Oops, I totally forgot to post our meal recap last week…but that’s probably okay since we didn’t do anything too exciting. Anyway, here’s #3 and #4!
Sunday – Curry
Monday – Feta Spaghetti
This is a standard at our house…and super easy and fast to make. Boil water and cook pasta then put a can of mostly drained diced tomatoes in a small saucepan and heat. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and as much or little feta as you’d like. Serve on the hot pasta. If it’s summer we’ll sometimes use fresh tomatoes rather than canned.
Tuesday – Yakisoba
Apparently we were on an Asian kick this week. The curry and yakisoba are both “semi-homemade.” The curry seasoning comes from a box and we just cook up chicken, carrots, and onions and serve it with rice. The yakisoba noodles come in a frozen package with seasoning (MSG yum) 😉 and we stirfry them with chicken, carrots, cabbage, peppers, and onions. Both can be found at the FoodMaxx in Winchester. I’m thankful that we finally have an Asian grocery store in the area and I can stop buy 20 packages of yakisoba in Virginia Beach and transporting them home in coolers. Now if we could just get a good Filipino place with fresh lumpia…
Wednesday – Chili and Cornbread
Perfect for a chilly night! This was put together in the morning and then left to simmer most of the afternoon. It made the house smell fantastic and was ready when I finished teaching at 8. I made up a quick batch of cornbread muffins to go with the chili and we served the chili over rice with sour cream and cheese.
Thursday – Bagels and Eggs
Bagel day! Steve made himself a tuna melt and I made a cheese and tomato omelet to go with my pumpkin bagel!
Friday – Thai Fried Rice
We ended up scratching our original dinner plan and ordered take-out Thai Fried Rice from the local Thai place. Steve gets his without pineapple and I order mine without scallions or onions. Super tasty and the amount they give you easily makes at least 2 meals!
Saturday – Puffed Pancake
Another standard breakfast for dinner recipe. I’ve always loved puffed pancakes but it took me a long time to find one that puffed beautifully every time! The recipe calls for layering apples on the bottom but we’ve also used peaches and pears. Pears are probably our favorite because they caramelize the best!
Sunday – Chicken Paprikas
We had company over on a chilly Sunday and decided to make one of our favorite recipes from Steve’s family. Chicken paprikas is a traditional Hungarian meal and one that we both really like. It involves making homemade dumplings and in the past that took a little too much time to make it an everyday meal. However, recently Steve’s mother found a recipe for dumplings using a spaetzle grater and it’s really made the dumpling process so much easier. Normally you take a large ball of dough, stand over a pot of boiling water, and pinch off tiny pieces into the boiling water…it’s easily a two hour process. Now, it takes me about 20 minutes to make several meals worth of dumplings. We use this recipe but don’t add parsley and, of course, they’re not fried.
For the rest of the recipe I take my dutch oven and melt a little crisco in the bottom. Then I saute chopped onions until they’re golden brown. Then I add boneless skinless chicken thighs and chicken breasts, salt, pepper, and a ton of paprika into the pot. The recipe calls for 1 tbs of paprika but I probably use closer to 3 tbs. Once the chicken is browned on the outside I add 2 cups of chicken broth (the original recipe calls for water but I prefer the extra flavor the chicken broth imparts), cover, and let it simmer for about an hour. After an hour I add about 3/4 cup of sour cream to the sauce and stir it in thoroughly as it helps to thicken the sauce. The chicken and the sauce is served over the warm dumplings and the leftovers (if there are any) are even better the next day after the dumplings have really soaked up the sauce!
Monday – Chicken Paprikas leftovers (of course!)
Tuesday – Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pancakes with Oven-roasted bacon
This was a new recipe and definitely a keeper! I found the recipe on www.wearenotmartha.com (ha) and decided to give it a go. I didn’t have buttermilk so we used regular milk instead and we just used a little powdered sugar on top instead of maple syrup. I roasted thick-cut bacon on a rack in the oven at 450F for 15 minutes until it was just a little crunchy and served it with the pancakes.
Wednesday – Slow-cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup
Unfortunately this was not a terribly successful recipe. I have a slow cooker stuffed pepper soup recipe that I like a lot but it calls for using long grain rice and I forgot to buy it. So I wanted a recipe where I could cook the soup and then add rice from my rice cooker later. It’s not the recipe’s fault but adding (essentially) sushi-style sticky rice was not idea. The rice was definitely not the right consistency for the recipe and made everything a little gummy. Plus the recipe called for more water and less broth than I’m used to. I’ll definitely stick to my usual recipe and just run out and grab rice if I forget it…
Thursday – Bagels and Eggs
Friday – Beef Enchilada Pasta Casserole
We LOVE this recipe! It’s tasty and reminds us of enchiladas but is so much faster and easier to make! We use rotelle instead of egg noodles but that’s the only change I make to the recipe. It also freezes well for a quick make-ahead dinner!
Saturday – Buttermilk Waffles with Blueberry Compote
Of course, we haven’t actually made this yet since it’s 11 am on Saturday but this is our planned dinner for tonight. We enjoyed Alton Brown’s recipe for waffles so much that we decided to make them again! I’ll make a simple blueberry compote by combining a bag of frozen blueberries, a little lemon juice, cornstarch (the frozen blueberries have SO much water in them…I don’t use cornstarch if I’m using fresh berries), and sugar and simmering it for about 20 minutes until it starts to thicken.
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