Back at It, Weeks Eight through Ten

You know how the holiday season is insane on so many levels? Somehow, spring has managed to surpass the holiday craziness here in the Hahn household. Much has progressed over the past month, but unfortunately, this blog hasn’t been one of them. Now that a few people have busted my (pork) chops about it, I’m back at it! So thank you, loyal (or even just one-time) reader, for tuning back in!

Because I’ve got a log jam of recipes from the past few weeks, I won’t take my usual format. Instead, I’ll provide a few quick tips or reviews of each of the following recipes we tried. They are listed in order from oldest to newest.

Oreo Truffles - We were short on time for our Made by Mary bake this weekend, so we made this easy, fan favorite. There are so many fun iterations of these, so if you haven’t ever made them, pick your favorite Oreo flavor (there are a crazy number of variations these days), crush ‘em up, combine with cream cheese, and drench them in your favorite kind of chocolate. Decorate with festive sprinkles or piped melting chocolate, and you’ve got a quick truffle that will impress any recipient! We shared ours with an Arlington Heights police officer who risks his life on the daily to keep his community safe.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie - As we meal planned the week of March 10, M had a craving for something comforting, and what better than chicken pot pie? Since she still doesn’t feel super confident with her knife skills, we found a SUPER EASY short cut recipe that called for canned cream of chicken soup and frozen veggies. We managed to make this even easier (and more delicious, in my mind) but skipping the Bisquick directions and topping each bowl of soup with a freshly baked Grands biscuit. I have fond memories of eating these as a child--peeling off and savoring each layer--so this dish was extra comforting, as far as I’m concerned.

Shrimp Quesadillas - N has negotiated with me to include a shrimp recipe every other week. This kid has expensive tastes, people! He was hesitant to give this one a try after reading the instructions because he didn’t want to endure the agony of dicing an onion again. My good friend (and expert advice-giver), Mary Kay, after having read about N’s first attempt at this, recommended he put a piece of bread in his mouth whilst dicing. I thought, Great tip, but there’s no way he’ll agree to this. The fact that HE DID AGREE proves there’s no predicting a teenager’s behavior. After reiterating multiple times that I wasn’t pulling his leg, he put the bread in his mouth and diced away. He made me promise I wouldn’t post the picture, but you better believe I took one. (Lilly and Molly, I am not above taking bribes.😉) Anyway, by God, it worked! And blah blah blah the quesadillas were shrimp-licious.

Sausage Pepper Onion One Pot - As Mark has been busy every day after school this spring coaching either boys or girls volleyball, I helped him out this week by being his sous chef. I use this pretentious term because I’m guessing most normal cooks don’t take as much ridiculous pleasure as I did lining up the sliced peppers in a rainbow. (It might be time for an intervention.) The dish turned out rich and delicious, and like all of Mark’s meal choices, full of salty goodness.

I was feeling ambitious that afternoon, so I busted out some Skinny Banana Muffins, too. My friend Ann, the next day, said they were the best muffins she’s ever had. Ann likes to swear, so there was some endearing expletive inserted as an adjective, too, which is how I know they must have been really good.

We then hit spring break, which called for a week of dining out and only making desserts. M and her friend made No Churn Peanut Butter Ice Cream, which was pretty much the best darn thing we’ve ever eaten (disclaimer: we are a peanut-butter obsessed family. If you are “meh” about pb, you might want to pass on this one, but I’d imagine it’s good with other mix-ins, too.) N and I also made some Four Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies for a friend of his whose diet was temporarily restricted. We used Justin’s All Natural Peanut Butter, and they turned out great! I’m not usually a fan of crunchy cookies, but they were good, and I loved knowing we were eating something that was minimally processed. I wonder if they would have been chewy if we had baked them a bit less…

By the end of spring break I was tiring of take out, so I thawed the 20 lb. turkey from our deep freeze that I got for $15 after Thanksgiving (originally $50--what a deal!), followed this recipe for Simply Perfect Roast Turkey, and hosted my dad and Jennie for a spring feast! I accompanied it with our family’s recipe for Armenian pilaf and roasted asparagus, and Jennie brought the rest of the sides.

I turned the leftover white meat into Naf Naf Grill-inspired schwarma bowls the next week, complete with Sabra hummus, brown rice, a red peppers. If you haven’t tried Naf Naf, go. They’ve got a Chipotle operating model, but with delicious, mediterranean choices. I love the Rosemont location because they offer tabbouleh.

Remember how I talked about how much “progress” we’ve made these last few weeks? One of the most-noteworthy examples of this is how M has decided to become a vegetarian. As we sat at our spring feast, shoveling forkfuls of perfectly roasted turkey in our mouths, M declared, “I don’t like the idea of eating animals anymore. I’m going to become a vegetarian.” Having experienced this as a fifteen year old girl, I resisted the urge to say, “Yeah, right,” and instead said, “I think that’s a great idea.”

When I was fifteen I was obsessed with playing tennis. I idolized a well-known player of the time, Gabriela Sabatini, and after finishing her memoir one summer while at Showchoir Camps of America, I decided to become a vegetarian because she was, and that obviously was the key to becoming a tennis star. I can’t remember how long I lasted. My mom says five days. I like to think it was a couple weeks. But either way, I support the idea of taking action for something you believe strongly in, whether it’s for ethical reasons or for self-growth. And spoiler alert: I did not become a professional tennis player. I blame the meat.

She proudly stacked her tower of lunch salads this morning.

So M has been taking a different approach to eating these days. She’s traded her daily ham sandwiches for cream cheese and jelly ones (my grandma would have approved since her affinity for cream cheese mirrored mine for peanut butter). She’s packing a salad each day to accompany those sandwiches. She picks out the meat from dishes we make, and Mark even kept the noodles and chicken separate for her this week. I wish I had recorded her yesterday when she realized she can’t eat her most favorite thing of all: Chipotle pork tacos. But she overcame it like a champ and uttered, “I think I’ll still like them with rice and beans.”

Spanish Chicken and Pasta - We got slightly more back on track this week, with Mark kicking off the week with this dish. We subbed in feta for the queso fresco. It was fresh, light, and yummy!

Pork and Wonton Rice Bowl - N had picked this dish out, but he was so busy with musical rehearsals this week I ended up making his dish for him on Thursday. I had made a big batch of brown rice on Monday while I was home for lunch with Dewey, and we used half for Monday’s meal (which I can’t remember and didn’t take a picture of 🙄) and half for this meal. I used dijon mustard in place of the Chinese spicy mustard and omitted the bean sprouts because I couldn’t find them at the store. THE MEAL WAS SO GOOD.

Phew! If you got this far, thank you for reading! The marathon continues this week now that we’re in full gear with musical, soccer, volleyball, and wrapping up the school year. I will be attending a conference this week from Wednesday night through Saturday morning, so while all groceries have been shopped for and all meals planned, I cannot guarantee anything will get made in my absence. And really, if they want to eat McDonald’s for three nights in a row, that’s fine by me! Have a great week!

A shameless and unnecessary picture of our newly groomed pup.