Quick Dinner Week!

Not much cooking going on this week... Sunday night was leftover salad from Rachel's baby shower, and Monday we went out to the Union Woodshop in Clarkston. (Fabulous, by the way. You should go. And invite me to come along.)

So this is what I'm planning for this week:

Tuesday

I've got some barley cooking right now for Barley and Sweet Potato Salad, from Amy Pennington's Urban Pantry, a book that's right up my alley. It's a mix of recipes, good ingredients, preserving your own stuff and just being efficient in the kitchen. Here's the deal with the salad:

1. Toast a cup of uncooked barley in a dry pan for a few minutes, then add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer for 50 - 60 minutes. Drain and cool.

2. Cube a sweet potato and saute in oil with a bit of salt and pepper.

3. Mix the potato, barley, and about a half cup of chopped fresh herbs. Dress with a bit of olive oil and champagne vinegar or lemon juice.

We'll have some green salad with this.

Thursday

Big salad with all the veggies still hanging out in the fridge (I'm especially excited about the roasted red pepper, cucumber, a little feta -- not a veggie, I know -- and mushrooms. I like to cook the mushrooms a bit before adding them to salad.)

Fry an egg and put it on top

Oven roasted potatoes on the side

So, a tiny little food week. But it should be good, nonetheless.

February 14 - 17

Happy Valentine's Day! We're cooking food we LOVE -- Pizza!

(Really, it's because we were gone this weekend, and haven't had a chance to go to the grocery store, and we can make pizza with pretty much anything around the house. But also we love it. So there's that.)

Monday

Pizza with homemade crust:

Make crust with my lovely KitchenAid mixer -- half white, half whole-wheat flour

Sauce it and top with whatever's available. I know we have half a red pepper and some onion. We also have half a ball of mozzarella, so that'll be yummy. And I bet we can find more stuff to put on it when we start searching.

Bake at 425 for about 20 minutes.

Tuesday

Stuffed portobello mushrooms (from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen)

Saute chopped onions, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes. Mix with chopped parsley, basil, bread crumbs and keep cooking. Add half a cup of broth, stir and heat. Stuff into mushroom caps and drizzle a little more broth on top. Put in a baking dish, cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes on 400 degrees. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

I'm thinking I'll make a little pasta and serve this over pasta and tomato sauce.

Wednesday

Lentil soup -- I'm choosing between an old favorite recipe and a new one that sounds good. Will update when I decide.

Thursday

Grilled sole

Roasted veggies

Have a good week!

February 6 - 10

Happy Super Bowl! Phil and I have been batting dinner/snack options around for days, but, in the end, we're feeling a little uninspired, so we're going basic this year. But basic can be good, and we hardly ever make burgers, so it'll still be kind of a nice little treat.

Sunday

Burgers on the grill -- probably venison. Lots of good toppings -- sliced tomato, onion, maybe blue cheese or feta. Mmmmm.

Oven-baked sweet potato fries (slice sweet potatoes, coat with olive oil, chili powder, salt, and spread out on a cookie sheet. Bake at about 425 degrees for 20 minutes or so, depending on thickness of potatoes)

Coleslaw (shred cabbage, add diced onion, a little bit of tiny-chopped red bell pepper, then mix with some mayo, white wine vinegar, a tiny pinch of sugar and a little salt and pepper. Better if you make it and let it sit for a while in the fridge.)

And probably some good beer. I had a Founders Dirty Bastard last weekend, and really liked it, so I'll be looking for some of that today. Or we can just go with whatever's in the fridge.

Monday

Because I can never get enough sweet potato...

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

with leftover coleslaw on the side!

Tuesday

Grilled salmon

Succotash-ish (I sort of make up my own -- I'll mix lima beans, corn, red pepper, red onion, saute it around a bit, maybe add some crumbled bacon. Season with red wine vinegar, salt and pepper)

Wednesday/Thursday

(I'll cook this on Wednesday, but we'll still be eating it on Thursday)

Broccoli-Meatball-Spaghetti: I copied this from a blog post just over a year ago. Like I said below, I crave it about once a year. Last year it was January 17, so I'm off a bit...

Meatball Broccoli Spaghetti: This was my favorite thing to cook in high school, and I usually crave it about once a year. This is the lucky day. I'm revamping a little bit so my arteries don't shriek, but here's my latest variation:

Sliced mushrooms

olive oil

2 c. broth (I'll probably use chicken, as I just made a bunch last week)

1 lb (or a little less, if I can find a small enough package in the freezer)ground venison or buffalo

1 c broken whole wheat spaghetti

3 c chopped broccoli

salt, pepper

parmesan cheese

1. Saute mushrooms in a bit of oil.

2. Add broth, bring to a boil. (This is rhyming so far!)

3. Make little meatballs with burger, salt, pepper. Drop in broth, simmer about 10 minutes.

4. Add spaghetti. Simmer 10 more minutes.

5. Add broccoli. Simmer 10 minutes, or maybe less -- depending on how done you like your broccoli.

6. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle some cheese on top.