A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Wrap Up

We are finally finished the 4 week meal plan!  I have mixed emotions about this.  I found that it was a lot of pressure, cooking something new EVERY night, even though I didn't have to come up with the ideas myself.  I did like how organized we were (only one shopping trip per week and no impulse buys).  At or around the three-week marker, we decided (due to my stress level) that we would only choose 3 of the 5 meals per week.  This helped a lot, because we were free to have Campbell's soup or a frozen pizza once in a while.

Anyway, again - sorry about the lack of posts, but here is how the rest of the meals went down.

Okay okay - so this doesn't look super appetizing, but it was!  This is part one of the taco night - chorizo and potato sauteed together (with a little s & p).

Here is part two - black bean salsa.  It was super easy to make, even J thought so!  It's just rinsed black beans, parsley, radishes and olive oil and lime juice.

The complete tacos.  Soon to be topped with sour cream and avocados!  Yummy! PS - no one told me you had to bake taco shells before consumption - not yummy :(

Ooh this was a good one!  It's a baked chicken breast with red currant jelly glaze and spinach, sauteed with golden raisins and garlic!  It was one of the more random recipes we tried, but definitely delicious.

This was one of my favourites - especially because now that I know the basics of stratas, it will be super easy to mix them up and try a bunch of different mixins.  It was simply sauteed mushrooms, parsley and onions, then (in a big bowl) mix up eggs, milk and bread chunks.  Add these together and stuff into a casserole dish and bake away.  J wasn't a huge fan of all the parsley, but I thought it was perfect - it lightened up the heavy egg dish.

The salad was super simple; mixed greens and a olive oil / white wine vinegar dressing.  Definitely a keeper (yes, without parsley sometimes for J).

 This one was also random.  I guess I didn't read all of the recipe before I started, but as I was chopping the apple and celery, I just assumed that they would be getting heated.  Not so.  We cooked the green lentils and then cooled them.  Added chopped apple and celery as well as some parsley (take that J!).  Mixed 'em together with some lemon juice and olive oil and ta-da!  Some kind of apple/lentil salad.  I guess it makes sense as it was served alongside pork, but neither of us were big fans of the salad.

And here is the finished product.  Apple/lentil business on the left, delicious balsamic-glazed pork tenderloin on the right.  Oh if only we could eat meals of just meat ;)

 

Chicken encore.  This time it was supposed to be Cajun / blackened chicken, but somebody who will remain nameless forgot to pick that up.  So we just seasoned with s & p and a little garlic powder.

And this was our last meal, collard greens, black-eyed peas, garlic and red peppers.  It was super tasty and having never made collard greens, I was really impressed and surprised at how easy and delicious they were.

And now back to what I know best (debatable??) - reading.  Let's leave the cooking to the chefs!

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Wednesday

As I mentioned earlier, we totally bailed on Tuesday's dinner (so the plan was to cook double dinner tonight and freeze the second meal) and so we are already on Wednesday!

This meal sounded awesome, curry shrimp and rice...and I fully admit that the problem we had with this dish MAY have been nonexistent if we followed the recipe more faithfully.  We couldn't find snow peas OR bean sprouts at the grocery store on Sunday, so we decided to skip the bean sprouts and sub in edamame for snow peas.  Also, we used some precooked shrimp that we had in the freezer, instead of uncooked / deveined shrimp (as per recipe).

So I thought to myself, okay, you are making a lot of  changes, but you are aware of said changes and what they mean to things like cooking time, etc..., so self, we should be fine. 

I was wrong.  The shrimp got WAY overcooked, the edamame released a lot of liquid into the curry, so it stayed pretty runny.  The lime addition was great, as was the flavour of the curry (just not so much the texture).  We are willing to try this one again, but with the right ingredients.  
 

 

See how small the shrimp got???   J's sum up:

"Love ya...but this is a swing and a miss"

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Monday

I'm already falling a little behind!  Monday's meal was deliciously Mediterranean!  We made lamb meatballs and (although it called for couscous) quinoa with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and feta.  J made the dressing (lemon juice and olive oil) which we drizzled over the whole shebang.

Neither of  us were SUPER impressed with lamb meatballs (couldn't really tell the difference from regular meatballs) but as a whole, the meal was amazing!  We both thought it could be even better if the ingredients were actually in season (the tomatoes were not at their best).  

Yesterday was a crazy day, and we ended up having leftovers from dinner at the parents, so no new meal was attempted...but my master plan for this bought of laziness is tonight, I'll cook two meals and freeze one so we can eat it for another day when we are feeling lazy (encore).

Anyway, here is a pic from our culinary attempts from Monday :)

 

J's comments:

"It's good, but only if you get a little of everything in your mouth at the same time"

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Friday

This recipe (unlike Thursday's meal) is definitely a keeper.

The steak was delicious, except in the future, J and I both agreed that we would substitute rib eye for the Newark or sirloin that Real Simple suggests.  I tried to be authentic, so I did as the recipe asked, but we really found the cut of meat to be a lesser quality than what we like. 

The vegetables were DELICIOUS!  Simple; roasted carrots and red onions with a little olive oil and s & p, but hot coffee were they good!  The sauce for the meat and/or veggies was also very simple, it consisted of the meat juices, dijon mustard and a little white wine as well as tarragon.  Super yummy and different for us - we rarely put anything other than s & p on our steaks, so this warm, herby, sharp sauce was amazing!  I'm having my left over steak for lunch (in t-minus 10 minutes) and I can't wait!

J's comments were few (he was too busy enjoying the meal), but they did include this little gem:

"This is definitely going to work" (meaning for lunch the next day)

Me:

"But today is Friday, you're not working tomorrow"

J:

"Well, let's make this again on Sunday, so I can take the leftovers to work".

Mission accomplished :)

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Thursday

Not a keeper.  Tonight's recipe was breaded pork cutlets with spicy udon noodles and it went awry from the very beginning.  The first step was to boil the udon noodles in chicken stock / ginger until the noodles absorbed most of the stock (about 5-6 minutes).  Well, the noodles absorbed hardly anything (they aren't a dry noodle, but rather like long, delicious gooey fresh stuff) and so now I have some type of noodle soup and it was simply a travesty to food everywhere when I put the yummy, crispy breaded pork "on top" of the soupy disaster.  All of the breading got all soggy and it just looked gross.


I took some photos as I cooked, but they were just nasty up close.  Although I maintain that it was the recipe's fault (and not the cook's), I didn't want all of you to see my shameful attempt at a meal.  Anyhoos, here's the only one you're getting.  

Needless to say, J wasn't a fan - especially when he got a mouthful of poorly chopped ginger...oops!  Now that one was my bad (can't blame the recipe for everything).


Wish me luck with tomorrow - and lot's of it, because we're cooking steak and J might kick me out of the house if I ruin that!

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Wednesday

 Today I was feeling less than Nigella, but thankfully, this meal was SUPER easy (and really only required chopping, boiling and heating things through).  The only tough part was the eggplant, because our knives seem to be rapidly growing dull and the eggplant needed to be chopped into 1/2 inch pieces. 

 After a bit of knifework (and 10 minutes of sauteing), I added the halved tomatoes, garlic, s & p, and red pepper flakes.  It looked so scrumptious, I had to capture it :)  This cooked for another 2-3 minutes while I dealt with the pasta.

So here we are again cutting board...I bested you once, and I will do it again!

Whilst the pasta was draining and the "sauce" was warming, I cut up 1/2 lb of mozzarella (which was not "fresh", as the recipe called for, but there was a limit to my searching abilities that day) and finely chopped some fresh mint (which, I learned later, was a waste of time).

And we have arrived at the finish line, intact (with all fingers accounted for - huzzah!).

Here is the final product, which tasted like a cheesy, tomato-y, minty dream.

J was NOT a fan of the mint, claiming that it was all he could taste / smell, so he carefully picked out the majority of the pieces (now THAT is patience).  I asked if he would add less mint if we were to make this again, and he said that he just wouldn't bother with it (especially if you would be buying mint for this recipe alone).

I would tend to agree, but I like the freshness of the mint, so I would keep it, but only if I had some lying around AND I would add a little less.  I would also add more red pepper flakes; they seemed non-existent as is.  

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Tuesday

So I'm already tweaking the plan!  Today was supposed to be some cheesy, eggplant-y delicious pasta meal, but my romaine was already starting to look a little ragged, so I made that recipe today (leaving me to look forward - read: DROOL to the pasta meal for another day).

Pretty easy meal (again).  Although I am a novice at making my own patties, I was surprised there was no "filler" in the form of bread crumbs, crackers or potato chips.  I have a feeling they are going to be MEATY!

Here are the three main parts:

So this is the romaine slaw that will be served on top of the burgs.  Simple dressing that consists of mayo, white wine vinegar and s & p.

Yum - raw meat!  All jokes aside, I'm proud of these rustic little babies!  They are extra lean ground turkey, chopped green onions, dijon, thyme leaves and s & p.

Here are the buns (I went for whole wheat) getting ready to be toasted.

 

And here is the finished product.  J's comments

"The most flavourful burger I've ever had"

To that I said:

"Really?  Like burger burger or turkey burger?"

His response:

"Burger burger.  I've never had a burger taste like that before."

VICTORY!

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew - Monday

All in all, it went pretty well!  Monday's meal was Roasted Tilapia with Lemon and Baby Potatoes.

Not being a huge fish fan, I was not super stoked, but the fish was my favourite part!!!  It was sprinkled with paprika and that was, in a word, awesome!  I was a little peeved to be asked to buy fresh thyme when I would only be using 8 sprigs - but alas, such is life.

Want to experience the journey with me?  Follow along :)

First things first - I organized my ingredients.  Pretty simple really...Note the large container of fresh thyme (sigh)

They didn't have baby potatoes at the market, so I settled for new potatoes (are these one in the same?) and instead of halving them, we quartered them.

Here is everything, all ready for the oven.  This only took about 8 minutes to wash, cut and toss together.

After cooking for a little while, the little fishies were ready to meet their maker.

Here, the taters are almost done and the fish is sprinkled with the delicious paprika and s & p.

Oh my, this is a weird shaped photo!  Anyway, here is everything all cooked and ready to eat.

J and I each had one piece of fish and about a quarter (maybe more) of the potatoes, and that was enough.

We've still go enough for leftovers tomorrow and we both can't wait to show off to our coworkers :)

J's comments - fish was flaky, "It tasted the way fish is supposed to taste", he would take the lemon out before plating (but I thought it looked pretty).

My only critique - Not being a fan of olives, I found there were WAY to many in the recipe.  It called for 1/2 cup and I only put in about 6.  They flavoured everything in the meal, and that was okay, but I really didn't enjoy biting down into them...so if you're an olive fan - GO FOR IT!  Otherwise, I would pull them out after cooking / before plating.

A demain!

A Little Less Review, A Little More Stew

So I've been crazy busy these last few weeks (hence the lack of posts).  School has started back up and it's going great - but has definitely kept me on the go.  So although I have no new books to review just yet, I thought I'd share this little project that J and I are doing.

I have a subscription to Real Simple (if you're not familiar, check out the website here, it's AMAZING) and the October issue contains a 4 week menu plan - complete with shopping lists and recipes.  Because we're not busy enough (Sarcasm? Check) we've decided to try this out in hopes that it will keep us fed, with little to no planning on our end AND that after the 4 weeks are up, we will love the lifestyle so much that we can start planning our weekly menus ourselves.  I'm going to try to write about the experience (is the food good?  is it expensive? were the ingredients impossible to find?),as well as take pictures of the completed meals for the next month, hopefully in addition to squeezing out some book reviews.

Week of September 27th 

We did 1/2 of the shopping for this week's menu at the Farmers' Market at the Western Fair, so this week's cost might be a little cheaper than if we shopped only at the grocery store.

The meals are:

1. MONDAY Roasted tilapia, potatoes and lemons
2. TUESDAY Penne with tomatoes, eggplant and mozzarella
3. WEDNESDAY Turkey burgers with creamy romaine slaw
4. THURSDAY port cutlets with spicy noodles
5. FRIDAY Steak with roasted carrots and onions

The shopping lists are available on pdf at www.realsimple.com/dinnerplan.

The cost for Week One is $100.00 on the nose!  It was $65.00 at the market (fresh, local veggies and beautiful free range meat) and $37.58 at the grocery store (but included was a pack a gum and a chocolate bar for today, so really $35.00).  This seems pretty reasonable, but keep in mind, these are dinners only, but because they are meals for four people, they will also serve as leftover lunches for me and J.  Also, apparently the people of Real Simple don't eat during the weekend, so that will be extra money out of your pocket too.

ps - I hope this goes without saying, but JUST IN CASE, I claim no ownership of the recipes or meal plan / shopping list.  It was found in the October 2010 issue of Real Simple.