Food Quarry: Sunday Afternoon food prep

Sunday afternoons at my house are either spectacular or horrible.
I love to cook and I love to prep for the coming week any time I can as I work more than 40 hours a week and then people still expect to be fed as well. (No really, I could skate out of a lot of what I do, but I just love to cook)

But which way the story goes on any given week is determined by the condition of my kitchen on any given Saturday Afternoon, when I get home from work. You see, I have other grown men who live in my house, and even sometimes invite friends and then some how feel that MOM should be doing all the cleaning up after them. I disagree.

But you would THINK that after all this time, they would grasp the concept that cleaning up after themselves in the kitchen will in the long run BENEFIT THEM.. greatly.

Last week, the whole house was a wreck so the weekend was spent with me yelling, and crying and threatening, and just generally "loosing it" as I had warned them what to expect if my demands had not been met.

Well, this week, they tried much harder for the most part and I was able to walk in to the dining room and kitchen and be very pleased with the space I saw around me.

You see, my kitchen is really rather small for someone as adventurous as I am. I will at some point add pictures of my kitchen and surroundings to a blog post.

As for today, Oh Men In My Life.. this is what cleaning up when I tell you has brought to you in the present and near future.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES W/CREAM CHEESE FROSTING LARGELY BECAUSE WE TALKED ABOUT THEM THE OTHER DAY AND NOW I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM, BUT MORE BECAUSE MY DEAR FRIEND SUZANNE HAS NEVER HAD ONE, AND WE JUST CANT HAVE THAT

2 JARS OF SLOPPY JOE FILLING FOR LUNCHES THIS WEEK AT WORK

ON THE LEFT IS A BAG OF MANGO SALSA MADE FROM ALL FRESH INGREDIENTS. THIS WILL GO ON SALMON STEAKS LATER THIS WEEK FOR DINNER. ON THE RIGHT IS A BOWL FULL OF MANGO SALSA WITH AVACADO AND SALAD SHRIMP ADDED TO EAT ON CORN CHIPS AS A DIP/SNACK DURING THE FOOTBALL GAMES

3 BUNDLES OF KALE BAKED INTO KALE CHIPS WITH A LITTLE ORGANIC OLIVE OIL AND SOME SEA SALT. I ALSO ADDED A LITTLE PEPPER FLAKES AND SOME CURRY POWDER TO SOME OF THEM AND A LITTLE GARLIC SALT TO SOME OTHERS. YUM YUM YUM. I AM ADDICTED TO THE STUPID THINGS NOW, THANK YOU MY DEAR FRIEND JENNIFER

4 FULL QUARTS AND MOST OF ANOTHER OF PASTA SAUCE. THIS CONTAINS ALL OF THE ITALIAN VEGETABLE PACK FROM MY LATEST BOUNTIFUL BASKET, YELLOW SQUASH, EGGPLANT, MUSHROOMS, RED ONION, RED BELL PEPPER, PLUS SOME GRAPE TOMATOES THAT HAD SEEN BETTER DAYS BUT WERE STILL GOOD ENOUGH TO COOK, SOME CELERY THE BASIL, OREGANO, AND PARSLEY HUMMMM NOT SURE WHAT ELSE BESIDES THE DICED TOMATOES AND TOMATO SAUCE. The partial jar is going to be Vegetable Lasagana Monday night along with some Garlic bread and a nice salad. THANK YOU FOR THIS IDEA FROM MY DEAR FRIEND AMI!!