This week’s post includes a review of week 44. Last week went by too quickly, and I had hardly time to prepare dinners since I arrived home from Texas on Monday evening and went straight into work the following days. We ate dinners I had made some time ago that we defrosted and reheated. Praise the microwave!

I was also the “lucky” winner of a bad cold and cough. It’s not exactly the ‘man flu,’ but it’s bad enough that I won’t be going to work to share it with my colleagues.

Traveling to Texas from New York, where the weather is much warmer, the AC cooling in the conference center, and then back to a chill New York fall did not help my body.

As such, I did not release a post last week sharing my extraordinary adventures from Texas or any delicious meals I did not prepare.

A Texan Adventure

What feels like an eternity ago, I traveled to Texas with work to hang out at the glorious Gaylord Resort in Grapevine.

Grapevine is just outside Dallas/Fort Worth. It’s a quaint little village on Main Street with many fancy stores, nice cafes, expensive restaurants, and an overall relaxed atmosphere.

Due to unforeseen delays leaving Newark, I arrived a bit later on Wednesday evening, and it was dark when I arrived at the hotel.

Thursday morning was spent sightseeing in Grapevine, only to discover that the local museums are closed and only open on Fridays and Saturdays. So, after a “healthy” carnivore breakfast and a walk down the main street in Grapevine, I needed to experience something else. The conference started on Thursday afternoon, so I had hours to kill.

There’s a very cool area in Fort Worth called the Stockyards, where cattle are driven down the main street—not just any cattle, but long-horn cattle.

The Stockyards is a fabulous rustic area that takes you back to when cattle helped Texas grow and become prosperous. The Stockyards was the Wall Street of the cattle trade. I spent a few hours exploring the area, buying souvenirs, joining a historic walking tour, experiencing the cattle drive, and having a few cold beverages.

The next few days were spent mingling with other conferencegoers, attending workshops, keynotes, new feature releases, and case studies, and interacting with colleagues from different health centers and vendors. It was a great time, and my work to-do list has grown since attending the conference, but that’s the point of attending tech sessions. You learn new stuff and need to implement it for your organization.

I also had the opportunity to visit a very good friend living around Dallas and hang out with him a few evenings. We discussed good old times, elections, restoring cars, work, hunting, and drinking too much.

One evening, we went to a scream park. It was set up in a Renaissance Village, which made it more creepy. I was skeptical, as I’m not a scream park person, but it was very well done, and we had a lot of laughs.

I visited Meat Church in Waxahachie to check out the new rubs and merchandise.

Week Forty-Five Meals

The past two weeks involved several excellent premade meals I cooked some time ago, which we defrosted and reheated. My wife was thrilled about not having to worry about cooking meals and instead reheating dinners.

It can be stressful to mind two teenagers, get them ready for school, and cook dinners while also focusing on her homework, the dogs, and general house stuff.

While the days are glorious with blue skies and sunshine, the chill breeze and lower temperatures hit fast once the sun sets.

With the drop in temperatures, it falls, after all, so I decided to make a few simple and delicious chowders or stews. Eating lovely warm stews, soups, or chowders is essential for the fall.

We also experienced setting back the clocks on Saturday evening, so I woke up earlier on Sunday morning and got an early start on meal prepping. By 8:30 a.m., I was already meal-prepping.

School Lunches

Rye bread is a typical Danish delicacy. Granted, you can get similar dark bread in Germany, but I prefer the Danish version. It is not easy to get in the US, and there are no bakers here who even attempt to make it. You can get the powder version, where you just need to add water and then bake, but it’s not the same.

Before the weekend, I prepared a batch of rye bread dough on Friday and left it to ferment for at least 48 hours. Making the perfect rye bread takes patience and time, but it was ready to bake by Sunday afternoon. In my humble opinion, it came out as close to perfect and authentic as possible.

My kids will get a few slices for lunch with different toppings. I’m trying to recreate a Danish lunch with open-faced sandwiches.

I will also create a few more common lunches, such as dumplings and noodles, and, of course, a fully loaded cheese melt with homemade Amish white bread.

Dinner Time

I’ve already shared that I’m making chowders and a stew. We need nice warm meals for the colder evenings, we need protein.

We start the week with a Spanish potato soup that contains hot sausages or chorizo.

Then we move on to an excellent comfort food: beef stew with slow-cooked chuck roast pieces. When we serve it, I’ll add a little pasta.

For the midweek feast, we celebrate with an excellent salmon chowder. Simple and scrumptious.

While all this is happening, I’m also making a large batch of beef broth from scratch and will turn some into a batch of drinking broth with an extra immune system boost.

Meal Plan

	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Danish Rye Bread Lunch – salami, mayo, and lettuce	Spanish Potato Soup
Tuesday	Fried noodles with mushroom and soy sauce	Carne Guisada
Wednesday	Danish Rye Bread Lunch – sliced boiled egg and spinach	Salmon Chowder
Thursday	Dumplings with spicy soy dip	Leftover Delights
Friday	Loaded Melted Cheese on homemade bread	Friday night over-the-fire cooking

Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.

Meal Prep Party Pictures

Here are a few mood pictures from the previous week since I did not prepare dishes this week.

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