Menu Wednesday

It's baaaaaaaaaack! I know you have just been waiting on pins and needles to read about all the things we ate last week. I'm still getting back in the habit of taking pictures (you know you've missed my excellent food photography skillz), so this is a pretty boring, text-heavy post.  Better luck next week.

Brown Butter Garden Vegetable Pasta Skillet {How Sweet Eats}

Super easy, very delicious. Next time could probably leave out the brown butter...it didn't add any noticeable flavor to the dish. I would probably just do a drizzle of olive oil when you toss it with the Parmesan.

Slow Cooked Jerk Pork with Caribbean Salsa {Skinnytaste}



Gina wins again. Although I used 3 tablespoons of jerk seasoning and still felt the pork was a little bland. I added in another teaspoon or two at the end of cooking, plus some cayenne, and that helped. Made a ton, minimal prep time, minimal dishes...all the necessary elements of a repeat recipe in our house.

Aunt Martha's Taco Soup {family recipe}

I've shared this on here before, but it's worth posting again. One of my favorite soups of all time! Of note, this time around I used three cans of Trader Joe's diced fire-roasted tomatoes with green chiles for the 3 cans of tomatoes and just left out the can of chopped green chiles. You could do the same with Rotel, although you'd probably need 4 cans.

 

1-2 lbs. ground meat {chicken, turkey, or beef}*, browned with
1 small onion
add:
1 can chopped green chiles
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 package taco seasoning mix (I make my own taco seasoning using Budget Bytes' recipe. I do include the cornstarch.)
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 can hominy, undrained
3 cans stewed, diced, or crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can pinto beans, undrained
2 or more cups water

Simmer for 30 minutes. {I tend to just throw everything in the slow cooker in the morning and leave it on low all day.  This soup is very low maintenance.}

*I prefer to use a shredded rotisserie chicken and brown the onion on its own.