Menu Planning Monday

I'm borrowing this idea from a blog I read, where you post what you ate the past week on Mondays. I like this for the main reason that I'm always trying to figure out what to choose for nightly dinners and can never think of what we should have. Having a record will hopefully make this process easier!

So, without further adeiu,

Monday: Fettucini Alfredo with Lemon and Asparagus
This is a really easy meal I first made for actual Valentine's Day this year. Fettucini with Ragu's light alfredo sauce (only 60 calories a serving, which is a bargain where white sauces are concerned). Then, I add the zest of one lemon, the juice of the lemon, salt, pepper, and chopped up asparagus I've roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. I use the whole box of pasta and the whole jar, so there are plenty of leftovers (though it would probably be better to use two bunches of asparagus for this; the asparagus always seems a bit short). We ate this with really good pugelise artisan bread.

Tuesday: Chicken and Apple Sausage with baked potatoes (Ed was in the mood for potatoes this week)
I was very tired today, so Ed decided to take on this dish. While he was originally going to just cook the sausage "normally" (in the oven to warm it up), he got inspired by the recipe on the back of the packaging, and ended up cooking the sausage in slices with apple slices, onion and apple juice. It came out great, with lots of extra flavor.


Wednesday: Steak Fajitas with corn tortillas
This is a pretty simple dish; cook up fajita steak meat with onions and bell pepper, then put it on warmed tortillas. We (re)learned an important lesson, though - the self proclaimed "fajita" meat isn't very good. We need to stick with our normal meat choice, which is thinly sliced strips of steak that I then cut against the grain for fajitas - much better quality (for around the same price). It's worth the slightly more effort. We did have some avocados around after a great sale (40 cents each!), so we had guacamole to go with the tacos, as well as some grated cheese, sour cream and salsa.

Thursday: Pork Tenderloin with roasted purple potatoes, carrots, and onions

This was great! I made a "marinade" (in quotes because I didn't have time to actually marinade it), using a quarter cup of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary, salt and pepper. then I put in my meat, chopped onions, carrots, and potatoes. The potatoes got their own roasting dish and the tenderloin went in the other, surrounded by the carrots and potatoes. It cooked for 20 minutes at 400 and then another 5 broiling. The veggies came out well cooked and the carrots and onions slightly carmelized. The meat probably could have been cooked a little less - I'm always worried about it being underdone (I did use the thermometer, but missed the window of perfectly cooked meat). Nonetheless, it was a great and easy meal to add to the rotation.

Tenderloins were on sale at Costco this week, so I think this meal might make it into this week's rotation as well.


Friday: Fending for Ourselves (I was at knitting night and Ed was working late)
I was treated to chicken cooked in cream with tarragon, blueberries and apples, over pasta; carrot, parsnip and potato soup; and frozen strawberry meringue. Ed had Jack in the Box.

Saturday: Originially we were going to go out on a date, but I got tired after a marathon house clean, so we decided to stay home and enjoy the clean house. We got take out from Rangoli, our favorite local indian place. It was a delicious meal of rice, samosa, naan, and chicken tikka masala.

Sunday: Breakfast was fiber one blueberry muffins. Theses are delicious! Have to be careful not to eat too many at once :)

Salmon (always on the list the week we go to Costco) for dinner. We poached it in a foil pouch with white wine, olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon slices. I used to cook it like this all the time, but hadn't done it in ages, since we got our grill pan. It was good - moist and flavorful!

We did roast zucchini with it but, possibly because it's not in season, our last few attempts haven't been very succesful. The zucchini ends up mushy and not very tasty. We might need a zucchini break, or just go back to the old way of cooking it. In any event, we made a salad, too, which was good, and had some white rice left over from Saturday. All in all, a good Sunday meal. 

Green Chile Chili

I found this recipe while looking for a not too tricky chili recipe to make for my sister and brother in law, so that they could have something tasty to pull out of the freezer as they enjoy life with their newborn. I was drawn to this recipe because of the Salsa Verde included as an incredient, my favorite kind of salsa.

from Cooking Light

 

Verdict? While making it for my sister, it smelled so good I was sorry to not be eating any myself. So, when I got home, I made Ed and myself a double batch. I may have made a few errors shopping (i.e. not enough beans or green chile, so I improvised with black beans, and some extra cumin and coriander to add some flavor). 

We ended up defrosting our leftovers only 3 days later, which was a delicious midweek meal, though may have discounted to usefulness of a "freezer meal". 

And, of course, no bowl of chili would be complete without:

Ed gives me a bit of a hard time for my loyalty for these little, old fashioned boxes of cornbread, but we always ate "Jiffy" growing up, and I just can't bring myself to change, especially when it's so consistently tasty! My first batch of muffins were a bit small, so for our second chili night, I made 6 muffins, as opposed ot 8, and they were perfect! Fluffy and delicious.

All in all, a great meal for this cold weather evenings. 

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon  canola oil
• 12  ounces  ground sirloin
• 1 1/2  cups  chopped onion
• 1  tablespoon  chili powder
• 1  teaspoon  hot paprika
• 5  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  (12-ounce) bottle dark beer
• 1/2  cup  salsa verde
• 1  (4-ounce) can diced green chiles, undrained
• 1  (15-ounce) can no-salt-added tomatoes, undrained and crushed
• 1  (15-ounce) can organic kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4  cup  (1 ounce) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1  green onion, sliced

Preparation

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add beef; sauté for 5 minutes or until no longer pink, stirring to crumble. Add chopped onion, chili powder, and paprika; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in beer; bring to a boil. Cook 15 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Add salsa and the next 3 ingredients (through beans); bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle 1 1/4 cups chili into each of 4 bowls, and top each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese. Sprinkle with green onion.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

310

Fat:

10.6g (sat 3.3g,mono 1.5g,poly 4.4g)

Protein:

24.1g

Carbohydrate:

25.1g

Fiber:

4.3g

Cholesterol:

52mg

Iron:

4.8mg

Sodium:

575mg

Calcium:

95mg