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    • My March Menu Plan

      Posted at 3:00 pm by Rachel, on February 27, 2019

      March is upon us! Lent begins this month with Ash Wednesday on March 6th. Because this is a penitential season, I decided to limit how much meat I put on this menu. Specifically, I’ll be cooking meat on Thursdays as well as the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) and 19th (the Solemnity of St. Joseph). I intentionally chose Thursday as our main meat night, because Catholics abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent. Our lunch is usually the previous night’s leftovers, so this will be an active reminder of the sacrifice for us every Friday.

      My other food goals for the month are 1) to eat some eggplant and 2) take my new wok for a spin. One of my kids asked to try eggplant recently, and we have already made it to serve on the side once, but I want to take advantage of her interest and make it a couple of more times this month. I used my wok once last month to make this vegetable stir-fry, and promptly destroyed the starter-seasoning I did. Whomp whomp. So I will be re-seasoning in the oven and then, more importantly, using my wok! If you have any interesting stir fry or other wok recipes, please send them my way!

      Eggs

      It was fun getting a little fancier with a souffle at the end of February, but this month I am back to basics. I will be keeping Sundays simple this month with scrambled eggs and roasted veggies.

      Pasta

      • Spaghetti alla Carbonara – I’m using the recipe from How to Cook Everything, the first place I usually look for basic recipes
      • Fast and Easy Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Sauce – If you’ve never tried making a homemade tomato sauce, this is an excellent recipe to start with! It is so easy but still so flavorful. One or two times and you’ll be able to make it by heart.
      • Spaghetti Aglio e Olio – Another great basic – I will be pairing this with broiled eggplant
      • Skillet Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Eggplant – This will be my first try at this recipe. My husband requested a pasta topped with bread crumbs and my daughter requested eggplant – check and check!

      Vegetarian

      • Quinoa and Roasted Vegetable Salad – This salad is an offshoot of this recipe. The way I usually make it these days is pretty different from its mother recipe, but I still use that salad dressing. The original is great too, although it might be hard to find butternut squash this time of year.
      • Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas with Sweet Potato Cornbread – I will probably leave some of the fajita vegetables raw for my kids. As I recall, this recipe is more medium than mild spiciness, and they do not like spicy foods right now.
      • BBQ Sweet Potato Burrito Bowls – I know that this link leads to a recipe for BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls, but I will be omitting the chicken to make it vegetarian. I usually roast up the zucchini with some cubed sweet potatoes. About half the time I forget or just choose not to include the chicken and it is always a satisfying meal.
      • Weeknight Enchiladas – I think the last time I made these I ended up with 3 or 4 pans of enchiladas because there were so many beans leftover. Great for stocking the freezer or sharing with a friend!

      Skillet/Wok

      • Chicken and Snap Pea Stir-Fry – As I mentioned, I am trying to break in my wok. This looks like a nice, simple recipe for a beginner like me.
      • Potato Kielbasa Skillet
      • Stir-Fried Chicken with Kale from How to Cook Everything
      • Beef tacos with Budget Bytes’s taco seasoning

      Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

      Soup

      • Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Soup
      • Vegetable Soup from Meals Made Easy
      • Unstuffed Cabbage Soup with Potato Cakes – My mom gave me a recipe for Unstuffed Cabbage Soup years ago and a few years back I adapted it for the slow cooker. Recipe forthcoming! Potato cakes are another family recipe. They are on the more indulgent side of ways one can eat a potato.
      • Creamy tomato soup – A solid recipe from The Complete Slow Cooker. My kids keep asking for it – no complaints here!
      • French onion soup
      Posted in Dinner, Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Lent, Menu plan, pasta, skillet meal, soup, St. Patrick's Day, vegetarian, wok
    • My February Menu Plan

      Posted at 4:03 am by Rachel, on January 26, 2019

      We have finally eaten most of the contents of our freezer and I am back with a monthly menu plan to share! I have really missed menu planning so I am excited to get back into the swing of things. Scroll down for recipe links and details on what I’m cooking this month.

      Eggs

      I would like to make a souffle again this month; I am specifically eyeing the Winter Squash Souffle from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. However, most egg nights we will be sticking to our traditional (easy) scrambled eggs and roasted veggies.

      Slow Cooker

      • Huli Huli Chicken – I borrowed The Complete Slow Cooker from the library recently and this recipe was one of our favorites. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for some new slow cooker recipes.
      • Whole chicken in the slow cooker, sweet potato vegetable bake – I’m trying to expand my side dish repertoire and this recipe from You Have it Made is first up.
      • Pot roast – I usually make this recipe with 2 onions and about a pound of peeled, chopped carrots
      • Chicken thighs, Chili-Spiced Sweet Potatoes with Maple Pecans – This sweet potato recipe is also from You Have it Made. I made it for a neighbor recently and now I want to make it for myself. It’s freezer-friendly, but I have not personally tested that out yet.

      Soup

      • White bean and garlic soup
      • Chicken noodle soup
      • Creamy tomato soup – This recipe was another great find in The Complete Slow Cooker. My kids really enjoy helping me prepare it too.
      • French onion soup

      Pasta

      • Pasta and meatballs – My mom made us a bunch of meatballs on a recent visit, so we have a glut on meatballs in our freezer right now. If you need an excellent meatball recipe, I recommend checking out this one from Serious Eats (paired with this sauce).
      • Lemony broccoli pasta – The last time I made this, my kids gobbled it up with no modifications. Here’s to repeat success!
      • Butterflies with chickpeas – This is another recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It looks simple but delicious.
      • Gnocchi with chicken sausage and tomatoes – Truth be told I am not feeling too confident that I will find decent gnocchi to use in this recipe. If I can’t find the good stuff then I’ll probably sub in tortellini.

      Pizza – For our weekly pizza I use this crust recipe with this sauce.

      Stove/Oven

      • Pepperoni pizza quinoa stuffed peppers – I imagine that some people would say “no” to pizza two nights in a row… fortunately I am not one of those people. I haven’t made these for a while, but they have been on my mind and I’m already excited to eat them.
      • Veggie Stir-Fry
      • Beef tacos with Budget Bytes’s taco seasoning
      • Cheesy chicken, broccoli, and rice
      Posted in Menu Plans | 0 Comments | Tagged chicken, Dinner, kid-friendly, Menu plan, pasta, side dish, slow cooker, soup
    • Food Journal #3

      Posted at 12:00 am by Rachel, on March 15, 2018

      Welcome back to my Food Journal, where I share the more memorable things we’ve been eating, what we liked, and what we didn’t. Let’s get started…

      2/7 Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl

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      This recipe was a mixed bag. My husband loved it (as usual), but I was frustrated by how long it took to make and how the sweet potatoes ended up super crunchy. My #1 pet peeve with recipes is probably when the actual cooking time does not match up with how long the recipe says it will take. In the case of these Buddha bowls, the recipe states (many times) that this will take 30 minutes, and it ended up taking me about an hour. I often wonder if I am just a slow cook, and that may still be the case, however my prep speed would not affect the cooking times once food is in the oven. I did side-eye the recipe saying that a sweet potato half would cook through in like 25 minutes (because I usually dice mine and they take about 40 minutes to cook through), but I tried it anyway; as I have already said, the results were not good.

      I would be open to trying this again with diced sweet potatoes – it would be a little bit more prep work but at least they would cook through before everything else burned. I would also line the baking sheet with aluminum foil to make cleanup a bit easier. Overall the flavors were really good; I love the variety of vegetables this recipe incorporated, the chickpeas were outstanding, and the tahini sauce was something new for me. By the way, if you have never used tahini before (I hadn’t!), it is super runny when you open it, kind of similar to natural peanut butter in its consistency. I wish that I paid the extra dollar for the jar with a twist-on lid instead of one that needed to be opened with a can opener – that was a mess!

      2/13 Brunch at Founding Farmers

      For our wedding anniversary we decided to celebrate with our favorite meal of the day and took the kids out for brunch at Founding Farmers. This restaurant has a few locations and all of them are owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union. From what I understand, a lot of the ingredients they use are sourced from North Dakota farms – neat! We went at about 9 AM on a weekday morning, so it was not crowded – most of the other patrons looked like they were having working breakfasts.

      We were hungry when we arrived, so we ordered a Jefferson Donut, coffee, and a New York Egg Cream while we looked at the rest of the menu. Our waiter explained that the Jefferson Donut is Founding Farmers’s take on a cronut. It was fairly light and filled with a pastry cream. We all really liked the donut – if I could get a box of these instead of whatever Dunkin’ Donuts is offering, I would.

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      I would not say I’m a coffee snob, but I don’t drink bad coffee anymore. If I order a coffee and it tastes old and watery, I throw it out. This happens more often than I like, so I didn’t have high hopes for Founding Farmers. I was pleasantly surprised, though, because the coffee was really good. I just got regular drip coffee; it was very smooth and delicious and when the waiter offered me a refill I gladly accepted. And how cute is that little milk carton?

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      The egg cream was the most interesting item we ordered – I know that this is not unique to Founding Farmers, but it is the only time I have seen one on a restaurant menu. The best way I can describe it is watery, fizzy chocolate milk. We probably would not order it again – personally I would prefer regular chocolate milk – but it was fun to try it!

      There is no children’s menu here, so for our kids we ordered the Vanilla Cream Filled French Toast to share. This was a huge dish! My husband ended up eating some too because it was just so much (this was his favorite item we ordered, by the way). It was more like french toast sticks than french toast you would make at home, which is fine because my 3-year-old was all about dunking them in the syrup.

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      I ordered the Roasted Vegetable Pan Scramble which comes with a biscuit (and butter & blueberry compote) and one side – I chose fruit. The sweet offerings on the menu were very tempting but we were going to have waffles for dinner so I went savory. This is an egg white scramble with a ton of veggies. Like most restaurant offerings, it was a large, filling dish. I found it a bit too salty, but overall still pretty good. I liked that I didn’t feel gross after eating it. The fruit was nice and fresh, and a good size for sharing with my kids. I really enjoyed the biscuit; if there was still room in my belly after eating everything else, I would have ordered more of them.

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      My husband ordered the Traditional Ham Eggs Benedict with a side of Leek Hash Browns. If you are a fan of eggs benedict, this one was a well-executed classic that you may enjoy.

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      We really liked Founding Farmers and are hoping to go back before we leave the area. The time that we went was pretty low-key, and we even saw some other people with kids towards the end of our meal.

      2/15 Dijon-Pecan 2-Step Chicken

      This is one of those rare recipes that is fast and easy to prep, inexpensive, and tasty. It took me about 5 minutes to put this together in the baking dish:

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      I used Harris Teeter’s fresh chicken breasts (from the meat counter) – they are the best price in the store and they are massive. I used 4 of them since the recipe calls for 4 chicken breasts, but really 2 of these cut in half is probably the portion size the author had in mind. Mine took a little longer in the oven because the chicken breasts were so enormous.

      The fastest way to crush the pecans is to toss them in a plastic bag and roll a rolling pin over them a few times. If you want to be a bit greener, chopping them with a knife would probably not take that much longer.

      I served them with egg noodles (quick and in my pantry) and roasted broccoli and cauliflower. I took the lazy way out and used a bag of the already-prepped veggies from the produce section.

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      2/20 Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

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      This soup is pure comfort. It is buttery and rich but not too heavy. If you are craving soup and don’t want to do a lot of work, then this is a recipe to try. I use Better than Bouillon to make my chicken broth; it has a great flavor that adds a lot to the depth of this soup. For recipes like this, I used to boil water and prepare the broth before adding it to the recipe, but lately I have just been adding water and the Better than Bouillon to the pot at the same time. I’m about to bring the water to a boil anyway, so why dirty another dish? Using the immersion blender to puree the soup cuts down on dishes too.

      I’ve heard that cream-based soups don’t freeze well, but I have frozen this one with a lot of success. Just give it a stir after reheating and it is as good as fresh. This is an easy recipe to double, it just takes a little longer to bring the soup to a simmer. I actually made a double batch this time because both of my kids slurp it up and I love the leftovers.

      2/21 Chipotle Portobello Oven Fajitas, Sweet Potato Cornbread

      We had company over this night and I completely forgot to take any pictures! These fajitas are great; all the deliciousness of Tex-Mex but without the heaviness of something loaded down with cheese. Now I am not always a mushroom person – I think it is a texture issue – but the mushrooms really shrivel up in the oven. Once they get mixed in with the other veggies I cannot usually tell that they are there. My kids have not eaten these yet because they do not really like spicy food, so I set aside some of the cut up veggies for them to eat raw with tortillas.

      The cornbread was interesting. The “basic” cornbread that I usually make is a lot denser and more savory. This recipe was very light and fluffy. It was also a lot sweeter (to be expected with that much added sugar). Honestly it kind of reminded me of cake… not that that is a bad thing! It was definitely more “dressed up” and I could see myself making this again if I find myself with some extra sour cream lying around, especially since it was not a big undertaking.

      2/22 Rosemary Chicken Thighs, Butternut Squash Gratin with Onions and Sage (Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone)
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      In case you missed the recipe for my rosemary chicken thighs, you can find that here. This is one of my family’s favorite recipes. It is so flavorful, tender, and easy. My 1-year-old gobbles it up!

      I took advantage of this super easy main dish to experiment with a new side: butternut squash gratin with onions from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. While it was time-consuming to make, it was not labor intensive. I cut down on my prep work by using pre-diced butternut squash. I did a cost comparison a few months ago and found that a whole fresh butternut squash cost about the same as the package of cubed squash – really I think my dollar goes further with more squash from the package because I am not paying for the seeds and skin. Plus it just takes way less time. My food processor made the rest of the prep very fast. I used it to slice onions, shred cheese, and make bread crumbs. Like I said though, it is a time-consuming dish – 15 minutes to cook onions, then 8 minutes to brown the squash, and 50 minutes total in the oven. I like the idea of this dish, and it has piqued my interest in other gratins. My one complaint with it is that I
      found it too thyme-heavy. I decided to use dried thyme instead of fresh because I already had it on hand, and I think I miscalculated the conversion between fresh and dried thyme, so the thyme ended up overpowering the other flavors.

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      Posted in Food Journal | 0 Comments | Tagged breakfast, chicken, Dinner, Founding Farmers, freezer friendly, kid-friendly, restaurant review, side dish, soup, vegetarian
    • Review: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

      Posted at 2:07 am by Rachel, on October 5, 2017

      I’ve been bemoaning the beginning of fall this year. The cold mornings, the early setting sun, and the falling leaves already have me dreaming of spring. But the food! Fall might have the best food of all the seasons.

      I made this butternut squash soup the other night and wow! I am so glad that I made a double batch. My husband took one bite and declared it to be his favorite soup of all time. It’s a little sweet, but with a bit of a bite, and creamy and filling, but not overwhelmingly rich.

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      Both of my kids ate this and loved it! For the baby, it was helpful to put the cooled soup (without pumpkin seeds) into a reusable food pouch. It was still a mess, but it went better than trying to spoon feed her. And the soup is thick enough that she was able to scoop up most of what fell onto her shirt and high chair tray with her hands.

      A few tips for the recipe itself:

      • Actually weigh the squash at the store. If you don’t buy squash all the time, it might be hard to tell the difference between a “medium” and “large” squash. I only needed 2 large squash to double the recipe.
      • Use a sharp knife. Maybe even sharpen it before you begin prep work.
      • Remember to stick a knife in the squash and feel how soft it is before pulling it out of the oven. (I forgot and had to stick it back in for another 20 minutes. The time it was cooling out of the oven probably added 15-20 minutes to my cook time). If the squash is not soft, you won’t be able to scoop the flesh out of the skin.
      • I used Better than Bouillon Organic Chicken Base (available for less from Thrive Market) for the chicken broth. Instead of preparing the broth and then adding it to the soup, I added all of the water and the bouillon base directly to the soup pot.
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      (1) Squash all prepped for the oven (2) Apples, onions, and sage leaves getting steamy on the stove top (3) Simmering the soup before blending it all together

      This recipe took me about 3 hours start to finish, but it probably would have been a little quicker if I had remembered to test the squash before taking it out of the oven! So it’s not a great one to make on a busy weeknight, but it is a great meal to make ahead and freeze. I will definitely be making this recipe again, and since doubling the recipe really does not add extra work here, I will be making a double batch!

      Get the recipe from Chowhound!

      Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged Dinner, freezer friendly, recipe review, soup
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