new dinners

from my last post i tried one 'new' thing so far. i made almond joy and they didn't turn out too well. first, i overtoasted the almonds. coop woke up mid-nap so i had to jet up to his room to put him back to sleep. after about 10 mins i had to go back down to turn off the oven. he wasn't happy, but at least the almonds didn't totally burn. so there was that. then, it was so difficult to fully coat the coconut logs with chocolate that i gave up and just dropped a dollop of chocolate on top. meh.

i'm making a few new dins this week, so i thought i'd post. so far we had the mushroom biscuit dinner, which was fabulous. rob had made it for us awhile back and thought it was super tasty and wanted to have it again.

next up on my try new things list is marshmallows. i'll let you know if they turn out!

m  mushrooms and biscuits
t  chicken sausages with cous cous and broccoli
w  meatball bowtie soup
th  chimichurri steak with roasted potatoes and green beans (trying out a new malbec, too)
f  chicken rollatini, salad
s  leftovers
s  chicken teriyaki and rice

trying new things

i'm tiring of posting the meal plan. i write it out every week and keep it posted on my fridge, but can't seem to make an electronic version of it. plus, we're not having anything all that new, just recycling old recipes. boring!

so here's a new challenge. i'd like to try 6 sweet and 6 savory recipes (one a month). i suppose i need to catch up 2 months, but that's no big deal. #4 is the only one i’ve done, the rest will be for the first time. looking foward to trying them out, and i'll post about them, too.

sweet
1. homemade marshmallows
2. almond joy
3. homemade horchata
4. guinness cupcakes (ok, made these last year, but they were so good!)
5. make a rainbow cake for my birthday
6. find a delicious lemon dessert recipe

savory
7. try burrata in a recipe
8. homemade amaretto (mmmaybe this should be in the sweet category, ah well!)
9. attempt this norwegian potato bread (not lefse)
10. try my hand at hash browns
11. chicken and dumplings
12. homemade wheat thins

dinners week of 1/22

curry pot and chicken pepperoni were both tasty dinners last week. will make again for sure! we didn't end up having the penne w/ bacon and peas so that will be on the menu this week. a bit chicken heavy again this week. need to start mixing it up more. getting tired of chicken!

s  chicken cordon bleu casserole (new recipe; eager to try! this is wes's fave dish so it will be interesting to see how it works in a casserole and if it's less time intensive.), salad
m  penne with turkey bacon and peas, salad
t  chicken paprika and dumplings, green beans
w  chicken teriyaki with rice, edamame
th  turkey meatballs, spaghetti, salad
f  salmon burgers and fries (too easy to pass up)

trying new recipes

kind of chicken-heavy this week, but not too bad. looking forward to trying the curry pot!

m  curry pot with chicken instead of tofu
t  penne with (turkey) bacon, peas and lemon
w  sweet potato gnocci and turkey burgers
th  book club--leftovers for wes
f  steak with roasted potatoes with soyrizo and mushrooms, green beans
s  chicken parmesan with pepperoni, salad
s  cajun chicken pasta, broccoli

Dinners this past week

Holy moly! I thought I had only lapsed a week or two, when it's been since Thanksgiving since my last post. I will try to be more regular. However, nothing new, really, other than a very tasty Chicken Paprika and Dumplings recipe we tried this week. Have been relying on the tried and true! We had some really good dinners over Christmas while my mom was here, including a turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, a yummy egg dish on New Years, and a variety of cookies Ange and I made (should have posted on that baking affair, darnit!).

This past week, Ange and I planned out our lunches and had lunch together every day except Friday. I'll list those out after the dinners as well. My fave of those was Avocado Pasta. Tasty!

S  Sweet Potato Gnocci and Ground Turkey, Salad
S  Chicken Sausage with Pasta, Salad
M  Chicken Tortilla Soup
T  Chicken Paprika and Dumplings
W  Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans
Th  Chicken Pot Pie, Salad
F  Salmon Burgers, Fries
S  Turkey Chili and Cornbread (I could taste a hint of the cinnamon in the chili, and it really did make a difference in a good way! The cornbread was good but a bit mushy. Had to cook it longer as I didn't read the recipe correctly. I saw 375, but not the note to turn it up to 400 as 375 in a restaurant convection oven is different than in a regular oven at home.)
S  Leftovers

Lunches w/ Ange

M  Hummus, Red Pepper, Avocado, Mozzarella in a Lavash Wrap with a Cup of Soup (Chicken Tortilla)
T  Spicy Peanut Wrap
W  Avocado Pasta (I added sliced sugar plum tomatoes on top)
Th  Repeat of Monday's wrap with a cup of roasted red pepper and tomato soup

Advent Calendar

Decided to make an advent calendar for Cooper this year. I searched the web until I found something I felt I could take on and do cheaply and without having to make a trip to Michael's. This is what I found: http://craftastica.blogspot.com/2008/11/recycle-bin-advent-calendar.html

And this is how mine turned out!

Initially I was using brown Trader Joe's bags, but when we dropped Thanksgiving dinner off to our friends, they in turn sent us home with a pumpkin pie, salad and bottle of wine. These pretty white grocery store bags were what those contents were in, so I scrapped the work I did with the TJ's bags and started over (all I had done was cut the bags and tape them together.)

I admit I didn't cut the pockets as the crafty blog lady advised. I was either too tired or it was too mind boggling, so I figured out a way around it, which was probably more time consuming than had I followed her instruction.

I had recently picked up 3 rolls of $1 wrapping paper at Target and repeated those 3 papers throughout the calendar, instead of (ideally) a different print every day. There's always next year for these improvements ;)

Cooper loves it and looks forward to what he's going to get every day. He says in a sing-songy voice, "What's in theeerrrreeee????" Chocolate snowmen and hand stamps are so far his favorite advent prizes. 

ange and rob are almost here!

i can hardly believe it and am excited beyond excitement!! hoping to share many of these dinners with them this week ;) wow, three from eat live run. she has some great recipes, especially the meatballs and enchiladas. very very tasty. i use trader joe's enchilada sauce.

s  chicken enchiladas, big green salad
m  steak and potatoes, green beans
t  chicken tortilla soup
w  turkey meatballs, spaghetti, salad
th  naan pizza, salad
f  tofu, steamed veggies over rice
s  chicken, quinoa, green beans
s  leftovers

din din dinnnnnerrrrrs

hello blog readers! ie, hi ange! ;) looking forward to planning dinners with you...you guys are going to come over every night, right?!?!?

trying new recipes...here's what's on this week:

m  apple and fennel pork tenderloin, quinoa, delicata squash
t  butternut squash shepherd's pie
w  chicken cordon bleu, ravioli (repeat of last week; it was that good)
th  salmon burgers, fries
f  chicken peanut soba noodles, edamame
s  arancini (going to bake instead of fry them), salad
s  leftovers

week of 11/6

a little chicken heavy, but such is life. full of chickens?

s  chicken pesto pasta, salad
m  chicken pot pie pockets
t  pasta with sausage, salad (i'm using chicken sausage, go figure)
w  tamale pie
th  chicken cordon bleu, green beans
f  pomodoro pasta with white beans, olives
s  leftovers

chocolate pb cookies...

i want to make these...
http://www.theppk.com/2009/03/peanut-butter-pillows/

update--i made them and they were definitely hard to put together...i also overcooked them a bit but all in all they taste pretty good. not my fave tho.

nothing too new...

lots of old standbys, but good fairly easy-to-cook dinners.

s  pesto chicken gnocci, salad
m  peasant soup
t  spaghetti and turkey meatballs, salad
w  polenta with chicken, mushrooms
th  naan pizza, salad
f  happy hour at ztejas??
s  salmon burgers, fries
s  leftovers

dinners, week of 9/25

s  mango chicken w/ rice
m  pork and cous cous, salad
t  salmon burgers, salad
w  ground turkey with rice, zucchini
th  chicken and mushroom pasta
f  leftovers

new diet

wes went to the naturopath again and will be eliminating a lot of foods for a month. the big ones are peanut butter, soy, dairy. it won't be as difficult as it was previously (he can have wheat!), but there weren't many veggies on the list :/ i'll be having some on my own.

m  ground turkey over quinoa with cuke and red pepper salad
t  burgers, corn, pasta
w  polenta with chicken and mushrooms
th  helen out for book club
f  mango chicken and rice (edamame for helen)
s  salmon burgers and salad
s  pork, quinoa (spinach salad for helen)

vegan peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

they're in the oven as i type; we'll see how they turn out!

1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c peanut butter
1 flax egg (1 T ground flaxmeal and 4 T warm water)
1/4 c agave nectar
1/4 c evaporated cane juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oats
1 T baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 to 3/4 c chocolate chips

makes about a dozen and a half.

mix togther applesauce and peanut butter. make flax egg in a separate bowl. let sit a few minutes and stir. add to the pb mixture along with sugars and vanilla. in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, soda and salt. add to wet mixture. stir in chocolate chips. drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet or silpat and bake for 10-12 minutes.

this week:

s  salmon burgs, fries
m  grilled chicken and pesto gnocci, salad
t  stuffed shells with ground turkey, salad
w  chicken sausage and cannellini beans with quinoa, veggies
th  chicken stir fry, rice
f  sweet potato tian
s  leftovers


last week:
s  turkey burgers
m  israeli cous cous with zucchini and lentils
t  spaghetti and turkey meatballs
w  leftover cous cous with garlic herb chicken sausage
th  ???
f  ???
s  leftovers