Menu Monday #8 (On a Tuesday. Again. Maybe it needs a new name.)

This week I am experimenting with a new-to-me tool: a pressure cooker.  Years ago, a friend's then-husband used to make curry in a pressure cooker.  It was always amazing.  But the thought of using a pressure cooker was a bit scary.  Weren't those the kitchen tools that could explode and cause massive damage?  Didn't they make weird noises??  Do I really want to risk it?!?

Image from Amazon.com of a Presto 8-qt. pressure cooker

The questions roaming around in my mind were in conflict with the part of me that said "But I read that it only takes a few minutes for dinner to cook with a pressure cooker.  Maybe I should look into that..."

When I saw The Easy Pressure Cooker Cookbook at Costco last week, I knew I had to get it.  This was confirmed by a little old lady who walked up to me and started telling me how much she loved her pressure cooker.  I then opened the book and saw the page for Chicken Tikka Masala.  In under 10 minutes.  No. Way. I was sold!

Some things I discovered: the recipes in the book need the addition of a bit of salt.  It also takes a while for the pressure cooker to reach full pressure (which is when you start timing), so the times aren't entirely accurate -- but it's still much faster than regular cooking.  And there's no need to watch a pot or worry about burning!

This week, it's all about trying more pressure cooker recipes.  I want to have a fast way to make a ton of freezer meals for my sister.  She's due in May (although the baby might arrive early, like baby #2 did) and I'm planning on visiting her in CA in April so that we can stock her freezer and do any other necessary prep.  A pressure cooker could be just the thing we need!

Menu 3/11-3/17

• Sunday -- Fish tacos
• Monday -- Vietnamese chicken and sweet potato curry in the pressure cooker (I'll have to post this recipe later, since it was a blend of two cookbooks)
• Tuesday -- Curried lentils in the pressure cooker and a salad
• Wednesday -- New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice in the pressure cooker
• Thursday -- Vegetarian chili in the pressure cooker
• Friday -- tomato soup & grilled cheese
• Saturday -- beer & pretzels (We're meeting Tin Man at a local German restaurant because he really wants German beer! -- One day he'll realize our microbrews are actually better.)

My pressure cooker cookbook also has several recipes for rice pudding.  To me -- and my sister -- there are few things in life better than rice pudding.  In fact, it's quite possible that no dessert on earth tops it.  Needless to say, I will be trying these recipes.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Menu Monday #7 (on a Tuesday)

Thanks again to Pinterest -- or maybe just the fact that I got a bit more sleep this weekend -- this week I rediscovered my inspiration for meal planning.

February 12-18, 2012

• Sunday -- Creole split pea soup. We modified this by making it vegetarian, adding more spice, and cooking it in the crock pot all day.
• Monday -- Black bean chili in the crockpot
• Tuesday -- Spicy coconut spinach and chickpeas over wild rice.
• Wednesday -- Black bean bake -- modified a bit,vegetarian, and using some leftover chili from Monday.
• Thursday -- Vegan "beef" stew -- made with fresh baby bellas instead of dried mushrooms.
• Friday -- BLTs and fries
• Saturday -- Easy fish tacos with spicy avocado mayo (this is a fast and easy favorite meal in this house!)

Honey has to teach a workshop all day Friday and Saturday, so meals will be yummy but simple -- a reward for a hard day's work.

Menu Monday #6

Confession: Trying to come up with a varied, tasty, healthy menu every week is hard!  Thankfully I now have Pinterest to inspire me, otherwise I'd be stuck!

Menu, February 5-11

• Sunday -- vegetarian white bean chili, World's Best Honey Cornbread (it really is the best -- I've also made a gluten-free version using black bean flour and it was just as good, which is incredible for GF), and salad.
• Monday -- "Viet subs" -- bahn mi sandwiches. We make our own version, but you can see a recipe for this type of thing here. I'm normally not a big sandwich fan, but I could eat this every day. It's that good!
• Tuesday -- Cajun shrimp, rice pasta, baby bok choy
• Wednesday -- Freezer soup
• Thursday -- Black bean sliders and stir-fried veggies. We had the sliders this past week and they were really good! This is definitely a winner.
• Friday -- fish tacos
• Saturday -- homemade pizza and salad

Menu Monday #5

Here we are at the start of another week...and that means another week's worth of recipes!  I originally planned the menu for this week last week (I tend to do two weeks at a time), but by the time today rolled around I decided that I didn't really feel in the mood for most of what I planned.  Back to the drawing board!  I think I have a better plan...and maybe I'll move my original ideas for this week to next.

January 29-February 4

• Sunday -- Vegetarian Korma and Spinach Sabzi (I hope to create a blog post later this week about these recipes).
• Monday -- Garlicky shrimp scampi
• Tuesday -- BBQ portobello sliders (this looks delicious and I can hardly wait to try it!)
• Wednesday -- Cheesy vegetable chowder
• Thursday -- leftovers (Honey will be in another state on business for the day, and I do have such a hard time cooking for just myself!)
• Friday -- Carne adovada in the crock pot! At least I have an idea...I have no idea if it will work.
• Saturday -- Vegetarian posole and leftovers

Menu Monday #4

This is a rough day for me (I'll explain in another post), so I'll keep this Menu Monday short and to the point.

This week's menu is partially filled with freezer food meals -- leftovers from previous meals frozen to make life easier. The problem was that we would rarely eat the frozen leftovers because I was always cooking something new!  We've decided to fix that issue by making sure at least one week out of each month we consume mostly leftovers. At least there's a wide variety sitting in our deep freeze!


Menu, January 22-28

• Sunday -- Mushroom stroganoff based on this recipe at Williams-Sonoma. I cut back on the butter, added 4oz of cream cheese, and used nonfat yogurt instead of sour cream.  It was a hit! This with a big salad sure hit the spot.
• Monday -- Crock pot beef stroganoff based on this recipe. Normally I wouldn't have the same meal two nights in a row, but the wine I used on Sunday I assumed I could drink with dinner (the recipe only called for a cup). Wrong! It tasted like mushrooms and was a bit sharp -- the perfect flavor for stroganoff but horrible to drink. What to do so the bottle doesn't go to waste? More stroganoff! After all, we can freeze whatever we don't eat, right?
• Tuesday -- freezer meal
• Wednesday -- freezer meal
• Thursday -- Chicken and green chile empanadas
• Friday -- freezer meal or leftovers from Thursday
• Saturday -- steak & fries

We normally don't eat much meat, poultry, or seafood.  With beef, in fact, we'd maybe eat it once a month. Maybe. This month I decided to look for a local farmer to see how much it would cost to buy direct, buy local, buy grass-fed beef -- so much healthier for us and the economy!  Well, imagine my excitement when I discovered a farm in Corvallis, Oregon, that is currently offering 25% off a 25lb box of beef.  Perfect!  We don't need much.  I wondered how much it would cost, total, since the cost varies based on cut of meat.  I spoke with Amanda, a woman who works there, who was so happy to help a former vegetarian figure out what to purchase and how to use it.  We're getting a mix of brisket, roast, fajita meat, steaks, and stew meat -- 25lb for under $90! How awesome is that?!?  I drive down to Salem to meet the farmer and pick it up on Friday.

If you live in the Willamette Valley and are interested in buying meat directly from a farmer, check out Bald Hill Farm!

Menu Monday #3

I have to admit that I am loving Menu Mondays.  I get everything planned out ahead of time for a varied dinner menu and then all I have to do is look at the whiteboard on my fridge to figure out what I'm making?  Perfect!  We tend to make meals every evening anyway, but without some prior planning there have been nights where I just wanted something quick, like BLTs or gardenburgers, which of course need fries, which means...not the healthiest meal.  Planning meals ahead of time has helped me overcome some of that dilemma.

I usually have two weeks planned at once with a general idea of what to do for the rest of the month. (This has also helped with my Pinterest obsession -- now I'm actually using all the yummy-looking recipes that I pin!)  But what do we do with leftovers?  Generally I make something on Sunday or Monday evening that Honey and I can then eat for lunches the rest of the week.  Any other leftovers go in the freezer.  Now in the past the freezer has accumulated food and never again does it see the light of day.  Not anymore!  Once a month will be freezer-eating week, where we'll defrost the meals from the past.  I like this plan!


Menu Monday, January 15-21
Sunday -- Hearty lentils, aka "Vegetarian Sloppy Joes" (The recipe was good, but I added some spices and the lentils took seven hours to cook instead of five. Also, I have no idea what "real" Sloppy Joes taste like, so I can't compare this to the real thing, but it was good with a salad as a dinner option.)
Monday -- Creamy crock pot tomato basil soup and a salad
Tuesday -- Curried chickpea (garbanzo bean) and quinoa tacos (This recipe is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I'm not a huge fan of vegan anything, but I've tried two recipes from this woman and both turned out surprisingly well, so I'm looking forward to trying another.)
Wednesday -- I'm still debating which recipe to use, since I have three that vary slightly, but I know the meal will be Thai curry coconut soup. It will not, however, contain chicken, because Honey and I prefer to eat meat/poultry only once or twice a week.
Thursday -- Baked chicken and roasted red pepper taquitos and a salad.
Friday -- Green garlic risotto and broiled lemon-garlic shrimp (I love shrimp but I've only cooked it once or twice, so this will be a fairly new experience for me. Friday evenings tend to be our nights to indulge a bit and I'm really looking forward to trying both of these recipes!)
Saturday -- leftovers

There are two other recipes that I planned for this week, both desserts, both vegan (or are if you have certifiably vegan ingredients, which I don't care about).  I know, I know, it sounds miserably unappetizing.  But there are a few vegans who actually enjoy food and I am counting on them to provide recipes that appeal to food lovers in general.

Guilt-free chocolate chip cookie dough -- I actually made this yesterday and it was amazing.  Seriously.  I nearly consumed the entire batch myself!  It's made with chickpeas, which sounds weird, but it was incredibly good.  I followed the recipe (used 1/3 c. brown sugar as the "sweetener") and used peanut butter, so it tasted a bit like chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough, which made it perfect for serving with bananas as a dessert.  YUM.

"Not Guilty" chocolate chip cookies -- This recipe is from the same blog as the amazing cookie dough, so I have high hopes.  I think I'll try this today!

Menu Monday #2

I must admit that last week I was skeptical when I posted a dinner menu for the week.  Plan all the dinners for a whole week?  Who does that?!  ("Plenty of people. They're a more organized than you." Thanks, Guilt Monster. You may leave now. I'm perfectly capable of guilting myself.)  The idea was challenging, at least for me.  I love to cook and feed my family and those around me -- good food shows love, right? -- but the thought of planning more than 24 hours in advance was not something I wanted to contemplate.  It brought to mind the women from my youth and the times we spent doing the once-a-month cooking for families of 10 or 11.  Let me tell you, when you're trying to cook and freeze enough food for a family that size and do it all at once, it takes at least two full days and a million little helper hands.  Not my fondest childhood memories.  I did not want to turn into that.  Moreover, Honey doesn't really like talking about food that far in advance, so it means if I want to plan meals I am on my own.  Could I be trusted to plan a week-long menu of food that was yummy, simple, and pleasing to all members of the family?  Last week was the first test and I believe it was successful!  The menu changed just slightly from what I posted last week, but that's to be expected.  Here's what we ate:

Sunday (1/01) -- Crock pot French onion soup + salad
Monday -- squash gratin + salad
Tuesday -- Baked potato soup (using previously cooked red potatoes & the leftover French onion soup) + salad
Wednesday -- Chicken burgers
Thursday -- Curried squash soup + salad
Friday -- curried squash soup, spinach sabzi, crock pot butter chicken, dahl, cilantro-lime rice, naan, and Nutella cheesecake (My brother, Thin Man, came over for dinner and brought a friend who is visiting from out of state, hence the elaborate meal.)
Saturday -- Crock pot chicken and dumplings

There are at least two things you might notice: we only eat meat (or poultry) a few times a week and I love my crock pot.  (If you love yours, you might want to check out the blog 365 Days of Slow Cooking, something I found this weekend and am anxious to try.)

Menu, January 8-14
Sunday -- crock pot chipotle black bean soup + salad
Monday -- black beans and rice + salad
Tuesday -- Taco salad
Wednesday -- Tortilla soup + salad
Thursday -- Jambalaya + salad
Friday -- Fresh pasta with chicken jalepeno cheddar "casserole" (we just bought a pasta machine -- finally!) + salad
Saturday -- Curried chickpea and quinoa tacos

As you can probably tell from both menus, we eat a lot of salad.  Our salads are mainly spinach with bell peppers and mushrooms -- easy to throw together to compliment whatever the main meal is supposed to be.  We buy large bags of spinach at Costco because that seems to be the best deal -- under $5 for 2.5 pounds of spinach (which is a LOT), and we eat about that much every week.

So that's the main menu.  But what are we going to try for snacks?  Honey eats a lot of celery, so I recently bought some jalepeno Greek yogurt dip from Costco to go with the celery (delicious, low in fat and calories, high in protein), but then I saw this recipe for Buffalo Wing Hummus.  Yep. Definitely trying that this week! And for me I want to try the Green Monster Spinach Smoothie.  (As if we didn't already eat enough spinach! Just call me Popeye.)

Anyone have good suggestions for next week's menu?