Yes, it’s true. I promised you pictures of this week’s chicken carcass and I’m sorry to say – I have let you all down. I took no less than two dozen pictures of our food this week, but the day I cooked chicken and made broth, I took zero pictures. What can I say? Cooking chicken and deboning chicken and making broth – it’s all rather intense (not really). It’s also ugly. Picking up the camera slipped my mind.
Let’s just forget about the carcass, okay?
I’m not sure how you’ll deal with this let down since I know you’ve been looking forward to seeing my scrawny chicken bones for the past seven days. Hopefully I can make it up to you by showing you my beans.
As you all know, it is an amazing event worth celebrating when I actually remember to soak beans. I’m pleased to share that I remembered on Thursday, soaked the beans overnight, then cooked them Friday to make a huge pot of Chili to have ready to eat after church on Sunday. It had to be done. Saturday was completely full with a basketball tournament, and Sunday the college kids (including my son) would be home from the York College Choir Tour they’d been on for a week. I wanted to be prepared.
In case you are wondering, pictured to the left of my soaking beans is a jar of Low-Sugar Lemon Melt-Away Cookies. Speaking of jars, I’ve been meaning to show you the tea towel my mother-in-law found and sent to me:
They may as well have printed “said Laura” at the bottom. I love it so much that I don’t want to use it. Apparently, cute tea towels are made to be stared at, not used.
Would you believe, on the actual day I posted My New Year’s Resolution to Stop Making Breakfast, I found time to make breakfast? It’s true. I had made bread the day before, baking plenty of extra that could be used for French toast. (Don’t get me started on the whole French thing.) I used my big griddle, which allowed me to have a huge amount of French toast made up in no time, with several pieces to spare that the boys can warm up and eat another day.
Not to worry though. That’s the only breakfast I made this week. The boys have been cooking up eggs and meat and making breakfast burritos, or using homemade bread to make toast.
The Stir-and-Pour Bread is a complete life saver for me right now. We plowed through four loaves this week and I never once broke a sweat baking it. It’s seriously quicker and easier to make this bread than it is to go to the store to buy bread. (Except for when you are feeding part of the basketball spur of the moment and did not plan ahead accordingly. This will all make sense to you in a few minutes.)
As I mentioned before, Saturday we had basketball games all day long, held right here in town (hooray for no travel for us this weekend!). Knowing I had a loaf and a half of homemade bread and plenty of cheese and tomato soup, I told the boys to invite anyone they wanted to run over to our house for lunch between games. Several took us up on the offer, which made my day. Two other moms ran to Wendy’s and picked up a couple tubs of chili. I filled my van with boys, Matt filled his truck with boys, and all headed for our house.
Then I realized – what am I thinking? My loaf and a half of bread will not stretch far enough to feed all these teenagers who have been and will continue to run up and down a court all day. I took a detour to the store where I grabbed a bunch of sliced bread and sliced cheese. I then proceeded to stand at my griddle and make a mountain of grilled cheese sandwiches while Matt and the boys pulled out veggies and fruit and chips. The other moms came in the with chili. Boom. Lunch.
I actually stopped long enough to take some pictures. These are the kinds of get-togethers I love! Unplanned and perfectly put together anyway.
So back to other food pictures from our week…
In case you were wondering (and I’m pretty sure you were), when I make peanut butter, I make peanut butter. It doesn’t make sense for me to make just one jar at a time. If I’m going to dirty up my food processor (and go to all the trouble of walking to my freezer for peanuts), I might as well make five batches at once. We’d been out of peanut butter for a couple weeks, so all the guys (minus Malachi, who hates peanut butter) were super happy to make Peanut Butter Honey Toast for breakfast a couple days in a row.
I store the jars of peanut butter in our extra refrigerator and just grab them as needed.
One of the days we had fresh bread, I had a couple of our boys stir together some tuna salad. We set it all out with fresh pineapple, spinach (that I force the boys to add to their sandwiches), chips, and homemade (ugly but delicious) guacamole.
I personally skipped the bread that day and made a huge plate of salad with my tuna.
I’ve been on a bit of a Tapioca Pudding kick lately. Matt and I are the only ones who eat it because our boys think tapioca pearls are weird. This means that when Matt and I eat Tapioca Pudding, everyone leaves the kitchen and Matt and I are suddenly on a date. Hmm. No wonder I’ve been on a Tapioca Pudding kick. What else can I make that the boys don’t like?
We like to look at 5th grade grammar books together when we’re on dates.
Last, I’ll show you a picture of my big grocery store run this week. My cart was so full I could barely push it. God bless the man behind me in the check-out line who had exactly one item in his cart. Why he got behind me, I do not know. While he most certainly saw my overflowing cart, perhaps he didn’t know that I also had a stack of coupons and a list full of price-matching items that would make my enormous amount of food take even longer to ring up.
By now, I’m sure I’ve distracted you enough that you’ve forgotten all about the lack of chicken carcass pictures. Sweet.
I wanted to remind you to sign up for the free Knife Skills Training for Kids lesson if you haven’t already! There are only a few days remaining on this. Malachi and I are really enjoying going through these together! (I mentioned it was free, right?)
Before I sign off, I wanted to let you know that our weekend was completely packed full of people and events. Tomorrow I need to go out of town with one of my sons for a doctor appointment. Then we have a basketball game when we get back. I’m planning to take a Sabbath rest on Tuesday because I need it! All that to say – I have some fun posts in the works, but have not completely written any of them. (How to Clean Cast Iron, Our Favorite Easy Side Dishes, and The Real Food Ingredient I’ve Mostly Stopped Buying) If you don’t see anything new from me here in the next few days, don’t be alarmed. But feel free to cast your vote in the comments section to let me know which of those three topics you’d like me to hit first!
Stacy says
The Real Food Ingredient {you’ve} Mostly Stopped Buying
Jocy says
I second Stacy. I’m very curious. You are very funny, i love reading your posts. Thanks!
Charity Ivicsics says
How to clean cast iron
Karli says
Definitely the real food item you’ve stopped buying. You have tweaked my curiosity.
Cathie says
Yes, I am also most interested in the real food item you’ve nearly stopped buying.
And basketball- my son’s rec team (7th and 8th grade) scored 49 points on Saturday. I had to share, because I’m so proud but don’t want to seem boastful. This seems like a safe place. :-)
Off to plan dinners…
Megan says
Loved this post! I’m actually thankful there were no chicken carcass pictures. I read this after breakfast and frankly, I prefer to save all carcass viewing (both online and in my kitchen) for after lunch. ;)
Ok, for the future posts, The Real Food Ingredient I’ve Mostly Stopped Buying has me quite curious. Write that one first, please! How to Clean Cast Iron would be my second. I barely use mine because the clean-up and seasoning is well, intimidating.
No matter what you order you choose, you have an awesome line up slated. I can hardly wait to read this week’s posts!
Marie B. says
Which real food ingredient you nearly stopped buying, of course! I wondered what those white looking cookies were. Glad you told us . They look really yummy!
Vickilynn Haycraft says
Shalom! I enjoy reading your posts.
I wanted to address your comments: “Cooking chicken and deboning chicken and making broth – it’s all rather intense (not really). It’s also ugly. ” :-) I know it was sort of tongue-in-cheek, but honestly, I used to really consider it intense, messy and ugly, but I did it every week. I used my slow cooker and we loved the results.
However, since I started using an Instant Pot (pressure cooker, multi-cooker) for my whole chickens, they are done super-fast, are super-moist and then I can quickly debone the chicken, toss the carcass right back in the Instant Pot and have the bone broth done in 2-4 hours instead of overnight. And using the IP pot to strain the stock is easier than using my slow cooker or large stock pan, and then I can put the strained stock back in, add veggies, pasta or matzah balls and make a fast soup.
Anyway, I thought you might like to know. Thanks for sharing all you do!
Vickilynn
Micah 6:8
K. Ann Guinn says
Yes. The Real Food Ingredient I’ve Mostly Stopped Buying has totally piqued my curiosity, too.
Then I start thinking, “I wonder if that means Laura no longer uses the real food item,” or, “I wonder if she makes/grows/finds it elsewhere for free”, or “Does someone give it to her?
Apparently, I can’t just stop at wondering what it is.
But all of your topics and posts are interesting, entertaining and/or useful!
Tiffany Weaver says
Laura,
I too wonder why person with one item gets behind me when I obviously have a cart that is threatening to collapse from exhaustion. And then they continue to stand behind me and look at the poor cashier and myself, wondering why it is taking so long? As a fellow price-matcher, I feel that it is my duty to tell you that I have disocvered the ultimate price matching app for my phone. If you have a smart phone, android or apple, you need to download the “flipp” app. It is totally a life saver. I used to go in with a double sided list, broken down by store, and this app does all that, and saves me time that I can spend with my 3 littles. Thank you for all you do, and God Bless.
Tina Szymoniak says
I love all of your posts, so I look forward to all three topics that you mentioned. Have an amazing day!
Laura says
Cast iron! Cast iron! Cast iron!! My husband does the dishes each night, but despises cleaning the cast iron pan, so I’ve all but stopped cooking with it (don’t want to discourage him from doing the dishes!) but really need to start back, as I’m looking to get more iron in my diet any way I can right now.
Cindy says
Yep…me, too. Which real food ingredient?????
Mary says
I’d also like to know which real food ingredient you’ve almost stopped buying.
Also, I have the exact same griddle as you and I was SO excited about using it because I make a big batch of pancakes weekly. However my husband and I just can’t seem to figure out how to use it without having the food stick to it. We have a big 6 burner gas stove and I think we’ve got the temp setting right. I’ve used evoo, butter, coconut oil….you name it, we’ve tried it. All with no luck. So I’m left to making my pancakes 2 at a time in a frying pan while my beautiful griddle goes unused. Do you have any suggestions!!??
Tina says
Oh yes, I vote for real food ingredient too. Thank you for your great post.
cheryl says
the real food item you stopped buying !
Janine says
How to clean cast iron! I always let anyone behind me with 1 or 2 items just go in front of me quickly. When they do it for me when I’m the one with 1 or 2 items, I am so appreciative!
Laura says
I always do too! The cashier had already started ringing me up this time, poor guy.
Pam D says
I vote for Our Favorite Easy Side Dishes. I know, I always have to be an oddball. ;) I love all your articles, though.
Ruthie says
I am brand spankin’ new to your website. You have so many fantastic ideas! I was completely taken in by that adorable 3 year old who made the stir and pour bread! I jumped up and said, “I need to make this bread!” My kids just gave me a really weird look. So, I tried it tonight, hoped and prayed I was doing it right, and it came out great! One loaf was gone with our chili supper . Looking forward to trying it as a sandwich bread. My husband likes homemade bread with a meal but not necessarily as a sandwich. Hoping I’ve hit on the perfect solution :-)