This Week’s Menu: Another Place At the Table

WenYu will be home tonight! Not in time for dinner, but I’m so excited that my favorite middle daughter will be back with us for the next three months. She’s had a terrific first year at college, but is ready to be home and get to work. We’re all hoping it doesn’t take her too long to find a job. I’m going to be planning meals like she will be home for dinner every day, but that could change if the job she finds requires her to work evenings. Also, with four of us there might not be as many leftovers for YaYu’s school lunches, something else I need to consider.

We will be going food shopping again tomorrow versus next week as we have been running out of things faster than we thought this month. I have no idea why other than last month we had reserves and this month we haven’t. For example, in March we bought two jars of peanut butter, but already had one in reserve and got through until the next shop without running out. This month we bought just two jars of peanut butter and have run out. It’s been the same for several other items, and the refrigerator and cupboards are looking quite bare.

The slow cooker balsamic pork roast I made last week was very, very delicious and will be repeated, but huli huli chicken unfortunately didn’t get made. I went to fix the marinade and discovered we only had about two tablespoons left of soy sauce in the jug, and the recipe called for a cup. So, we just grilled the chicken instead, and will try the huli huli later. This week we’ll be using up one of the two roast chickens we plan to pick up tomorrow.

Here’s what we’re having this week:

• Tuesday (this evening): Stir-fried chicken with broccoli; steamed rice (no rice for me)
• Wednesday: Grilled hamburgers; onion rings; cole slaw (no hamburger roll or onion rings for m)
• Thursday: Chinese three-color salad with chicken (only salad toppings for me)
• Friday: Slow cooker chicken pho with bok choy (I’ll skip the rice noodles)
• Saturday: Leftovers
• Sunday: Chinese stir-fried tomatoes and eggs; steamed rice; cucumbers (no rice for me)
• Monday: Chicken tacos; yellow rice (no tortillas or rice for moi)

About the slow cooker chicken pho: I always cut the amount of spices called for in half, otherwise it tastes like you’re eating a Christmas potpourri. Also, I’ve found it works best if you soak the rice noodles separately, then place them into the bottom of the soup bowls and pour the soup over the noodles. If you add them to the slow cooker the noodles tend to disintegrate. You don’t need to have all the garnishes either – choose the ones you prefer if you don’t have them all (we like cilantro and basil).

We’ll have to pick up more cucumbers at the farmers’ market, as well as tomatoes, bok choy, green onions, cilantro, basil and papayas. We can get organic cabbage and lettuce now at Cost U Less, so will stop for that when we do our food shopping.