Skip to main content

Weekly Check-In

It's been a busy week and the numerous posts in my head never made their way to the keyboard. How did we do with our weekly menu though? Actually pretty well.

Usually our biggest challenge is Monday night - that's the night we have our French class and we don't get home until 8:30. At that point, the last thing we want to do is cook. I kept that in mind when I planned out the week, and planned the pork chops for dinner that night. Firstly, it was a super quick and easy meal (I think dinner was on the table within 45 minutes of getting home) and secondly, how can you not look forward to pork chops for dinner?

The only night we missed was Thursday. I ended up going out for dinner for a friend's birthday so we skipped it (and since I had way too much wine that night, the next day called for greasy fried chicken. I did say that I would confess when I gave into a craving for Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich....).

Meal 1: Red lentil bake, radish and corn salad, green salad
This was really good! I used the recipe from Everyday Vegetarian. The only change I made was to sauté the onions before adding the lentils and stock. If you are new to lentils, I highly recommend this recipe. The radish and corn salad was delicious as well....recipe to follow soon!

Meal 2: Pork chops, spinach and beet greens, orzo with butter
Pork chops. Do I really need to say anything else?

Meal 3: Beets with tahini, rice with red onion, green salad
The beets were inspired by this kitchn.com post and were completely underwhelming. The rice with onion is from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Craig added some fried leeks to the top, it was so good. This has quickly become our new favorite way to eat white rice.

Meal 4: Fennel and celery soup, wild rice salad
This may have been my favorite meal of the week! Both the soup and salad hit the spot perfectly. The wild rice salad recipe to follow soon.....

Meal 5: Polenta with turkey sausage in tomato sauce, green salad
And finally, the meal that wasn't.

Stay tuned to see what we have planned for next week!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bacon Makes it Better - Roasted Cabbage with Bacon

As I mentioned in this week's check in , roasted cabbage with bacon is one of my favorite dishes. The sweetness of the cabbage and onions with the smoky saltness of the bacon just can't be beat. There are a bunch of very similar recipes all over the internet, but I first saw it over at the kitchn . Roasted Cabbage with Bacon adapted (slightly) from Faith Durand 's recipe at thekitchn.com 1 head of green cabbage, outer leaves removed, cored and quartered (I've made this with red cabbage and it's just as good) 2 red onions, peeled and quartered 5 slices of thick bacon, cut into large pieces Salt and Pepper Heat the oven to 450. Place the cabbage and onion in a large roasting dish. Drape the bacon over the veggies. Please in the oven and cook 15 minutes. Flip the cabbage and onion and place back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Check your cabbage - if it's roasted to your liking, toss with salt and pepper to taste and serve. If it needs furth...

Red Wine Vinaigrette

If you are trying to get away from pre-packaged, processed foods, salad dressings are the easiest place to start. Any dressing can be made at home, from a simple vinaigrette to a creamy blue cheese. My current favorite is a red wine vinaigrette. This couldn't be easier to make and I always get a ton compliments on it when I serve it to guests. Here is a rough guide (it's not exact enough for me to really call it a recipe - adjust the amounts depending on how much dressing you need at the moment). Red Wine Vinaigrette garlic, one clove roughly chopped salt dried oregano dried basil fresh ground pepper red wine vinegar olive oil The trick to making a yummy salad dressing is starting with a garlic paste, using a mortar and pestle. Place the chopped garlic and a few pinches of salt in the mortar. Using the pestle, grind into a paste. It should look something like this: Once you have your garlic paste, put in whatever container you are going to use for storing and serving the dressi...

Mushroom Soup

It's been a while since our last post, as our friends Gabriel and Tracey were visiting from San Francisco last week.  They are two of our most favorite people; smart, funny and fun to be around. If you get a second, you should check out Tracey's blog, warm as toast . She writes tidbits about her life and things that inspire her. It's the first thing I look for when I log in to google reader. While you're at it (and while I am shamelessly promoting my friends), check out u-dot music to listen to some of the music Gabe has worked on. Gabe and Tracey love food as much as we do, so we spent the better part of the week drinking a bit too much and eating way too much. To counterbalance the week of excess, I was in need of something nutritious, earthy and easy. The answer: mushroom soup and green salad with red wine vinaigrette (if you are looking to move away from packaged/processed/pre-made foods, salad dressings are the easiest place to start....more on that later). I...