Everyone is so busy now-a-days with duel working households, endless tasks and chores, the list always seems to go on. We are certainly no exception. BF and I both work and have our own activities keeping us busy. We also try to exercise and eat healthy. Just keeping the two of us fed for a reasonable amount of money and time invested often seems daunting.

We often talk about eating healthy and that there is a triangle you get to choose from: healthy, tasty and affordable. The caveat is you can usually only pick two. We are doing our best to work all three in as often as possible, but that takes planning. The best way we have found to stay on track is to plan our menu for the week and create a shopping list prior to our weekend errands. We sit down together and talk about the schedule for the week and what we would like to have.

I usually have some new recipe I have been wanting to try (usually inspired from my Pinterest boards). I also plan to have things that complement each other so I can cut down on the number of things we are making, for example rice with two meals or leftovers with lunch. We then make a list of what to get at the “regular” store and what to splurge on at Whole Foods. We seem to stay much more on track when we have a plan and don’t do as much impulse buying.

I am also working much harder at paying attention to coupons. I think you can get sucked in to couponing and end up buying things you don’t need, but for those things you buy anyway it is great if you can save a little. This week our store was offering a coupon for 10% off your groceries if you got your flu shot. So for a flu shot that was covered by my insurance, we saved more than $10 off our groceries…those things really do add up! I have even gotten pretty good at remembering to bring my own bags, which is now something we pay for in our town. I feel really good about myself when I remember bags and coupons!

You can see from our scribly menus that our system is not fancy, but it works for us. The latest menu goes on the fridge and we work together to make it work for the week. We often shop on Saturday and I prep on Sunday. That usually involves roasting chicken breasts and prepping veggies. I try to make sure we have things that are easy to pack for lunches (probably where we save the most money from this system). Mary, Ali, Geff and I recently had an all day cooking extravaganza to create some meals for the freezer…lots more on that to come…it has been so helpful to have soups and sauces, even ready-made meals on hand. It is so nice to be able to pull something out and know where it came from. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out (like when I forget to defrost the fish) but for the most part this helps us a lot! Do you do something similar? I would love suggestions!

Kelly

Beginning with this recipe from Rick Bayless…

We made some yummy shrimp tacos. Of course, we changed a few things. For example, we didn’t have any dried peppers, so we used regular old standby, Gebhards chili powder. There is no substitute for fresh dried peppers or even single variety chili powers like ancho and guajillo. But an American mom of Mexican heritage told me to use Gebhardt’s and if I don’t have the other kinds I still do. We used that and chipotle powder.

It kicks all those fancy one from the expensive foods stores, which all add cloves or cinnamon, which I hate. I like my chili to be chili flavored.

We saved calories by not making the sort of quesadilla wrapper that Rick suggests. Wish we didn’t…sounded delicious.

We did make the tangy peanut avocado salsa, which was good. Kelly liked it more than I did. If I’m going to spend calories I will go for cheese every time.

The shrimp for the tacos came out fantastic!

OOOPs we forgot to take the picture of the finished tacos. Try Rick’s original recipe and let us know what you think.

Mary

PS – I LOVED THESE TACOS. ~ Kelly

I hope all of you had a fantastic Christmas with lots of family time. We were blessed with a white Christmas this year. Just enough snow to make it feel like Christmas!

In our family, ’tis the season for more parties! As I mentioned, we had our traditional Mexican Christmas Eve meal with great friends. For Christmas, Mary usually likes to try something new. This year we happened to find a deal on Lobster tails at Costco. With inspiration from Jacques Pépin, we were set on making artichoke bottoms stuffed with sautéed mushrooms, topped with Lobster tails…umm yum. As it turned out, the artichoke bottoms ended up too small, so we did the mushrooms in the artichoke bottoms and kept the lobster tails separate. Since BF is a native Mainer, he took charge of the lobster tails, giving me a great lesson in the keys to great preparation. One word: grilling. They came out sweet and perfectly cooked. Add to that some spicy lemon butter and you have a great complement to the lobster. Kick things off with some roasted tomato bruschetta and you have a great Christmas meal! What did you make?

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year to you all!

Kelly

Grilled Lobster Tails with Spicy Lemon Butter

Adapted from Bobby Flay

Spicy Lemon Butter:

1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon clover honey

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

Crushed red pepper to taste (about 1 tablespoon)

Kosher salt and freshly grounded black pepper

Grilled Lobster Tails:

Kosher salt

6 Maine lobster tails

Canola oil, for brushing

Freshly ground black pepper

For the lemon-red Fresno butter: Put the lemon juice in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in the honey. Add the butter, lemon zest, red pepper, salt & pepper.

For the grilled lobster tails: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lobster tails and boil for 4 minutes.

Remove and drain well.

Split each lobster tail lengthwise down the underside with a heavy knife, taking care not to cut through the back shell, so that the lobster is still in one piece but the inside is exposed.

Next, carefully remove the legs and under shell to expose the meat to easily season.

Heat a grill to medium-high heat. Brush the lobster flesh with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tails flesh-side down on the grill and grill until slightly charred, about 3 minutes.

Flip over, brush with a generous amount of lemon butter, and continue grilling until just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes, brushing with butter throughout. Remove from the grill to a platter, flesh-side up. Top with a little more butter.

Serve with mushroom stuffed artichokes and salad.

Enjoy!

“There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?” ~Love Actually