Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

menu plan Monday

In which we give eMeals another go

I’ve been in a meal-planning rut lately, so I decided to subscribe to eMeals again. It’s a meal-planning service rather than a meal-in-a-box service, so the costs are a lot lower than some of the meal subscriptions I’ve tried in the last few years.

I used the service years and years ago, and then I stopped using it when my free review subscription ran out. (You can read “Put meal-planning on autopilot” to see what I thought about it initially.) The plan options have changed quite a bit in the last half decade. You can switch your meal plan any time now rather than once a month, and I think there are more options now. For this week’s meal plan, we’re trying some recipes from their 30-Minute plan. I’m going to switch to Heart Healthy for next week, and I’ll probably try out some of the other options as well. I don’t know that I’ll ever give them a shot, but they do have Paleo, Vegan and Keto plans if that’s your thing.

Here’s what we’ll be having this week.

Monday: Mexican street corn tostadas

This is one of the eMeals recipes, and it looks pretty simple to put together. I’m going to see if Pete can make it himself.

Tuesday: Pizza
Rockford and I are going out to a concert, so I’m ordering pizza for my mom and the kids.

Wednesday: Scattered
The kids both have activities on Wednesdays, and they end at different times. So we’re here and there and here again.

Thursday: Sticky Chicken
It’s another eMeals option, and it sounds like it’s a mildly sweet stir-fry.

Friday: Bacon-wrapped chicken with guacamole
Our final eMeals meal of the week. I figure you can’t go wrong with bacon or guacamole, so I’m anticipating good things from this one.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.

baking

The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ll go ahead and warn you: This is one of those Let Me Tell You a Story posts where I type and type and type about something and then finally get to the recipe from the post title. So if you’re just here for the recipe? Click here.

It’s not a long story, though. I promise. Here goes.

The Great British Baking Show Bake-Along that I’ve been participating in on Facebook has started up again, and the first challenge is Regional Biscuits. The instructions are to make a dozen perfectly identical cookies that have a recognizably regional flavor and that have a personal meaning to the baker. I don’t know that there’s a regional cookie from my area, though, and I know I can’t get my Aunt Judy’s rugelach to look anything even close to identical (and possibly not even edible).

So I decided to go with the all-American chocolate chip cookie.

Fortunately for me, my friend April sent her chocolate chip cookie recipe out with her holiday cards this year. It was boldly titled “The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.” My first thought was “Oh, that’s a sweet idea,” and my second thought was, “Wow, April, that’s a pretty big flex. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

But it was Christmas and so I didn’t try it for a few weeks. I made my first batch last week, and I am happy to report that she was not overstating things. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. They have a ridiculous chip-to-cookie ratio, and they’re somehow crisp and chewy all at the same time.

I’m not sure why I was surprised that they’re perfect, though. April is a scientist, and I’m positive this recipe went through lots of testing under rigorous conditions before she committed to it.

The World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
courtesy of April Bauer

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter (10oz)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (8oz)
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (10oz)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups bread flour, approximately 20oz
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chunks
Maldon sea salt

Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is homogenous. Add vanilla.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt.

Add flour mixture to the prepared butter/sugar mixture. Beat together until homogenous. Stir in the chocolate chips. (This takes some effort. Twenty ounces is a LOT of chocolate chips.)

Cover and chill dough at least 4 hours and up to 4 days.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper approximately 2 inches apart. Sprinkle each dough ball with a few crystals of Maldon sea salt flakes.

Bake until edges are golden brown, approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely, if you can stand the wait.

menu plan Monday

In which we have an excess of subscription meal boxes

Well I missed days 9, 10 and 11 of National Blog Posting Month, so I think it’s safe to say I won’t be completing it this year. I was a little disappointed with myself on Saturday morning when I realized I hadn’t written anything on Friday, because this will be this first November in a lot of years that I haven’t posted something every day. But the good news is that I am write on track on my National Novel Writing Month project. In the word-count sense, that is. The story itself is off-the-rails nonsensical. But I’m still doing that, and it’s taking up most of my words every day.

A friend gave me a try-it-out code for Hello Fresh recently, and we’re trying that out this week. It’s overlapping with my Blue Apron experiment, so pretty much all of our groceries were delivered to the door this week. It’s felt extremely indulgent. I have a code for $40 off at Hello Fresh if any of you would like to try it out. Disclaimer: I’ll get a $20 credit it you use that link.

Monday: Lemon pepper chicken linguine

This is from Hello Fresh, and I think there’s a 50-50 chance the kids will like it.

Tuesday: Out probably
It’s a pretty scattered day. Maybe I’ll come through the door with bags of freshly prepared salads, but it’s more likely to be cheeseburgers.

Wednesday: Honey-glazed Pork Tenderloin
This one’s also from Hello Fresh. I’m a sucker for anything honey-glazed, so I’m expecting to like this.

Thursday: Seared Chicken with Honey Mustard
This one is from Blue Apron, and the kids will be off rehearsing for “A Christmas Carol” so it’ll just be me and Rockford trying it out. It looks a little plain.

Friday: Steak fajitas
The kids have had play practice so often lately that they haven’t been helping with dinner, but they’ll be home Friday night so Pete is going to make us some fajitas. With a lot of assistance, sure, but it’s his show.

Hungry for more? Check out the Menu Plan Monday linkup at OrgJunkie.