Eating Muster: Picking up Steam

Originally I had some depressing “falling behind” related title for this post. Turns out I’m actually exactly where I should be for my goal this week. Funny what real data reveals. This is even after I took a week off from cooking too crazy last week (I really didn’t feel like menu planning) and I let Evan choose what I was cooking…which of course meant he only had things I’ve previously cooked to choose from. Groceries were cheap this week and it was nice to not think about trying new things out. I feel bad for slacking on posting these…I know it can’t wait one more week (and I wanna clear it all off of my TeuxDeux before I did my Tuesday night menu planning).

The Old:

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Ground Sausage –
This is the only gnocchi recipe that doesn’t make me wish I were dead. I’m dough disabled. This one actually works and is super yummy, and I imagine works with other purées too.

Chicken Liver and Arugula –
Out of 5 in 5, we’ve done this before with goat liver and red wine, but this time we cooked it the way the recipe calls for, with chicken liver and white wine. I was too nauseous from my new medication to eat any.

Drunken Noodles –
My go-to at Thai restaurants…still pretty yummy at home.

Pizza –
I like this crust quite a bit, and I use it pretty often. It’s a bit different from my calzone dough, but still good.

Peanut Noodles with Pork –
Basically you just take some peanut butter, hot water, soy sauce, and whatever you want to put in it (like ginger, garlic, green onions, etc.), toss it on some noodles, and put some browned up pork on top. Yum.

Chicken Paprikash –
I kinda sorta go off of this recipe. Sometimes. Terrible person confession: I really prefer eating boneless skinless meat EVEN THOUGH I KNOW IT DOESN’T TASTE AS GOOD.

Chicken Avocado Quesadilla –
Pretty straightforward. I made a pizza with the leftover chicken.

Ramen –
Ramen is serious business in this household. I’ll go in depth sometime in the future.

Pineapple Curry with Chicken –
Pineapple was on sale, and this is the only way I could think to cook with it.

Moules Marinière –
If you can think of a better $3 meal, please let me know. I even made fresh bread.

Andouille Sausage –
I tried to get this sausage for the soup I made last week but they were completely out due to Fat Tuesday (after checking at the store twice). I got some of what was leftover when I was at the grocery store last week…this is dinner tonight.

And the New:

Chicken Almandine –
From 5 in 5…really simple, really tasty, to the point where we kept going “wow” as we ate. Evan was going to make this originally, but I ended up making it for him after he had something come up at work. He’s making it sometime this week though!

Eggs in Hell –
Also from 5 in 5. We used the Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes for this (I can’t think of a time when it’s NOT a great idea to use the fire-roasted tomatoes) and it was delicious. We used pie crust as a platform, but I think toast or egg muffins would have been better.

Roasted Garlic Chicken Soup –
Honestly? Meh.

Chicken Philly –
These are steak, but I just switched out the meat.

Chicken Hearts –
Basically just grilled them with some oil and salt and squeezed lime over the top when they were done. The brand that does all the chicken meat that Evan picks up is quite possibly the worst ever at bleeding/cleaning their products, so the hearts had a lot of blood in them, and to eat a whole pound of them was overkill. They’d be good grilled up as a side with some other food though.

Fish and Fennel in Parchment –
This was pretty yummy. Would definitely do this again.

Beet and Goat Cheese Jewels –
Made with plain ol’ beets (wish I had picked up a few varieties), Haystack Dill &  Garlic Chèvre, and a bit of orange zest. Super pretty.

Knockoff Chipotle Chicken and Rice –
My cilantro went bad so I didn’t use it, but other than that, it tasted pretty spot on.

Sesame Chicken with Rice –
I was really happy with this recipe. I just threw everything in my rice cooker and cooked it together which made it more like a lightly flavored sticky rice—which was good—but I plan to make it as intended sometime.

Oktoberfest Stew –
I just couldn’t get the andouille I wanted for this, so finally in the end I “sacrificed” and went with the bacon ends that they sell at Lucky’s. It was AWESOME. And I decided instead of using lager and apple cider vinegar, I’d just use some dry hard cider instead. And I didn’t put in cabbage.

Turkey Meatballs with Blackberry Serrano Glaze –
I was like “how do I make a glaze?” Like this, apparently.

Shortrib Pot Pie –
Glad I snuck this in before warm weather hit…I just subbed out the short ribs for country style ribs and followed the rest of the recipe. It turned out awesome.

Yearly Recipe Count:  22/100

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