Bad Food Blog

Tag: burgers

• My Menu Plan – July 2020

  Posted at 11:28 pm by Rachel, on July 3, 2020

  I’m back with another month-long menu plan! Actually, I will share my June plan at the end of this post also. WordPress changed their post editor recently, and my pregnant brain was too tired to deal with that last month. 😂  And it is actually pretty intuitive, so clearly I was EXTRA tired last month.

  It’s Fourth of July weekend here in the US, and of course we are celebrating with a bunch of food. I’ve made this American flag pie for the last few years, and actually just baked one over Memorial Day weekend. It is so beautiful, but it has always turned out very juicy for me. I’m going to try NOT refrigerating the berries with the cornstarch this time – I am thinking that it makes the juices solidify too much and they sneak into the pie. We will see! If you are interested in a much quicker and easier dessert, strawberry shortcake (or chocolate strawberry shortcake!) is a delicious and classic option.

  Once again, the menus are printable – if you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab, scaled to print on a standard piece of printer paper.

  

  Salads

  Salads are easy meals to adapt for your kids. Mine don’t usually like things mixed up, so we just put little bit of everything onto their plates separately, either without dressing or with dressing on the side so they can dunk and dip.

  • Sesame Chicken Salad from Meals Made Easy
  • Panzanella and sausages from You Have It Made 
  • Southwest salad – Not really planning to follow a recipe for this one, we will see what happens. As long as there is avocado I’ll be okay.
  • Chicken and peach salad from Easy, Delicious Meals – This was a hit last month, and probably took 20 minutes to carve the chicken and dice the peaches. I subbed in feta for blue cheese and used lots of peaches.

  Pasta

  • Pasta with blistered cherry tomatoes – One of my favorite weeknight pastas
  • Creamy pesto tortellini with green beans and ricotta (adapted from Easy, Delicious Meals) – The original recipe calls for gnocchi, and it is amazing if you have access to fresh gnocchi (or you feel inspired to make your own!). But I don’t have fresh gnocchi right now, so I’m subbing in tortellini.
  • Spaghetti and meatballs – I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. My husband will be helping me with these one weekend, and I will likely freeze most of the leftovers to start preparing for baby #4.
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This is my third month in a row making this recipe! I took a little short cut last week and used a high quality jarred sauce, and warmed it with the basil in the microwave. It’s my current comfort food of choice.

  Vegetarian

  • Veggie stir fry – My kids don’t actually mind the sauce on this stir fry, and they go nuts for the baby corn and sesame seed “sprinkles.”
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto (inspired by this recipe) – I make some basic polenta with parmesan, roast a couple of sheet pans worth of vegetables, layer it on a plate, and top it all off with pesto from the store.
  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – These burgers have beans and beets and can be made ahead! Fingers crossed at finding beets in Hawaii in July!
  • Sweet potato and black bean tacos – I’ve never had these before but I am a sucker for sweet potatoes. I’ll still be chopping up some peppers and tomatoes for the kids though.

  Eggs

  We’ve been alternating scrambled eggs and eggs-in-a-basket lately; it’s been a nice change of pace!

  Pizza

  I’m back to making pizza – this is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Meat

  • Hamburgers, served with watermelon with mint, lime, & feta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – This watermelon salad takes like 10 minutes to throw together and is amazing! Easy enough for a regular side dish, fancy enough to pull out and impress guests. It reminded me of the watermelon salad we ate at Frog Hollow Tavern a couple years ago.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker
  • Grilled chicken, served with Tomato Cobbler with Cornmeal-Cheddar Biscuits – This is one of those “plan the main dish around the side dish” meals. I was remembering the tomato cobbler recipe, which I haven’t made for years now, and I knew I had to make it again this month. Check out the cook time before you start – it is definitely a weekend recipe!
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – I’ll be saving some extra meat and the bones to make chicken soup for my freezer.

  And the “bonus” June menu:

  

  Happy eating!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, pie, pizza, salad, side dish, vegetarian

• My Menu Plan – January 2020

  Posted at 9:37 pm by Rachel, on December 31, 2019

  Happy New Year! I’ve been listening to fireworks all day today – no one does New Year’s Eve fireworks like Hawaii! After six long months, I am happy to announce the return of my monthly menu plan. My nights have switched around a bit since I last shared a monthly menu plan. It feels less festive than Fridays deserve to be, but since Fridays look like they are going to be the busiest night of the week for a while, I decided to make them leftovers night for the quickest, easiest possible dinner. I rounded out the weekdays with other meals that I can prepare with a bunch of kids underfoot – some less than fussy salads, eggs, meats, and soups, many of which can be made ahead. I stuck new-to-me recipes on Sundays, when my husband will be home to wrangle our kids in case things go terribly wrong. Pizza, which is easy to scale up and share with visitors, got Saturdays, the day we would be most likely to have other people over.

  I decided to try out a new program to make the printable menu this month. If you want to print this menu plan, you can just click on the image below and it will open the full-sized image in a new tab. I scaled it to be 8.5×11, or the size of a standard piece of printer paper, so it is ready to print.

  

   

  New Recipes

  • Black Bean Veggie Burgers from You Have It Made – We got some take out from Down to Earth, and one of the stand-out items was the Black Bean & Roasted Beets Burger. My 5-year-old, who is really into the idea of burgers right now, said she would eat it again, so I’m trying this homemade variety, which also contains beets and can be made ahead.
  • Barley Stuffed Peppers from Thug Kitchen – These kind of remind me of the pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers that I love, but you know, vegan.  I will probably set some of the filling aside to increase the chances of my kids trying it.
  • Roasted Brussels Sprouts Bowls – This recipe has been on my “to make” list for a while. I will probably use some chicken sausage instead of veggie sausage, we will see what the store has in stock.
  • Roasted Chickpea and Broccoli Burritos – Six months ago, I made Thug Kitchen’s BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa and they were phenomenal. Like, hands down the best burritos I have ever made at home and probably the best burritos I’ve had outside of little burrito shops when I was in college. These chickpea and broccoli burritos look like a lot less work, but the authors say they are a fan favorite. Fingers crossed that they are just as tasty!

  Salads

  • Kale and Apple Salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts – We’ve eaten this salad several times in the last few weeks because it is so fast to throw together. I like to add some baked chicken breast to make it a meal (note that the recipe is for a “side salad”) and I swap goat cheese for blue cheese because that is my preference.
  • Asian chicken salad – Prepare the chicken breasts ahead of time and this is a super fast dinner
  • Farro Salad with Kale and Grapes from You Have It Made – I was asking my family what they want to eat this month, and one of my kids said, “I like farro!” We’ve been eating farro a lot lately, but I decided to throw in this salad for her.
  • Southwestern Salad from You Have It Made – I’m feeling inspired to up my southwestern salad game after trying so many salads this summer. Ellie Krieger’s salad calls for jicama, an ingredient that I haven’t used since 2011! It wasn’t a great experience, which is why I haven’t really used it since then – hopefully this goes better.

  Meats

  • Ginger Peach Chicken – My tips for this recipe are 1) slice the onions very thin – I use my food processor’s slicing disc and 2) cook the chicken WITHOUT the peaches, then add the peaches in for the last 30 minutes
  • Pot Roast – Prep for this always takes me a while so I will probably start it the night before
  • Chicken Parmesan Burgers – I made these for the first time since 2016ish a few weeks ago when my burger-lover started asking for burgers. She liked it (with no sauce and cheese on the side) and asked to have them again. If you’ve never used ground chicken, these are worth a try!
  • Whole Chicken in the Slow Cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Spaghetti and Meatballs – As I have previously described, I make this sauce with these meatballs in my 7.25 quart Dutch oven. Basically, I start the sauce, then start the meatballs, and pop them into the pot after I broil them. I use all of the meat to make meatballs, instead of using some to make the sauce a meat sauce (doing this yields me about 32 meatballs instead of 16). It is time consuming but oh so good. I’ll be working on this on a weekend and then freezing the meatballs and sauce to use on a week night.

  Soups

  (Our 1-year-old eats what we eat, and she really likes soup. Feeding her with the spoon is hit or miss, because she likes to feed herself. Right now, one of my favorite ways to feed her soup is by dipping chunks of bread in the soup and letting her feed herself the soupy bread.)

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup
  • Winter Lentil Soup from Easy, Delicious Meals

  Pizza

  I haven’t made pizza in the longest time, not because I have stopped eating pizza, but because there is actually a really great pizza place nearby (Boston’s Pizza, if you are on Oahu). I think there is a 50/50 chance I will make pizza versus ordering some take out, we will see where the weeks take me. This is the crust recipe I typically use and this is the sauce.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad” pretty interchangeably, but my goal is to have a bunch of veggies at dinner every night, and especially a bunch of green veggies. I keep it vague on my menu plan and then usually look for the best looking, most reasonably priced stuff when I’m at the store.
  • Similarly, I have listed “bread” as a side dish several times, but depending on the night that might be homemade biscuits, an artisan loaf, buttermilk bread, cornbread, or even some Annie’s crescent rolls.

  Lunches

  • Adults – Some combination of leftovers, egg & cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, yogurt, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies, hummus
  • Kids – PB&J sandwiches/crackers, mac&cheese, cheese & crackers, fruit, raw veggies

  Breakfasts

  Cereal, yogurt, smoothies, fruit, oatmeal

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged beef, breakfast, burgers, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, salad, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Food Journal #6: Farmhaus Burgers

  Posted at 2:00 pm by Rachel, on March 11, 2019

  Last month, my husband and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary and decided to splurge with some Farmhaus take out. We make most of our meals at home these days, and while I genuinely enjoy cooking, sometimes it’s just nice to have a night off of cooking and dishes. When we do eat a meal out (or get take out, as the case is here), I really want it to count, especially on a special occasion like this one.

  We first heard about Farmhaus Burgers more than a year ago on a visit to the Augusta area. Friends of friends spoke very highly of it, and we added it to our “must try” list. Since then, several other people we’ve met have sung Farmhaus’s praises. My research taught me that Farmhaus is actually owned by the same people as Frog Hollow Tavern, another local restaurant where we dined over the summer. With all that hype (and an awesome experience at Frog Hollow Tavern), this seemed like a solid choice (spoiler: it did not disappoint).

  I am pretty indecisive, so it was hard to choose what to get. As much as the BLTC grilled cheese was calling my name, I really wanted to try something off of their curated burger menu (as opposed to a build your own burger) to get the full experience. I ultimately decided on the Wild Turkey. My husband chose the New Mexico, and we shared sides of Haus Cut Russet Fries with Split Creek Farm’s Feta Dipping Sauce, Hausmade Sweet Potato Tots, and Fried Pickles with a buttermilk ranch dipping sauce. There was also a third mysterious sauce, and I wish I knew what it was called because was my favorite of the three. The mystery sauce was orange and tasted similar to Chick-fil-A sauce.

  The Wild Turkey, which the menu describes as “Ground Turkey Patty, Avocado, Lettuce, Tomato, HAUS Pickled Onions, Sriracha Mayo,” surprised me in a few ways. I hate to say that I expected to be kind of disappointed by my order, but you know, it was a turkey burger and sometimes turkey burgers are dry and bland. This one was not that! It was well-seasoned and moist, and it actually had a pleasant heat to it, which I really did not anticipate – I guess I forgot that Sriracha is spicy, whoops! All in all, I did not spend the whole night wishing I had gotten beef. I almost forgot about the bun! This burger came on a whole wheat bun, and unlike lackluster grocery store finds that taste like spongey pillows of nothingness, it had body and flavor and I actually enjoyed eating it.

  

  Burgers on the good china – life is good

  I shied away from the New Mexico, which the menu describes as “Hatch Green Chiles, Pepper Jack Cheese, Lettuce, Duke’s Mayo,” but luckily for me, my husband wanted to try it. I like spicy food – or at least I did before I had kids. The flavor combination sounded delicious, I just worried that it would be too spicy for me these days. Anyway, my husband tried it and loved it. He is not into super spicy foods and he pegged this as only mildly spicy, so next time this is probably what I will order.

  

  Now let’s talk about the sides. The Fried Pickles were normal fried pickles – crispy outside, delightfully sour inside. The buttermilk ranch was a little gritty but overall a satisfying pairing. Next up we had the Haus Cut Russet Fries with Split Creek Farm’s Feta Dipping Sauce. If you’ve had Five Guys fries, that is what the Haus fries reminded me of. They were obviously hand cut with a crispy exterior and perfectly salty. I read in another review to try the feta sauce with these fries, so I gave it a shot – it was unlike any dipping sauce I have had before. The feta sauce is bright, lemony-minty, and lightens up the flavor of the fries.

  

  The Hausmade Sweet Potato Tots were my favorite side item, and were especially delicious dipped in the mystery sauce. Really just dip everything in this sauce and you won’t regret it. But I digress… Technically I think these are croquettes and not tots, because the centers were quite smooth, not the shredded potato chunks you would find in a tot. Whatever they are, they are slightly sweet and a nice change of pace from french fries. And we all know that I can never get enough of sweet potatoes, so there’s that.

  So there you have it. If you’re in Augusta and wanting to try a local burger place, check them out!

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Augusta GA, burgers, Dinner, restaurant review

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