I'm not sure if I'm going about things the right way with Charlotte or not, but I've decided to stop struggling with dinnertime. I'm not a short order cook, and I'm not going to make her a separate macaroni and cheese everyday because I know it's one of the few things she'll eat at dinner. I figure, I'll present her with dinner and she can choose what to eat. What's really frustrating is when she pushes the plate away without even trying something. But I'm making peace with it as best I can.
Anyway, when it comes to cooking dinner for
Enter The Pioneer Woman. I'll be honest. I had a bad preconception of Ree Drummond, probably thanks to this article on Slate. I thought, based on the line: "armed with Lawry's seasoned salt," that the Pioneer Woman was a bunch of shortcut cooking, with a lot of cream of mushroom soup. I am, I admit, a self-professed foodie. I love cooking, I love excellent ingredients, but well, I'm short on time. And no, I'm never going to have the time to cook everything from scratch like Thomas Keller. Anway, I've been hooked on the Pioneer Woman for at least a year. She has such a fun way of writing her recipes, and her food photography is to die for. She now even has a show on the Food Network.
I was so excited when Zulilly had her two cookbooks for half off, with the newer one signed by the author herself. So on Sunday, while Phoebe was napping and Chris was off with Charlotte rescuing her blankie that we left at a friend's house, I armed myself with the two cookbooks and made a list of what to make.
Here's what I made - all pictures are from the PW website.
Monday - Sherried Tomato Soup
This was super easy - diced onions, canned diced tomatoes, a jar of tomato juice, sherry, and cream. And it was delicious, especially with a rustic baguette. Charlotte ate the bread, refused to try the soup.
Tuesday - Summer Stir-fry
Shrimp, corn, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and garlic. Yum. This was also really easy, once you take the time to peel all those pesky shrimp. Charlotte, who loves corn, refused to touch this. Chris liked it, but he's not as big of a fan of shrimp as I am. I lurrvvved it, but then I love butter. And garlic.
Wednesday - Comfort meatballs with pan-fried spinach (no link) and sweet potato tots.
The meatballs were absurdly delicious - as the PW states, they're more like little meatloaves shaped into meatballs than your classic Italian meatballs. There is no link for the pan-friend spinach, but this is such an easy vegetable - heat up oil and garlic, add spinach, salt and pepper. Next time, we're going to try kale instead. I also baked some sweet potato tater tots. Verdict: Chris and I loved everything about this meal. I actually used ground turkey instead, because I had some in the freezer that I needed to use. Charlotte liked the tots, until she decided she didn't anymore and spit them out. We didn't even bother giving her the spinach. She ate about two bites of the meatballs, even while smothered in ketchup. One note: they are a little more labor intensive than actual meatloaf, but in some undefinable way, much more enjoyable.
Thursday - Ranch Style Chicken and Roasted Cauliflower (no link)
Okay, so I wasn't able to actually make the Ranch Style Chicken. I forgot to defrost the chicken breasts and forgot that I needed to marinate them in a honey dijon marinade. So I made BTCA - bacon tomato cheese and avocado sandwiches (no lettuce on hand) and roasted cauliflower. I did make Charlotte a plain grilled cheese with avocado, which she ate, mostly. She declared that "I don't like that!", pointing to the roasted cauliflower.
If you know me, you should know that one of the few foods I still hate from my childhood is cauliflower. I was a very picky eater, but for the most part, I love pretty much everything now. Except cauliflower. It was always served steamed and mushy, with no flavor. A few months ago, I went to a really nice restaurant to celebrate a good friend getting married and the side was roasted cauliflower. It was delicious. I thought, I can do this. I can like cauliflower!
The PW has a great recipe in one of her cookbooks (the newer one, I think) for roasted cauliflower. You basically roast bite-sized chunks on a baking sheet at 400 degrees, take them out of the oven after about 25 minutes or so, transfer to a smaller baking dish, and heap panko breadcrumbs and melted butter on top. Roast for another 5 to 10 minutes. Amazingly delicious. Not mushy, but caramelized and crunchy with tons of flavor. And behold! I love cauliflower. But only when roasted. Not steamed. Blech.
So there's my week in food - healthy, easy, with actual vegetables (and no pasta!!!). Ranch Style Chicken will happen later this weekend.
Do any of you have some great go-to recipes? What do you do when it comes to cooking? Do you rotate a dozen set meals into your month, or are you constantly looking for something new to make? I find, that as long as I have a plan, it's not hard at all to try some new recipes. And variety is the spice of life, or so they say...
I need to check out her cookbooks, the meatballs look so yummy! I feel that we eat the same thing all the time (lots of pasta) as Charlotte is a picky eater, too.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm impressed that you were able to make all of these recipes on weeknights! Way to go! We make really easy meals during the week and on Sunday nights we try to make new recipes or things that take a bit longer. Keith does about 80% of the cooking these days. During the summer we try to have dinner eaten and dishes done by 6:30 so that we can go outside and play (we start bedtime routines about 7 or 7:15). So that doesn't leave much time for cooking! In the winter when we can't go outside things aren't quite as rushed. I definitely get a little tired of the same old stuff and like to try new things. Last night I made pumpkin pancakes for dinner which Colin thought was fun. They were just OK though!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, Stephanie! You basically gave me my weeks recipes!
ReplyDeleteI usually plan what I'm making for the week on Monday and then do all the shopping that same day. I plan to make 3/4 recipes a week since we sometimes have leftover, there is always a pizza night, and a night we go out.
On the weeks we get our organic shipment I check what we're getting before hand and do a google search for recipes using particular items. The weeks we don't get a box, I usually use cooking light.com; although i feel like I've made a lot of their recipes and need a new website to peruse. Pinterest has been a huge resource lately. I have a board with recipes I've made and love. I've also been trying to use the crock pot more because it does save me some time and there always seems to crock pot recipes on Pinterest.
I'll have to do a post on my recipes too.
I feel the same way you do about cooking for a toddler. Amélie gets what we're eating and if she doesn't like it, then she'll just go to bed without dinner. I don't have time or want to make her special meals, especially now.
Oh, and I hardly ever make the same meal twice. There a few staples, though. It makes it more fun to try different recipes.
ReplyDeleteNice post, Steph! I have a few staples, but certainly not a monthly rotation or anything. I try to make things that last for two nights. That way we get good food with half the work. A few of my go-tos:
ReplyDeletePizza - make the dough on a Sunday night. It takes 15 minutes. Let rise all night, throw in fridge in the morning. So fast to throw on some sauce, cheese (I like TJ's 4-cheese blend), any random veggies you need to get rid of.
Huevos Quinoacheros - we got this idea from a blog. Instead of frying up tortillas, top a bed of quinoa with black beans, chopped tomatoes, avocado slices, crumbled cotija, scallions, and a couple of fried eggs. Rowan loves this, though he gets scrambled instead of fried. Takes about 10 minutes to throw together if you already have the quinoa made.
Red lentil dal - takes a couple of hours, but make a lot of it and freeze 2-3 serving sizes. We get about 8 meals out of this. Serve on basmati with yogurt. Another kid favorite. When in a real rush, we always have the TJ's Indian Fare in the pantry and naan in the freezer = a 10-minute dinner.
As the weather gets cooler I definitely tend toward large recipes of soups and stews. I often make a tagine of carrots and chickpeas that easily last two nights, and tastes even better the second day. I'll send you the recipe if you'd like. Rowan seems to really like the slight spice and tang of South Asian / North African dishes.
Even though we aren't vegetarians per se, I often tend toward veggie meals since cooking meat seems to add prep time what with defrosting, slicing, washing yet another knife and cutting board, etc. Hamburger night is still one of my faves, though!