June 1st - 7th, 2008
Each Sunday, I sit down and go through my cookbooks and decide the menu for the week. I admit I’m a coupon clipper and after the Sunday paper gets here, I clip away and then venture out to the local grocery with my menu in hand. I do use recipe books and magazines for most of my meal choices but I take creative license at every opportunity to make the dish my own. This particular week, I let Adam influence the menu as he tends to go for more bold and hearty cuisine than I normally would prepare.
Sunday, June 1st: Our wonderfully, dear friends Michael and Carol had just introduced little Baby Ben into the world and Adam and I indented to visit bareing gifts from the kitchen. I wanted to put together a few menu items that would last them a couple of days and at the same time, prepare a meal for Adam and I to enjoy.
First, I put together a typical Italian Sausage Lasagna from Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook. I doubled the batch so that I could take one pan to our friends and have the other for dinner when we returned. I did add a little ground beef that I had remaining from an earlier recipe to the italian sausage meat. I ran out of Mozarella Cheese after putting together their lasagna so I used the Chive and Bacon cheese from Beechwood Cheese Factory. It is a monterey jack base so it was creamy like the mozarella but with a little something extra.
In addition to the lasagna, I also put together the Ground Beef & Twice-Baked Potato Pie from Pillsbury’s Simply One Dish magazine (Feb/Mar 2008). This was quite the crowd pleaser as Michael is definately a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy. Instead of dried sage, I used fresh sage from my garden and instead of the refrigerated potatoes, I used instant garlic mashed potatoes with a little extra garlic powder added. I carried the tomato, green onion, and bacon garnishes on the side to their home so that they wouldn’t turn to mush before they were able to enjoy it. Check out my great tips for precooked bacon on this site.
Monday, June 2nd: It was a busy Monday morning for both of us at the office, so I am glad I had this fast receipe set aside for the evening. Tandoori Tikka Chicken straight from the Tandoori sauce packet. Add a little yogurt and marinate you chicken pieces until you are ready to grill. For sides I put together Rachel Ray’s Curry Couscous from her 30-Minute Meals 2 book which I have made twice before and keep going back to because it is so fast and refreshing. For a vegetable I just made a quick romaine salad with fresh strawberries and oranges along with some toasted almonds since I had those out for the curry. My co-worker, Dorothy turned me on Ken’s Steakhouse’s Raspberry Walnut Vinegrette and I am addicted to it now. Adam came in the kitchen and helped scewer the chicken and since he was heating up the grill I tried another quick grill recipe for dessert, Grilled Banana Boats. This recipe comes from Pillsbury’s Potlucks magazine (June 2008) but I have seen my step-dad, Gary, make it before. Bananas stuffed with chocolate pieces, marsmallows, pecans, wrapped in foil and thrown on the grill. I know this seams like a lot for a “long” day at the office, but the chicken and the banana only took 8-10 minutes to cook at which time I made the couscous which takes about 10 minutes and the salad put together in a few minutes while the couscous was setting. I tell you, Rachel would have been proud of me. Not to mention, I had the leftovers for lunch and curry always tastes better the second day. YUM!
Tuesday, June 3rd: Adam loves the Orange Peel Beef from PF Chang’s and so I did the dumbed down version of that on Tuesday night. Beef Strips with Orange and Ginger from my Chinese: The Essence of Asian Cooking cokbook. I didn’t really change anything in this recipe but I was rather upset that I ran out of white rice (my favorite food, really). I searched the far depths of my pantry and came back with this ancient box of Instant Minute Rice. I’ll admit, I don’t think I have ever had minute rice, but it worked for the meal. Besides, you put crunchy rice noodles on anything, and I’ll eat it.
Wednesday, June 4th: I had originally intended to have th Fajita Chicken Wings from Pillsbury’s Potlucks magazine (June 2008) on Tuesday but I didn’t realize that the chicken needed to marinate for at least 4 hours. So while making dinner on Tuesday, I put together the marinade and vacuum sealed the chicken refrigerating it for the following night. I really think the vacuum sealing helped concentrate the flavors of lime and cilantro into the meat. Also, my co-worker Ted, had recently made the recipe and suggested that I definately add the lime zest that the recipe note recommends. (Thanks, Ted!) I wasn’t really sure what to have with the wings, which, by the way, I did not split from the legs, nor did I remove the tips. They were just fine. I decided to “use up” some little bits that were in the fridge so I came up with this hodge-podge of menu items. There were a few frozen hush puppies that I threw in the oven with the chicken and then served with the little bit of Ranch dressing I had left in the jar. I also cut up the last of the celery and carrots and served those as a vegetable with that ranch dressing. I used a Mahatma packet of spanish rice but I put the last bit of leftover salsa and a dab of butter into the water as it boiled. The salsa added the litle bits of onion and peppers that the yellow rice needed and complimented the fajita chicken very well. For dessert, I had some leftover plain yogurt from Monday night’s Tandoori so I added a dolop of whipped cream, the last few strawberries (diced), some dried cherries, and a few chopped pecans. I then took a Hershey’s kiss from the candy jar and shaved it on top. It wasn’t the sweetest dessert by any means, but it was a fairly healthy end to the meal.
Thursday, June 5th: We had leftovers from the night before so I planned on just eating that but we needed a little something extra to round out the meal. I put together the Bacon-Crab Dip from Pillsbury’s Summer Appetizers magazine to eat with crackers, celery and carrots. It was very good; however, I did add some onion powder and garlic powder along with some smoked paprika to give it a little zip. It was a quick fix, especially because I had my bacon precooked for the week.
Friday and Saturday we attended Geoffrey and Courtney’s rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception so I didn’t need any additional meals for the week. The food catered was so delicious I am glad that I didn’t eat too much before heading over there. Oh, we also tried McDonald’s new chicken biscuits on Saturday morning and my friend Kendall was right, they ain’t got nothing on Chik-Fil-A.
So… that was our eccentric week of food and of course, today, being Sunday, I started the whole process over again. I look forward to putting together this week’s choices: Lamb Tangine with Potatoes, Chickpeas, Pistachio Mousse Brownie Torte, Flank Steak Pinwheels and much, much more. Look for Last Week’s Menu, next Sunday.
Bon Appetit!
Let’s change it up a bit…
