September Meal Plan – Week 4

This past week unexpectedly became “cookie trial and error week.”  My dad (a chef) asked me to do him a favor – take some rice pilaf (that he has an enormous amount of) and see if I can use it in a breakfast cookie.  His breakfast buffet needs a cookie, and he has A LOT of pilaf on his shelves.

Let’s ignore the fact that it was *cough*my dad*cough* and allow me to bask in the glory that a chef asked me to come up with a recipe for him.  I mean really, how often does that happen?

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Ok, moment’s over.  =)  Back to the story!

So there’s lots of pilaf and he wants a cookie – trying to take care of two birds with one stone, right?

But wait a second, did I mention that this pilaf tastes like little balls of hard styrofoam?  It has no flavor whatsoever (read as it tastes awful) and there’s something unappetizing about chewing little gritty rocks – and that’s when the stuff is cooked!

And he wonders why he has so much pilaf on his shelves?!

Perhaps I should have mentioned to my dad that while my breakfast cookie recipe is amazing (and I’m not bragging, it truly is – try it yourself!), I’m not a miracle-worker.  Three attempts later and I’ve made a lot of cookies… and they all taste like the original delicious breakfast cookie, with little hard pebbles thrown in.

Thank goodness my live-in taste testers will one-day replace the teeth that I’m putting in harms way by feeding them these cookies.  Despite the stones, there hasn’t been much complaining… but then I’ve also been rewarding them with the “good” cookies – a batch of chocolate chip that was divine.  I almost feel related to Mary Poppins and her spoonful of sugar.

I have some great friends and knew that they’d give me honest opinions on the cookies (not that I needed more opinions, but I needed other eater besides my kids).  The verdict was unanimous – a little too crunchy.  That’s friend-ese for “Tiff, these aren’t that great.”  Thanks Cat and Jess for being my guinea pigs!

I’m fairly sure those two tester cookies were the only ones eaten out of the box, so it’s back to the drawing board this week.  I’m currently testing out a different method of soaking since the previous three batches didn’t work.

And who am I kidding – “basking in the glory” is my consolation prize for botched cookies.  It was after all my dad.

Breakfast

• Banana chocolate chip muffins (never got around to making them week with all the cookie trials)
• Homemade instant oatmeal packets

Lunches

• Snacky lunches with soaked granola (recipe modified to fit what’s in the pantry because I STILL haven’t gotten around to making this and the pantry’s starting to look bare)
• Peanut butter & homemade jelly/bananas/apple/raisins on buttermilk bread
• Pigs in a blanket (if there’s time to make these crescent rolls)

Dinner

(S) Family Dinner
(M) Leftovers
(T) Gourmet Grilled Cheese (maybe bacon and pepper jack, granny smith & provolone, or pesto, tomato & mozzarella) with a Side Salad  [we swapped BLT's for grilled cheese last week]
(W) Leftovers or Spaghetti
(T) Lemon Caper Chicken (fresh vegetable, salad)
(F) Homemade Pizza
(S) Whole chicken rotisserie on the grill (Mediterranean Beans & Rice, salad) [another last minute swap last Saturday night]

What’s on your menu this week?

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