Dinner Last Week #7

Hey friends, what's new?

I feel like I'm starting to fall back into a normal routine after all of our moving and life events over the last year, but I still haven't managed to find my blogging groove.  If there could only be 1 more day in every week....free day that is.  Anyway, I know every woman/mom on the planet probably suffers from this as well, so cheers ladies!

MONDAY - Grilled Steak and Joy The Bakers Pistachio Crusted Asparagus with Feta

This was actually supposed to be Sunday's dinner but someone rolled in super late (you know who you are)....so we ate it on Monday instead.  No photo of the steaks but I got them at the Sunday Farmer's Market from Lucky Dog Ranch; they were delicious as all of their products are.  I had prepped the asparagus on Sunday (ground pistachios and vinaigrette), so we were ready to roll with that.  You can find Joy's recipe here.  This was a nice twist on our typical grilled asparagus and would do well as a dinner party or fancy brunch side.

TUESDAY - Ravioli with Homemade Steak and Asparagus Marinara aka Monday's leftovers made into pasta

Source

So, I used Trader Joe's Porcini Mushroom and Truffle Triangoli, cooked as directed on the package.  In a skillet I sauteed about 4 cloves of minced garlic and 1/4 cup of olive oil, then added 1 can of tomato sauce.  I turned up the heat to med-high and stirred until the oil and tomato sauce started to come together. While that was happening I chopped up our leftover asparagus and steak, then dumped it into the sauce mixture (including all of the vinaigrette and pistachio mixture in the container). Once everything was warm, I added the cooked trangoli and served with shredded Parmesan.  This was actually way better than we were expecting and made a nice use of our leftovers.






WEDNESDAY - Seriously, I can't even remember

And that's no joke.  So instead I want to tell you about this:

Shutterbean's Quinioa & Tabouleh Salad

You can find this recipe here.  This is a really delicious and hearty salad, plus its vegan, if you dig that.  I first made it on a weeknight, if you do this I recommend at least cooking your quinoa beforehand. It takes a long time for that shindizzle to cool off, so it makes for quicker prep to do it the day before.  Tracy uses pomegranate molasses in her recipe, which I couldn't find....even at Whole Foods (where did you get that stuff Tracy??).  Instead I used regular molasses and about 1/2 teaspoon of grape jelly to sweeten it up.  This salad was so good we made it again for our family at Easter.
P.S.  Please ignore the two large pieces of bread.  The end.





THURSDAY - Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

Yep, Taco Thursday strikes again at our house, although these days we're eating them as chicken burritos. Recipe can be found here.

FRIDAY - A bowl of cereal

Does it seem fancier when I italicize it?  We had a great catered lunch at work from Mama Kim's and nobody else was hungry either, so cereal it was.

That's that.  What have you been eating lately?

TCW

Ladies Brunch

This last weekend the hubs was gone so I had some of my girls over for brunch.
Why don't we do this more often girls?  It was fun and great to catch up!
The girls asked if I would be blogging brunch.....I didn't take photos of my own, but I thought I'd share our brunch menu anyway.

Brunch was scheduled at 10:30 and my first question was is that too early for soup?
Nobody said no, so I made Shutterbean's Carrot Coconut Soup.

Via

In the first two lines of her post Tracy (Shutterbean) says, "I made this soup twice in one week. That’s how good it is".  She is SO right.  This is my third time making this recipe in about a month or so.  The Sambal Olek is SPICY.  On attempt 2 of making the soup I added a tad less than a tablespoon.  This time, I was heavy handed (oops) and the soup was really spicy.  I added an extra can of coconut milk to take it down a notch and that worked great.  (I should note that I doubled the recipe, so I used 3 cans of coconut milk instead of two).  I made the soup the night before the brunch and it held up perfectly and re-heated well.

I also made a green salad.  I don't know what my deal is honestly.  I make salad ALL the time and its always different and good, if I don't say so myself.  It is the #1 thing people ask me to bring to parties, you make good salad, they say (thanks people!).  After all that I don't have a single green salad recipe on my own blog.  So, here is how my salad went (you pick the measurements for how big you want your salad to be):

Green leaf lettuce, washed & torn
Swiss Chard, washed and torn
Celery, sliced
Orange Bell Pepper, chopped
Avocado, chopped
Craisins
Golden Raisins
Sliced Almonds
Sunflower Seeds

I made this Champagne Vinaigrette and used my Trader Joe's Orange Muscat vinegar.

Via

Last but not least, I made Gluten Free Cranberry Corn Muffins.  I used this cornbread muffin recipe and made the following changes:

Replace 1 cup all purpose flour with 1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.
Use 2/3 cup of sugar (instead of 1/3).
Add 1 cup of fresh cranberries.
Cook as directed.

All in all this was a tasty lunch.  The sweet cornbread muffins with tart cranberry was a nice compliment to the creamy, spicy soup.  The salad made a good side for all the other good stuff we ate.  Most importantly, it was a fun day with the ladies.  Thanks ladies!

♥TCW

Summer Bucket List 2012

I ♥ Joy the Baker.

And I ♥ Tracy from Shutterbean.

Even though they have no idea who I am.

In the blog world I think it's OK for me to proclaim my ♥ for other bloggers.

Right?

OK.

So, in the spirit of Joy the Baker & Tracy from Shutterbean, I'm doing a summer bucket list too!

Mostly because anyone who can rekindle fond memories of Sunflowers Perfume and make me sad that I never got to go to summer camp in a span of five minutes is worth doing a bucket list for.  

Plus, it's fun.

Here goes....

Updates to follow.

Happy Summer Bucket List-ing!