Week 4 - peeling
Peeling should have been an easy challenge to figure out, but I didn't want to just do something like potatoes because that was something I would use a peeler on. I eventually chose a shaved asparagus salad from Two Peas and Their Pod to be the starting point for our salad. I haven't had much raw asparagus, so this would be something new. Unfortunately, my plans to make a gigantic salad went out the window when my asparagus shavings didn't look nearly as good or robust as the recipe photos, and when the peeler would stop shaving anything but scraps once I got halfway through each piece of asparagus. I have no idea what I was doing differently or wrong, but it became a bit tedious trying to get good pieces of asparagus, and I was still left with the question of what do with all the parts I couldn't peel. I ended up just doing a small side salad and roasting the rest instead.
I modified the recipe quite a bit for what we had and to simplify it. The salad itself consisted of asparagus, some baby greens (too expensive and rotted too quickly, probably could have skipped), crumbled feta cheese (my sub for shaved parmesan because that was pricey, and the grocery bill was already high due to the $6.99/lb asparagus plus the overpriced salad greens), chopped walnuts (recipe was pistachios, but we already had some open walnuts), and a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and some agave. The recipe also included avocados, but the ones at the store didn't look great either. The salad plus the roasted asparagus together cost about $11, which was more than the turkey cheeseburgers I served them with. All together, the meal was probably close to $19. I probably wouldn't make this specific salad again unless I figured out where I went wrong with the peeling, but the small batch I did make did taste good.
Week 5 - celestial
This was the first challenge this year that really puzzled me. All that came to mind was Celestial Seasonings tea, which I didn't really want to do for the challenge, and after reading more about it (here), really, really didn't want to do for the challenge. Ideas that came up in discussion included sun (like sun chips), moon (like mooncakes), planetary designs, and for a long time, the thing that made the most sense to do was something Star Wars-related (and there are some great recipes on their site). In the end, I wasn't feeling super artistic and I wanted to do something that would also work for dinner, not dessert, so I decided to go with zodiac signs, more specifically Pisces, and make fish.
I found a recipe on Food & Wine for a baked flounder with Parmesan crumbs, and that sounded perfect for this challenge and a nice dinner. The fish was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, and then topped with a mixture of melted butter, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and panko breadcrumbs. The dish was delicious and so simple to make, and it paired well with some roasted asparagus and smashed potatoes. Not the best for a low-calorie diet or the most affordable (the fish part itself was probably around $11, but not 100% sure because I can't remember the flounder price per piece, which meant a $24 meal when paired with the $8 asparagus and $5 potatoes, but we were absolutely stuffed and had leftover potatoes), but would definitely make all of it again.
Week 7 - discontinued
I was obsessed with the Wild Mountain chicken sandwich at Wendy's back in the early 2000s and so sad when they discontinued it. It was a crispy chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, colby jack cheese (didn't realize we ran out of it before making this so had to substitute), and a southwestern sauce. I used the sauce from a copycat recipe of the Wild Mountain bacon cheeseburger, consisting of (vegan) mayo, paprika, cumin, garlic, lemon juice, cayenne, oregano, salt, and sugar, and I think it turned out pretty close to what I remember (but it has been about 20 years). Approximate cost was $8.95 for three sandwiches, so far cheaper than Wendy's would ever be. It was "only" a chicken sandwich, but I would absolutely make this again for the memories.
Week 10 - balling
My first thought for balling was meatballs, but then it became a challenge to figure out what type of meatball, since just about every culture has some version of meatballs. In the end, we were coming off a week of the flu and more illnesses, everyone was feeling fatigued, and we had to cancel a bunch of grocery trips, so the easiest thing to do was spaghetti and meatballs, something I personally really like anyway. These meatballs were a combination of Impossible burger, onion, garlic powder, breadcrumbs, flax egg, grated parmesan cheese (the green bottle kind), salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano, generally based on the recipe on the Impossible website.
Rather than make my own sauce (school night, fatigue, etc), I just went with a caramelized onion and garlic jarred sauce and some whole wheat spaghetti. The total for dinner, including the roasted asparagus we ate on the side, was about $15.92, with some extra pasta and sauce left over. I doubt it would have cost this much five years ago (been cleaning out some old receipts), but 2024 prices are ridiculous, even for something basic like spaghetti and meatballs. But it is still cheaper than getting it at a restaurant though for the amount it made. Also, not sure if it was because our cheese was older or what, but our stomachs didn't respond too well to this, even though it did taste good. It did apparently reawaken some interest for spaghetti and meatballs from the little one, which was a nice surprise.
First 10 done (with some more individual posts to come)!
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