Using what we have

I know everyone who cooks gets caught in the same scenario - you go grocery shopping with your lovely, organized list of items for all of your thoughtful meal planning, and you cook all of your thoughtful meals, and then it gets to the end of the week, and you still have a bunch of food but it is all mismatched, and getting close to going over, and what are you supposed to do with it?

So, I attempted to solve this problem after a particularly over-enthusiastic trip to the farmers market by doing this:

 

 I literally took almost every vegetable in my fridge, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper, Herbs de Provence and grilled them. I used a grill basket for my cherry tomatoes and the veggies I had cut kind of small. Once everything was nicely cooked, I took a bunch of the grilled tomatoes and threw them into a food processor with a handful of kalamata olives and it made a sauce. I tossed bowtie pasta with the sauce, mixed in a bunch of veggies (I had some left over that I'm using in salads and sandwiches) and I sprinkled some feta cheese and chopped fresh basil on top. It turned out great!

My food photography clearly needs work and I hope you are enjoying the Shapes and Colors placement I found myself eating on.

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In other news, I realized most of my posts recently have given the impression that I cook in this very zen environment in which my toddler quietly plays by herself doing safe, educational activities. HAHAHAHAHA.

Right before the dog abuse, after two time-outs and a rare second of standing still.

Last night is a good example. I made Spiced Lamb Patties with Apricot Coucous which is definitely a quick 30 min meal, assuming all is going well. I began this process at 5:15, and three time-outs (involving much howling and protesting) later, a scattering of kitchen utensils all over my floor, one incident of toddler inflicted dog abuse (Sorry, Banjo), one bumped head, several pleas of mine for her to just watch some Sesame Street on the iPad, and multiple tries of my darling daughter trying to hit her mother, we had dinner.

So I just didn't want you all to think that it was all fun and games over here as I try to feed us something other than delivery pizza. Anyways, here is the lamb burger assembly and here is the finished product. The minty yogurt was really good! The couscous was kind of lumpy, but I blame my little 28 lb dictator for that one.

 Tonight I am ordering sushi and look forward to a less action packed pre-dinner hour. Have a great weekend!