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- Hotel Life: 65 Nights at the Navy Lodge
  
  Posted at 8:52 pm by Rachel, on November 15, 2019
  After more than three months of living in hotels, I am excited to share that we have moved into a house again! I feel like I have been “moving” for a short eternity now, and I am so ready to be done with this move in particular. I plan to give you a full tour of my new kitchen, but before we get there, I still owe you a glimpse of my hotel kitchen. If you are looking to check in to the Navy Lodge Hawaii, wondering how to make a small kitchen work for a family, or just want to indulge your curiosity, then read on!
  
  We spent 65 nights at the Navy Lodge while we waited for this house. (Our reservation ended up being for something like 150 nights as things were looking rather grim but thankfully we were able to cut that short!) Based on our pre-move research, we anticipated living in a hotel for an extended period of time. We decided that we NEEDED two rooms separated by a door and a kitchen space so we could maintain our kids’ routines and save our own sanity. Additionally we did NOT want to hop around and change hotels due to cost or other factors. So that is how we ended up living at the Navy Lodge.
  
  Is this the smallest kitchen I have ever cooked in? It very well may be. We stayed in a tiny house this summer that had more counter space and a dishwasher, but this one had more cabinet space.
  
  As you can see, it is a galley kitchenette – “ette” because there is a 2-burner cook top but no oven. The kitchenette also boasted a bar-sized sink, apartment-sized fridge/freezer, full-sized microwave, and a decent amount of cabinet space. I’m going to walk you through the cabinets and drawers from top to bottom. Note: this is how they really looked most of the time; not everything is perfectly tidy as these are real pictures taken one afternoon during quiet time.
  
  Upper Cabinets
  
  This room had three large upper cabinets plus a smaller one over the microwave. We kept less-frequently used dry ingredients, extra paper towels, and anything that didn’t fit in anywhere else in the huge cabinet over the fridge. Honestly there was a lot of wasted space in this cabinet because it was soo deep and had no shelving. If I had known from the get-go how long our stay was going to be, I would have purchased some add-a-shelf type items to add more storage.
  
  Next we have the cabinet over the sink. This is where we kept plates, bowls, and food storage containers. The glass plates and bowls and three of the food storage containers/Pyrex bowls belonged to the hotel. I brought the kids’ plastic dishes with us, and supplemented the food storage with a set of Pyrex I found at Target.
  
  The upper right cabinet had cups and glasses (again, glassware belonged to the hotel and the kids’ plastic cups are mine), my French press, and some more frequently accessed dry goods such as olive oil, bread, and pasta.
  
  The cabinets over the microwave were just the right size to stash some items that I didn’t want my kids getting into – bandages, medicine, my kitchen scale, and the giant bag of lollipops.
  
  Lower Cabinets
  
  I used the three generously-sized lower cabinets to store some of the bulkier and heavier items. Again, there was a lot of wasted vertical space that could have benefited from an add-a-shelf. Under the sink I kept aluminum foil, parchment paper, plastic wrap, and my colander. The dish rack, second colander, and cutting board all belonged to the hotel and no, I never used any of them, I just never took the time to move them out of the way. In the next cabinet, I kept my cheese grater, slow cooker, and electric tea kettle. Pots, pans, and their lids lived in the last cabinet.
  
  Drawers
  
  The five drawers were my most frequently accessed spaces. The three directly under the counter were for tools and utensils. I brought a bunch of my own dishtowels, partly so I could use them as packing material (although my French press still shattered, whomp whomp). I ended up mostly using the towels the hotel provided, because housekeeping would provide new dish towels every day and it was less laundry for me. The metal knives, forks, and spoons and the utensil organizer all came with the room.
  
  The middle drawer held a few boxes of tea, salt, pepper, and all of our other spices. I’ve done 8 cross-country and trans-oceanic moves in the last 10ish years, and spices are always a question mark for the movers – will they pack them or not?? I know it doesn’t seem like it should be such a big issue, but they are expensive to replace, and sometimes throwing them into our luggage at the last minute is not an option. Anyway, this time we planned on packing them with our luggage from the beginning. I used up a few and tossed a few more that were almost empty, then I packed the rest in 3 gallon-sized plastic bags. This packing method worked out very well, and I actually kept the spices in the plastic bags the entire time were in the hotel because it made the drawer more manageable and it was easier to find what I needed. Also, while last year I had a jar of turmeric explode when we left it in the car too long during a move, nothing exploded or otherwise spoiled this time!
  
  The bottom drawer was for more food storage. As you can see, it was deep enough to fit boxes of cereal, oatmeal, and a giant box of goldfish crackers. I stacked cans and other containers in here as well – the banana chips are actually resting on top of another layer of food.
  
  As I did not capture any pictures of the inside of the fridge, this concludes our tour of my small and mighty Navy Lodge kitchenette. This experience really pushed my efficiency and creativity. On the one hand, it was really nice not having to walk back and forth so much while cooking. But on the other (bigger) hand, it is actually really hard cooking with like 4 square feet of counter space and effectively 1 burner (because 2 pots would not fit on the stove at the same time). The real MVP here was my slow cooker – I used the heck out of that thing and would not have survived those 65 nights without it.
  
  If you find yourself packing for a similar adventure, this is the list of everything I packed in our plastic tote and checked on the plane. Once the tote was unpacked, we flipped it over and used it as an extra seat at our little table. (Note: The Navy Lodge does provide some basic items that I include on this list such as small pots and pans, a knife, cutting board, a spatula, and a can opener. However, I found them to be very low quality and certainly not something that I would want to cook with for more than a night or two. I took most of the hotel-provided cookware and stored it on top of the cabinets. If you enjoy cooking and want to cook in the hotel instead of eating out, just pack a box of your own things.)
  
  Packing List
  - Chef’s knife (with cardboard sheath, labeled *sharp*)
  - Paring knife
  - Kitchen shears (with cardboard sheath, labeled *sharp*)
  - Vegetable peeler (with cardboard sheath, labeled *sharp*)
  - Knife sharpener
  - Stainless steel pot, saute pan, sauce pot & lids
  - Small cast iron skillet
  - Large cutting board
  - Cheese grater
  - Can opener
  - Immersion blender
  - Whisk
  - Ladle
  - Spatulas – metal, bamboo, silicone
  - Silicone scraper
  - Tongs
  - Wooden spoons
  - French press (glass broke in transit)
  - Coffee grinder
  - Kitchen scale
  - Travel mug
  - Kitchen towels
  - Kids’ bowls, plates, cups, cups with lids, bibs
  - Colander
  - Slow cooker (the plastic feet were smashed during transit – I recommend padding the entire casing with some towels for some extra cushioning)
  - Pot holders
  - Spices
  Additional Items
  - Set of measuring cups & spoons – I wasn’t sure if the hotel would have these so I did not pack them. They had a liquid measuring cup but nothing else, so I picked up a set of each at Target. They would easily fit into the tote with everything else.
  - Large mixing bowl – the hotel supplied 3 glass bowls, although none of them was particularly large and they were also the food storage bowls. A metal mixing bowl would have been a nice addition.
  - Meat thermometer – I purchased this when I had to buy a new slow cooker and really I should have just packed one to start.
  - Electric tea kettle – I guess I drink a lot of tea and coffee, but after a couple of days of trying to boil water in a cup in the microwave/in a pot on the stove, I was done. The lobby had hot water and (bad) coffee in the morning, and we asked the front desk for hot water a couple of times in the evening, but you can really only do that so many times before it starts getting awkward. I used my tea kettle every day, usually multiple times a day and I still do.
  - Food storage containers – We needed a few more storage pieces anyway, so I planned on buying a set at Target from the beginning. If you pack food storage containers, I would pack plastic so you don’t have to worry about it breaking in transit.
  Need some ideas of what to cook in your hotel room? Check out the menu plans I shared while we were camped out at the Lodge:
  
  Menu Plan 9/22-9/28
  
  Menu Plan 9/29-10/5
  
  Menu Plan 10/6-10/12
  
  Menu Plan 10/13-10/19
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged hotel living, kitchen tour, living small, Navy Lodge Hawaii, packing, PCS, travel
- Menu Plan 10/13-10/19
  
  Posted at 1:52 pm by Rachel, on October 12, 2019
  
  You might notice a couple of repeats from last week on this week’s menu – I ended up with a cold last week and had to shuffle some things around. Last week I began planning my breakfasts and lunches in more detail. I did not do a great job sticking to the plan because I just wasn’t eating much. I only just prepped the farro for lunch salads last night, and the grapes were moldy 😦 so I will be trying this salad with some apples or maybe cucumbers instead. Breakfast went better than lunch – I made a big batch of steel cut oats one morning and then ate that for several days. This week I am going to set an alarm on my phone to make overnight steel cut oats (less active cooking time). I also picked up a bunch of sweet potatoes; I will be “baking” them all in the slow cooker for dinner on Monday and then have leftovers for breakfasts and maybe lunches as well.
  
  Dinner Plan:
  
  S 10/13 – Maple mustard chicken thighs (slow cooker – make extra for chicken salad sandwiches), mashed potatoes, green vegetable
  
  M 10/14 – Eggs, sweet potatoes (slow cooker), green vegetable
  
  T 10/15 – Pasta with blistered cherry tomato sauce, salad
  
  W 10/16 – Creamy tomato soup (slow cooker from The Complete Slow Cooker), bread, salad
  
  R 10/17 – Leftovers
  
  F 10/18 – Greek salad, bread
  
  S 10/19 – Whole chicken (slow cooker), carrots, green vegetable
  
  Breakfast Plan: Steel cut oatmeal with almond butter and fruit, “baked” sweet potatoes
  
  Lunch Plan: Layered feta salad with kale, feta, and apples (adapted from You Have it Made), Mayonnaise-Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches
  
  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged breakfast, Dinner, hotel living, lunch, Menu plan, slow cooker
- The Salads of Summer 2019
  
  Posted at 11:17 pm by Rachel, on October 6, 2019
  
  My food goal for our summer road trip was to eat a salad for lunch or dinner every day. I wanted to do this mostly because it can be hard to eat enough vegetables when exclusively eating out, and not eating enough vegetables makes me feel gross. More simply, greens > fries.
  
  My husband surprised me by joining in my pursuit, which was great because it made choosing restaurants easier. Unfortunately I didn’t always remember to snap a picture before eating, but we ate a lot of salads from a wide range of places. Fast food salads, fast casual salads, room service salads, sit-down restaurant salads… we tried a bit of everything.
  
  I’m going to start out with the saddest salad I ate on the trip, this Chicken Caesar from the Embassy Suites in Birmingham, Alabama. When I say “sad salad,” I’m talking about that salad you pick up out of the refrigerated section of a gas station with limp, pale lettuce and like one tomato. If you have only ever eaten sad salads, I’m sorry. I don’t usually order Caesar salads because I think they frequently do lean towards being sad, but this was the only salad that room service offered during our stay. The chicken was decent and it did have some nice big parmesan shavings, but that lettuce was so limp and yellow. Sad.
  
  For comparison’s sake, here is another room service order from the Embassy Suites in Amarillo, Texas (I think this was called the “House Salad,” it was the most basic offering and I added chicken). Some nice lettuce goes a long way, and a couple more tomatoes, some croutons, and pickled onions don’t hurt either. I had pickled onions a few times on this trip – I’m not a raw-onions-on-salads person, but pickled onions were a welcomed addition.
  
  Really though, lack of toppings is not what makes a salad sad. The Simple Green Salad from St. Leo in Oxford, Mississippi lives up to its name, and it might be the happiest side salad I have ever eaten. Look at those greens! Quality over quantity, folks!
  
  We stopped at McDonald’s a few times because they are just about everywhere. It had been a while since I had been to a McDonald’s, so I don’t know when it happened, but apparently they updated their salad offerings. I was impressed by this one – the Bacon Ranch with Grilled Chicken – that I tried somewhere in Alabama. The chicken was still warm from the grill and everything else seemed really fresh too.
  
  I think that McDonald’s two biggest shortcomings are lack of variety (they only have two entree salads) and lack of consistency/availability. This salad – the Southwest Salad with Chicken – was from somewhere in rural Arkansas. That McDonald’s actually only had enough to make one salad, and as you can see they subbed in a lemon for the lime. It was still tasty and I am glad I caught the last salad, but definitely be aware of.
  
  The Spicy Southwest Salad (with grilled chicken) is the only salad I get from Chick fil A. There are two other salads on the menu that I have never ordered, which I guess means that I really like this one. It is kind of spicy, so if that’s not your thing then this is not for you. I’ve gotten this salad all over the place and it is *very* consistent.
  
  Of course we sampled just about every salad from Panera too. New-to-me salads I tried included the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken, Modern Greek Salad with Quinoa, Southwest Chile Lime Ranch with Chicken, and the Strawberry Caprese Salad. The Green Goddess originally appealed to me because it is a cobb salad without blue cheese. As I previously mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by the pickled red onions, but my favorite part is that they included like half of a large avocado. Avocado lovers know what a big deal that is! The only thing that would have made this better is a crunchy element, maybe some nuts. I suppose that isn’t part of a “true” cobb salad, but I think it would eliminate some of the mushiness that can happen with a cobb salad.
  
  I tried the Modern Greek Salad twice. The first time was a take-out order; I was very impressed by the size and quality of the take-out salad. I have heard people say that you get more when you dine-in, but that was not my experience. In fact, I think that the take-out salad was larger than the dine-in portion I had a couple of weeks later. The Modern Greek Salad is in the least expensive menu category – the same category as the Seasonal Greens, Caesar, and Greek Salads. In my opinion, it is much more substantial than the other “basic” salads and better suited to standing on its own for lunch or dinner, even without adding chicken. As I mentioned, my dine-in salad surprised me by being a bit smaller, but even then I wasn’t starving afterwards.
  
  The Southwest Chile Lime Ranch was my favorite “Southwest” salad from this trip, and maybe of all time. Everything about it is good, especially the plentiful and perfectly ripe avocado and the quinoa tomato sofrito blend. I am pretty sure than this is the same quinoa in the Modern Greek Salad, and although they are two very different salads, the quinoa is a chameleon that blended in seamlessly with both of them. This is one to recreate at home if you are looking to up your salad game! (I might do this in the near future but with the addition of beans.)
  
  Last up for Panera was the Strawberry Caprese. I love Caprese, and this felt like a fresh take on that salad without completely ruining a classic. Strawberries seem like the best fruit they could have chosen for the mash-up – I don’t think it would be as good with say, blueberries, but maybe a peach Caprese would work? Sadly I made the mistake of adding too much dressing and ended up with a borderline-soup situation… and I still ate the whole thing.
  
  The last two salads that I enjoyed on this trip are from smaller, local restaurants. In Albuquerque, we had the pleasure of finding Vinaigrette. This place is the stuff my wannabe-hipster dreams are made of. As you may have guessed from the name, Vinaigrette is a restaurant centered around beautiful, delicious, nutritious salads, and it is unlike any other restaurant I have eaten in. I was not expecting to love this place so much – I was in kind of a sour mood that day, and when we arrived to the restaurant the hostess looked at our three kids, gave us a less than welcoming look, and then set a place at the table with a regular chair (as opposed to a high chair) for our 9-month-old. It was not looking promising. Fortunately for us, our waitress was great (she even brought us a high chair).
  
  There were so many tempting options on the menu, but I decided on The Beet Goes On with Grilled Marinated Baby Artichokes. This is another excellent example of a relatively simple yet powerful salad – it’s just greens, goat cheese, pistachios, beets, vinaigrette, and artichokes. When I say powerful, I mean that it was absolutely fantastic. I still daydream about this salad (not joking) and I when I get an oven again I absolutely plan to try to recreate this positively magical food. I was surprised by a couple of things. First, it was actually a lot bigger than I anticipated. Second, the artichokes specifically were a lot bigger than I expected – the word “baby” had me thinking they would be teeny tiny. I don’t think I have ever purchased fresh artichokes, so that may just be my lack of experience showing.
  
  My husband ordered the Reuben with a side of the Omega, which turned out to be a gorgeous and generously portioned side salad. In case you are wondering, we ordered a mac & cheese for the kids. They did not eat any of the mac & cheese, but they did eat the sliced fruit and veggies that came with it. I wish that we could have ordered more raw fruit and veggies a la carte (that might actually be an option, we did not ask, but it is not on the menu). They also ate the bread that we requested for the table. They did not eat the side of roasted vegetables that we attempted to feed them.
  
  We visited the Albuquerque restaurant, but Vinaigrette has other locations in Santa Fe and Austin, Texas. I wholeheartedly recommend stopping in, or if you are miles away like I am, check out their menu online for a treasure trove of salad inspiration.
  
  The last stop on our trip was San Diego, where we sampled some of Bread and Cie‘s offerings. I think we chose Bread and Cie because we wanted some baked goods and they had excellent reviews, but I wanted to eat a salad before indulging. I deliberated between the Chicken Papaya and Cranberry Goat Cheese salads, and ended up going with the Cranberry Goat Cheese. It was exactly as advertised. Not a groundbreaking salad, but a solid performer and it got the job done before I ate some sweets. I probably wouldn’t seek out Bread and Cie just for salad, but it is a good option if you are there anyway.
  
  Overall, I am really pleased with how my salad challenge turned out. I felt so much better eating this way than how I have eaten on road trips in the past, and just reminding myself of that made it relatively easy to stay on track. Right now I make a big salad for dinner about once a week, and hopefully I can do some more at lunch time soon too. I have probably mentioned before that restaurant salads are where all of my salad for dinner ideas come from, and thankfully this trip has left me with plenty of inspiration to freshen things up for the next few months.
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged Dinner, inspiration, lunch, restaurant review, salad
- Menu Plan 10/6-10/12
  
  Posted at 2:39 pm by Rachel, on October 6, 2019
  
  Here we are again! One of my kids has her name day this week, and she chose “snacky dinner” for dinner. I love snack for dinner too, so no complaints here! I’m going to attempt to adapt the cheesy cauliflower and potato soup for the slow cooker on Tuesday. I have made it on the stove before, but my space is limited in the hotel and I really think it will be easier with the slow cooker right now. I have not been doing a great job with my breakfasts and lunches lately, so I added in a mini-menu plan for those this week as well.
  
  Dinner Plan:
  
  S 10/6 – Quesadillas/burritos with leftover beef, pineapple guacamole (from Thug Kitchen), green salad
  
  M 10/7 – Snacky dinner (cheese, crackers, cut up veggies, hummus, berries)
  
  T 10/8 – Cheesy cauliflower and potato soup, green vegetable/salad, bread
  
  W 10/9 – Leftovers
  
  R 10/10 – Eggs, green veggie, bread
  
  F 10/11 – Greek salad, bread
  
  S 10/12 – Maple mustard chicken thighs (slow cooker), sweet potatoes (slow cooker), green vegetable
  
  Breakfast Plan: Steel cut oatmeal with almond butter and fruit
  
  Lunch Plan: Layered feta salad with kale, feta, and grapes (from You Have it Made), leftovers, or peanut butter/almond butter sandwiches
  
  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged Dinner, hotel living, slow cooker
- Menu Plan 9/29-10/5
  
  Posted at 2:21 pm by Rachel, on September 29, 2019
  
  Happy Sunday! We are still in the hotel (I think I will be saying this for a while) and my slow cooker is working double time. When I used it to make some chicken thighs for salad a couple of days ago, I made enough for this week’s salad as well. Just because I don’t have a house doesn’t mean I can’t meal prep! 😀 I originally planned on making Caprese sandwiches with a side salad tonight, but plans change and now we are having dinner with friends. I was trying to decide what to bring along, and after quite a bit of thinking I realized that the simplest thing to do was just revert our sandwiches to their original form – Caprese salad! Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to see. Have a great week!
  
  S 9/29 – ~~Caprese sandwiches, salad~~ Dinner with friends, bringing Caprese salad
  
  M 9/30 – Eggs, bread (slow cooker), veggie
  
  T 10/1 – Lemony broccoli pasta, salad
  
  W 10/2 – Tomato soup (slow cooker), bread (slow cooker), salad
  
  R 10/3 – Leftovers
  
  F 10/4 – Green salad with chicken, berries, and almonds, bread
  
  S 10/5 – Pot roast (slow cooker), carrots, green vegetable, grits/polenta
  
  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged Dinner, hotel living, slow cooker
- Menu Plan 9/22-9/28
  
  Posted at 10:02 am by Rachel, on September 23, 2019
  
  This is the first little menu plan I have done since moving out of my house almost 2 months ago. It is pretty simple and slow cooker-centric because we are actually living in a hotel right now (more on that later). I’m basically working with a 2-burner stove, microwave, and my slow cooker. Anyway, I have done some basic meals here in our room but between house hunting and not meal planning we have fallen back on eating out more than I like, and that is especially expensive here in Hawaii. So far I am on track for the week – I cooked my sweet potatoes overnight and have a whole chicken roasting in the slow cooker as we speak.
  
  S 9/22 – Pasta, bread, salad
  
  M 9/23 – Chicken (slow cooker), sweet potatoes (slow cooker), salad
  
  T 9/24 – Chicken soup, bread (slow cooker), salad
  
  ~Slow cooker chocolate lava cake~
  
  W 9/25 – Chicken-broccoli-rice
  
  R 9/26 – Leftovers
  
  F 9/27 – Hummus, veggies, pita
  
  S 9/28 – Asian chicken salad, bread (slow cooker)
  
  Posted in Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged Dinner, hotel living, slow cooker
- Oxford, MS
  
  Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on September 22, 2019
  
  My family recently drove cross-country en route to Hawaii. Many years ago, my grandmother told me that she had visited all 50 states (twice!). I admittedly have a touch of wanderlust, but I was so impressed by my grandmother’s travels that I made a goal to visit all 50 states. Everyone has different criteria for what constitutes a “visit;” for me, it means actually spending some time doing something there, even if it’s not overnight.
  
  We tried to stop and see as many states as we could as we headed west. Now, my husband and I have lived in Alabama three times, and while we did a fair bit of traveling around the area while we were there, we never visited Mississippi! Natchez always intrigued us with its beautiful historic mansions, but it was not close enough for a long weekend trip, and taking vacation days to visit Mississippi was not appealing. Natchez was not along the route we took, so we decided to stop in Oxford. The main reasons for stopping in Oxford were because it was along the general route we were taking and there were places to stay, so let it suffice to say that I had VERY low expectations for this stop. As we pulled into our AirBnB, everything seemed pretty humdrum. Then we went out to find dinner… You guys, Oxford is BEAUTIFUL and a total food destination! My jaw literally dropped driving through the Square and past all of the historic homes on North Lamar Boulevard. I actually wish we had more time there to explore and eat!
  
  If you are passing through the area, it is totally worth a stop. We spent a lot of time that Sunday just walking around the Square (Square Books and Square Books, Jr. were a treat) and walking around the Ole Miss campus. It is still Mississippi, so a number of eateries are closed on Sundays, but on the bright side, Sunday parking is free.
  
  Here are a few places we tried that I would recommend:
  
  1) Snackbar
  
  We were headed over to the Oxford Canteen – and pretty excited for it – but when we got there it looked closed. I spotted the Snackbar across the street and it had really good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. The menu and prices gave me the impression that this was a fancier place, so I sent my husband inside to order some takeout (he ordered at the bar). Considering that 2 of 3 kids were asleep in their car seats by the time we parked, and most of the people inside did not have kids with them, I think it was the right choice :D.
  
  We ordered a Tomato Stack, a Monte Cristo sandwich, a Fried Catfish sandwich, and a grilled peach (my first choice was the Suman but they did not have this option at the time).
  
  I thought my kids would eat the Tomato Stack, and I was completely wrong. I was actually really surprised by what this was – it really is stacked up in a neat little tomato, soft cheese spread, and bread tower. It was not at all like a caprese salad (this was clearly a reading comprehension fail on my part) and is not easy to separate out the different components. We ended up feeding our kids some odds and ends we had from stopping at Trader Joe’s earlier in the day, so it’s not like they starved, but I just want to be clear that unless your kids like some seriously bougie food, you might want to find them something else. In the end we were glad to have our Tomato Stack as it was arguably the best item we ordered. The tomatoes were as ripe and red as I have ever seen, and the sourdough bread was like a giant crouton, but not as hard to bite through.
  
  I had the Monte Cristo sandwich, although I did surrender a couple of bites to my 3-year-old and husband. It was very well executed – my favorite component was the challah bread – although I don’t think there was anything out of the ordinary about this sandwich.
  
  My husband had the Fried Catfish. He reports that it was rather plain and he liked both my sandwich and the tomato stack more.
  
  There are two types of french fries at the Snackbar and we tried both kinds. One was covered in parmesan and was quite savory. I ate them plain and also dipped in the mustard that came with the Monte Cristo. The other fries were a bit spicy, but not unbearably so. I ate those ones plain, but my husband dipped them in the mustard too.
  
  Last up was the grilled peach. I started laughing when I opened the box for this because it was literally half of a single peach! For the price I thought that we would get at least one whole peach. Cost aside, the whipped goat cheese was very interesting and it played nicely off of the sweet brown butter sauce. I didn’t taste pecan in the pecan crumble, but it did add a nice crunch to every bite.
  
  If we went back, I would want to try more of the small plates and desserts, and I might just make an entire meal of those items. Maybe that’s why it’s called the Snackbar?
  
  2) Uptown Coffee
  
  We headed here after mass on Sunday morning. I ordered a regular 16 ounce iced latte (pretty sure that this is a “mom drink” now but whatever, I’m a mom) and a couple of chocolate milks (also about 16 ounces each) for the kids. Everything was very reasonably priced, I think it was like $7 total. The baristas were friendly and gave my kids the “fun” green straws for their drinks. My kids let me sample their milk; it was very chocolatey, which is really all that matters with chocolate milk. My latte tasted different than other lattes I have had of late, I still cannot put my finger on why, so I’ll just chalk it up to whatever locally roasted beans they used. Not the strongest coffee I’ve ever had, but it was still a solid cup of coffee, and very refreshing as we strolled around in the Mississippi-in-August heat. If coffee isn’t your thing, they had a big tea selection and some very tempting cakes and pastries too.
  
  3) Saint Leo
  
  I loved everything we ordered from Saint Leo. We ordered the large size Simple Green Salad, a Prosciutto, Arugula, & Mozzarella Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza.
  
  The Simple Green Salad is the quintessential example of elevating basic ingredients. It was just three components – bibb lettuce, radish, and lemon vinaigrette – and they were all perfect. Seriously. The lettuce was the best lettuce I have ever seen in a restaurant – not wilting, not soggy, just bright green with a great texture. The jewel-like purpley-pink radishes really popped against the lettuce – I didn’t know that radishes could be so big! The vinaigrette was intensely lemon in the best way. I appreciate that they put it on the side because I for one am not a fan of salad soup. We ordered the smaller size and had enough for 2 very generous servings (I think 3 people could easily share this salad).
  
  I generally don’t like gambling with new-to-me pizza places because I love pizza so so so much and bad pizza makes me alternately sad and angry. Maybe I am just less critical of it, but Neapolitan pizza seems to be a pretty safe bet. These pizzas had a flavorful crust and classic toppings.
  
  I know that Oxford is not completely unknown or even overlooked – it is actually featured in 36 Hours and it does have Ole Miss, after all. This visit still felt like stumbling upon hidden treasure. If you love small cities and college towns, Oxford is definitely worth a visit!
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged coffee, pizza, restaurant review, salad, travel
- My June Menu Plan
  
  Posted at 9:34 pm by Rachel, on June 1, 2019
  Happy June! This is my last monthly menu plan for a while – we are moving in August so I will be spending July trying to use up the odds and ends in the pantry and using shorter-term planning to really hone in on what I already have. I usually do grocery shopping once a week, but last month I planned ahead and purchased all of our meat the beginning of the month. I really liked doing one meat prep, pre-cooking and portioning chicken for salads, chopping, and otherwise just making prep work easier for the rest of the month. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this all along with these monthly meal plans, because it did make dinner time go very smoothly all month long. All that to say, I was just at the store yesterday and I did the same thing.
  
  I picked up two cookbooks from the library this month – Thug Kitchen, which is all plant-based/vegan, and You Have It Made. I borrowed You Have It Made a few months ago, so I already knew that it had more recipes that I wanted to try. Most specifically I wanted to take a look at the salads because she puts together some really interesting ones. I picked up Thug Kitchen to take a look at making my own vegetable broth (super simple, by the way), and ended up bookmarking at least two dozen recipes with post its. I am trying several recipes from each book this month before returning them to the library.
  
  Slow Cooker
  - Whole chicken in the slow cooker with hummus, pita, and raw veggies (cucumbers, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and olives) – Sometimes I just buy a rotisserie chicken and BAM – a healthy, no cook dinner. Making my own chicken this time means a little more meat leftover for chicken soup this week and chicken, broccoli, & rice later in the month.
  - Slow cooker maple & dijon pot roast – It’s been a few months since I’ve made this one! I’m going to prep the night before so I can just turn on the slow cooker in the morning. This recipe suggests serving with grits, and yeah, that is really tasty, so I also recommend grits if you have the time (I use this recipe, which is actually for polenta, but hey, it’s still creamy cornmeal). If I’m short on time I’ll pull out some egg noodles.
  - Maple mustard chicken thighs – prepping this one for the freezer! I have made chicken thighs in my slow cooker using the maple mustard and sweet and sour marinades from this list and both came out great! Cook boneless skinless chicken thighs for 4-6 hours on low.
  - Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is a family favorite that always turns out excellent.
  - Rosemary chicken thighs
  Stovetop
  - Chicken noodle soup – It’s only going to be in the 80s here this week; that’s soup weather, right? 😉 But seriously, don’t let the bones go to waste!
  - BBQ bean burritos with grilled peach salsa from Thug Kitchen – Reviewing this recipe, it is really 3 recipes in one – rice, salsa, and finally burritos – so there will be some decent prep work involved. Hopefully it will all pay off!
  - Chicken, broccoli, and rice – I make a deconstructed version of the classic casserole, but with a lot more broccoli and probably a bit less chicken.
  - Beef tacos with pineapple guacamole from Thug Kitchen – Now that I am writing this, I can see the irony of pairing beefy tacos with a recipe from a vegan cookbook…
  Eggs
  
  Last month I made the broccoli cheddar quiche from You Have It Made, although due to some menu shuffling it ended up being a breakfast item instead of dinner. I don’t have anything special planned for egg nights this month, just our basic scramble with lots of veggies!
  
  Salads
  - Layered farro salad with kale, feta, and grapes from You Have It Made
  - Berry chicken poppy seed salad – Last month I made this with the dressing from this recipe. I’ve made it a few times before and it is fine, but I am pretty sure we have some of this poppy seed dressing lying around, and it goes really well with this salad too.
  - Red cabbage & kale salad from You Have It Made – I’m adding some baked chicken breast to this one, and will probably substitute pepitas for sunflower seeds because I have a bunch.
  - Southwestern salad – As I have said before, I make different variations of this recipe with black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, and salad greens. Last time I added some cheese, and completely forgot about the pepitas. Don’t worry, pepitas, I’m still coming for you. The cilantro-lime vinaigrette I made last month was good, but this time I really might just squeeze some lime on top and call it a day.
  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.
  
  Pasta
  - Grilled eggplant with soba noodles from Thug Kitchen – I usually think of pasta night being more Italian-influenced dinners, but really why not throw in some Asian noodles to mix things up? I couldn’t find soba noodles at the commissary, so I ventured out to Earth Fare today to get some. I’m going to try cooking the eggplant under the broiler because I don’t have a grill and I’ve broiled eggplant a couple of times now. Overall this seems like it should be a quick and easy recipe.
  - Lemony broccoli pasta – Fast to make and my kids love the “worms”! I know I have said it before, but my kids will eat this as is – pasta and broccoli being mixed together, with lemon and all. That is a big deal around here!
  - Pasta with pesto
  - Fettuccini with vegetable bolognese from You Have It Made – There is no meat in this recipe, and I could not be more excited to try it.
  - Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – My favorite, super fast sauce. Remember to dry the tomatoes on a towel after you rinse them to stop them from exploding all over your kitchen.
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 4 Comments | Tagged beef, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian
- May in Review: 5/1/19 – 5/8/19
  
  Posted at 11:12 pm by Rachel, on May 15, 2019
  
  I’ve been thinking that a follow-up type post would be a nice companion to my menu plans. I do my best to follow the plan, sometimes swapping days here or there or skipping a meal as we end up with more food in the fridge than anticipated. So this follow-up will tell you if I stayed on track as well as how new recipes turned out. In case you missed my May menu plan, you can find that here.
  
  5/1 We started the month out with a leftovers night. Of course, when I looked in the fridge at lunch time, there was not much left to clean out. We usually eat dinner leftovers for lunches; I guess we did a good job of it this week! But I did find enough leftover vegetables to make a side salad, some strawberries, cheese slices, and we also had some bread that a friend baked, so naturally I made grilled cheese. It was really good grilled cheese too – the bread had beautiful air bubbles and as the cheese melted it permeated the whole sandwich.
  
  5/2 I made a big trip to Aldi and stocked up for the week. For dinner I made my Southwest salad with the cilantro-lime vinaigrette I linked to in my May menu plan with the rest of the bread from the night before. Unfortunately I forgot about the pepitas, so my salad was just black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, salad greens, and pepper jack cheese. Sometimes I add chicken but for a number of reasons that did not happen on this day. The dressing was pretty good, although I kind of wish I added another lime.
  
  5/3 Pizza night is basically my favorite night of the week. Lately I’ve been making most of it with red sauce and the rest as a white pizza with olive oil and garlic. The most recent batch of sauce I made turned out especially delicious, I think because I threw in a bit more onion than usual.
  
  5/4 My husband chopped up all of the vegetables for this stir fry earlier in the day. I also cooked the rice ahead of time, so dinner came together in about 15 minutes, including the time to mix together the sauce. I love meals like this! I used my mini food processor to mince the ginger to make things go a little bit faster. I almost purged that mini food processor a few months ago, because it is kind of loud and I wasn’t using it. I have been trying to use it again more recently, and it does work well for small jobs, plus it takes up a lot less space in the dishwasher. We will see if I keep using it. Anyway, I used my wok for the stir fry (instead of the frying pan or sauté pan which I have used in the past) and it was fantastic. I love how quickly it heats up and how much food it holds – the curved sides kept all of the food in the pan. The sauce did thicken up very quickly in the wok (like in less than 30 seconds), so next time I think I would cook the broccoli for a minute or so longer and then add the sauce.
  
  After dinner, we indulged in some chocolate covered bananas. My 4-year-old helped me prepare the bananas for the freezer by cutting them into halves and inserting the popsicle sticks. We did this after lunch because the recipe says to freeze them for at least 3 hours ahead of time. After dinner, I put toppings onto small plates (sprinkles for the kids, chopped peanuts for the grown-ups) and melted the chocolate. I did not entirely understand how this process would work, so I’m going to spell it out here for anyone else who might need it. The chocolate instantly cools on the frozen banana, so you need to work *very* quickly to add your toppings. I melted the chocolate in the microwave and I wish that I had just left it in the bowl. Putting it in the glass just made it harder to coat the bananas, and that made it harder to get the toppings to stick. I think I also ended up with a thicker coating of chocolate than is ideal, because the shell kind of fell off of the bananas before we finished eating them. In the end they were creamy and refreshing, but a little bit hard for my young kids to eat.
  
  After the kids went to bed, my husband and I did a bit of meal prep for the month. First we prepped the pork for the slow cooker and stuck that in the fridge overnight. Then we worked on prepping chicken for the month. I started with the Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs – I just mixed together the marinade in a gallon-size freezer bag and added the chicken. Next I seasoned a bunch of chicken breasts (6!) for salads with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and ground mustard. My husband marinated 3 more chicken breasts for the Asian Chicken Salad. While the marinade was working, he trimmed and chopped the chicken for the Orange Chicken, and put that into a bag for the freezer. We baked all of the chicken breasts on two half-sheet pans using this method. Once it was cool enough to handle we sliced it, divided it into quart-sized freezer bags, and set it in the fridge to cool before freezing it. It is such a great feeling knowing that all of that prep work is already done. As long as I remember to defrost everything I will be in good shape for the rest of the month 😀 .
  
  5/5 I had high hopes for Maple Jalapeño Pulled Pork Tacos – they were really easy to put together. Unfortunately that is the best thing I have to say about them. As I mentioned, I do not usually make pork except for bacon, and I guess there is pork in the meatballs I make. These tacos were kind of dry and the seasonings were not really sufficient. Too pork-y for me (I know, what did I expect??). My husband liked them, although to be fair, he will eat almost anything. I think I will stick to smoked pulled pork.
  
  5/6 Monday night eggs! My husband got home early and cooked dinner for us 🙂 He even got a little wild and put parmesan in the eggs – delish! The green vegetable du jour was frozen peas.
  
  5/7 The kids and I made resurrection rolls after lunch. I adjusted the recipe to match the temperature and cook time on my package of crescent rolls. These were a lot of fun, even if half of them did kind of explode.
  
  I intended to put some leftover pork into the quesadillas for dinner, but as I already mentioned I was less than thrilled with the pork, so I just made plain cheese quesadillas for me and the kids. My husband did have some pork in his (he also ate some pork for lunch for a few days; the rest is in the freezer for another day). It was a pretty simple dinner but really immensely satisfying. Thin asparagus is light-years better than thick asparagus, am I right?
  
  5/8 This was supposed to be our leftovers night, but there was not enough left in the fridge to just reheat some plates (really not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned). When this happens I like to do pancakes for dinner, and we happened to have buttermilk in the fridge, so dinner was buttermilk pancakes and fresh pineapple. Not bad for an empty fridge!
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged menu recap
- My May Menu Plan
  
  Posted at 10:04 pm by Rachel, on May 1, 2019
  Well, April got away from me and between Easter and everything else, I didn’t get to make a couple of the recipes on my last menu plan. But that’s just life, isn’t it? So I moved the recipes that we did not get to eat right onto my May menu. A couple of other recipes are repeats just because we like them.
  
  There are some special days this month, too! I think I will make a special dessert for Memorial Day, perhaps this flag pie or another berry dessert. And I’ve never tried chocolate covered bananas, and what better day to try than Cinco de Cuatro?
  
  Slow Cooker
  - Maple Jalapeño Pulled Pork Tacos – I don’t usually make pork other than bacon but these look good and super easy.
  - Sweet and Sour Chicken Thighs – Last month I used the Maple Mustard marinade from this list to make slow cooker chicken thighs and it was amazing – I think that was the most chicken I have ever seen my 4-year-old eat in one sitting! Now I’m wanting to try every marinade from this list.
  - Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is a family favorite that always turns out excellent.
  - Huli Huli Chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – Another family favorite! The juice from a can of pineapple slices is about the amount you need to make the sauce, and the pineapple slices make a beautiful accompaniment to the chicken.
  Eggs
  
  I never got around to making the quick quiche from Ellie Krieger’s You Have It Made last month, so that is still on my list for one night in May.
  
  Sandwiches
  - Quesadillas – I will be filling things with bits of whatever food is left in my fridge, probably some of the pork from the Maple Jalapeño Pulled Pork Tacos, or plain cheese for my kids. If you need some serious quesadilla inspiration, check out Budget Bytes (Beth is the queen of quesadillas as far as I am concerned) or these caramelized onion, spinach, and avocado quesadillas.
  - Grilled cheese
  - Mayonnaise-Free Chicken Salad Sandwiches – I saw this recipe in an email newsletter a few years back and I still reach for it when I want to make chicken salad. I usually bake a bunch of chicken breasts for all of my dinner salads and anything else that calls for cooked chicken at once.
  - Cantaloupe Soup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Sandwiches from Real Simple: Meals Made Easy – I’ve made these sandwiches with the prosciutto cold and also cooked in a frying pan, both ways are great. The cantaloupe soup might seem unusual – or at least I have never seen it before – but it is worth a try.
  Salads/Bowl Meals
  - Southwest salad – I make different variations of this recipe, but the general formula is black beans, pinto beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes, and salad greens. I have some pepitas in the pantry, so I will probably toss some of those on top. This recipe for a cilantro-lime vinaigrette looks promising.
  - Cobb salad – I guess what I make is not a true cobb salad, because I don’t use blue cheese. My recipe is chicken, hard boiled eggs, bacon, tomatoes, avocado, salad greens, and either cheddar or jack cheese. I think I have everything on hand to make the salad dressing from this recipe.
  - Almond, Berry, and Chicken Spinach Salad – I’m pretty sure that this is my kids’ favorite salad; they love all the berries and the mandarin oranges!
  - Asian chicken salad – This was one of our favorites from last summer. The toppings make the salad!
  Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.
  
  Stovetop
  - Veggie Stir-Fry – So many vegetables, so many textures. The baby corn is my favorite – it’s just so cute. I’m pretty sure my kids ate this one even with the sauce last time.
  - Vegetable soup made from homemade vegetable broth – I have a big bag of veggie scraps in my freezer that I am going to try to turn into broth for soup. I have made chicken broth many times, but I have yet to try making vegetable broth! I read somewhere that the rind from a piece of parmesan is a great addition to vegetable broth, and I’m pretty sure I have one of those floating around my freezer too. A friend suggested I check out the vegetable broth recipe from Thug Kitchen, and it looks like that book is at my library!
  - Orange chicken – This is one that I didn’t get to make last month! I still plan to make the sauce and cut up the chicken ahead of time, and will probably try to make it in my wok.
  - Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – My favorite, super fast sauce. Make sure you dry the tomatoes on a towel after you rinse them, or you will be dealing with some serious fireworks in your frying pan.
  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 1 Comment | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, salad, sandwich, slow cooker, soup, vegetarian
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