Michelle's Weekly Menu - February 14, 2016

Hello! Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend. Will planned out a really great weekend - probably to make up for the fact that we couldn't go out to dinner with friends on Friday because he and the girls were sick. I came back from Seattle, Will was sick, the girls were sick, and dinner was already canceled. Sad. But thankfully, everyone is on the mend.

Saturday, we went to the art museum and made about 23 Valentine's day cards at the kid's center. Briefly saw the Van Gogh exhibit and then hauled it to Chinatown for dim sum because we were hangry by that point. The girls loved dim sum, were mildly impressed by the Van Gogh exhibit, but the Valentine's day cards were a huge hit.

Sunday after mass Will treated all of us to get our nails done (he got a pedicure and complained afterwards that they stole his calluses). Then we went to Trencherman for a really delicious Vday lunch (Lou remember that place??).

Today, we left the girls with the nanny, Will and I went to breakfast at a diner nearby, went to look at tile for the basement (house construction is still chugging along) and ran a few more errands before lunch at Eataly and then THE FORCE AWAKENS! It was so good. The girls have been watching Star Wars Episode III all weekend. I love it.

This week we have the below lined up! BTW - I like putting my name in the title like Beth did last week. If I'm looking for a recipe, I generally know who posted it, so that's a good way to search.

Monday: On Lou's recommendation, Acini di Pepe soup. Currently on the stove. Can't wait to try it!

Tuesday; Chicken and Mushrooms. Have made this a few times and it's really tasty and easy.

Wednesday: Slow Cooker pork shoulder so the team here as leftovers because....

Thursday-Friday: I'm traveling for work again. Upside is I get to spend the night with the Vanderkolks on Thursday night!!

Travel has really been kicking my butt lately, but only a few more trips left on the horizon. By the second week in March I'll be done for a while.

What do yall have planned for the week??

xo

Week 12 Menus - Still.Not.Spring.

Hi everyone! Hope yall had a good weekend. We woke up to snow here in Chiberia. It's been snowing since we woke up. Still snowing. Supposed to be 30* all week. Womp.

We had an uneventful weekend. So uneventful that I didn't even cook dinner Friday or Saturday night. We just had leftovers. How lame is that!? We had soccer, went for lunch at Lula Cafe in our new neighborhood, the tile store. Boring. The girls were hilarious. For some reason extra funny.

Here's our menu for this week! 

Sunday: Lentil Soup

Monday: Out - Father-in-law is in town.

Tuesday: Meatloaf (didn't do it a few weeks ago)

Wednesday: Pork Tenderloin

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Shrimp Scampi

What are you guys up to?? xo

Baby food and Blue Apron

Hi, hi, hi, hi.
I've missed ya'll, but love reading weekly meals. I've been doing a lot of cooking these days (more than ever), but it's mostly baby food since B is a monster baby and loves to eat everything I put in front of her. The doctor said that baby food isn't necessary and that I should just be pureeing up whatever we eat, but since you usually do delivery or frozen (TERRIBLE), I'm now more motivated than ever to get cooking. Can you imagine how much she'll love the shepherds pie?!?

I guess it hasn't all been delivery or frozen because I have been doing Blue Apron. Have ya'll heard of it? It's pretty fun and a great concept. They send you a box that has the ingredients for 3 different meals, usually chicken, fish, and pork or beef. This pork recipe is by far my favorite thing we've made. It would be perfect for a dinner party because it seems fancy with the rhubarb, but it's really easy and well balanced. Really crisp and delicious for summer! What I love most about the recipes is that you use ingredients you'd never otherwise choose! Who knew that Freekah was healthy and delicious?!?! If you guys want, I have 3 week free trials. You can try it out.

Also, I'm not afraid of the Pepsi. Putting it on the list.

Ingredients

• 6 Ounces Rhubarb

• 1 1-Inch Piece Ginger

• 1 Bunch Thyme

• 1 Lemon

• 1/2 Bunch Asparagus

• 1/4 Cup Whole Almonds

• 1/2 Cup Cracked Freekah

• 6 Pork Tenderloin Medallions

• 2 Tablespoons Honey

• 3 Tablespoons Currants

• About 585 Calories Per Serving

• Makes 2 Servings

Cook the freekah:

Heat a medium pot of salted water to boiling on high. Add the cracked freekah and cook 22 to 25 minutes, or until tender and cooked through. Drain thoroughly and set aside as you continue cooking.

2

Prepare the ingredients:

While the freekah cooks, wash and dry the fresh produce. Cut the rhubarb into ¾-inch pieces . Peel and mince the ginger. Pick the thyme leaves off the stems; discard the stems. Using a peeler, remove the rind of the lemon, avoiding the white pith; mince the rind to get 2 teaspoons of zest. Quarter the lemon and remove the seeds. Trim off and discard the woody ends of the asparagus; cut the asparagus into 2-inch pieces. Roughly chop the almonds.

3

Make the rhubarb chutney:

While the freekah continues to cook, in a small pot, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil on medium-high until hot. Add the ginger and cook, stirring frequently, 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until softened. Add therhubarb, honey, lemon zest and the juice of 2 lemon wedges. Bring the mixture to a simmer then reduce the heat to medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 12 to 15 minutes, or until saucy and thickened. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of olive oil; season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

4

Cook the pork:

While the chutney simmers, pat the pork medallions dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large pan, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil on medium until hot. Add theseasoned pork medallions and cook, loosely covering the pan with aluminum foil, 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until browned and the juice runs clear. Transfer the cooked pork to a plate, leaving any drippings in the pan. Set the pork aside to rest as you continue cooking.

5

Toast the almonds:

While the pork rests, heat the reserved pork drippings on medium until hot. Add the almondsand toast, stirring frequently, 1 to 2 minutes, or until browned and fragrant.

6

Finish & plate your dish:

To the pan of almonds, add the asparagus and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until softened and bright green. Add the currants,cooked freekah and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until well combined; season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. To plate your dish, add any juices from the cooked pork to the freekah, then divide the pork medallions andfreekah between 2 plates. Top with the rhubarb chutney and garnish with the remaining lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Chancho en Pepsicola Recipe

Chancho en Pepsicola

*******************

1/2 sick of butter
1/2 tbsp of sugar
pork tenderloin, cubed
2 liters of pepsi
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, sliced
3 pieces of garlic
1 tomato, chopped
Worcestershire sauce
mustard

Melt butter in a skillet. Add 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and brown the pork.

In a separate pot, add 1 liter of pepsi. Once warm and the pork is browned, add the pork to the pepsi pot.

In a blender, liquefy the second liter of pepsi, onion, green bell pepper, tomato and garlic. Add to the pork and season with Worcestershire sauce and a bit of mustard. Cook until pork is super tender and the liquid is reduced (you're going for a little syrupy).

Forget about the fact that you just cooked with 2 liters of pepsi, and enjoy with mashed potatoes!

Week 10 2014

I didn't post last week because I really wasn't feeling it. I cooked only a little bit, and we definitely took a hit because of it. I didn't bring my lunch in, the girls had breakfast for dinner twice, and I had a PB&J for dinner one night.

Will was in New Orleans, so the girls and I had a lot of quality time together. We had a sleepover at my uncle's house on Saturday night. Complete with a spa event where the girls got mani/pedis. Sunday we went to a birthday party for Amelia's park friend. They had a little petting zoo come in and it was AMAZING. Chinchillas, chicks, turtles, an anteater, an owl, a pig... oh and a chihuahua (randomly). The below shot is just before Amelia casually brushed the poor chinchilla off her head. He landed on his feet. He was fine. Amelia said she didn't like it scratching her head. Annelise hated all the animals- she was playing with the windows most of the time. I got them together for the turtle, but they hated it. You can see Amelia moved her legs way off to the side so as not to touch him.

Amelia and Chinchilla

With a really old turtle. The girls did not like him.

I'm still not totally up for cooking, but at least I have a plan! Here is what we have going on:

Sunday: Cauliflower Turkey and White Bean Chili. This was a spontaneous recipe. I was making cauliflower soup while cooking the ground turkey for the chili, and I said 'What the heck' and dumped the cauliflower soup in the chili pot instead of using chicken broth for the chili. It came out really well and different. 

Monday: Coconut Chicken Curry

Tuesday: Out for a coworker's goodbye dinner. Leftovers for the rest.

Wednesday: Zuppa Toscana

Thursday: Irish Beef Stew 

Friday: Leftovers or out. Nano's older kids might be staying with us over the weekend, so what to stay flexible.

Saturday: Pollo en salsa blanca. Really easy chicken in white sauce that dad used to make for us at the restaurants when we were little. Have we posted the recipe here before?

Sunday: Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Pork tenderloin

What do yall have going on??

xo

Week 8 2014 Menu

Helloooooooooo!

Sorry this is a day late. I'm moving at snails pace this week. Both girls are now sick. Last night, Annelise refused to sleep anywhere that wasn't touching me. At one point, I was sprawled on the bed, reaching down into the travel crib with my hand on her butt. As soon as I removed my hand, she screamed. I had her sleeping on my chest, and tried to roll her off me, onto the bed, in between me and Will, and she screamed. Finally, I took her downstairs and was resolved to let her cry, but she fell asleep right away! Then, two hours later, Amelia came busting into the room and climbed into bed, but it took her over an hour to fall asleep. It was a squeeze play and Will and I lost.

Last week's Chicken Marbella was AMAZING really recommend it!! Thanks Lou for sharing!

As far as meals go, this week is relatively easy.

Monday: White Fish Special
Tuesday: Irish Beef Stew with mashed potatoes and broccoli
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Pineapple Pork Shoulder (I'll put up the recipe later!)
Friday: Will and I have a black tie event that a friend invited us to. Should be fun to dress up!!
Saturday: Roasted Chicken. Amelia was invited to a sleepover at my uncle's house. She's pretty excited, although she thinks she's moving there, and excited about it. So I'm disturbed she thinks she's leaving for forever.

What are yall up to?? Miss you all so much! xo

Week 4 2014 Menus

Hi! I have zero energy. Probably because I drank more than 3 cocktails on Saturday night and I'm still hungover. Man it hurts to get old. Here is this week's menu. Total coincidence that everything is roasted... or not because that's the easiest way to cook anything.

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken - This is the most Walmart recipe I've ever made. It was delicious, but I don't think I'd make it again. Chicken, Italian dressing mix, cream cheese, 2 cans of condensed soup, and a slow cooker.

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Wednesday: Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Thursday: Roasted chicken legs with green beans

Friday-Sunday: IN NEW YORK TO SEE BABY BLAKE AND WHIT'S BABY SHOWER!!

What are yall up to this week? 

xo

Weekly Menus - July 9, 2012

Hey hey hey! And we're back! There's been a lot of travel, a lot of ordering in, and a lot of not going to the gym. That changes now! I'm doing the goals again, and the weeks are Monday-Sunday. So this week the goals are:

Gym: 4 times
Cooking: EVERY NIGHT! (fingers crossed I don't resort to PB&J one night but even that counts!)

Here's the ambitious menu for the week! I've allotted for two leftover days.

Monday: Spring Salad (apple, goat cheese, chicken, cranberry walnut vinaigrette) and Cauliflower soup
Tuesday: White Fish Special with Rice
Wednesday: Coconut basil chicken curry with Rice
Thursday: Shepherd's Pie
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Sweet and Fiery Pork Tenderloin
Sunday: Leftovers; Black Bean Soup; quesadillas

I also started a new system. With a composition notebook, I'll be writing down my grocery list on the left and my weekly menu on the right. That way as I'm planning my menu, I'll make sure I have everything and throughout the week, I can jot down what we need or what I'm inspired to cook for next week. We'll see how that goes.

What are yall up to?

Weekly Menu - Week of 4/2

I am going in the complete opposite direction as Beth apparently. I haven't gone grocery shopping this week for dinners. Trying to use up what we have before the big birthday weekend!

My goals from last week, which were the same, rendered the same results 5/6 for eating-in, 3/4 for exercise. I'll get there soon! Just have to push myself a liiiiiitle harder.

Below is what I have going on- totally uninspiring.

Monday - Porterhouse steak with sage-butter mashed sweet potatoes (pic at left!) Dad sent us some crazy waygu steaks a while ago. Finally made this one and it was beyond words good. Of course I spend 15 minutes fanning the smoke alarm because it was going berserk over the smokiness. 
Tuesday - Leftovers (had Chinese food Sunday - love that tradition)
Wednesday - Honey Hoisin Chicken wings (didn't make this last week)
Thursday - Carne molida (just ground turkey with some veggies) with rice
Friday - Amelia's birthday and Louise in town!!! We'll have to do a birthday dinner and sake bombs as is the tradition.
Saturday - Pork shoulder with tortillas + fixings and hamburger buns with bbq sauce. and lots of cake. Dinner at The Bristol with the birthday girl and the Hannas!
Sunday - Easter Sunday! Brunch at the Rhineharts. Probably order in dinner since we'll be recovering from a party weekend.

I'll see if I can convince the mister to do a veggie only week ... or I just won't tell him we're doing it. mwahaha.

Life.is.good. A pork shoulder recipe

So much to celebrate! Beth is engaged (yay!) Louise is back from Africa (yay!) Elisa is back from Aruba tonight (yay!) and the cat is out of the bag on a surprise with Cristina so I don't have to pretend to be good at secrets anymore (yay!). All the stars seem to have aligned with my loved ones and that makes me happy.

In not-so-yay! news, we put an offer on a house and should hear back any second on whether it's ours to keep or just another heartbreak. I have a feeling that they'll pass, but we're hoping for a miracle.

On to the recipe, which was indescribably good. There are no words. There is only a picture of a hunk of meat.



Pork shoulder was on sale the other day at Peapod. I didn't have any plans to use it, so I threw it in the freezer and forgot about it for a while. When I decided to cook it, it took about two full days to thaw. That's a lot of meat so it just needed some time. I popped it in around noon on Sunday, and let it cook all day until dinner time. Definitely a good recipe for lazy weekends when you're not planning on going out or if you're working from home during the week. Below is the loose recipe I followed. I'm sure a pepsi can or two thrown in would be amazing too. I'll try that next time.

* Pork shoulder
* Minced garlic
* Olive oil
* 1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
* 3 lemons' juices

- Preheat oven to 450*
- In a bowl or a jar, mixed together garlic, olive oil, and peppers (I was at the end of my minced garlic jar, so I used the remaining garlic and it's juices and threw the other ingredients into the jar, shook it up, and voila!)
- In a dutch oven, place the pork shoulder, fat side up
- Pour the marinade over the pork. Get all up in its bidness. Don't be shy. Really rub it in.
- Squeeze the lemon juice over the pork.
- Pop the pork in the oven, sans lid, and let it cook on high heat for 20 minutes.
- Drop the temp to 250*, put the lid on the dutch oven, and let it fly. I cooked it for about 5.5 hours and it was perfect. No peeking.

We shredded it up and ate tacos - corn tortillas, greek yogurt, pickled onions (recipe to follow). I can see this going in many different directions though. Put some bbq sauce on it and make pulled pork sandwiches. It made a crazy amount of pork, so either call your friends or be prepared for leftovers. Beth, stock up on eggs.

Menu for week of 6/6

Can't believe it's already June!! This year has flown by and I have a feeling the second half will go even faster- so many weddings and travels and celebrations. I love it. Below is a list of meals I plan on making. But since I leave for Cristina's graduation on Thursday (whoop!), I don't know what I'll get to:

Basil Chicken Coconut Curry
 * In this recipe, the herbs/spice list is intimidating. But what she's doing is concocting her own curry powder so swap that in for the super long list in her ingredient list.

Honey Hoisin Pork Tenderloin
 * Made this a few times and it's been a big hit! Serve with rice.

What have yall got going on this week?