Menu Monday

Two weeks worth of meals in this post since I forgot about last week.

 

Two weeks ago I went on a mission to clean out the fridge/freezer/pantry of all of the random, half-used up ingredients just taking up space. This led to some interesting, but not bad, meals.

 

Chicken Noodle Soup

I never use a recipe for chicken noodle soup, so this is a perfect meal for getting rid of whatever you've got on hand. I used half a bag of egg noodles, homemade stock from the freezer, the remains of a rotisserie chicken, a few mushrooms leftover from a recipe the week before, and then the usual carrot/celery/onion suspects. I added a little tarragon and that was it. Served with half of a leftover baguette that was in the freezer.

 

Random Sh*t Pizza

By far the most random meal I've made in a while, but it was surprisingly tast. Smitten Kitchen lazy pizza dough from the freezer, the leftovers of a can of tomato sauce from a previous recipe, a few leftover chicken apple sausage from Trader Joe's, the rest of a block of Trader Joe's caramelized onion cheddar, and some arugula sprinkled on top once it came out of the oven. Baked it at 500 degrees for 12-ish minutes.

 

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (Pioneer Woman)

I had planned to just have a PB&J sandwich for dinner this night because M was headed out of town right after work. But I realized I had all of the ingredients on hand (I used a jar of roasted red peppers) for PW's roasted red pepper sauce (one of my favorite recipes ever), so I was able to whip this up (and stir in some of that arugula I'm trying to beat the rot clock on) for a nice little meal for two before M had to leave.

 

Last week's meals:

 

Chana Saag (Budget Bytes)

I don't know if I've ever posted about this recipe before, but OMG I LOVE IT SO GOOD. There is a real lack of good Mexican and Indian food up here, so I've gotten quite adept at making Indian food at home (I save Mexican food for trips back home). This served with some rice (usually basmati or jasmine...whatever I have on hand) and some Trader Joe's frozen garlic naan...GROAN. Bonus that is makes a ton and is equally delicious leftover.

 

Tacos (Elefantitas Alegres)

I used 93/7 ground turkey, added some chopped garlic to the onions, and didn't drain the meat/onion mixture. I also used Budget Bytes' recipe for homemade taco seasoning, including the cornstarch and doubling the amount of cayenne pepper.  Big hit with M. We enjoyed the leftovers with some scrambled eggs the next morning. Yay breakfast tacos!

Chicken Tetrazzini (my mom's recipe)

Every other week for the past 6 weeks or so, we've been hosting a group of M's players for dinners. We started with the seniors, then juniors. Last Wednesday was the sophomores. I keep forgetting to take pictures, so here you get a picture of the table set before they arrived.

I made my mom's recipe for chicken tetrazzini (below), although I doubled it and I always add some frozen peas to the mix (I just add them in with the chicken and eyeball the amount).

Fair warning: this is NOT a figure-friendly meal. It is, however, delicious.

 

Sausage and Kale Skillet (Budget Bytes)

This is so gross looking, I'm sorry. But it was really, really tasty. And maybe one of the fastest/easiest meals to make. I followed the recipe exactly and served with leftover garlic bread. This one's going on the repeat list fo' sho.

 

 There you have it: two weeks worth of meals in our house. Not always pretty, but pretty damn tasty.