Planning is worthless. No matter what I do.
- Thread starter susiestar
- Start date
He made the dinner and it was yummy. Of course he whined greatly, but I kept cutting him off with things I needed to say or ask him to do. he finally figured out that every time he came to whine at me I gave him another task to do. That kept him from being a total brat about things.
He did say that it was dirty pool to use the tactics I use when the kids whine on him. I told there was no difference between him whining because he cannot play computer games because he messed up the groceries and bought pounds and pounds of meat we didn't need and the kids whining because they want to watch tv when they need to do chores. He then tried the "I never agreed to do anything with the meat once it got home" and I showed him where he initialed the grocery list by where I broke down the prep chores for each person. Then he flounced away but didn't pout to the kids at all, which was good.
Want me to send the wooden spoon of discipline down the line? I didn't need to use it, and if I need it while it is gone he will have graduated to the rolling pin of discipline. Figuratively, of course.
He did say that it was dirty pool to use the tactics I use when the kids whine on him. I told there was no difference between him whining because he cannot play computer games because he messed up the groceries and bought pounds and pounds of meat we didn't need and the kids whining because they want to watch tv when they need to do chores. He then tried the "I never agreed to do anything with the meat once it got home" and I showed him where he initialed the grocery list by where I broke down the prep chores for each person. Then he flounced away but didn't pout to the kids at all, which was good.
Want me to send the wooden spoon of discipline down the line? I didn't need to use it, and if I need it while it is gone he will have graduated to the rolling pin of discipline. Figuratively, of course.
Marguerite
Active Member
Susie, what kind of pork did he get? I have some recipe ideas for you that might help.
The burger overload - we sometimes cook them all at once then freeze them cooked. We then make fast burgers (you could call them "silly burgers" if you want Aussie joke) by using slices of bread instead of burger buns. I microwave the cooked patty while the bread is toasting, then serve up with lettuce and sliced tomato.
What your husband has to realise, is that the same amount of meat goes a lot further if you make bolognese, than if you use it to make burgers. One burger patty weighs about 200 g (McDonalds quarter pounder would have a 250 g meat patty). But four or five patties would give you a kilo of bolognese sauce which could be made into a lasagne that could feed ten people and fill them up a lot better than one burger each.
With pork, I often buy a whole pork scotch fillet and when I get it home, I slice it into rounds about 1 cm thick. I freeze it from there. To use it, I can either let one or two of these pork medallions thaw partly, then slice thinly while still partly frozen. I then use it in a stir-fry with whatever fresh vegetables I can scavenge from the fridge or the garden. Or you can add it to a chicken stock with some other thinly sliced meats and sliced vegetables, to make a rich soup.
Or - I get out a pork medallion per person and get ready to pan-fry. You can cook them from frozen. Once they're cooked, you add a teaspoonful of whatever Chinese sauce you want (satay sauce; teriyaki sauce; plum sauce; hoi-sin sauce; honey plus soy) and let the sauce caramelise onto the pork. To serve, put the pork on the plate and if you need to add a few drops of water to deglaze the pan, do it and then pour the sauce over the steak. You can do this with chicken and beef as well. Serve it with salad, or cooked vegetables. Or you can serve it thinly slices with salad in a tortilla.
I have some good Chinese soup recipes. Won-ton soups can be marvellous for stretching the budget as well as for giving people a gourmet meal. Whenever we have a roast chicken, I put the carcass in the freezer, and then later on use it to make chicken stock. I use that stock as the basis for soup. I currently have some prawn stock (aka shrimp stock) made from the heads which otherwise would get discarded.
I taught my kids how to cook by telling them, and acting out, the story of "Stone Soup". We were on holiday when I did this, staying in an apartment that had good kitchen facilities but we couldn't afford much else. We had eaten a shop-bought barbecued chicken the day before and the kids had picked the bones fairly clean. We'd cooked some vegetables and the rubbish contained onion skins, carrot peel and celery tops. I had a salt shaker in this kitchen.
So we got a stone from the apartment garden, a river pebble. I made sure it was clean first!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup
I told them the story as I put the stone in a pot of water to boil. As I told the story, we acted it out. We put in some salt. The rubbish went in - the chicken carcass now with very little meat on it. The seasoning (bread and herbs) that was in the chicken that the kids didn't want to eat - that went in. The celery tops, the carrot peelings, the onion skin - it all went in. We looked in the fridge for any other food. We had some Vegemite, put in a little of that too (it works like salty beef stock). You should never cook chicken bones etc for more than an hour (half an hour is often enough) so this was done very quickly. The soup scraps get picked out, except for any 'real' food and not rubbish. The kids all tasted it and enjoyed it. easy child 2/difficult child 2 carefully washed the stone and put it in her pocket. When he left home I was surprised to see the stone - it sits on her windowsill in their apartment. She is very good at making soup!
We waste as little as possible, and use stock in other recipes also. I sometimes make a supreme sauce using stock, and powdered milk, in a bechamel base. You can then add chopped up meat and vegetables in such a sauce then it can become a pie filling, or a rich sauce served on rice. Or a pasta bake sauce.
I went to a friend's house for lunch. She's a vegetarian who eats everything raw. before lunch we walked around the garden. She picked various plants, mostly weeds. Some rocket, some dandelion leaves and flowers, a few marigolds, some nasturtium (leaves and flowers) and a lot of chickweed. She washed it, tore it then put it all together in a bowl with some chopped nuts and a splash of cider vinegar. It was fabulous!
Marg
The burger overload - we sometimes cook them all at once then freeze them cooked. We then make fast burgers (you could call them "silly burgers" if you want Aussie joke) by using slices of bread instead of burger buns. I microwave the cooked patty while the bread is toasting, then serve up with lettuce and sliced tomato.
What your husband has to realise, is that the same amount of meat goes a lot further if you make bolognese, than if you use it to make burgers. One burger patty weighs about 200 g (McDonalds quarter pounder would have a 250 g meat patty). But four or five patties would give you a kilo of bolognese sauce which could be made into a lasagne that could feed ten people and fill them up a lot better than one burger each.
With pork, I often buy a whole pork scotch fillet and when I get it home, I slice it into rounds about 1 cm thick. I freeze it from there. To use it, I can either let one or two of these pork medallions thaw partly, then slice thinly while still partly frozen. I then use it in a stir-fry with whatever fresh vegetables I can scavenge from the fridge or the garden. Or you can add it to a chicken stock with some other thinly sliced meats and sliced vegetables, to make a rich soup.
Or - I get out a pork medallion per person and get ready to pan-fry. You can cook them from frozen. Once they're cooked, you add a teaspoonful of whatever Chinese sauce you want (satay sauce; teriyaki sauce; plum sauce; hoi-sin sauce; honey plus soy) and let the sauce caramelise onto the pork. To serve, put the pork on the plate and if you need to add a few drops of water to deglaze the pan, do it and then pour the sauce over the steak. You can do this with chicken and beef as well. Serve it with salad, or cooked vegetables. Or you can serve it thinly slices with salad in a tortilla.
I have some good Chinese soup recipes. Won-ton soups can be marvellous for stretching the budget as well as for giving people a gourmet meal. Whenever we have a roast chicken, I put the carcass in the freezer, and then later on use it to make chicken stock. I use that stock as the basis for soup. I currently have some prawn stock (aka shrimp stock) made from the heads which otherwise would get discarded.
I taught my kids how to cook by telling them, and acting out, the story of "Stone Soup". We were on holiday when I did this, staying in an apartment that had good kitchen facilities but we couldn't afford much else. We had eaten a shop-bought barbecued chicken the day before and the kids had picked the bones fairly clean. We'd cooked some vegetables and the rubbish contained onion skins, carrot peel and celery tops. I had a salt shaker in this kitchen.
So we got a stone from the apartment garden, a river pebble. I made sure it was clean first!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup
I told them the story as I put the stone in a pot of water to boil. As I told the story, we acted it out. We put in some salt. The rubbish went in - the chicken carcass now with very little meat on it. The seasoning (bread and herbs) that was in the chicken that the kids didn't want to eat - that went in. The celery tops, the carrot peelings, the onion skin - it all went in. We looked in the fridge for any other food. We had some Vegemite, put in a little of that too (it works like salty beef stock). You should never cook chicken bones etc for more than an hour (half an hour is often enough) so this was done very quickly. The soup scraps get picked out, except for any 'real' food and not rubbish. The kids all tasted it and enjoyed it. easy child 2/difficult child 2 carefully washed the stone and put it in her pocket. When he left home I was surprised to see the stone - it sits on her windowsill in their apartment. She is very good at making soup!
We waste as little as possible, and use stock in other recipes also. I sometimes make a supreme sauce using stock, and powdered milk, in a bechamel base. You can then add chopped up meat and vegetables in such a sauce then it can become a pie filling, or a rich sauce served on rice. Or a pasta bake sauce.
I went to a friend's house for lunch. She's a vegetarian who eats everything raw. before lunch we walked around the garden. She picked various plants, mostly weeds. Some rocket, some dandelion leaves and flowers, a few marigolds, some nasturtium (leaves and flowers) and a lot of chickweed. She washed it, tore it then put it all together in a bowl with some chopped nuts and a splash of cider vinegar. It was fabulous!
Marg
