flailing in my kitchen v3.1
How can I be sad when I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
I'm getting bored with calling these posts "Meal Plan". It's really a weekly review, but I didn't want to call it that either. At one point I thought of making the tag line of this blog "thoughts on food", so I'm trying something like that. I was also going to append to that to give it a ridiculously long title, but I guess that's what subheaders are for.
So to start off, my whiteboard pic is back, and completely unedited!
Hummus had already been on my to-make list for a while, but when I thought about the tomatoes that I didn't have a use for, I figured I could turn my hummus snack idea into a meal and make Mediterranean Hummus Bowls. That also used up onions.
Like I said earlier, I made Beef and Pineapple Enchiladas so I could use up some corn tortillas, scallions, and the rest of my pineapple chunks. Plus that worked really well with the hummus bowls since I could use half the ground beef for each dish.
See that extra can in the back that's covered? Those are more chickpeas. You can never be too well-stocked on chickpeas. (Especially because I needed both of those cans this week) But you know what Aldi was missing? Tomato paste! I've never seen tomato paste run out at Aldi!
So I was just going to cut my losses and deal with having less tomato paste than my enchiladas called for (which honestly, would have been fine) but as I saw it snowing on Sunday I thought "This is perfect grocery shopping weather!" (because it's way less crowded.)
And you know what's even more perfect? Buying ice cream when it's snowing. Because I can walk at whatever pace I want and know it won't melt. (Also because it's always a good time to buy ice cream.)
So I'm standing in the gigantic ice cream aisle and I come to the same conclusion that I do every time I go to Giant Eagle: Giant Eagle has the WORST ice cream selection. It makes me angry. Every. Single. Time.
WHY are there SO many varieties of vanilla ice cream?! Turkey Hill has "Original Vanilla", "French Vanilla", "Vanilla Bean", and even "Homemade Vanilla"! (not pictured because there's not enough space in the picture to even capture the insanity) Turkey Hill, I know that you did not make that vanilla ice cream in a home. Don't give me that false advertising.
If one of my close friends read this, he would say "Meyling, you're just mad they don't have coffee ice cream." And he would be right. I am mad at Giant Eagle's lack of coffee ice cream. Coffee is a staple. You can't tell me you need four varieties of vanilla, but you don't need coffee.
You're probably wondering, did you even buy any ice cream? Well, I sorta did.
Breyer's was on sale so I settled for their "Frozen Dairy Dessert" that we all know is not real ice cream. I also tried a so-ridiculously-expensive-that-I-don't-want-to-say-how-much-it-was Leona's ice cream sandwich that was labeled "Chai Tea/Coffee". I still don't know if it was the ice cream that was supposedly coffee-flavored or the cookie.
Okay. Ice cream rant over. Here's what I ate this past week.
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Bagel | Shrimp Scampi Florentine | Hummus Bowl |
| Sunday | Bagel | Enchiladas | Rice w/ 腊肉 & Kimchi |
| Monday | Ramen Eggs | Rice w/ 腊肉 & Kimchi | Hummus Bowl |
| Tuesday | Fried Eggs w/ Rice | Enchiladas | Mac n Cheese |
| Wednesday | Fried Eggs w/ Rice | Hummus Bowl | Rice w/ Beef Jerky & Kimchi |
| Thursday | Mac n Cheese | Enchiladas | Hummus Bowl |
| Friday | Hummus w/ Carrots | Rice w/ Beef Jerky & Kimchi | Takeout: Dim Sum |
I don't think I'll ever order from that dim sum place again. I miss real dim sum. When we get back to a normal, COVID-19-free world, that's the first thing I'm eating.
Remember how I said most of my impulse purchases are seafood? Well the rest of them are ice cream. I'm not a huge dessert person, but I absolutely love ice cream, and I especially love coffee ice cream.
I love it so much that I get super angry at Giant Eagle for having 15 versions of vanilla and barely any coffee.
Now I'm on a mission to find the best coffee ice cream.
We sampled four different brands: Edy's, Trader Joe's, Haagen-Dazs, and Graeter's. Here they are, ranked from worst to first.
I don't know why, but I had higher hopes for this brand. Out of the four scoops of ice cream, this was definitely the one with the least flavor. It was also incredibly air-y. My sister said it was more like foam than cream. As of right now at Giant Eagle, a pint costs $5.49 (on sale). I don't think I'll ever buy it again.
This was the most mainstream of all the ice creams. It was also, by far, the sweetest. This is the brand of ice cream that I've usually gotten, but I wish their coffee had more of a coffee flavor. Good texture though. While I wouldn't go out of my way to get Edy's coffee, if I see a 1.5 quart for $3.50 (on sale), I'll still grab it.
I've always liked Haagen-Dazs, but rarely bought it because of the price. What I noticed about this scoop was that it had a more subtle flavor, less coffee and more toffee or caramel. It was $3.99 (on sale) for slightly less than a pint. Even though I thought it tasted better than the scoop of Edy's ice cream, I'd probably still buy Edy's over it because of the price.
The first time I tried Trader Joe's coffee ice cream, I was really surprised at how good it was. It is the most coffee-y coffee ice cream I've ever had, and the texture is amazing. Incredibly creamy. Compared to the other three brands, it absolutely stands out. I mean it even stands out in the picture because of how much darker it is. One quart is $3.99, and it's the only reason I ever go to Trader Joe's.
I know I ranked them and criticized them, but they're all still coffee ice cream so they're all still delicious. Maybe we'll try some more brands and have another taste test.
Ice cream tub pictures are taken directly from the ice cream manufacturer's websites, since we forgot to actually take pictures of the containers.
That's right. I saw this Fire and Ice Chili recipe from How Sweet Eats, and I was so intrigued by the fact that she put chocolate ice cream in her chili.
I actually looked for dark chocolate ice cream in three different grocery stores, but I couldn't find it until I went to Whole Foods. And then I spent a whole $9 (!!!) for a Haagen Dazs-sized thing of Jeni's ice cream, which is ridiculous.
Okay, but I gotta admit, Jeni makes pretty good ice cream.
This was a really interesting tasting chili. It was sweeter and less tomato-y than I'm used to, but I liked it. Not sure I'll ever make it again though, mostly because it took two hours, and that ice cream was stupid expensive.
But if I ever see it on sale, I'm totally trying the coffee flavor.
