Bad Food Blog

Tag: pizza

• My Menu Plan – December 2020

  Posted at 3:14 pm by Rachel, on November 19, 2020

  My postpartum freezer stash is dwindling but we still need to eat every day, so I wrote another meal plan. I literally cannot remember the last time I wasn’t exhausted, so most of these recipes are tried-and-true without too much fussing. I’m going to be missing all of my freezer meals!

  As always, this is a printable menu – 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.

  

  Sundays – Meats

  • Kalua pork – One of our neighbors made this for us recently, and not only did my kids eat it (multiple days in a row), but they also keep asking for it. We might have to freeze some leftovers, and I’m 100% okay with that. Since I am planning on serving rice with this meal and a couple others this month, I will probably make a giant pot of rice and then freeze the leftovers. Rice takes forever to cook and I would rather not have to do it more than once.
  • Huli huli chicken from The Complete Slow Cooker – One of my husband’s favorites, and the kids like it too. We’ll probably finish it on the grill instead of under the broiler.
  • Buttermilk Marinated Roast Chicken from Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – I made this recipe and used the chicken carcasses for broth a few months ago. The skin was nice and crispy (if you’re one who likes to eat the skin), the meat was tender, it was very easy to double in a standard American oven.
  • Sweet & sour chicken – We accidentally made four of these instead of two during baby freezer prep, but that just means I have one less meal to make this month, right?

  Mondays – Soups

  • Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – My kids call this “vegetable soup” because of the carrots, celery, and onions. This soup and the tomato soup we are having this month are their two favorite soups. I’ll be using the chicken carcass from the day before to make the broth – last time I got a good gel broth for the first time in a while and I am excited to see if I can do it again.
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – My kids love making little “volcanoes” with biscuits and tomato soup “lava”.
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup – I’m probably going to try to prep this earlier in the day and just reheat it at dinner time – less stressful during the dinner time rush and it gives the soup plenty of time to cool for my younger eaters.

  Tuesdays – Leftovers

  Wednesdays – Eggs

  I always used to make roasted sweet potatoes with our eggs, and while I still love them so much, it has been more time than I have wanted or been able to spend lately. A few weeks ago, I started making “baked” sweet potatoes in my slow cooker, and they have been a nice substitute and really just a nice way to freshen up our eggs night. Wrap the sweet potatoes in tin foil and then cook them for 8 hours on low. Giant sweet potatoes will not be as soft so either cook them for longer or cut them into smaller pieces before cooking.

  Thursdays – 

  • Tacos & guacamole
  • Hamburgers & hot dogs
  • Pasta with roasted vegetables/buttered pasta – Another meal from my small freezer stash.

  Fridays – Pizza

  Saturdays – Bowls/Salads

  I love bowl meals and salads, but my kids do not. They hate most foods that touch other foods. If your kids are like mine, just put a portion of each element on their plates before mixing everything together and enjoy your dinner.

  • Beets/sweet potatoes/apple/chickpea/farro/nut bowls – There used to be a great recipe on Budget Bytes for an Autumn Harvest Salad with butternut squash, quinoa, apples, and probably some other things that I cannot remember. I can’t find it anymore, but that is the recipe I had in mind when I added this bowl meal to my dinner menu. I’m going to roast the beets (in foil) and diced sweet potatoes earlier in the day, and toss them with diced apple, chickpeas, farro, and either walnuts or pecans. Dressing TBD.
  • Polenta/pesto/roasted veggie bowls – Make some cheesy polenta (I like parmesan with this – keep an eye on it because mine is usually done in about 25 minutes), and top it with roasted vegetables (I like a mix of at least 3 with this, such as sweet onions, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes) and good store bought pesto.
  • Mashed potato/sausage/brussels sprouts bowls
  • Kale/apple/walnut/chicken salad – The original recipe is for a side salad that doesn’t include chicken; I am going to throw some chicken thighs in the slow cooker to make it a meal.

  ~Holidays~

  • Christmas Eve – Snack dinner

  I think most parents have done some version of “snack dinner” at some point. Ours includes cheese & crackers, raw veggies such as cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, & olives, hummus, pepperoni, and salami – basically kid-friendly charcuterie. It is always a hit and pretty easy to get my kids to eat it, plus it is super simple to prepare, making it perfect for an exciting and busy night like Christmas Eve. In the past we have frequently made waffles for Christmas Eve, and we might do that instead, but right now I am leaning towards snack dinner.

  • Christmas – Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken, farro, vegetables

  Yes, I’m pulling out the slow cooker for Christmas. I’ve made this chicken recipe before and it really is worthy of a Christmas dinner as it turns out so beautifully. And really, it gives me more time to spend with my kids and enjoy the holiday.

  • New Year’s Eve – Turkey & stuffing meatballs, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, something green

  We are rounding out the year with some of our favorite foods, maybe I will make a special dessert too. I don’t plan on being awake at midnight but with three little kids plus a newborn baby anything is possible.

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” 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

  I’ve been taking the kids out on a walk first thing in the morning, so I bring a smoothie for me to sip along the way, and things like bananas and Larabars for the kids. Most days the kids have a bigger second breakfast when we get back, with oatmeal, cereal, or whatever else.

  Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegetarian

• 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 – May 2020

  Posted at 10:52 pm by Rachel, on May 3, 2020

  Okay, I am giving monthly menu planning yet another try. Fingers crossed that no one gets sick this month and we can eat the whole thing!

  My Perdue Farms order was finally delivered a week or two ago, so it did take the full 5-6 weeks to arrive. Based on my one data point, I would say their current estimate of 2-3 weeks is probably accurate despite the upcoming meat shortage, although the package I ordered and several other products are not currently available. But talk about good timing! One of the reasons I ordered this meat in the first place was in anticipation of a meat shortage, and here we are. All of the meat we will be eating this month is already in my freezer – even the chicken from the cheesy farro, broccoli, and chicken that we had on Saturday was from a big batch of chicken breasts I baked a few weeks ago.

  Speaking of the meat shortage, you might notice that there isn’t a lot of meat in this menu plan. Not that that is atypical around here, personally I feel that the meat and three menu gets pretty boring pretty quickly. Of course no meat can get kind of boring too! So my categories this month are soup, pasta, vegetarian, eggs, pizza, and a meat night. My Monday and Tuesday nights switch between two categories because of some scheduling conflicts – just makin’ it work.

  May means Cinco de Mayo, and also… Cinco de Cuatro! Just in time too, because my kids have been asking if we can make chocolate covered bananas again.

  I made the menu printable again 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.

  

  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
  • Chicken Noodle Soup – requested by my kids
  • Creamy Tomato Soup from The Complete Slow Cooker – This is still my kids’ favorite soup
  • Slow Cooker French Onion Soup – This probably isn’t the best French onion soup recipe ever, but it is pretty easy
  • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup

  Pasta

  • Tortellini with pears and prosciutto (adapted from this recipe)
  • Eggplant parmesan with pasta from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – I’ve never made this recipe for myself, but my favorite vegetarian friend – the one who recommended this book to me in the first place – made it for me a while ago so I thought I would give it a whirl.
  • Spaghetti aglio e olio
  • Pasta alfredo

  Vegetarian

  • BBQ Bean Burritos with Grilled Peach Salsa from Thug Kitchen / veggie tacos for my kids – I made this sometime last year and it was sooo good. Hands-down the most flavorful burritos I have made at home. They were pretty labor intensive, which is why I haven’t made them since, but Cinco de Mayo seems like the perfect occasion for a repeat. Unfortunately the burritos were pretty spicy, and my kids genuinely hate spicy foods right now, so I’ll cut up some veggies for them to make their own little vegetable tacos.
  • Yeasted waffles à la King Arthur Flour
  • Weeknight enchiladas (bean and cheese enchiladas) / veggie tacos for my kids – Again, these enchiladas are really not very spicy, but I have tried and failed many times to get my kids to eat them. I’m going to make them on the super-mild side (with Monterey jack cheese instead of pepper jack, for instance), and also plan on some simple veggie tacos for them.
  • Polenta with roasted vegetables and pesto

  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

  • Cheesy farro with chicken and broccoli – like a deconstructed chicken-broccoli-rice casserole, but with farro
  • Whole chicken in the slow cooker – save some extra meat for chicken noodle soup
  • Potato kielbasa sheet pan – I’ve never made this recipe, but it looks simple, a.k.a. just my style
  • Easy orange chicken – Why yes, you *can* make that sauce ahead and stick it in the fridge for later in the day
  • Slow cooker honey soy drumettes – This recipe has been in my mental bookmarks for YEARS. Literally, at least five years. Of course, basically every time I think to make it I have a baby under a year old doing baby led weaning, and the one food they are really not supposed to eat before they turn one is honey (thanks, botulism!). Hopefully five years of anticipation do not leave me disappointed.

   

  Notes about side dishes –

  • I use “green veggies” and “salad/greens” 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 breakfast, chicken, Covid-19, Dinner, kid-friendly, lunch, Menu plan, pasta, pizza, slow cooker, soup, vegan, vegetarian

• Oxford, MS

  Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on September 22, 2019

  My family recently drove cross-country en route to Hawaii. Many years ago, my grandmother told me that she had visited all 50 states (twice!). I admittedly have a touch of wanderlust, but I was so impressed by my grandmother’s travels that I made a goal to visit all 50 states. Everyone has different criteria for what constitutes a “visit;” for me, it means actually spending some time doing something there, even if it’s not overnight.

  We tried to stop and see as many states as we could as we headed west. Now, my husband and I have lived in Alabama three times, and while we did a fair bit of traveling around the area while we were there, we never visited Mississippi! Natchez always intrigued us with its beautiful historic mansions, but it was not close enough for a long weekend trip, and taking vacation days to visit Mississippi was not appealing. Natchez was not along the route we took, so we decided to stop in Oxford. The main reasons for stopping in Oxford were because it was along the general route we were taking and there were places to stay, so let it suffice to say that I had VERY low expectations for this stop. As we pulled into our AirBnB, everything seemed pretty humdrum. Then we went out to find dinner… You guys, Oxford is BEAUTIFUL and a total food destination! My jaw literally dropped driving through the Square and past all of the historic homes on North Lamar Boulevard. I actually wish we had more time there to explore and eat!

  If you are passing through the area, it is totally worth a stop. We spent a lot of time that Sunday just walking around the Square (Square Books and Square Books, Jr. were a treat) and walking around the Ole Miss campus. It is still Mississippi, so a number of eateries are closed on Sundays, but on the bright side, Sunday parking is free.

  Here are a few places we tried that I would recommend:

  1) Snackbar

  We were headed over to the Oxford Canteen – and pretty excited for it – but when we got there it looked closed. I spotted the Snackbar across the street and it had really good reviews, so we decided to give it a try. The menu and prices gave me the impression that this was a fancier place, so I sent my husband inside to order some takeout (he ordered at the bar). Considering that 2 of 3 kids were asleep in their car seats by the time we parked, and most of the people inside did not have kids with them, I think it was the right choice :D.

  We ordered a Tomato Stack, a Monte Cristo sandwich, a Fried Catfish sandwich, and a grilled peach (my first choice was the Suman but they did not have this option at the time).

  

  I thought my kids would eat the Tomato Stack, and I was completely wrong. I was actually really surprised by what this was – it really is stacked up in a neat little tomato, soft cheese spread, and bread tower. It was not at all like a caprese salad (this was clearly a reading comprehension fail on my part) and is not easy to separate out the different components. We ended up feeding our kids some odds and ends we had from stopping at Trader Joe’s earlier in the day, so it’s not like they starved, but I just want to be clear that unless your kids like some seriously bougie food, you might want to find them something else. In the end we were glad to have our Tomato Stack as it was arguably the best item we ordered. The tomatoes were as ripe and red as I have ever seen, and the sourdough bread was like a giant crouton, but not as hard to bite through.

  

  I had the Monte Cristo sandwich, although I did surrender a couple of bites to my 3-year-old and husband. It was very well executed – my favorite component was the challah bread – although I don’t think there was anything out of the ordinary about this sandwich.

  

  My husband had the Fried Catfish. He reports that it was rather plain and he liked both my sandwich and the tomato stack more.

  There are two types of french fries at the Snackbar and we tried both kinds. One was covered in parmesan and was quite savory. I ate them plain and also dipped in the mustard that came with the Monte Cristo. The other fries were a bit spicy, but not unbearably so. I ate those ones plain, but my husband dipped them in the mustard too.

  

  Last up was the grilled peach. I started laughing when I opened the box for this because it was literally half of a single peach! For the price I thought that we would get at least one whole peach. Cost aside, the whipped goat cheese was very interesting and it played nicely off of the sweet brown butter sauce. I didn’t taste pecan in the pecan crumble, but it did add a nice crunch to every bite.

  If we went back, I would want to try more of the small plates and desserts, and I might just make an entire meal of those items. Maybe that’s why it’s called the Snackbar?

  2) Uptown Coffee

  We headed here after mass on Sunday morning. I ordered a regular 16 ounce iced latte (pretty sure that this is a “mom drink” now but whatever, I’m a mom) and a couple of chocolate milks (also about 16 ounces each) for the kids. Everything was very reasonably priced, I think it was like $7 total. The baristas were friendly and gave my kids the “fun” green straws for their drinks. My kids let me sample their milk; it was very chocolatey, which is really all that matters with chocolate milk. My latte tasted different than other lattes I have had of late, I still cannot put my finger on why, so I’ll just chalk it up to whatever locally roasted beans they used. Not the strongest coffee I’ve ever had, but it was still a solid cup of coffee, and very refreshing as we strolled around in the Mississippi-in-August heat. If coffee isn’t your thing, they had a big tea selection and some very tempting cakes and pastries too.

  

  3) Saint Leo

  I loved everything we ordered from Saint Leo. We ordered the large size Simple Green Salad, a Prosciutto, Arugula, & Mozzarella Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza.

  

  The Simple Green Salad is the quintessential example of elevating basic ingredients. It was just three components – bibb lettuce, radish, and lemon vinaigrette – and they were all perfect. Seriously. The lettuce was the best lettuce I have ever seen in a restaurant – not wilting, not soggy, just bright green with a great texture. The jewel-like purpley-pink radishes really popped against the lettuce – I didn’t know that radishes could be so big! The vinaigrette was intensely lemon in the best way. I appreciate that they put it on the side because I for one am not a fan of salad soup. We ordered the smaller size and had enough for 2 very generous servings (I think 3 people could easily share this salad).

  

  

  I generally don’t like gambling with new-to-me pizza places because I love pizza so so so much and bad pizza makes me alternately sad and angry. Maybe I am just less critical of it, but Neapolitan pizza seems to be a pretty safe bet. These pizzas had a flavorful crust and classic toppings.

  I know that Oxford is not completely unknown or even overlooked – it is actually featured in 36 Hours and it does have Ole Miss, after all. This visit still felt like stumbling upon hidden treasure. If you love small cities and college towns, Oxford is definitely worth a visit!

  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged coffee, pizza, restaurant review, salad, travel

• Freezer Cooking for Baby #3 and My Postpartum Menu Plan (Part 2)

  Posted at 8:00 am by Rachel, on March 1, 2019

  This is the second post of a four post series on filling your freezer before adding a new baby to the family. Read Part 1 here or continue onto Part 3.

  Before I get into the specific items that went into my freezer, let’s talk about what didn’t:

  • Scrambled eggs – I make these every week because my kids usually eat them, they’re an inexpensive source of high-quality protein, and fast to make. Straight up scrambled eggs do not freeze well, but the prep and clean up are so fast that they really are not overwhelming to whip up for dinner, even with a new baby.

  

  • Roasted sweet potatoes – I love fresh roasted sweet potatoes so much, and it breaks my heart that they do not freeze well. I tried it a couple of different ways to try and make it work, but it really just does not work. The texture suffers. I cooked them a couple of times when I had the time to dice potatoes, but otherwise we made do without them.

  

  • Most pastas – Baked pastas freeze well, so in the past I have made a lot of them for freezer meals. However, my kids have been going through a “won’t-eat-foods-touching-other-foods” phase, and that makes casserole-style meals a struggle. Instead of fighting with them, I chose to make and buy different sauces for most of our pasta dinners (the exception being a baked penne that we really love). The meatballs with red sauce, pumpkin sauce, and baked penne with roasted vegetables went into the freezer; I could have added the pesto to my stockpile as well, but it was just as easy to buy it at the store as needed. Making just the sauces instead of pasta casseroles allowed me to serve sauce on the side for my kids and saved me a bunch of space in the freezer.

  

  • Pizza – We don’t have a great pizza place near us, and even if we did, ordering takeout every week can get expensive. Pizza dough actually does freeze well, but I have yet to master the art of stretching out pizza for a New York-style pie. What I do make about once a week is a Sicilian-style pizza. The dough for this pizza is so sticky that I have not found a good way to freeze it (if you have any insights here, please let me know!). However, it does refrigerate well! I experimented and learned that I could mix the dough first thing in the morning, let it rise for two hours, stretch it, then pop it into the fridge until I was ready to bake it. If you try this technique, make sure you stretch the dough before refrigerating, otherwise it will need to warm up before stretching – learned that the hard way! Pizza sauce would freeze well, I just never got around to making a big batch of it.

  

  • Slow cooker chicken thighs – It felt like a waste of a plastic bag to “prep” these for the freezer, seeing as how it would just be the chicken in the bag. My own very easy recipe requires so little prep work that it is easier to make it the day of than to freeze it ahead of time.

  Next up is Part 3, all about freezer-friendly main dishes!

  Posted in Menu Plans | 5 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, eggs, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, pizza

• Food Journal #5: Boston

  Posted at 12:47 am by Rachel, on August 19, 2018

  Earlier this summer we got to spend a few days in Boston. It was not nearly long enough (it never is!) but we did pack in a ton of our favorite things, including lots of good food! I probably would have gained 10 pounds here if we hadn’t balanced it out with a bunch of walking.

  Our AirBnB host left some oranges so we could make freshly squeezed orange juice. Oh man, this was so good! I don’t think I’ve had fresh orange juice before this trip. I’ll say that while I’m not usually an orange juice drinker, this had me considering getting my own juicer. It took 2 large oranges to fill this glass:

  

  Tatte was on our must-eat list for this trip; I have been dreaming of their Balakani sandwich (literally) since the last time I ate it in 2016. While Tatte has several locations, I’ve only ever been to the one in Brookline. It is such a cute little place! It was hard to appreciate the last time we were there because it was so packed (brunch on a holiday weekend is not a good time if you’re looking for a quiet spot!).

  

  

  

  The Balakani did not disappoint this trip either. The eggplant was so perfect – roasted to creamy perfection – and really wonderfully complemented by the salty feta. If you want something salty, this is a satisfyingly salty sandwich.

  

  

  We were there about an hour before closing but they still had a few grab-and-go style sandwiches. This one that my husband picked up wasn’t on the regular menu – it’s open-faced with prosciutto, arugula, and pear.

  Of course we picked out a few pastry items as well:

  

  

  

  

  Honestly, the top 2 pastries with the chocolate crusts are not something I would order again. They are so pretty to look at, and I love the fresh berries, but they are just not as chocolatey as I was hoping for. They were kind of dry too for my taste too. I know that we picked them up at the end of the day, but we usually buy a few items and do not eat them all immediately – if they’re dry after just a few hours, buying for a couple of days isn’t really good idea. The cheesecake cup was better – not dry and no disappointment in the intensity of its flavors. I would get this one again. Fortunately there are a lot of options here, so the next time I am craving a Balakani I can just try a different pastry.

  Next up was Eataly in the Prudential Center. We were headed to the Skywalk Observatory and planned to eat breakfast somewhere in the Prudential. Apparently the food court closed since the last time we visited, and I am the only person left from the Northeast who does not like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, so we gave Eataly a try. This place is HUGE – so huge that you can grab a map on your way in. It was pretty early when we showed up, so most of the stations inside were closed. We still walked around the whole upper level just to see what there was, and I was impressed. I loved The Italian Store in Arlington, but I always thought that it should have been bigger or carried a wider variety of products. Eataly is more what I imagined the Italian Store would be like.

  

  

  

  The coffee was solid, albeit small. We also ordered a variety of pastries from the cafe next to the front entrance to share. We chose one with almonds, a cream-filled brioche, a chocolate pastry, and a ricotta and jam turnover. My absolute favorite was the cream-filled brioche, followed by the chocolate pastry. I enjoyed the flavor of the jam in the ricotta and jam turnover, and the pastry had a great crunch, but I wasn’t quite sold on the texture of the ricotta. It was kind of crumbly. Really it was not bad – none of it was – but I don’t know that I would order it again when there is brioche and chocolate pastry to eat.

  After breakfast we took the elevator up to the Skywalk. It was such a clear, beautiful day to be up there. You get free admission with a military or dependent ID, although these views are worth buying a ticket to see. My cell phone picture does not do them justice.

  

  After the Skywalk, we walked over to the Public Garden before heading back to the Prudential to pick up our car. It was almost nap time, so we grabbed some quick sandwiches from Eataly to go. By the way, if you do drive in and park at the Prudential, Eataly will validate your parking.

  My husband ordered a PLT (prosciutto, lettuce, and tomato) and I got the Cavolino, which had pesto, cheese, and caramelized onions. These are BIG sandwiches, and you could probably split one between two people depending on how hungry you are. I think I ended up saving part of mine to eat later. The Cavolino was very fresh tasting – I think there was some lemon in the pesto – great for an early summer sandwich. It was also very oily. It wasn’t oily in a gross way, but it was messy, so if you choose this sandwich, keep some napkins nearby.

  

  

  

  

  That night we picked up a few slices from Regina Pizzeria and took them to DeFilippo Playground around the corner. There were a couple of picnic tables and a great selection of toys in addition to the playground equipment. I was too hungry to wait to snap a picture, so if you’ve never been, it’s a perfect, delicious, thin crust pizza. I think I could eat it every day and not get sick of it.

  My husband walked down the street to Mike’s Pastry to pick up some cannoli. We got one plain ricotta, one strawberry, one Florentine, and one chocolate chip. The strawberry was for our 3-year-old, but I did try some – I can’t say I recommend this one unless you are buying it for someone who cares more about the color than the flavor. The others were all great. I always get the Florentine, which has nuts (I believe they are almonds) and honey in the shell, and chocolate chips on the ends. My husband tried a bite and he found the shell to be a bit *too* crunchy. If that’s something that would bother you, then the chocolate chip might be a better match. I really enjoy the extra flavor the nuts bring to the table though.

  

  On the way back, someone commented that we looked super touristy with our Mike’s box. Maybe it is a tourist staple, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t tasty. We’ve been getting cannoli from Mike’s for years and we love them, which is all that matters.

  I was sad to discover that Finale, a fixture of our college days and past trips, closed a couple of years ago. Apparently it was already closed the last time we were in Boston and we didn’t notice it! Whoops! Anyway, we obviously had more than enough food to fill our bellies this time around, and I am sure we will find some new places to visit in the future. In the meantime, I will miss their dessert-centric restaurant in general and their molten chocolate cake in particular.

  Until next time, Boston!

  Posted in dessert, Dinner, Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged balakani, Boston, breakfast, cannoli, coffee, dessert, Dinner, Eataly, Finale, juice, lunch, Mike's Pastry, pastry, pizza, Prudential Center, Regina Pizzeria, restaurant review, sandwich, Skywalk, take out, Tatte

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