Sweet & Sour Chicken Meatballs

Last night's Dinner was Sweet & Sour Chicken Meatballs from AllRecipes.com.  They were a great way to use up some ground chicken that I had in the freezer.  Tuesday night Matt seemed to be jonesin' for a taco, so I decided to keep tacos in the game for this week and shift the fish & pork chops to next week.
Back to the recipe: it was alright.  I made it mostly as written, but ended up with a 280 ml can of broth and 680ish ml can of tomato sauce, so I left out the ketchup.  I also used red peppers instead of green, left out the carrots, and chopped up the half-zucchini that wasn't grated into the meatballs to add to the sauce.  I also added more vinegar and a touch of Tabasco sauce, because the sauce was tasting a little bland.  I used breadcrumbs instead of a slice of milk-soaked bread, and the meatballs still seemed pretty wet.  They cooked nicely in the sauce, though.
Moving on: there was a lot of sauce.  Once Matt and I had dinner and I had packed up some for lunches, there was still half a big skillet of sauce & vegetables left.  I froze them to use as the base for a pork stir fry another week.  To be honest, if I do repeat this recipe, I will probably do it with pork instead of meatballs.  Unless Matt requests it with meatballs, which would be a surprise, since he apparently hates chicken.  The point I am trying to make is that the sauce was good, but I just don't think we're chicken meatball people.  That said, I will be having leftovers for lunch and supper today.

Regular Posting Schedule Fail

It's only a week in, and I've already failed miserably at keeping to a posting schedule.  I'll get better, I promise!

The story so far...
Once again, this week is not shaping up according to plan.  Yesterday a trip to Costco meant dinner at Costco (A hotdog and a drink for $2... how could you not?)  Thursday Matt will be at a bachelor party and I will be climbing 25 flights of stairs.  As a result, tacos and honey butter pork chops will be postponed to next week, and I may cook something on Friday.  We'll see.  In any case, this past weekend was full of culinary fun! 

Eyeball Cookies
I made Eyeball cookies for the Halloween party Matt and I attended on Saturday.  Matt called them creepy.  I got the idea from Annie's Eats, who got it from Confections of a Foodie Bride, who got it from Epicurious.  My only real deviation was to make them cookies instead of cupcakes, since Courtney made cupcakes for the last party. 
The recipe I used was "The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies" from allrecipes.com.  The recipe makes 60 cookies, so I halved it.  I then added 50% more sugar as per reviewers'  notes.  I chose to roll the dough into balls and flatten them, instead of rolling the dough and cutting out shapes, since the cookies were going to be circles anyway.  The cookies baked for exactly 6 minutes at 400 degrees.  Next time I will probably add some lemon zest or cinnamon or something,  but they had a nice taste and texture.
The best part of the cookies was the decorations!  For the icing, I mixed some confectioners sugar with milk, vanilla, and a little bit of margarine until I achieved an icing-ish texture.  The irises are gummy savers, the pupils are brown m&ms, and the veins I drew on with purchased gel icing.

Dijon Crusted Rib Roast
Sunday night I made Dijon Crusted Rib Roast, as printed in Canadian House and Home, originally from "A Year in Lucy's Kitchen" by Lucy Waverman.  The roast was delicious, which is good, because it's supposed to be pretty hard to mess up a nice cut of meat.
That said, I did have a couple of issues.  For starters, the roast I had was about half the size that the recipe was written for.  I bought myself a meat thermometer.  Problem solved, right?  Next up, I apparently don't know where to stick a thermometer in a roast.  (Advice Appreciated!)   After about an hour and a half in the oven, one thermometer location was reading "Well Done" and another spot was reading nothing.  Since that was about half the time that the recipe called for, and we tend to like our beef medium , I pulled the delicious-semlling chunk of cow out of the oven.
The roast was on the rare side of medium-rare in the center, but nice everywhere else.  The flavour was excellent.  I served it with steamed carrots, mashed potatoes, and gravy.  Dinner was an hour sooner than anticipated, but hey, live and learn.  An extra half hour next time will do it.  And there will be a next time...

Droolingly yours, until (likely) tomorrow,
Emily

The Plan: Nov. 1 - Nov 6

Matt Makes Dinner
Well, it seems I know my Matt.  He was not home until 8:30 on Wednesday night, so dinner Wednesday was both late and unremarkable.  He was also not home until nearly 8:00 yesterday, but hey, the pike was thawed and had to be cooked!  Matt seasoned the fillet with pepper, onion powder and garlic powder and then fried it in margarine.  We served it with leftover roasted potatoes and green beans from his parents' garden that had been blanched and frozen.  

Dinner and Dollhouse 
Dollhouse is taking a break until December, so it will be Dinner and Episodes of True Blood that I have already seen but nobody else has.  It doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?  Tonight's dinner is Hunter Style Chicken from allrecipes.com, which Matt and I have made before and really enjoyed.  I will be serving it over rice.  It's pretty much Chicken Cacciatore with bacon, and I don't see how it can possibly go wrong.  I will be following the directions to the letter with the exception of using 3 bone-in chicken breasts (purchased on sale last week) instead of a whole chicken, adding zucchini because it's awesome, and not bothering to measure out the spices.  I also meant to cook the chicken during the day in the slow cooker, but slept in (again) and forgot.  The reason for the slow cooking was not only to have that step completed when I got home, but also to make some chicken broth to cook the rice in.  To that end, I will be poaching the chicken in water with a little wine, spices, and some celery, and then adding some chicken oxo to the leftover liquid.  Photos to come.

The Plan 
Saturday - Halloween Par-tay.  Probably fast food.

Sunday - Dijon Crusted Rib Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Vegetables.
I acquired a Rib Roast for half price last week, and then serendipitously found a fancy-sounding recipe for it in a home decor magazine. It will likely take forever and be mediocre, but I know I'll have fun trying it out.

Monday - Tacos! 
(Note to self, taco seasoning...)

Tuesday - Sweet & Sour Chicken Meatballs with Rice and Zucchini. 
I have wanted to try this recipe for a while, it looks like the best use of the last of the ground chicken I have in the freezer.  I have already done chickenburgers and the now-infamous, ever unpleasant chickenburger helper.

Wednesday - Honey Butter Pork Chops with Baked Potatoes and Vegetables.  This is a Matt Favourite.

Thursday - Halibut with Cream Sauce, Wild Rice, and Vegetables. 
I have never made this recipe, but it is a "Put fish in foil, cover with stuff, and bake" sort of recipe.  It will be my weekly attempt at fish.  The added bonus is using the leftover sour cream from tacos, which often ends up going bad and being thrown out.

Friday - Pizza... the fattening, greasy delivered kind. 
The weekend will be busy (we are attending a wedding Saturday and my brother's birthday is Sunday) and I don't want to get home from work Monday to a pile of dishes I didn't have time to wash.  In addition, I love pizza.

Until I get off my butt and upload Dinner & Dollhouse pictures, or Monday (whichever comes first)
Emily

Breakfast for Dinner (and why I call it Not As Planned)

So here it is:  I forgot to buy taco seasoning.  It sounds like a minor thing, but it really is the difference between tacos and boring ol' meat in tortilla shells.  Thankfully, I had bacon and eggs on hand, and Matt's parents sent us home with a big bag of potatoes on the weekend, so last night we had scrambled eggs, bacon, and roasted potatoes for dinner.  (Note: I found the photo above on the interweb, it is not an actual photo of the meal that was served)  The bag of tortillas has not been opened and the beef is safely in the freezer, so I will be able to recycle that meal next week.  Tonight is Matt's night to cook, so he will be making the pike his Dad caught in the summer that has been sitting in our freezer.  I made lots of roasted potatoes, so the half that didn't get eaten last night will be re-baked for supper tonight. 

Roasted Potatoes 
4 Large potatoes, chopped into home-fry sized pieces
A glug of vegetable oil (enough to lightly coat the potatoes)
Paprika, Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder

This is not much of a recipe. Put the potatoes in a dish lined with parchment, throw some oil on those potatoes, season them to taste, and bake for 45 minutes, giving the pan a good shake about half way through. These are never the same any time I make them, because I always wing the spices depending on what they are going to be served with.  Sometimes I use oregano, basil, rosemary, and/or celery salt.  Every so often I throw in some white wine vinegar and finely chopped onion & red pepper.  In any case, the chopped up potatoes + oil + seasonings + bake ~45 minutes formula usually results in deliciousness.

Until Friday,

Emily

Slow Cooker Turkey: an Experimental Dinner.

As I speak, there is a 1kg turkey breast at home turning into supper.  (Mmmmm.  Turkey.)  Usually when I do a crock pot meal, I prepare everything and put it in the crock the night before so that in the morning I just put the crock in the pot (?) or whatever, turn it on and go.  Unfortunately, last night I got home late and this morning I slept in, so I had to put everything together before work this morning and there was no time for recipes.  I had a pretty good idea of what to do since I did a quick search for a slow cooker turkey breast recipe when I was putting together my meal plan.  I think this was the recipe I looked at.  There's really not much to it:

Ingredients:

• 1 (6 pound) bone-in turkey breast
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix

Method:

Rinse the turkey breast and pat dry. Cut off any excess skin, but leave the skin covering the breast. Rub onion soup mix all over outside of the turkey and under the skin. Place in a slow cooker. Cover, and cook on High for 1 hour, then set to Low, and cook for 7 hours.

In the past, I've made pot roast in the crockpot, and love that the potatoes and maybe a vegetable cook right along with the meat, and make a delicious gravy.  I hope to replicate that awesomeness.

What I used:

• 1 onion, chopped (really roughly)
  
• About a half pound (220g) baby carrots
• 3 ribs of rinsed and chopped celery (even rougher)
  
• A bag of presidents choice new potatoes, the kind they say you don't have to wash.  That's a lie, by the way.
• A package of dried onion soup mix
  
• A turkey breast weighing appx. 1kg, just over 2lbs (by the way, 24 hrs apparently is not long enough to defrost 1kg of turkey breast in the fridge)
  

What I did:
Threw all the veg & potatoes in the crock pot, placed turkey breast on top.  Realized that crockpot was ever so slightly too small.  Removed turkey breast and 1/2 veg and potatoes, put turkey breast back in, dumped onion soup mix over top, and wedged remaining half of veg back in as best I could.  Turned that sucker on (7hrs high due to the frozen-ness) and went to finish getting ready for work.


Btw:  I am well aware that putting frozen meat in the crockpot is a bad, bad thing.  Rest assured that I will be checking the temperature to make sure it is safe to eat.


So yeah.  Experimental dinner.  Expect result & pictures of that later tonight.  Also expect pictures of the lasagna, which I thought was good, and Matt thought needed more meat.  Go figure.


Edit: 
Photo!  Late, but here.

They turkey and potatoes came out well.  I also picked out the carrots from the crock pot:  they looked terrible, but tasted delicious.  I served frozen peas as well.  All and all, I'd call it success!

Until tonight,
Emily

The Plan - Oct. 26 to Oct 30

So here's the deal: This weekend is hectic. I know we wont have time to make anything worth planning tomorrow, and I think we'll be visiting family on Sunday. Thankfully, we should have loads of leftover lasagna to tide us over. Plus, we usually make bacon and eggs at least once on the weekend. Mmmmm.... bacon.....

Monday - Slow Cooker Turkey Breast + Vegetables + Potatoes.
This will be easy to throw together and provide lots of leftover turkey for lunch sandwiches. Yum.

Tuesday - Tacos
I cooked extra beef & pork when I was making lasagna, it's sitting in the freezer. All I will have to do is heat it with some taco seasoning, add lettuce and cheese (also leftover from Friday's dinner) and we're rolling.

Wednesday - Matt doesn't know it yet, but he's making supper. He said he wanted to cook the last of the pike in the freezer. Wednesday's his day!

Thursday - Grilled Cheese & Soup
Something simple and easy so I can do some prep for Friday, and have time to relax. Plus, if Matt has to work late Wednesday, we can have grilled cheese Wednesday and pike Thursday.

Friday - Hunter Style Chicken + Rice
Dinner and Dollhouse! Recipe to come.

So there it is... my first publicly posted weekly meal plan. Updates Monday on how it is working out...

Until Monday,
Emily

Bloggy Goodness

Introduction
Since I follow so many blogs, I thought maybe I should try starting one of my own. A real one: not one of those "this is what I did today down to what I ate for dinner" sort of affairs.
Just kidding, it totally is that kind of blog. The idea of wandering around the grocery store with no solid plan as to what I will be eating for the next week terrifies me, so every Thursday or Friday I decide on the next week of meals and derive a shopping list from it. That is what I have decided to blog: my weekly meal plans. I will also be throwing in some recipes and other good stuff. I'm hoping that doing this will help keep me accountable and give some incentive to remember things like the dinner plans I forgot about when planning for this past week. This week was pretty much a wash. But hey, it's water on the bridge! And I made a pretty sweet lasagna... at least, I assume it is pretty sweet. I haven't gotten to eat it yet.

The Lasagna
This Friday, like many Fridays, one of my boyfriend's* coworkers is coming over for dinner and to watch Dollhouse. I had decided to make Lasagna, because it is delicious. I made it a day ahead because I knew I had no chance of preparing a lasagna (~2hrs + dishes) and having the apartment ready for a dinner guest in the two hours I had between getting home from work and our guest's arrival. I prepared the lasagna last night and it is now sitting merrily in the refrigerator. When I get home, I will pop the lasagna in the oven, tidy up, and toss some croutons and grated parmesan over bagged salad. Voila.
The recipe I use is a bastardized version of Linda's Lasagna from AllRecipes.com. As I recall, I chose that recipe because it was rated second to and had far less ingredients than "World's Best Lasagna", and also because I like alliteration. The changes I made are pretty minor, for example: I substituted minced garlic for powdered and vodka for water, and changed the method to use only one pot. Sounds good to me.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound groud pork or sausage meat
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 (~175 ml) cans tomato paste
• 1 (~500 ml) can tomato sauce
• 2 roma tomatoes (chopped)
  
• 1 cup vodka
  
• Several cloves of garlic
• 1 pkg chopped, frozen spinach (thawed)
  
• 454 grams ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 9 lasagna noodles (I use 6 regular 3 spinach for kicks)
  
• 1 pound shredded cheese (or more if you really like cheese)
  

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Pull the pasta out of the pot and set aside for later.
2. In that pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown. Drain. Throw in some onion and cook until onion is translucent. Then add tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, vodka, garlic, and whatever other spices suit your fancy. I like basil.
   
3. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Let simmer up to an hour, but really, losing 20 minutes simmer time wont matter all that much.
   
4. While sauce is simmering, blend ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and egg until smooth. Set aside.
5. Now might also be a good time to grate all that freaking cheese.
   
6. Spread 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish and cover with 3 noodles.
7. Cover noodles with one-third of remaining sauce. Add half of ricotta mixture on top, then half the mozzarella.
   
8. Place another layer of noodles and one of sauce over the mozzarella; top that with the the other half of the ricotta. I use the spinach noodles in the middle.
   
9. Top with remaining 3 noodles and remaining sauce.
   

If you're preparing ahead, at this point you will throw a lid or some saran wrap over your dish and put it in the fridge for another day.

To Serve: Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake 15 minutes more, until golden and bubbly.

Huzzah! Delicious, delicious lasagna. It makes badass leftovers, too.

Edit: 
Badass Leftovers!!

Until 10 minutes from now,
Emily



*More on that later!