, what else've I got to do with my time but make IKEA's own meatballs, with the Swedish cream sauce, the mashed potatoes (instant), the lingonberries.

Oh yeah I'm gonna fire my oven back up from its wavering between both 325 to 350 for almost as many minutes.  What was WITH that 30-35 min time recommendation, even used the glass dish, 9-1/2 x 13-1/2.  But should I've?  One never knows with these things until falling again and again while getting just the right thinking.  Oh you know just what I'm meaning.  The sour cream thing.

Hold it against me for the rest of my life that tomorrow's gonna mean I use chicken and a slow cooker, leaning gratuitously towards buttery cornmeal crescent rolls IS the answer.  Finding fascination with white chicken and spinach lasagna, oh yes I did.  It's always been a black thing. Stealing and misquoting, and gossiping about everybodies families, in this town it's the norm, it's nothing you'd see in Chicago.  That's ghetto.

Character traits

I've been chasing that chicken and broccoli Alfredo for over a week now, and it thankfully came into being this morning.  I'm hoping it will be as delicious as it was throw-together easy and that the broccoli will be adored by my children as much as light Alfredo proves to be a tasty substitution. You can never count on these things until they happen right before your eyes, it's just the way it is.

Making a Texas sheet cake for dessert however, so stinkin' simple, both the ingredients and the process, you don't want to be caught dead standing in an aisle at TJ Maxx pretending you don't know the recipe.  Everyone does because it's obvious and standing two inches away from your breathing space, not being invisible as some non-cooks hope and assume.

So caught up in the latest discounted product that blind spots simply come in handy is a way of life Texas sheet cake enthusiasts can't endorse and are wont to refuse.  Which is why time marches on, cookies crumble, and children grow up way too fast.  Be the man your mothers raised you to be, ditch the blinders and own your blunders.  Cake's exactly what the doctor ordered.

Healthkick Monday

Oh sure, we all go through phases, but cravings are a whole 'nother matter.  Beans and pasta are on my mind, nailing down the recipe is the harder part, even with Mel's Kitchen Cafe, The Pioneer Woman, and allrecipes.com at my beckon call.  It's difficult.  Wanting solely to experience the health benefits of beans, desiring that texture with no solution to the matter, only suggested serving combos like for example, with quinoa.  Can a person realistically tire of all things Mexican?  I can't.

You all know me by now, two cans of black beans will always get my attention and be my saving grace, and throwing in a cup of corn is ideal in my neck of the woods, and elsewhere.  Even on my very own plate, a teaspoon of cumin with 1/4 tsp cayenne, first sautéing 3 cloves of garlic and an entire onion...boiling 3/4 cup quinoa with 1-1/2 cup broth, then simmering covered for 20 minutes, insanely choosey!  And recommended.

Sometimes as I sit here in my life orchestrated by guardian angels, I wonder if seeking the next bean recipe that will satisfy my soul is jeopardizing enough.  Within minutes I know for sure, a half cup of cilantro mixed in with the black beans at the end is serious business when dealing with a healthified bean-focused option.  Especially when reliable Monday rolls around, pretending to be the oldest sibling in a family of six that never existed.  You knew that was true but never admitted it.

Casserole fun

A best lasagna rolls recipe ever found its way onto our table last night, and boy were we a happy bunch of campers.  Must've been my improvised cheese filling that really took it over the top, even mistook it for ricotta, bonus!  This morning bright and early I finally manufactured the no-bake Eclair cake I've been looking forward to, having put it off for like forever.  And at a loss for what to serve up pre-dessert, an actual meal with protein is called for, so I stuck six frozen chicken breasts on a foil-lined pan for a roasting at 400 for about 50 minutes.  Baked chicken ought to go perfectly with SOME recipe out there, cubed or shredded.

Trekking to the grocery store eventually will be the missing piece of the puzzle, I've got like four lists full of needs and wants, but mostly requirements to keep this kitchen running.  And I will check them all off one by one, emptying my lists into the nethersphere, got me?  It's only Chicken and Broccoli with a jar of Alfredo that's currently in the running, which is fine with me thanks to the broccoli and chicken minus about a cup of cheese (plus what's IN alfredo anyway).  Certainly not healthy but easy for an autumn Wednesday.

Lose yer soul

Holy hell, when measurements for ingredients are less than you bargained for, improvise.  Sure ricotta filling converts almost equally to 1-2/7 cup nonfat cottage, what's left of that Neufchâtel, topped with a schmear of Light sour cream...to make that cup its fullest self, unencumbered. It's the spices that matter to us most, and when forced to sub 2 T parsley with 2 t dried, be as concerned as a clinical psychologist wanting only the best for everyone.  And trust them.

I mean it's not like we're asked to use fresh basil, dried is called for.  At least the garlic cloves are real.  Have you ever tried rinsing under cool water steaming hot pasta?  Burns ridiculously, and painful.  It's the cooking scars that never seem to fade, no matter how far you evolve beyond them. Seared right onto your arm, left bicep actually, a proficient and steady reminder, of that cookie sheet you did battle with.  Lost your father, and your Freudian mother.

Italian night

Don't embark on the journey if you're not willing to do what it takes to get there, use a food processor.  Yes, it's a trial to process 2 cups of nonfat cottage with 9-1/2 saltine crackers, once smooth add a teaspoon of dried basil, two teaspoons of dried parsley.  Continue to include an egg, a cup-and-a-half mozzerella, over a cup of Parm, just shy of two...1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper.

This is your lasagna cheese mixture which you'll roll into twelve cooked lasagna noodles, drained, rinsed, and cooled.

For the sauce brown a pound of ground pork with half an onion and two minced cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of pepper.  Add two 15-oz cans diced tomatoes and 15 ounces of sauce to a teaspoon basil, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, 1/4 teaspoon thyme.  Simmer 10-15.

Roll up cheese mixture drizzled in sauce over noodles, following Mel's method exactly.   Cover greased dish with one cup sauce, seam side down, drizzle sauce, sprinkle cheeses.

At 350 covered with sprayed foil for thirty-five minutes, uncovered for ten, rest ten.  Eat!