Tuna Casserole and Dreaming of the End

LAWKI Day 24
September 12, 2010

Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: After church grazing, including pancakes, pasta salad, sandwiches
Dinner: Shepherd’s Pie, canned pears, peaches

I love Shepherd’s Pie. I hardly ever made it until I started using the cannery potato pearls with it. That makes it so easy to get in the oven quick. My family likes it most with creamy gravy, but sometimes I crave the tomato one so I will make that too. The best part of that is that there are more leftovers that way. They don’t like that much.

This is one of my big food storage meals. Of course, there is the issue of the ground beef, which I skirted using my frozen stuff. I really did not want to try another TVP today. Otherwise, it is an open cans, insert dinner sort of meal.

We had to beg milk jugs off of neighbors today. Though we have plenty of pitchers, there is nothing like a milk jug. It is easier, less messy, and adds to the appearance of milk. We are now back to using almost a gallon of milk a day, as the kids are eating cereal and having it with dinner and Michael is drinking it like normal milk. The chocolate is still popular with the kids. To me, the chocolate tastes an awful lot like Chocolate Quick. It has that mix sort-of flavor that Quick has mixed into regular milk. I predict the kids will miss it after we are done with LAWKI month.

Garden Watermelon

LAWKI Day 25
September 13, 2010

Breakfast: toast, kids ate cold cereal
Lunch: kids-school, S-leftover beans M-I don’t remember-maybe Nutella tortillas?
Dinner: Tuna casserole, watermelon from the garden, bread, frozen broccoli
Dessert: Almond Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

I made the dreaded Tuna Casserole. The kids kept asking what was for dinner and all I would say was noodle casserole. When James saw it out of the oven, he said, “Tell me that is canned chicken.” So I did. After all, he asked me to. He proceeded to bet Katie $10 that it was chicken and not tuna. While it would have been amusing to watch that play out, I confessed and ended the bet.

The reactions were so much better than I expected. James hated it, but I expected that as he does not like tuna in any form. John had issues with the celery (from Katie’s garden as the stuff in the fridge was moldy) so he had plenty of reservations trying it and did not like it. That is the one who most surprised me---he eats a tuna sandwich almost every day, and will only get tuna at Subway. Katie could not eat more that a bite without gagging. Ben was the only hold out who not only liked it, but took seconds. Sorry Michael, but it is 4-2, and we will not ever have tuna casserole again. And no one will fight you for the leftovers.

I asked Katie to pick a fruit to have with dinner. She wanted to try the watermelon. I have been worried about it because I thought it was supposed to be one of the giant, 20 pounders and it is far closer to the little personal size ones at the store. I figured that as it was a runt, it would not be ripe. To our surprise and delight, it was delicious in flavor. The texture was only so-so, but it was such a treat. We only ate half and are saving the other for tomorrow.

I really needed something to look forward to with dinner, so while the casserole was baking, I decided to make a lemon bundt cake. I searched the internet until I found a yummy looking, highly rated recipe. I used 4 of our precious eggs and a pound of our last butters, and creamed them with the sugar. And then I found that we did not have any lemon extract. After searching Maretta’s cabinets as well, I finally gave up that dream. It was back to Google to find another recipe that used 4 eggs and 2 cups of sugar. I finally found the almond poppy seed one. It was really yummy. John, Katie and I licked the bowl clean and everyone took a turn scraping the pan of all the stuck on parts (stupid bundt cake pan). James called it a Costco muffin on steroids. The best part was, I could make this again completely with food storage. It called for oil originally, and might not be quite as rich as this one made with butter, but I think we would all eat it again. I wonder if that pan would fit in the sun oven…

The kids are already discussing what we will do to celebrate the end of LAWKI month. They are voting for going out to eat while I am voting for hamburgers on the BBQ, assuming I can fix it. Michael is really sad that he will be at work that day. I felt sorry for him, thinking he would get stuck taking one more pathetic lunch to work until I found that he had thought ahead. He arraigned for a drug rep to bring in lunch next Monday. I alternate between admiring how clever he is to being jealous. Oh well, I plan to do shopping that day and think I just might have to hit the Costco food court.