Weekly Menu

This week I was inspired by the cold temperatures that's are starting to be more normal than just a random occurrence.  The menu consists mostly of Fall and Winter comfort-food favorites from the binder of recipes.

The triumphant return of my favorite Black Bean soup!  so many people I talked to read and tried this recipe last year!  I can't wait to taste it again.  With corn bread on the side.

Spicy Sloppy Joes

Baked salmon with wild rice and frozen peas
I use frozen salmon, take it out of the freezer in the morning and it's good to go in the evening.
I will season it with grated ginger (about 2 teaspoons), soy sauce and olive oil (just a drizzle of each on each salmon piece).
Bake at 400 for roughly 20 minutes

Vegetable and quinoa bowl:  broccoli, frozen peas, onions, carrots and peppers-- perhaps some warm spices like cumin and cayenne!

Sunday Night Dinner

Baked salmon with cilantro, pumpkin seed (aka pepitas), and lime pesto (recipe found here)

with baked yukon gold potatoes:
     take about 1/2 pound yukon golds, wash and dry, then toss with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt and pepper.  roast at 400 for about 40 minutes.  

Now I have some leftover roasted pumpkin seeds (found them in the bulk bins at Hy Vee) to snack on this week as well as leftover pesto. 

Weekly Menu: The first week of April

In my planning for this week's menu, I looked back on past weekly menu posts.  Sharing my love of food was one reason to make this blog, an added bonus outcome has been an archive of what I've been eating! While it's turning to Spring and has been unseasonably warm, I'm having a difficult time transitioning to Spring time foods. It's just too early for the spring vegetable dishes that keep popping up in my food magazines.  Farmers' markets aren't even open yet, but when they do, perhaps we'll see a dramatic change.  Enjoy!

stacked enchilada from Taste of Home

frittata with leeks, potatoes, cheese (feta, parmesan, or goat: whatever strikes me at the moment, tomatoes, and rosemary.

shell pasta with veggie sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes. 

Indian corn soup with chicken

roasted salmon with rosemary and garlic green beans

Dinner: Making it All Happen

Confession:  A lot of what I know about cooking came from watching chefs cook on TV.  There was a time when I didn't actually have cable, but for some reason I was able to get the Food Network and a couple other channels, so during that time I watched many, many hours of Food Network.  During that time, I really started to develop my love for cooking.  I loved watching people in the kitchen especially Alton, Giada, and Ina. I have watched hundreds of hours of competitive cooking shows like Iron Chef, Chopped, and the verbal abuse pageant that is Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen.  I know... it's SO bad, it's good.

These shows don't just teach recipes and sell celebrity chef products, they taught me how to put together a meal, time-wise.  Watching it happen over and over coupled with experience, I can now say that I have a pretty good handle on how to time things out when cooking.  Recipes don't always tell you that.  Especially when you are cobbling together a meal from various magazines and websites.  How many times did you finish one dish while there was still something with 20 minutes left to bake in the oven.  Oops. 

Here's how I put together tonight's dinner:

salmon with roasted brussels sprouts and an added bonus: mashed potatoes! (when cravings attack!)

This morning, I transferred a package of frozen salmon from the freezer to the fridge to thaw. 
Tonight, after work, I started by pre-heating the oven to 425 and putting a pot of water on the stove for the potatoes. 
Then came prep work:  washing and chopping the sprouts, as Ryan washed, peeled, and chopped the potatoes. I made a little sauce for the salmon.  (whisk together: 1 T lemon juice + 2 T olive oil + salt and pepper). Found the pans I needed to cook everything on and found a jar of capers (for the salmon) in the fridge.

By this time, the oven was beeping to let me know that it was at the desired temperature.  I know that the sprouts take a while longer (20 minutes give or take) than the salmon (10-15 minutes) so after I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and pepper I popped them in the oven.  Then, when the water was boiling I put the potatoes in. 

Now that the items that take the longest to prepare were on their way, I turned my attention to the salmon.  I was surprised to find that they were still partially frozen.  Oops! Even the best laid plans can go wrong.  So I knew I needed to get the salmon in the oven ASAP.  I Quickly brushed them with the olive oil and lemon sauce, sprinkled on a few capers, and last but not least,  inserted the automatic thermometer/alarm set to 145 for fish.  Done.  Then I quickly check and stir the brussels sprouts and check the potatoes.  While everything is in the oven, I exited the kitchen and Ryan got the potatoes ready to be mashed at the very last minute. 

I roast brussels sprouts very often*, so by now I have some kind of intuition as to when they'll be finished.  The leaves that have fallen away from the sprouts are black and crispy, the tiny, mini-cabbages are slightly browned and wrinkled. 

*exhibit A

*exhibit B

*exhibit C

 In spite of my plans, the sprouts were done at what I feared would be way before the salmon was done.  Not wanting them to burn, I took the brussels sprouts out of the oven and commenced eating them off the pan with my fingers.  Appetizers!


Even though it looked like the fish had a long way to go...

126 is the actual temp, 145 is the target temp. This amazing device which has a cord that goes inside the oven attached to a thermometor that goes into the food, beeps when food reaches the target temp.

 luckily, it was only about five more minutes before the the thermometer/alarm started beeping.  Ryan pulled the fish out of the oven and quickly mashed the potatoes.  Whew!  So things worked out pretty close to my plan.  Dinner was on the table. 

Though Gordon Ramsay would probably smash the fish, yelling  into my face, "It's RAW!", I thought it was pretty tasty...  and all done pretty close to the same time, so no eating in shifts. 

Practice makes this work.  The more you cook, they more you'll develop your kitchen intuition.

Last week of March Weekly Menu

Here we are at the end of March!  Spring is here and warm weather and spring vegetables are just around the corner.

Last week I got to cook a lot.  Hooray!  Here's one photo of weeknight cooking.  The yogurt marinated chicken, lentils, and a Matar Parantha-- fried bread filled with a spicy pea mixture.  I didn't get a chance to photograph the fish tacos, but they were delicious. I urge you to try them soon.

On the menu for this week...

Peppercorn chicken with a red wine sauce and salad
The famously delicious sweet potato and black bean burrito
baked salmon with brussels sprouts
Homemade pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes, garlic and caramelized onions
Empanadas with fake sausage, parmesan, peppers and onions

Weekly Menu February 26-March 3

Here is what's on the list this week.  Check back for some fun posts from Kitchen Table Friends this week!

Ryan's Turkey Chilli

Pasta with broccoli and fake sausage  from Everyday Food March 2012-- The recipe isn't online yet, but this one is pretty close...

Salmon patties with beans

Spaghetti with brussel sprouts and bacon

Inger-Anne's Indian corn soup with chicken.
      I added some things to this recipe and it was so good I'm already going to make it again.  Look for a post about this tomorrow.  

Have a great week everyone....

Weekly Menu Jan. 22-28

Ryan's Chili with Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Cornbread.  Ryan's chili is made with turkey, a lot of beans, our homemade canned stewed tomatoes(!!!) and always while he drinks a beer. We ate this last night.  The leftovers just get better throughout the week.

Homemade pizza with olives and peppers

Cara's sweet potato and black bean burrito

Salmon with lentil salad a new recipe from a book I got for Christmas

Pasta with rosemary and sage sauce

Risotto with rosemary and white wine sauce

I hope I have time for these 2 new recipes From a book by Marcella Hazan that Ryan and I were given this summer but haven't cracked yet...

Have a great week everyone!
Allison