Menu Tuesday

Oops. I had no intention of taking an almost month-long blog hiatus, but as it sometimes does, life just got in the way. I had a major project at work due on January 16, cohosted a baby shower the next day, and then woke up last Tuesday with the flu. I haven't had the flu in probably 10 years and I forgot how it just sucks the life out of you. Yuck.

But here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to get back into my routine. First things first: catching you up on all the recipes I've made in the past month. Brace yourselves, because this post is a doozy.

 Flounder Piccata with Spinach (Cooking Light March 2008)

This one is an old standby. I'm not sure I've ever made it with flounder; I usually use tilapia since I always have frozen tilapia filets on hand. I served this with a box of Near East pine nut couscous.

  Black Bean and Cheese Tacos (Everyday Food, June 2011)

I have several binders at home in which I've filed all the recipes I've torn out of magazines over the years. Every time we have a meal from Everyday Food I go through a mini-period of mourning for the magazine's untimely demise. It was the BEST. Martha Stewart, I am still a little pissed at you for pulling the plug on it. Please bring it back. Please?

Anyhoodle, M actually made this recipe and declared it to be very easy. It was quick and really filling, although I thought it could've used just a little bit more salt.

 Pepperoni Bread (I have no idea...I need your help!)

Our next-door neighbor and his girlfriend gave us the BEST Christmas gift in the form of the pepperoni bread. It was readymade with instructions for baking. I put it in the freezer and as soon as we had a night when I just didn't feel like cooking, I fired up the oven. I know I'm going to enjoy anything that comes with the instructions "baste with butter." In the interest of trying to be health-conscious, I basted with olive oil instead.

OMG IT WAS SO GOOD. Does anyone have a recipe for pepperoni bread? Our neighbor travels all the time and his girlfriend lives out of state, so I haven't been able to track down her recipe yet. This would be such a great Super Bowl food. Help a girl out!

 

Burrata Pizza Pie (What's Gaby Cooking)

I'm not sure I even need to tell you how good this was. My favorite homemade crust + burrata + prosciutto + basil. Yeah. That speaks for itself.

 

 Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo (Summer is a Verb)

Another old standby around here. Also this is shockingly popular on my Pinterest. It gets repinned all the time!

I happened to have everything on hand to make this and it always tastes like a little plate of summer to me. This time I took the seeds out of the jalapeno and that was a mistake. We both like it better with the spicy kick.

 

Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon (Skinnytaste)

I used thyme instead of rosemary because I had some leftover fresh sprigs on hand. I'm always surprised by how good (and easy!) a simple roast chicken is and this one didn't disappoint. M was SO EXCITED to have roast chicken on a weeknight, which was cute and hilarious. The leftovers make excellent chicken salad.

 

Chicken, Shiitake Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup (Skinnytaste)

This recipe is in my top-5 favorites from Skinnytaste. I've been making it for us since before we were married. It's so yummy and comforting. It was made even better with the leftover brown molasses rolls I had stashed in the freezer.

 Oven "Fried" Breaded Pork Chops (Skinnytaste) and Braised Red Cabbage with Vinegar (Bon Appetit October 2010)

The pork chops were great, but holy goodness, the cabbage! Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I have always loved cabbage. Such an underrated little vegetable. There are so many recipes for braised red cabbage out there, but I wanted one that was simple and not too heavy on the caraway. This recipe from the inimitable Lidia Bastianich was perfect.

 

Skinny Spaghetti Squash Alfredo (The Comfort of Cooking)

Another repeat for us. Now that I feel like I have finally mastered cooking spaghetti squash, I really need to branch out, but this preparation is just so freaking good! It's so filling and easy and tastes much more decadent than it actually is. I knew it was a good sign when I pulled these out of the oven and M said, "Oh yeah, you've made these before!" If he remembers a meal, it's only because it was worth remembering.

 

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli (Budget Bytes)

Yet another home run from Budget Bytes. For those of you with kids, I would imagine this would be a hit. It's almost got a ranch type of flavor profile going on. It's a one pot meal and it's so darn simple.

 

Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili (Budget Bytes)

I love white chilis. They're my favorite. And while this recipe isn't quite as good as my favorite (Texas White Lightening recipe from Southern Living a million years ago...this says February 2003, but my recipe is from a cookbook published in 1994), it was still pretty delicious. And spicy (which we like)!

 

Three Cheese Zucchini Stuffed Lasagna Rolls (Skinnytaste)

These are great, although I have a bone to pick with lasagna rolls. These type recipes are always advertised as SO MUCH EASIER than regular lasagna and I'm calling bullshit. Regular lasagna is way easier. You just layer. What is easier than that?  When you have to roll, I inevitable end up with a few noodles that fall apart (see the middle roll on the bottom) and filling starts seeping out the sides and it's a mess. I love this recipe, but honestly, I think it would just made it as a normal lasagna in the future. Anyone else feel this way?

  

Salsa Poached Eggs and Grits (Budget Bytes)

M was trying to so hard to be helpful when I was sick and he offered to make dinner one night. This was one of the recipes that I had planned and I thought it would be pretty easy for him to execute. That was not the case. (I love you, honey! You are really awesome at making breakfast!) The eggs ended up being overcooked and I was so exhausted from helping in the kitchen that I only ate a little bit of it.

I wasn't super impressed with the meal, but I'm not sure if that was the recipe's fault or just extenuating circumstances. It gets a second chance.

 

 Bagel Bites

After the previous night's disaster, I just really wanted Bagel Bites for dinner. WHY ARE THEY SO GOOD?

 

NOT PICTURED:

We hosted a few friends for New Year's Eve and I made a batch of Ina's Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya. A few thoughts:

1. The fact that Ina's estimated serving size is 6-8 helps me understand why she is such a large woman. Seriously. One recipe of this filled two Dutch ovens, fed 5 adults for dinner, and we still had enough leftover for 2 dinners and 2 lunches. And we are not a group of dainty eaters. Ina, I'm impressed. And horrified.

2. I used a can of diced tomatoes in placed of the cup of seeded, diced fresh tomato. This was a mistake. The extra liquid made the rice a little overcooked, gummy, and wet. It bothered me. Next time I would either reduce the amount of other liquids, or just use the diced fresh tomato.

3. I am the only person who was bothered by this. Everyone else loved it. Especially topped with the bacon hot sauce my MIL put in M's stocking.

 

Last Friday we had tickets to a hockey game, so we scarfed down Budget Bytes' BBQ Beef Stuffed Baked Potatoes in a hurry and I forgot to take a picture. Lucky for you, I've written about these before, so you can see a picture and read my review there.

 

If you've made it this far, congratulations on suffering through an epic amount of terrible food photography!

Menu Monday

Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since my last Menu Monday post (or my last post at all)! Lots of catching up to do around here...

Minnesota Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup (The Kitchn), Brown Molasses (aka Outback) Rolls (It's Always Autumn)

Awwww yeah, this was sooooo freakin' good. The soup was rich, hearty, and flavorful...and mostly healthy if you can get past the heavy cream (I can).

M and I are not big chain restaurant people, but we both have a weakness for chain restaurant carbs (I'm looking at you, Olive Garden breadsticks). When we were first married and lived in a barren culinary desert, we would hit up Outback Steakhouse for date night and would've been perfectly happy just to sit and eat basket after basket of their rolls. I happened upon this recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to make them. I am somewhat intimidated by homemade bread, but these were basically foolproof (proof...haha, a yeast joke! So punny). They tasted pretty close to the real thing too.

 

Quinoa/Bulgur Wheat and Kidney Bean Tacos (Budget Bytes)

This is another old favorites from Budget Bytes. It's one of those meatless meals where you truly don't even notice that there isn't any meat. Plus it's easy and healthy and so delicious. (They would be vegan if I hadn't added big dollups of sour cream on top.) I used up the bag of quinoa hanging around, so I had to add in a little bulgur wheat. And I had a can of kidney beans in the pantry, but no black beans, so that's what we used. Another victory on my mission to clean out our pantry before our Christmas travels.  

 

Baked Tilapia with Tomatoes (Budget Bytes)

Yet another Budget Bytes/clean out the freezer meal. This has quickly become one of my favorite ways to fix tilapia or any other flaky white fish. Our grocery store often runs BOGO deals on bags of frozen, individually packaged tilapia or swai filets (I always make sure to get something that is Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch approved!). The tomato topping is so flavorful that you would never know you're not eating fresh fish. I like to serve it on top of rice or couscous to absorb all of the sauce.

 

 Quiche a la Clean Out the Fridge and Freezer

Our flight back from visiting M's family in Baltimore didn't get in until midnight the night before. We were leaving again for NYC in less than 48 hours and I was determined not to grocery shop in between, so this was what I came up with.

 I used Kate's recipe as a base for this. I had a Wholly Wholesome whole-wheat piecrust leftover from making Thanksgiving pecan pies. I added frozen peas, some sautéed ground beef and Italian sausage, and a ton of feta cheese, and then topped it all off with some Parmesan. Et voila! It was actually really quite tasty, considering the randomness of it all.

 

Black-Eyed Pea Soup and Cornbread

No real recipe here. Just sautéed some onion, carrot, celery, added in the beans and a hambone and let it simmer away for a few hours while we packed and took care of last minute things around the house. The cornbread was a cheat; I used Bob's Red Mill mix and added a little creamed corn. This was our last meal at home before heading to NYC and it made a ton, so I just froze the leftovers and now the only thing I have to make for our traditional luck and money New Year's Day meal is the collard greens.

 

 Baked Manicotti with Sausage and Peas and Cheese and Rosemary Breadsticks (recipes by Giada de Laurentiis; modeling by my husband)

This was our Christmas Eve meal. As you can see, it was a very formal affair. I normally do something a little fancier for the Christmas meal I make for the two of us; the first two years of marriage I made individual beef Wellingtons and last year I did steak with Bernaise sauce. But since we were doing a Christmas Day potluck dinner with friends that we knew involved prime rib, I went with something a little more casual.

Every time I make manicotti, I remember why I only make it once in a blue moon. Stuffing those little pasta tubes is a total pain in the ass, but these were so good I didn't mind it too much. SO MUCH CHEESE. I served it with a kale Caesar salad and we opened a bottle of wine from my favorite vineyard back home. A perfect little Christmas Eve feast for two.  

 

Snake Bite Chili Dip (Katie at the Perks)

Our skiing plans last weekend had to be put aside due to M's Achilles injury, so instead we ate an entire batch of this dip and watched college football and basketball. So the weekend wasn't a total bust after all.

This dip is SO SO GOOD. M was a little skeptical; he just couldn't figure how the sweet mango salsa was going to go with the cheese and sausage. Turns out there was no need to worry. We inhaled this as fast as we could. This would be a great addition to your Super Bowl party spread!

 

Princess Salmon with Yogurt-Mustard Dill Sauce (Dinner: A Love Story)

I'm not sure how much of a recipe this is, but I make it a lot. After all the junk over the past few weeks (see above), it was nice to just have something light and healthy. I used some Williams-Sonoma potlatch seasoning on the salmon in place of salt and pepper and served with some steam-in-bag haricots verts and some roasted baby potatoes. The potatoes roast at the same temp as the salmon, so I just prepped the salmon while the potatoes roasted for about 25 minutes and then added the salmon on top for the last 15 minutes. Then just whip up the sauce and microwave the green beans while everything's in the oven. Easy peasy and minimal clean-up!

 

 That about does it for the past 3 weeks. As sad as I am to see the holidays go, I am a creature of habit, so I'm looking forward to getting back into our normal, healthier meal routine.

Burlington Farmers' Market

Every Saturday morning from May - October, the Burlington Farmers' Market is held in a park downtown. It has become one of our favorite things to do here. When we first moved to Burlington, M had to hit the road 2 days later for work and I went to the farmers' market all by my lonesome a few times. I kept telling him how great it was and how I couldn't wait for him to go with me. He was skeptical at first, but once he went, there was no turning back.

To start, there is a hot sauce stand right as you enter the market. M is a hot sauce fanatic. At any given time, we have at least a half-dozen different hot sauces in the fridge.

Then there's all of the delicious food. 

These gorditas are probably our favorite thing to get. The butternut squash hot sauce just adds something really groovy to the flavor. So yum.

If you had told me 3 years ago that I would ever hear my husband say the words, "Let's go get a kale juice!", I would've laughed in your face. Joke's on me. This is M's favorite stand at the farmers' market.

There's an adorable lady next to the juice bar who sells amazing Greek food. This was a spinach and feta borek with tzatziki and some ridiculously amazing red pepper yogurt sauce that I need to find a recipe for and recreate at home ASAP.

 

SO. MUCH. CHEESE.

 

Yes, those Von Trapps. The Oma is one of my favorite local cheeses.

 I really dig this wood nettle cheese.  

Their gorgonzola is ridiculous. I just want to eat it with a spoon.

I could go broke buying flowers...

And of course, all of the gorgeous seasonal produce.

Half Pint farm is my favorite stand. Their radishes and tomatoes are divine and they are so sweet and knowledgeable.

The farmers' market moves indoors in the winter and while it's still nice to be able to go and get local produce and foodstuffs, it's just not the same. The summer farmers' market is always on the list of places we take out-of-town visitors. Easy to see why, right?



Summer Slimdown Part III

So we've talked about goals.  We've talked about the plan of attack.  And now we need all the help we can get.  Short of posting our address so that y'all can send all your extra cash our way, here are some things that have been helpful/motivational/educational thus far:

Budget Bytes/meal planning: As you know, I cook most every night and do so from a weekly menu.  I don't need to rehash the details for you {you can find them here}.  Meal planning in and of itself helps save quite a bit of money and it certainly did so for us when I first started on our meal planning journey 2.5 years ago.  But now we need to me more aggressive.  Budget reduction has forced me to do two things: have up to the minute knowledge of what's in our pantry/fridge/freezer and hunt for more inexpensive recipes that are still healthy and fall in line with our food values.

credit

Enter the Budget Bytes website.  You may have noticed that a LOT of my Menu Monday recipes as of late have come from her website. There are so many delicious ideas and they're all realistic and wallet-friendly.  I still use my other usual recipe sources, but I have to analyze them more closely to make sure they fit within our grocery budget.  The good news is that the budget reduction has helped me in my goal to reduce our meat consumption.  Meat ain't cheap!

Any other websites or resources for real food {i.e. no packaged, processed junk} recipes on a budget?

Dave Ramsey's website: While we have no plans to enroll in any FPU classes or purchase any of the materials, there is a wealth of information on Dave Ramsey's website that is available for free.  Information on the cash envelope system, the seven baby steps, home buying, and more is there for the taking.  Honestly, I haven't even scratched the surface with the available information.

Nancy Ray's website: I found Nancy's website through Em for Marvelous and it's been very inspirational.  This post in particular has links to resources they found to be helpful.

Excel: OMG this would NOT be possible without my handy dandy Excel spreadsheet.  I have one document for our budget.  There is a different worksheet for each month.  Each worksheet is broken down into the following categories: Fixed Expenses, Minimum Credit Card Payment, Envelopes, Debt Pay-Off, and Income. Depending on any special circumstances that month, there may also be columns for Gifts {even though the money is coming out of the Gifts envelope, I use these columns to budget exactly how much to spend on each gift} or Travel or, like this month, M's Parking Tickets.  At the bottom of each spreadsheet I have what our total amount of debt is at the beginning of the month. That helps me keep an eye on the big picture.  I get a really sick pleasure out of updating my little Excel workbook. I love it.

credit

One thing that hasn't worked: envelopes. Not to be confused with the Envelope System. Since this is our first month and it seemed a little contradictory to purchase a special wallet for a system that's supposed to help us STOP spending money, I just used plain ole paper envelopes.  FAIL. This worked for M's envelopes {he has one for his gas money, one for his fun money, and he has the one for pet supplies} because he just keeps them locked in his car.  For me, it just meant that I had loose change falling out into the bottom of my purse. Disaster. It caused some serious stress in the check-out line at the grocery store last week.  I'm going to have to get me one of these pretty little things to help with the organization.

So that wraps up our money talk for the week!  I'd love to know what resources have been helpful to those of you workin' your family budgets. I get distracted easily, so I need mucho assistance in staying on task during our journey to being 100% debt-free.  I'll be checking in periodically on our progress, mainly when we've crossed something off the checklist or hit a major milestone.  We're hoping to reduce our total debt by 10% by the end of this year.  Fingers crossed!

Menu Monday

Playing a bit of catch-up on Menu Monday today since it's been 2 weeks since the last one.  In order from most recent to oldest:

Grilled Pesto Shrimp Skewers {Skinnytaste}

Rachel inspired this meal after I saw it on her Menu Monday last week.  I served the skewers with peppers and onions we grilled and Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Oil couscous.  We LOVED this meal and I can see us making this a lot this summer.  It would be easy to change out the meat, and M thought the grilled onions tasted like a Bloomin' Onion.  Can't argue with that!

Oven Fajitas {Budget Bytes}

M actually made these since I was feeling under the weather.  Love, love, love them!  Really easy {seriously...just slice the chicken, onions, and peppers the same size, thrown them in a pan with some fajita seasoning, and put in the oven}.  It made a lot and M has been enjoying the leftovers as sandwiches and with scrambled eggs.

Feta-Stuffed Turkey Burgers with Sautéed Zucchini {Cooking Light June 2009}

I've made these before and they're just as wonderful as I remembered.  The trick is to watch the video on the website to learn how to completely seal the feta in the burger.  Otherwise you end up with a serious mess of falling-apart burgers.  

Emeril's Kicked-Up Tuna Melts {Everyday Food May 2010}

Although I think the term "kicked-up" is being a little too generous, we really enjoyed these.  We go through a lot of canned tuna in our house, so this was a nice change of pace.  The red onion added a lot and I liked the burst of sour/bitter flavor from the capers.  Plus, anything with a slice of cheese on top is OK in my book.  

Whole-wheat Rotini with Arugula-Walnut Pesto

This was a clean out the fridge/pantry/freezer recipe.  I just put arugula, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, lemon zest, garlic and olive oil in the food processor and out came pesto.  Toss with whole-wheat rotini and a little pasta water and voila! Dinner.

 Whole-Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta, and Lemon {Giada De Laurentiis}

Meh.  This wasn't bad, but I don't see us making it again.  It was just really, really bland.  I even added a little leftover Boursin to the mix and blah. It makes a lot and it's very filling.  I didn't hate this; I actually really enjoyed the leftovers cold.  But I wouldn't fix this if you're looking for a big flavor hit.

Bon appétit!