Sunday, February 28, 2010

February 28 - March 4

It's almost March! It's almost March! I'm so ready... I ran outside this afternoon, and was reminded how much thinking I'm able to do when I run outside instead of on the treadmill with DVDs of Dexter blaring on the TV. I planned this week's menu during the run!

Sunday
Grilled salmon on salad. I'm thinking sliced apples, toasted pine nuts, red pepper, and anything else yummy laying around the veggie drawers. Balsamic dressing, of course... I'm still loving my vinegar-Christmas gift!

Monday
Slow-cooker day: We'll do one of the little venison roasts in the slow cooker: Brown the roast, put in the cooker, add some water, a giant quartered onion, some carrots, mushrooms, salt and pepper, maybe a few potatoes. We'll serve it with something green and simple... maybe peas!

Tuesday
Ravioli with portobello mushrooms, spinach, and roasted red pepper: Cook the ravioli. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in a pan, add some sliced peppers (I'm still using the ones I canned last fall). Maybe some garlic. When the ravioli's cooked, put it in the pan with the veggies, then add some spinach. Stir around for a minute, season, serve with parmesan cheese.

Wednesday
Basic veggie soup:
Saute an onion and some garlic. Add some chopped carrot and celery. Add some canned tomato, some water or stock, bring to a simmer. Add other veggies (I'm raiding the freezer for this soup, so anything I froze last summer or fall is fair game: corn, peas, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash). Add some beans -- garbanzo or cannellini -- and heat. Season as needed.

Thursday
Vegetable fried rice:
I must be in a veggie mood this week!
Saute an onion, sliced top to bottom, some mushrooms, red pepper, bok choy, broccoli. Add cold, pre-cooked brown rice. Add some soy sauce and chili paste with garlic, then stir it all up. Make a space in the middle of the pan, scramble two eggs in the space. When they're cooked, mix them in with the rest of the stuff. Chop some scallions and sprinkle on top.

Have a lovely week! Happy March!

Monday, February 15, 2010

February 14 - 18

Happy Valentine's Day! We had our big Valentine's dinner on Saturday... Holly Hotel. Yummmmm. Sunday we hung around the house, went for an unreasonably long snowshoe through the woods, and so then needed some comfort food to revive us.

Sunday
And so we made spaghetti. With meatballs, even... tiny little ones!
And salad with sunflower seeds and balsamic vinegar. I'm a little bit in love with sunflower seeds right now.

Monday
Venison chops -- just a very quick sear in a pan, maybe a bit of wine and garlic.
Asparagus
Salad

Tuesday
Manhattan clam chowder, from The Healthy Kitchen by Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley:

Saute in a bit of olive oil: 1 cup chopped onion, 2 cloves chopped garlic
Add 1/2 c chopped celery, 1tsp dried thyme, stir for a few minutes.
Sprinkle 1/4 c flour. Pour 3 c water in slowly. Whisk to break up flour.
Add 1 1/2 c chopped potatoes, bring to a boil. Cook for 10 min. at med. high heat, then turn down.
Add 2 c chopped tomatoes. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes.

Now for the clams: if you have fresh (which, alas, I did not find on my trip to the store... but I didn't try too hard), scrub them, put them in a big pot with 1 1/2 c white wine and steam them for about 10 minutes. Discard any that didn't open. Remove the rest from their shells. Put 'em in the soup.

If you have canned, just drain them and add them to the soup. Either way, put the wine mixture (or just some wine, if you didn't steam them) in the soup, along with 1 tsp Worcestershire and 1/8 tsp Tabasco, a little bit of ground pepper.

I think we'll need some lovely whole-grain baguette to go with this.

Wednesday
I'm guessing more soup.

Thursday

Have a beautiful week. Soon it will be spring!

Monday, February 8, 2010

February 7 - 11

Happy Super Bowl!
Kind of a basic, uninspired week, dinner-wise. We're falling back on easy favorites that require little thought. But if I get a snow day, my plans might change! With a whole day at home to putter around, I might come up with something more interesting.

Sunday
We made homemade pizza and salad. Yummmmmmmmm...

Monday
Pasta Fagioli soup -- great for leftovers

Tuesday
Salad with sauteed venison steak and mushrooms

Thursday
Halibut, roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli

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