Well as usual, as I've been whizzing along at warp speed, life has thrown me another curve ball. On Sunday June 22nd we got the call that my husband's mom had been taken to the hospital and was dehydrated and quit ill. On Monday we were told that it was cancer and they thought six months, with in the next 24 hours that time line was reduced to a month, so Bob hopped a train on Wednesday the 25th and headed for Seattle. He was there to assist with transferring mom back to her home and the set up of hospice to assist with her care.
I made a one day round trip on Saturday the 28th with our two sons to basically get some time with her, not knowing how things were going to play out and have the chance to say our goodbyes. When I headed up I wasn't sure if Bob was coming home with us or if he was going to continue to say up there to assist with her care. As it turned out, his younger sister from Florida arrived and would be staying to help his older sister so he took his leave to come home for a few days.
That turned out to be very few, while he was at work on Monday June 30th he got a call saying that mom was going down hill fast, so he left work early and headed back up, after arriving at her house at 11pm she ended up passing away at the age of 91 at 2am Tuesday morning July 1st. He spent the week there with his sisters making all the arrangement for her services that were held on Saturday July 5th before his sister had to return to Florida. I drove up on Friday the forth and returned on Sunday. Our boys made one day round trips for the service and Bob finally came home on Monday the 7th after helping with some final details.
Friday the 11th we took care of some issues here at home and headed back to Seattle again to begin the process of cleaning out the house. We put in an aggressive day and a half of work on the house before crawling back into our truck and made our way home.
Needless to say, during that three weeks of craziness I threw all eating standards to the wind. We ate on the fly, we ate random meals while home alone, in Seattle and on the road. I ate odds and ends alone at home and while putting in allot of extra hours trying to stay on track at the office while taking extra days off for travel I ate at the restaurant frequently too, it was just plain hard on my system.
With everyone home for the next few weeks its time to detox the system and find some balance in our eating and life. So with that in mind, here are a couple of my meal items for the week.
Bacon, Spinach & Mushroom Egg Cups
1 dozen Eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 c. Shape cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 to 1 c frozen spinach, thaw and squeeze the liquid out in a towel
1 lb sliced mushrooms
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (is should still be warm from baking the bacon)
While the spinach is thawing in the sink, I lay all the bacon out on a baking sheet (with tall sides to catch the grease), place in a 400 degree oven and bake until crispy, about 20 min depending on the thickness of your slices. Remove from baking pan to paper towels to drain. I save my grease drippings for other cooking. Once the bacon is cool, it should crumble easily.
With the bacon in the oven I brown the mushrooms in butter in a big fry pan, they must be browned in small batches, not crowding them in the pan or they will steam (this tip comes from Julia). With everything cooked off or prepped, mix together in a large bowl. Whisk up the eggs and milk (I use a stick blender, it will breakdown the whites) and pour over the other ingredients and stir together. Ladle into silicone muffin pans (I use a Jumbo muffin) and bake for 30-35 minutes. They will be fluffy and over the top, but as they cool they will shrink back. They store easily in an air tight container in the frig and can be warmed in the microwave or toaster oven. We take one of the jumbo or two of the standard muffins for a simple quick breakfast on the go.
Greek Chicken Salad
1 lg English Cucumber, quartered lengthwise, cut sticks in 1/4" slices
2 lg Tomatoes (4 Roma's will do too), rough chopped
1 c. Feta Cheese, crumbled
1 sm can sliced Black Olives (or what ever olive you prefer)
1 Bell Pepper, diced small
1/2 lb diced cooked chicken meat or turkey breast
Greek Dressing (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/greek-salad-recipe.print.html)
(I played around with the dressing, made a double batch, used mayo in place the oil to make a creamy dressing and I think maybe next time I will try it with cream cheese to make it thicker)
Now comes the best part, toss it all in a large bowl and mix it up. Eat now or store it up for later.
I made a one day round trip on Saturday the 28th with our two sons to basically get some time with her, not knowing how things were going to play out and have the chance to say our goodbyes. When I headed up I wasn't sure if Bob was coming home with us or if he was going to continue to say up there to assist with her care. As it turned out, his younger sister from Florida arrived and would be staying to help his older sister so he took his leave to come home for a few days.
That turned out to be very few, while he was at work on Monday June 30th he got a call saying that mom was going down hill fast, so he left work early and headed back up, after arriving at her house at 11pm she ended up passing away at the age of 91 at 2am Tuesday morning July 1st. He spent the week there with his sisters making all the arrangement for her services that were held on Saturday July 5th before his sister had to return to Florida. I drove up on Friday the forth and returned on Sunday. Our boys made one day round trips for the service and Bob finally came home on Monday the 7th after helping with some final details.
Friday the 11th we took care of some issues here at home and headed back to Seattle again to begin the process of cleaning out the house. We put in an aggressive day and a half of work on the house before crawling back into our truck and made our way home.
Needless to say, during that three weeks of craziness I threw all eating standards to the wind. We ate on the fly, we ate random meals while home alone, in Seattle and on the road. I ate odds and ends alone at home and while putting in allot of extra hours trying to stay on track at the office while taking extra days off for travel I ate at the restaurant frequently too, it was just plain hard on my system.
With everyone home for the next few weeks its time to detox the system and find some balance in our eating and life. So with that in mind, here are a couple of my meal items for the week.
Bacon, Spinach & Mushroom Egg Cups
1 dozen Eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 c. Shape cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 to 1 c frozen spinach, thaw and squeeze the liquid out in a towel
1 lb sliced mushrooms
Preheat oven to 375 degrees (is should still be warm from baking the bacon)
While the spinach is thawing in the sink, I lay all the bacon out on a baking sheet (with tall sides to catch the grease), place in a 400 degree oven and bake until crispy, about 20 min depending on the thickness of your slices. Remove from baking pan to paper towels to drain. I save my grease drippings for other cooking. Once the bacon is cool, it should crumble easily.
With the bacon in the oven I brown the mushrooms in butter in a big fry pan, they must be browned in small batches, not crowding them in the pan or they will steam (this tip comes from Julia). With everything cooked off or prepped, mix together in a large bowl. Whisk up the eggs and milk (I use a stick blender, it will breakdown the whites) and pour over the other ingredients and stir together. Ladle into silicone muffin pans (I use a Jumbo muffin) and bake for 30-35 minutes. They will be fluffy and over the top, but as they cool they will shrink back. They store easily in an air tight container in the frig and can be warmed in the microwave or toaster oven. We take one of the jumbo or two of the standard muffins for a simple quick breakfast on the go.
Greek Chicken Salad
1 lg English Cucumber, quartered lengthwise, cut sticks in 1/4" slices
2 lg Tomatoes (4 Roma's will do too), rough chopped
1 c. Feta Cheese, crumbled
1 sm can sliced Black Olives (or what ever olive you prefer)
1 Bell Pepper, diced small
1/2 lb diced cooked chicken meat or turkey breast
Greek Dressing (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/greek-salad-recipe.print.html)
(I played around with the dressing, made a double batch, used mayo in place the oil to make a creamy dressing and I think maybe next time I will try it with cream cheese to make it thicker)
Now comes the best part, toss it all in a large bowl and mix it up. Eat now or store it up for later.
So there you have it, my breakfasts and lunches for the week,
and here's to getting back on track!
Thanks for the ideas!
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