chicken sucks less with cheese and bacon

My preferred ways to consume cluck flesh is as follows:

#1: barbecued
#2: rotisserie/oven-roasted
#3: stuffed with/wrapped in something

I make a badass pan fried chicken breast spinach dijon muenster hot pocket-type thing (i'll get to a recipe post of it, it's delicious, there's a picture of it on my pc somewhere, they look like tasty pasties on steroids! sans peach corner, sadly, though it could be deliciously recreated with apple chutney, as peach sounds mushy, and again, chutney is yet another future recipe post. makes the place smell amazing), and a twice-porked chicken i adapted from gordon ramsay's pistashio sausage stuffed chicken (all wrapped in BACON). This one is keto-friendly, and super-easy, even though i hate thawing shit out, and fridge chicken gets forgotten and gets all slimy and inedible, and then i've paid for garbage, haven't i? fucking lazy, i am.
It's delicious, though i need to fix the cheese consistency. it's a bit soft for me. i probably crave mozzarella and pepperjack, they're so stretchy and dense!


CREAM CHEESE CHICKEN

3 chicken breasts ( serves 2 and a 6 year old)
cream cheese
mozzarella
garlic powder and pepper
bacon

1. preheat oven to 350. cover a flat pan with foil.

2. thaw chicken in microwave or with hot water (or in fridge overnight, but i don't recommend this. you'll forget) and butterfly (cut in half long-ways), then smash thinner with something heavy (i used a can, be careful, it splatters if you wail on it). pat dry with paper towel.

3. mix cheeses and season, spoon onto chicken, then sort of roll up the chicken in an awkward attempt to contain the soft cheese blend. you could use a toothpick, but come on. wrap this wad in a piece of bacon, effectively preventing the cheese's escape onto the pan (if some oozes out whilst baking, just spoon it on top at the end, it'll get some of that bacon grease on there and be fucking amazing).

4. put on foiled pan and into preheated oven for like 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is no longer slimy and pink.

on an offhanded note, i got this independent publishing company's bff mailer for xmas last year, where for around a bill, they send you everything they've printed in the past month. i can't say it was worth it, but i enjoyed the attempt. the one i received recently, the last installment, was full of vegan cookbooks, raw, flesh-free, foreign ingredient-infused cocktails with fancy sounding names.

an avid meat muncher (readers know i'm doing keto, if not, i'll make a post on it), i sat here laughing for the third time over the term "cluck flesh" (as i reread it, i giggle still), i had a funny cookbook idea: "tasty meaties", all meat recipes with happy looking animated animals in various stages of culinary preparation (like this french ad, but less nightmare-inducing). the sections could be "swine flesh" "cluck flesh" "moo flesh", etc. Hilarious. Hail meat!

Hot Sauce Cake

At the head of each week, my daughter and I develop dinner ideas together in the kitchen; me at the dry erase board hanging on the wall, her at the table, usually writing her own list  (imitation must truly be the primary basis of learning, it seems), as we shout out options excitedly at one another.

   Culinary brainstorming each week takes the hassle out of weekday cooking (experienced usually in the form of fatigue or time constraints), and affirms my need, personal value system-wise, to acquire and prepare my own evening fare in a way that not only honors my primary responsibility as one biological caregiver, but satisfies my sense of integrity in effort, not to mention familiarizing Julia with the basics of kitchen management (no easy feat).

  Moreover, there is a creative element to the seemingly practical task of cooking each evening, to the extent that I find myself craving the cooking more than the consuming, and hunger more for the feeling of steel blades slicing into various textures of flesh and foliage, the look of a good pan sear or an amber-translucent root than the inevitable post-prep palate response. Even as I mention it here, my mouth salivates and innards growl for the process. Truly a starving art.

(I can sense the irony in that, but haven't the patience to place it at the moment, so I'll leave it alone for now.)

   She's like Matilda, I swear to fuck. Loves being involved and employed in household logistics, makes her feel like she has input, which she does, of course, but kids are simple, and overlook similarly simple concepts easily, yielding discouragement and a bad attitude, low esteem, etc, so it's best as a parent to reinforce said simple concepts regardless, removing all doubt.

   They're so damn sensitive, silly, really, but compliments go surprisingly far when it comes to willing participation in seemingly menial yet necessary domestic tasks. She's still young, and doubtfully grasps the concept of "necessity", so it's more effective to cultivate enthusiasm for the task itself than it is to drive home the value of the act itself. it's a child, she'll understand the background lectures her mother utters to her in her youth once she has reflected upon them enough as she ages. It's a lot of power to attribute to such a natural position as "mother" that i try not to dwell on it, lest i give in to the intensity of the concept and senselessly (yet privately) overexcite myself. Introversion: one helluva drug.

   Last week, as we collaboratively composed the week's meals, I casually ask julia what she'd like for dinner, to which she loudly replied "(gasp!) HOT SAUCE CAKE!" I have no idea what "hot sauce cake" is, only that she's asked me for it for about a year now, and I continually dismissed it as a joke (do not doubt my open-mindedness, readers! i have entertained and successfully executed bacon cupcakes before, upon her request), until that day, when, mid-mental riff on juicy ground beef oozing with pepperjack, i paused, recalled a keto casserole recipe i had viewed not moments prior to our brain session, and erased thursday's "taco" entry to "hot sauce cake", the wee one reading along aloud, each sequential syllable uttered an octave higher in oral excitement.

   It was made, and was delicious. I will be remaking this, as you ought've assumed already*; why would i go to all the trouble elaborating on a dish i wouldn't recommend?

...memoir fodder, maybe? I do this shit, I fight with myself until I am in shreds, and shreds do not form a solid opinion (my gestalt buzzer goes off when i hear the word "pieces" in comparison to an assumed "whole"). also, partially unrelated, i abhor the word "because", using it feel synonymous with "i'm lazy". the * above indicates the removal of a comma and the dreaded "because". damned if you think ME mediocre! you know i'm your favorite fucking writer, admit it. Or don't. It is all the same. I have perceived the truth of the matter, from miles away, arrogantly as ever!

More on arrogance in the essay intended for later on. t and d have an ongoing rivalry, and they vie, however nonsensically, for a spot in each sentence chancing to feature either or, like single point mutations, or a very specific literary sloppiness. These habitual quirks excite me; eventual awareness of them indicates these revelations stem naturally out of exposure to writing. Vonnegut says semicolons let 'em know you attended university. I've always (almost physically) felt the difference in circumstances that warrant either one or the other, it takes no advanced knowledge of the subject, not putting on academic airs, like the berkeley beats, rattling off obscure pronouns in vain, speed-addled attempts to appear exposed and cultured. Exposure is the only route! I experience the need for a semicolon, bollocks to your rigid usage parameters, take that shit to e e cummings, you chatty corpse, you.

all of my favorite words, uttered by dead men, my bookshelf elaborated upon, until i have not a shelf, but a crypt, a great tomb with the skeletons of said men, mandibles chattering away with a anatomical click click click. perhaps the reader has control, and, like a medium, willfully seeks out possession, embodying their views for a while before releasing them back into the void of covers closed. their must be some residual protoplasmic material lingering in the reader's body, post-possession. you can't exorcise them, as there is no way to wipe the memory, so parts of the dead linger, like the ring of starch left in the pot after the boiling macaroni water has been evacuated. their words, i suppose, get trapped in there, and influence us, whether we invoke them or not. perhaps this can be said of all environmental interactions. but such communion with the dead feels not solemn, but familiar, as if you are kin to the dead, as if they depict a common element in all  the living , and in that realization cease to abide by our understanding of death. They never cease to inhabit the living, we won't allow it, we need what they know, a pervasive need spanning even death, it seems.

they haunt.

HOT SAUCE CAKE

6 tortillias
a lb of ground beef (80/20)
an onion
a can of green chiles
a can of tomato paste
garlic powder, cumin, red pepper
1/2 c mayo
1/2 c salsa
a packet of ranch powder
a big bag of cheese (i used cheddar)

1. preheat the oven to like 350-400, around there somewhere
2. cook the beef on the stove, add the onions when there's enough grease in there
3. when no pink remains, drain the grease and add the chiles and tomato paste. season it
4. once mixed and the smells are married (you can tell when all the flavors incorporate, it takes on a "mexican food" smell because of the cumin), take off the stove and add the mayo and salsa.
5. Build the casserole! Lay down 3 tortillias, cover with half the meatiness, cover that with half the cheese, and repeat.
6. bake until the cheese on top is nice and crispy brown. serve with sour cream.

KETO FRIENDLY. ALSO AMAZING.

Grilled Turkey Meatballs and Cabbage

We're in the middle of a late August heat wave where I live. This past week has gone from humid and sticky with a little rain to hair dryer-esque, where the heat just blast you in the face relentlessly at all hours. High temperatures really throw a kink in my Sundays, as I rely fairly heavily on my oven for premaking a week of meals and can't in good conscience turn the damn thing on when it's over a hundred degrees out. I do, however, have a big ol' gas grill at my dad's place across the street, and a grill's sort of like an oven, right? Like a hot box with a thermometer on the front? Tomatoes and potatoes, I guess.

Grilling is a perfect way to keep my house cool while getting in some low-effort cooking. I don't like fussy foods when I'm making large quantities, so I stick to dishes I know are set and forget, ones that can handle a few minutes of overcooking, if necessary. It's Sunday, I've had a few beers, time tends to wiggle a little as it passes on days like this, so it's easy to get distracted.

This afternoon I grilled up a week's worth of lunches for eating at the office. Eating out everyday is unhealthy and expensive, plus there's always been a slight allure to the idea of making your own food, packing your own lunch. It's silly, but it's mildly exciting for me. This week, I made cheesy turkey meatballs and cabbage. I'm tightening up on my low-carb eating, so I'll be making a lot of wads of cheesy meat. They're versatile enough to allow for experimentation with flavor combinations, and are always simple, savory and satisfying.

This meal, like all of my meals, started as an idle thought, as I am ever thinking of cooking. Thought gives way to desire, to plan and finally purchase on Saturday, my day for meal planning and grocery shopping. Sundays I cook it all, Saturdays I just plan out my meals and grocery list, get it from the store to my fridge and leave it at that. I'll get this urge to cook a bunch, but curb it, as it's real easy to get overwhelmed all of a sudden if you do too much in a single afternoon. Shop on Saturday, cook on Sunday. It's a method that really works for me.

I used a pack of ground turkey and mashed it up with an egg, some panko, and some leftover herb goat cheese and cream cheese vegetable spread that was laying around in my fridge, and a bunch of shredded Parmesan. Not the shakey kind, but that'll do, as will cream cheese or any cheese you've got on hand. Like I said, meat wads are extremely versatile! I seasoned them with a bunch of stuff, salt and pepper, rosemary, majoram, thyme, basil, parsley, minced onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, sage, and oregano.

I foiled and oiled a long baking pan and put wads of the meaty mix on it, five to a row. I got like 30 on this long pan I have. Then stick the pan in your grill at 400ish for 20m and you're good to go. Cabbage was insanely easy (as cabbage is known to be): chop the cabbage, separate the leaves, put in a bowl with chopped garlic and onion and shake with oil, salt, pepper, paprika and minced onion. Pour into baking pans (I used round cake pans and a lidded casserole dish) and foil/lid and bake until limp, 30m or so.

I also cut up some bacon and stuck it in the grill for an easy protein breakfast. I fork whisk two eggs in a big ceramic ramekin I have, add a bit of salt and a bunch of pepper and nuke it for a minute or so, until it's not runny anymore, then toss in some cooked bacon and cheddar. Easy as eggs.

So for a little prep work and some idle patience, I have five lunches and enough bacon for breakfast all week. Cheap, tasty, and healthy. Subway and sushi can suck it!

(But not sushi, I'm gonna go there every time I get paid, because $13 for all you can eat is a freaking deal and eel sushi with wasabi and ginger and a couple bowls of miso and a sneaky sapporo makes me very happy.)

chicken alfredo

I mentioned in the banana muffin post that I was trying to eat less carbs lately. The new year is upon us, and I gotta tell ya, nothing feels better than abstaining from grain. It started as a weight loss strategy, and after losing 40 pounds this year (round of applause, thank you very much, gush and blush etc), I figure I'd commit to it for as long as I can, that is, until it causes me problems. I think very fast about lots of things all at once, and this mental disposition tends to distract me from my daily tasks. It wasn't until after eating under 20g of carbs a day last spring (keto diet, look into it for stupid weight shedding) that I noticed my ability to sit down and focus on my work dramatically improved. I vaguely remember reading some research fragment linking carbs to distraction, with parents of ADHD kids following the same diet as epileptics with unimaginably successful results. This sounds cultish, I know, but it's not dangerous, and is delicious, without any additional effort involved other than preparing your own meals and taking the bun off of burgers. oh, and no more pbr. or pizza. or pasta. which are all difficult to psychologically distance myself from, but hardly impossible and entirely worth it.

This dish is one of my comfort meals. I remember my mom making portobello alfredo when I was in the 7th grade, and loved how it smelled, the subtle mushroom and cream almost like a soothing lullaby, if that makes sense. I feel lulled by this dish. The smell makes me roll my eyes closed and smile. Hers went all gray the next day in the fridge, I'd pick out mushroom caps and long  linguine and shove it in my maw, fingers caked with pasty chilled gray sauce. It's funny how things like that stick in the memory. I make the pasta for the kid and the fella, but stick it on the side.

I use thighs for my chicken recipes, preferably with the bone and skin. The flavor is insane, and the meat stays juicy. I think it's cheaper than its skinned and boned counterpart, too, and thigh costs MUCH less than breast. This morning, after I walked Mr. Chubbs, I tossed six thawed thighs into a freezer bad and poured in a marinade i improvized -- oil, vinegar, curry powder (i was out of cumin and there's a ton of it in my red curry powder), salt and pepper, basil, thyme, onion and garlic powder, paprika -- shook the shit out of the bag and shoved it in the fridge until dinner time. Marinade is easy, use oil, and acid like vinegar, lime juice, soy sauce, and some flavor. You can marinate in sour cream and milk, too, which is so freaking delicious. Keep it simple but don't be afraid to throw your whole spice cabinet in there, or keep it plain. There are tons of marinade recipes online, from teriyaki to a bottle of italian dressing. Marinate for at least two hours so it can work its way into the meat.

I have a stovetop cast iron grill that takes up two burners, and I love it. On the grooved side, I turn the heat on medium-low and flick some water on it. If it sizzles, it's ready. I coat the pan in oil before adding the thighs, skin down, then leave them alone for like ten minutes. I'm sure I could look up how long to cook the chicken, but really I just eye it and flip it when it's blackened. When the other side looks dark, I cut into the biggest piece to make sure there's no pink and the juices run clear before turning off the heat. I leave the chicken on there, though.

While the chicken cooks, I nuke some frozen broccoli and sautee portobellos in bacon grease with garlic and onion. I throw in a little sea salt to add to the flavors, and once the mushrooms are browned, I add a little water and scrape the bottom of the pan. You can use wine or broth to deglaze for extra flavor. I need to make broth so bad. I've got tons of bones and onion peels in my freezer. I may do that tomorrow. While the broth reduces, chop the thawed broccoli into forkable pieces before adding to the mushrooms. Pour some alfredo sauce over that, stir and turn the heat to low for a few minutes to marry the flavor. If you use the jar alfredo, after pouring, add a tiny bit of water to the jar, cap and shake, and pour in. The jar I used was 14 carbs for the entire jar, which isn't bad. I usually make my own sauce, but i am so broke right now, I could only spare the buck fifty on a jar of bertoli instead of twice that for heavy cream and cream cheese. Still damn good though.

I rip the bones out of the thighs and stick them in my freezer for broth, then peel off the skin for Cheebs, which makes him quite happy, before slicing up the meat and tossing it in the alfredo mix. And that's chicken alfredo! Serve noodles on the side, they can boil while you cook the rest of it. You can do garlic cheese bread and a salad, too, but I just eat the chicken and veg and cream. Takes me back! But it doesn't turn gray, it goes kind of orange. Weird. I'd like to add roasted red peppers, too, it's very good in this and the color is insane. Enjoy!

banana nut muffins

"Fish, want some bacon and eggs?"
"Scrambled eggs, and bacon, and PANCAKES, mom. Pancakes!"
"Fish, banana pancakes!"
"Yeah!"
"Wait! Banana muffins!"
"Oh yeah!"

And the eggs never happened, but I really want some, and haven't had any of the muffins yet. look at it! so moist and inviting! I need to bake some bacon (the proper way to prepare bacon, bet that) and scramble some cheesy eggs, I am starving. And I'm trying to low-carb it, due to all the potato and flour I've been eating lately. So no muffins for Heather this afternoon. You should have some, though. They're easy and quick, and make your house smell like happiness.

I mix a cup and a half of flour with a half teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon each of baking soda and powder, and a little less than a cup of sugar. Use half white, half brown sugar, or do what I do and add some molasses into the batter. Mix an egg with some mashed banana and mix into the dry bowl. I freeze my nanners when they go all brown and splotchy, just like I freeze my bread heels for crumbs and veg peels and meat bones for broth (in a container that says "turn me into soup"). Peel your bananas before freezing them. You're welcome. Then nuke for half a minute and mash with a fork. I used three bananas for this.

I also threw in a cup or so of chopped pecans, because I had them on hand and it makes the smell all the more insanity-inducing. I bought them whole, then ground them up in my coffee grinder. I want a food processor, my blender isn't the same. Can't wait! Spice up the batter with some cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg before spooning into a muffin tin and baking at 350F for under a half hour for regular sized muffins, 10-15 for mini muffins. Grease the shit out of your pan, though, or use muffin liners. mine stick like mad to the container, even if i spray the pan. I dunno.

"Mom, these don't taste good, they taste AMAZING." Have some with some coffee or milk, whatever you do. Eat one before they're gone. I want bacon. Bacon and cheesy eggs. Oh man, muffins. Yum city.

pierogis

Poor little Julia came home with a fever today, but she was all about eating some pierogis before passing out early. Poor little thing was fading in and out as I made them. These are time-intensive, so be prepared to be in your kitchen in short stretches with frequent breaks for resting and cooling. I enjoy being able to walk away from dinner, or I try to do too much and I get stressed out about dishes when dinner's not ever ready yet. It's good to take a breath.

I've made these for years, since I first had Julia. I stuff them with mashed potato/cheddar, and cabbage/onion. Bacon is excellent in the cabbage, but I wanted to save mine for breakfast, and added the oil to the onions I was sauteing instead of raw bacon chunks, so meh. Wasn't meant to be tonight. While the potatoes boil and cabbage cooks with the garlic and onion, I make the dough, which is simple. Take half a container of sour cream (a cup/8oz), add three eggs and mix, then add three cups of flour, a little salt, and a teaspoon of baking powder.  Divide the dough in half and roll it out, then cut circles out of it with a biscuit cutter or cup, whatever's handy. Put the dough circles on a plate, slightly overlapping. Don't place directly on top of each other, or they'll stick together. Stick them in the fridge for fifteen minutes, do the same for the fillings. Mashed potatoes is easy, it's butter and salt and pepper and a little milk, easy peasy. Time for a break :)

Boil a little bit of water for the pierogis and get the dough and filling out of the fridge. Roll out the circles again and fill with a spoonful of filling, then fold the dough over into a half-moon and seal with a fork. You can do this in your hand too, but I use the fork because I always tear mine. Plop a dozen at a time in the boiling water for a couple minutes, until they float and feel firm when you take them out. Take out with a slotted spoon, put into a tupperware (now you can pile them on top) and stick them in the fridge before filling your second batch. I got three batches out of tonight's dough following this recipe exactly, or about 35 pierogis. Take another break :)

Preheat the oven to like 250 or so, not too high. Once all the pierogis are boiled and chilled, fry them in butter and onion until they're golden on each side. Again, fry in batches: take out the first tupperware that went in, and fit them all in there. Don't leave them unattended or they'll burn, and the process is so tedious it sucks to lose one like this. All that effort, wasted. When they're crispy and golden, place them on a cooling rack resting on an oven pan and stick them in the oven so they'll stay warm for you. And that's pierogis!

I like to dip with sour cream, and I've been really taken with horseradish and sriracha lately, so I added both to mine, and did not regret it. It might be too intense for you, though, and plain is just as good. Share with friends, save some for packed lunch or midnight snacks, they're decent cold, somewhat. You can nuke them to reheat, but if you can, stick them in the oven so they stay crispy for you. I feel enriched after making these, maybe it's all the steps involved? It's one of the more elaborate meals I make, and I don't make it often, but I am also broke as hell, like broke as HELL right now, and pierogis are low-cost/high-yield. Think about it: potato, cabbage, flour, egg, onion, garlic, oil, sour cream. Salt and pepper. Cheap as hell. You could get all that for under $15 and have a bunch of leftovers, as well as extra filling as a side dish.

No matter how strapped for cash you find yourself, please buy fresh garlic. It is important in food, I hate cooking without it, and usually don't. And I used a new peeling technique for my head of garlic today: take two metal bowls (I used cake rounds), cut the head off the garlic, then place into one pan while mashing the bulb with the other pan to separate the cloves. Invert the squishing pan and hold tight, then shake the shit out of it, like shake the SHIT out of it, and voila. Peeled garlic, swear to god. It's almost too good to be true!

Enjoy pierogis, and buy a head of garlic if there's none in your kitchen. You embarrass me, I paid fifty cents for mine and it takes every dish, EVERY DISH, to a higher culinary level. Appreciate your food, use garlic. And sea salt. Yes it matters, go buy a big ass box for like a buck and stick it in a nice bottle by your stove. Salt taps into the potential of foods, I see that now. You don't taste the salt when you add the right ratio, without it, you can't taste the food, if that makes sense. Salt does the dish justice! Garlic is aromatic and endearing! Oh man! Pierogi frenzy!

weekly meal plan

Sundays at Walmart are a confusing mix of terrifying and hilarious, an oversensory conflict challenging even the most seasoned shopper. Lots of impoverished and irritated middle americans of all ages in a neck-snapping post-service rush, some still in their church clothes, all unable to yield even the slightest to oncoming strangers, in the right or otherwise. Today gives casual cart-pushers an opportunity to bear witness to some aggressive consumer dynamics. While scratching items off my itemized list, I observe forty-somethings in heavy perfume mean mugging overweight elderlies in mobility scooters blocking an entire aisle to eye the sausages for an eternity, and pairs of hoodied high-school girls weaving through the shoppers without a cart, giggling uncontrollably. Some chick without makeup on slammed into a scootered shopper while attempting to pass her at the same time as I. It wasn't funny, but I had the right of way, and you've gotta gear down when it's crunch time and let these bitches know you mean business!

I navigate well, I can make it from the back to the front in one pass based on my list, even found an empty lane to check out in. Julia knows how to help unload, too, and puts the egg/bread first, then the produce, then the frozen, refrigerated, box/cans, and lastly the non-food items. Good people put the divider before and after their cart contents, remember that before I judge your inconsiderate ass as I wait behind you next week. Forgot the cabbage, except I didn't, I forgot to go to another store for it, because I'm not buying a fist-sized head wrapped in inedible outer leaf. Gotta get it later this week.

I'm starting to get distracted, I just ate like three pizza rolls I made when I got home (wrap pepperoni, pizza sauce and mozzarella in crescent roll dough and bake for like ten minutes), and I want to get back to my schedule planning for next semester. Gonna be busy!

MEAL PLAN:
SU -- burgers
M -- broccoli quiche
T -- meatball pasta
W -- kielbasa and cabbage and latkes
TH -- chicken alfredo with broccoli and mushrooms
F -- stir friday
S -- pierogis

I saw these insane burgers on Facebook first thing this morning, and I haven't made them in a while. I don't eat the bun or pasta on the days listed, I keep the noodle separate from the rest of it so I don't need to pick it out. i'm so used to taking the bun off and abstaining from noodle that i figure why add it again, right? quiche is easy and tasty and quick, plus making my pie crust is the way to go, saves money and yields a higher quality product. latkes are cheap to make, just potato and onion, and i needed the cabbage for my pierogis on saturday, so i figured, cook with it twice, easy dinner. pierogis need sour cream, to dip and for the dough, AND to dip the latkes in.

Alfredo is easy, again, and mushroom-broccoli alfredo has a comforting smell to me, especially after i put like six cloves of garlic in it. i make cajun chicken for it, it's spicy and colorful, and turns the sauce an orangish color. stir fry is usually egg rolls and crab rangoons, but this week i was on a crazy tight budget and decided to make chicken stir fry with broccoli, baby corn, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. i'm experimenting with stir-fry sauce, should be pretty tasty with garlic and lime and soy sauce and garam masala. i make pierogis two ways, cabbage/bacon/onion and mashed potato/cheese/bacon. so good, and fish loves to help with that.

this was my list for this week's meal plan:
potatoes
buns
mozzarella
kielbasa
cabbage
bacon
egg
oatmeal
baby corn (which i already had, ugh)
chicken
onion
garlic
pepperoni
crescent rolls
lettuce
sour cream
alfredo sauce
peanuts
apples
pocky
fuzzy water (all four for julia)
Dr. Pepper (gabe)
toilet paper

which all came to under $75, believe it or not. my dad gave me his burger meat, which saved me quite a bit. julia likes taking leftovers with her for lunch at school, and i make bacon and eggs or oatmeal for her in the morning. I'm trying to wake up around 6 instead of 7 so I can walk the dog and run at the rec center right after dropping off fish at her bus, instead of drinking coffee and surfing the internet for an hour after she leaves for school. i'm trying to get into next semester's habit now, so it isn't hard for me next month.

okay, attention level nosediving. i'll upload food photos as they appear.