and i still haven't found what i'm lookin for...

...or have i?


this morning, i tried my hand again at banana smoothies again. i only made half as much though, because i was down to my last banana due to tuesday's freezer mishap. i used my peeled, frozen banana, some plain yogurt, a dash of vanilla and a dollop of honey. i measured absolutely nothing. i whispered some nice things to my magic bullet, and viola! i tasted the sweet sensation of smoothie success!

lunch today was supposed to be leftover chicken stew, but since i still had so many leftovers, well, left over from earlier in the week, i ate mondays mac and cheese and corn, and mark finished off the rice, shrimp, and asparagus. i sent the last of the carrots in mark's lunchbox to eat with his hummus, and i tried mine with some wheat thins today. it only took one bite to merely remind me of what hummus tastes like, and i downed it all without a second thought. i think its growing on me. in a good way.

for dinner, i managed to take what i learned yesterday and apply it today. i looked over the remaining recipes on the plan, realized that i needed a quick and simple meal for tonight since thursday is bible study night, and decided that meatloaf with onion and barley pilaf was just not going to happen tonight. partly because we wouldn't have time, and also because i never was able to figure out where Shop Rite keeps their barley (which, by the way, can take up to 2 hours to cook! another reason why it was not happening tonight).

so instead, we made friday's dinner - broiled tilapia sandwiches with olive tapenade, kale chips, and vanilla meringue cookies. quick, simple, and supposedly delicious (although i was still kind of unsure about reliving my green leafy nightmare so soon after last night's 'episode') just what we needed for tonight.

on the way home from work, we found out that bible study would be cancelled since our church parking lot was under a foot of snow, and the building was without power. but i had already decided on a quick, easy, and delicious meal so there was no turning back now.

there were a few deviations that were made tonight. for one thing, i had never figured out what olive tapenade was, so i never bought any, and the idea of putting fish onto a sandwich without anything else seemed a little on the strange side, so we just ate the fish plain. i threw on a little parsley garnish right at the end just to pretty it up, and even though it was not a sandwich, it was still very good.

 for another thing, i was not able to find a 'tub of vanilla meringue cookies' at the store. so i bought a box of 'nilla wafers. i figure they had vanilla in their name, they're light and fluffy like meringue... good enough! but instead of just plunking the box in the middle of the table, i tried to make them a little bit fancy by putting them in a fancy pattern on a plate, but that didnt really work so well so yeah i pretty much just dumped them on the plate. but still - better than the box.


the one thing we did 'by the book' tonight was the kale chips. i had to bake them first, because the fish had to be broiled and the chips had to be baked so they couldnt be done at the same time. (one of the only flaws in tonights menu)  so i washed and dried the kale, cut off the stems and thick center veins, and ripped the leaves into large chunks.


i then tossed them with olive oil and kosher salt and spread them in a single layer on some cookie sheets. they baked until they were crisp, but just under the point of being burnt. (and just in case they didnt turn out, i had a bag of frozen french fries standing by.) but luckily, kale must have taken a lesson from its friend the potato on how to be a vegetable that becomes extremely tasty when cooked in oil and salt. seriously. you guys all need to try this. they have the flavor of potato chips, which is pretty impressive as long as you can get past the fact that they have the texture of old, dry leaves.


so for the first time this week we made, ate, and cleaned up dinner all before 8pm. this is the way weeknight cooking should be.

also, we are debating over this kale chip. my first thought was that it looks like broccoli. mark says it looks like a tree. we could not agree to disagree. what says you, internets?