weekly meals: Jan 19-25

Sunday
Pesto Bacon Quiche (from The 2 Seasons)

I forgot to take a picture of this, which is just as well, because I burned it, which made it very not pretty. Fortunately, it didn’t taste burnt. However, it was not as good as I’d hoped it would be. The pesto was over-powering, and the bacon got a bit lost in the filling. It was decent, but I think with a few tweaks, it could be better.

 

Monday
Brown Sugar & Balsamic Pork Loin (from Let’s Dish Recipes), Potato Cakes, and Roasted Carrots

Tasty. I’m trying to do at least one crockpot recipe a week to cut back on my workload in the kitchen, and also because they usually turn out pretty nice. We enjoyed this, and not just because pork tenderloin is almost always a pleasure to have. Brown sugar and balsamic are a great combination, and though there was a lot of sauce, it didn’t overpower the meat. The potato cakes (made by Geordie) and the carrots also went nicely with the sauce, making it quite the pleasant meal.

 

Thursday
Chicken Parisienne (from Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer)

I may or may not have taken a picture of this, but it doesn’t matter, because it was not overly attractive. This is one of the prepped meals I used to stock the freezer back in November. It’s chicken breasts in a creamy mushroom sauce (the base of which is cream of mushroom soup, naturally). It was another crockpot recipe, and all I had to do to complete the meal was boil up some egg noodles to go with the main dish. I also added in more mushrooms to the sauce in the last hour of cooking, because more mushrooms is always a good thing. This was just okay. The sauce broke a bit and wasn’t as smooth as I would like. The chicken was a little dry. It was a little on the boring side. Handy to have in the freezer, but probably something I would eat only as a last resort. Not sure if I’ll be prepping it again.

 

Friday
Chorizo & Eggs with Tomatoes and Corn

No picture of this either because, frankly, I forgot. I haven’t been very on-the-ball with pictures that don’t involve the baby. I need to get back in the habit. Anyway, this is what I make when I have no other plans or don’t want to make what I did have planned. Fresh chorizo has become a staple in our fridge, and usually it ends up cooked this way. This is fast, easy, and requires little thought, which is why it makes for such a good last-minute dinner. I’d never had chorizo before moving to Texas, and now it’s easily my favorite type of sausage. So, no matter how many times we cook this, I still enjoy it. It’s a simple method: cook up the chorizo in a pan and then set aside to drain, scramble up the eggs, add the chorizo back to the pan, add the tomatoes to heat them a bit, and serve. This time, we added some corn, which gave it a nice sweetness. I also throw in a little cream cheese, just to make it a bit creamier. With a little hot sauce, it makes for a very nice meal. It’s also pretty good with avocado!

 

Saturday
Roasted Cauliflower & Cheddar Soup (from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)

Oh, man. I do believe this was my favorite dinner of the week. I’ve done a cauliflower soup before, and it was nowhere as good as this one. The cheese really makes a difference here, as did the roasting of the cauliflower, which brought in a nice depth of flavor. The soup was creamy without being overly fattening or rich, and it had just enough of a cauliflower flavor without being overly vegetabley. The original recipe has you blending half of the soup, but I used my immersion blender and pureed almost all of the cauliflower. Next time, I’d do a little bit less and leave more cauliflower bits for texture. Even so, this was terrific, and very welcome on a chilly winter evening! I’m holding on to this as a go-to soup recipe and will definitely be visiting it again. It also makes for a great leftover lunch!