Thursday, July 26, 2012

Week 1

Meal Planning, Week #1

So this is actually my meal plan for this past week.  We were away in Tennessee for a long weekend for my husband's aunt's wedding, so I didn't plan 5 meals, but here is what I did plan!

Monday- Returning home from Tennessee, ordered Chinese food from my cell phone on the drive back from the airport!  Gotta love a smart phone.

Tuesday- Pulled pork, rolls, coleslaw and avocado & grilled corn salad.

Pulled Pork in the crockpot

I use a half pork shoulder, a bottle beer and half a bottle of  barbecue sauce.  Throw it all in and let that baby cook on high for about 6 hours (or on low overnight.)  Then I shred it will two forks, pulling out the bone and any yucky stuff and let it hang out in the broth on low until I am ready to serve (sometimes another hour or two soaking up flavor.)  Piled high on a hard roll, topped with more barbecue sauce and coleslaw.

Avocado & Grilled Corn w/ Cilantro Vinaigrette

Recipe is here Avocado & Corn Salad .  I did tweak it a bit.  I roasted my corn in the oven.  Threw all five ears of corn in the oven husk and all for 30 minutes at 350.  Let them cool and shucked.  Much easier than standing at my grill on a hot afternoon!  I also used dried cilantro (it's what I had) and apple cider vinegar (and more of it!  I like acidity.)   The recipe has you dressing the salad immediately before eating and it was good!  But is was better the next day.  Next time (and there will be a next time!) I will leave the avocado out, dress it the night before then add in the avocado before serving.  Definitely a nice change to your typical summer salads!


Wednesday-  Dinner at Moms (I brought the rest of the corn salad!)  I also made Slutty Brownies to have dessert!


Recipe is here Slutty Brownies  . I baked them for 30 minutes and then made the mistake of trying to cut them to take out of the pan and put on a plate.  They were amazing, but had a lava cake quality.  Next time I will leave them in the pan to cut before serving and also get some vanilla ice cream.
Slutty Brownies getting their top layer.


Thursday- Teriyaki Chicken with rice


Teriyaki Chicken in the Crockpot

Recipe is here Teriyaki Chicken .  This is the blog of a very ambitious momma and how she made 18 meals for her freezer in 3 hours.  I am no where near this, but I do like the 9 recipes she has posted.  Tonight I am trying the teriyaki chicken.  In fact, it is cooking in the crockpot as we speak.  I did make one freezer meal with the other half of the recipe.  I will then immediately put it on the schedule for another day in a future week (so it doesn't die a sad death in the unknown parts of the freezer.)  I did it as is, except I froze my chicken in a separate bag.  This way if we totally hate tonight's meal, the chicken can be used for something else!

Updated:  This was good, but not great.  I like a thicker sauce and will probably try it again with a slurry of cornstarch added at the end.  Also, the flavor was a little tame for me.  I think I will have to investigate some other teriyaki recipes and see how to doctor up my freezer meal.

Friday- I had planned a pork tenderloin for tonight, but my brother texted me this morning about meeting up at the Monmouth County Fair tomorrow... yes, please!  I may be 6 months pregnant and unable to go on any rides, but fair food I will take any day.  Being flexible, pork tenderloin goes in the freezer and on the schedule for next week.


Saturday-  Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread 


Recipe is here Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread.  I haven't made it yet, but when I do I will update with any changes/ my review.

Update:  Made this pretty much to the recipe.  I did make my own wing sauce, following this recipe Buffalo Wing Sauce with 3 changes: I used salted butter (because I didn't have unsalted), I omitted extra salt (duh) and I didn't have Worcestershire sauce so I used a bit of Tastefully Simple's Merlot Sauce.  The sauce alone is addictive.  This recipe made more than enough to make the garbage bread, but I did use all of it!  So delish.  I made the garbage bread according to recipe, except that I didn't let the chicken cool completely.  This did make the pizza dough a little tricky to flip, but manageable.  I will definitely make a double batch of the chicken next time and freeze half.  This way another garbage bread is as good as done!  I baked it 25 minutes at 425 and mine came out, well... very brown.  Not burnt, but well.. you can see.


All worry about a failure went right out the window when I cut into this bad boy... food porn!  This is a definite make again recipe!
 
 

Sunday- Last Chance Buffet/ My mom's

Like a good Italian family, most Sundays you can find all of us at my mom and dad's for a 2 pm meal of pasta and meatballs.  I love this tradition and getting to see my brothers, sister-in-law and especially my nephew every week.  This also makes Sunday a great last chance buffet day!  Come 7/8pm, my husband and I are ready for a little something and leftovers fill that need perfectly!

So what are you cooking?  Let me know if you have tried any of these recipes or know of any I should try!

No comments:

Post a Comment