Fish Switch

If you stopped by on Saturday, you saw that my meal plan for the week included Coconut Curry Cod from Stephanie Kay's "Red's 5-Ingredient Meals".   If you own that cookbook, you know that recipe doesn't exist.

What?

The recipe is actually Coconut Curry Salmon.  I had intended to use salmon, as it was on sale, but when I got to the store the salmon didn't look particularly appetizing.  So, after looking at other options that might work, I decided to go with cod fillets, mostly because I already had them in my freezer.  And that wasn't my only substitution. Broccolette was also on sale, so I decided to use it instead of the baby bok choy called for in the recipe.  Good thing I did.  I didn't see any bok choy when I was shopping.

How did I know the recipe would still work?  Mostly guess work.  I knew there were other recipes out there for coconut curry with cod, including this one from Meghan Telpner.  I haven't actually tried her recipe yet, but I figured if Meghan could put coconut milk and cod together, so could I.

And the broccolette?  That was guess work with a dash of intuition and lots of home-cooking experience.  It looks like it was a good guess. When I consulted the almighty Google, "long-stem broccoli" comes up as a suitable alternative for bok choy.  I'm pretty sure long-stem broccoli is another name for broccolette.

My point?  

Many recipes can be altered to suit your taste, to suit what's available, and to suit your budget.  I try to keep that in mind when I am planning my meals.  Most of the time it even works.

(Note:  The broccolette took longer to cook than I had anticipated, so I took the cod out of the sauce when it was finished and let the broccolette cook a bit longer. Sometimes winging-it with your ingredients means you have to improvise with your instructions too.)

(*Note:  I don't get anything for the links above.  They're there for your information.  Hope you find them useful.)

Snow Day

Yesterday morning's light dusting of snow rapidly became a whole lot of snow.  No new pictures today.  I'm not going out there again if I don't have to.  Instead, here's a picture of Marvin taken one year ago today.

Is Throwback Thursday still a thing?

If this isn't enough Marvin for you, you can follow him on Instagram.  He's @marvinmeowmeow.  

Selfie

I went out to put some salt down on the sidewalk, and realized that the conditions weren't as bad as I thought.  A short walk was had. 

Complicated

Someone recently pointed out that life is so complicated that it is possible to experience two completely opposite emotions about the same thing. 

For example, I hate food waste, but I loved making this gingerbread house.

Apparently, such conflicting emotions often lead to feelings of guilt. This is all normal. 

Wow.

This morning I am working to allow my joy of gingerbread creation to exist harmoniously with my aversion to food waste, as today the gingerbread house pictured above went into the trash.

The fact that I am feeling little guilt could be due to the fact that I made Hubby throw it out.

Adoptiversary

Until last year, Hubby and I enjoyed hosting selected feline friends in our home while their people were away.  Cleo was our first and most regular guest, but we also enjoyed visits from Felix and Ophelia.  We were happy being part-time cat-people.

Until last year.

Last year, after Cleo's visit, Hubby announced that he wanted a cat we could keep.

One year ago today, we found this guy.  Our days are now filled with snuggles and purrs, cat hair and 4am wake-up calls.  We truly lucked out when we found this little guy.

Happy Anniversary Marvin!

If this isn't enough Marvin for you, you can follow him on Instagram.  He's @marvinmeowmeow.  

Sunday Bonus Recipe - Maple Cream-Cheese Dip

I shared this picture yesterday:

It's a list of the perishable items I had in the house when I sat down to make my meal plan.  At the time I realized that the beets, the ginger and the cream cheese needed to be used up in the near future.  The beets will be baked tonight and served with apple, leek and cheddar quiche.  The ginger was made into syrup to drink with soda water.  And, after consulting several recipes on the internet, I made that last bit of cream cheese into a dip to serve with apple slices.

The recipe below is a mash-up of several recipes I found on the interwebs.  If you are "repulsed" by yogurt, just leave it out.  The result will be more of a spread than a dip, but it's equally yummy.

Maple Cream-Cheese Dip for Fruit

3 ounces cream cheese (In this case, from a block leftover from the holidays)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp maple syrup 
1 tbsp yogurt (Home made - though it doesn't have to be.  I'm just bragging because I made yogurt!)

Mash everything together and serve with apple slices.  Or whatever fruit that needs to be used up in your fridge.

Say Freeze!

In spite of last week's meal-planning challenges, I'm right back at the drawing board, or rather the dry-erase board,  this week.  I collected my cookbooks, grabbed my grocery store's flyer, made myself a coffee and got started. 

No, that's not what I planned for meals on Saturday and Sunday.  This week I remembered to take stock of the perishables in my fridge.  Since my dry-erase board was handy, I listed items there.  The upcoming week looks like this:

Yup, that says thaw cheese.  Twice.  I know that freezing cheese is not the nicest way to treat one of my favourite foods.  I'm aware that it changes the quality of the cheese.  I still do it.  

• It saves money.  I buy large blocks of cheese when they are on sale.  I haul out the food processor and Hubby shreds the cheese while I bag it in one-cup portions.
• It saves time.  As long as I remember to thaw the cheese (hence the reminders on my meal-planning board), having pre-shredded cheese in the house goes a long way toward getting dinner on the table fast.
• It helps to ensure we eat more home-cooked meals.  Quick meals = less processed, packaged, pre-made food.

I don't do this with fancy, expensive cheeses, but that's mostly because those cheeses aren't in the house long enough to make it to the freezer.  (Another reason for freezing block cheese.  If it wasn't out of sight in the freezer, it would be gone before I needed it for a meal.)

I do wish I had a better, economical option for packing the shredded cheese.  Right now I use off-brand, zip-top, single-use, snack-sized, plastic bags.  Truly not ideal in many ways, but they are cheap, they are the right size, and they fit nicely in the freezer.  If you have an method for freezing shredded cheese that works for you, please let me know.  And let me know if you have any questions.  I'd love to hear from you.