Week 1 - Friday steak

Wow, I am behind on posting, thanks to a busy weekend. Friday's recipe was Steak With Roasted Carrots and Onions. But, it had been a long week and we decided to go out to dinner, and so had the steak Saturday night. Don't get me wrong, I am critical of the monthly meal plan because they never acknowledge in the text that it is only 20 recipes. Everyone needs a night off from cooking, so were I an editor at Real Simple, I would have added a simple sentence that read something like, We've planned 5 meals a week for you, leaving a night for going out and a Sunday supper of your choosing.

Anyway, Saturday's dinner. Yum.

Was the recipe easy to follow?
Super easy and fast.

Did it taste good?
Delish. Our only problem was that our steaks were thick and had been frozen (with a nod to food safety, Real Simple recommends you freeze the meats you buy over the weekend for those meals that come later in the week) and might not have been fully thawed. So they took longer to cook, resulting in burned bits in the pan. I should have made the wine sauce in another pan, because even though I scraped most of the burnt out, the sauce still had a slightly bitter burned taste, though it was still good. The roasted vegetables were great.

Adjustments?
I had leftover potatoes from Monday so roasted those with the carrots. This meal was apparently the low carb option for the week, as the only side was supposed to be roasted carrots and onions. The Real Simple blogger said she wished she had rice, so I prepped some brown rice to accompany. The only other funny thing is Real Simple recommends a red wine with this recipe, but the ingredients call for white wine sauce. So we drank white wine with the steak. Still good!

Kid friendly?
For whatever unknown reason, Elizabeth has never liked any orange vegetables - no carrots or sweet potatoes. But otherwise, they loved it.

Would we make it again?
Absolutely.

Week 1 - Thursday pork

Last night's recipe was Pork Cutlets with Spicy Noodles.

Kind of an odd sideways shot - I overbrowned one of the cutlets but it was still good.

Was the recipe easy to follow?
It was easy and quick. I was a little worried about the pork, which had to be dredged in flour, then a beaten egg, then the panko bread crumbs, then the pan, but I set up a right-to-left assembly line, and used tongs, so it went very quickly and - bonus! - I never had to touch the raw meat. I got all 5 cutlets in the pan within a minute so they cooked evenly.
Did it taste good?
It did. The only thing is, the Real Simple blogger wrote about the flavorful meat, and I found it to be bland. Not sure I seasoned it enough with salt and pepper before all the dredging. Maybe the salt and pepper should have been in the flour? Or in the panko? Or maybe there should have been extra seasoning in the panko - some parsley, or maybe some dried basil? Something that kept it asian flavored - I originally thought grated parmesan, which would give more flavor, but wouldn't really match the other flavors. Or maybe the meat marinated in soy sauce?

Adjustments?
I was game to try jalepeno (which I have never once cooked with before), but Rich had done the grocery shopping and didn't buy one, figuring it would be too spicy for the kids, particularly Elizabeth. I was planning to use less than half, but none was probably the right call.

Also, I have to say the recipes themselves are turning out to be good. I hate to keep harping on this, but this is supposed to be a "meal plan," and I just wonder why there is this aversion to vegetables and/or side dishes? I want my kids to be eating plenty of vegetables, so once again we had a side dish - green beans. I thought about throwing peas into the noodles, but we were out as we didn't buy extra veggies in the grocery trip. Next week I'll know better and stock up.

And one last issue - half a pound of shitake mushrooms is a heck of a lot of mushrooms. Rich bought two 3.25 ounce containers. Once sliced, there were more mushrooms than noodles! So now I have a couple of extra ounces of shitakes sliced in the fridge, as I added as many as reasonable to the noodles but just could not add them all in.
I'll use the extras for tonight, so that'll be fine. Also, if you look at the real simple blogger's photos, I jsut don't believe that's 8 ounces of shitakes. Mushrooms are really light.

Kid friendly?
It was. Elizabeth (5) picked out the mushrooms with a big eeewwww, but ate the rest (oh, where did my good eater go?). Andrew (22 months) shoved fistfuls of 'new-news' (noodles) in his mouth whether there were mushrooms or not. Neither seemed to notice the ginger.

Would I make it again?
Sure. It was tasty, and the noodles would certainly work with chicken or fish or shrimp, while the breading on the cutlets could also be used different ways with different recipes.

October 3 - pink heels

What: size 8 pink croc 2.5 inch heeled pumps
From: Bandolino (TJ Maxx)
Purchased: mid 00s
Cost: $30

These are great basic pumps, perfectly comfortable mid height heel. Love 'em, but you know, you can't wear pink pumps every day. The heels on these are black, while the other pink shoes I just wore have brown heels, so I always think of these as complementary pairs. I wore them to church with black pants, a pink cotton shirt, and a black sweater.

Bottom line: keeper!

October 2 - garnet loafers go goodbye

What: size 7.5 garnet suede loafers
From: Hush Puppies (Hechts, I think)
Purchased: late 90s
Cost: $35, give or take

Saturday was the FSU/UVA football game at UVA, and wouldn't these have been great with my garnet and gold sweatshirt and jeans? But alas, these were really too small back in the day (I'd only worn them a handful of times because they hurt) and it's time to admit they are simply too small and they need to go. I couldn't even get them on my feet for a pic.

So I wore my awesome bronze platforms instead. They are awesome football game shoes as they give me some height, and they are comfy, and they look like they would be too awesome for football and walking but since they are comfy they work great.

I am seriously thinking about offering some of these shoes on ebay. These are a little out of date/chunky, but still nice.

Bottom line: outta here, one way or another

Week 1 - Wednesday turkey burgers

Last night's recipe was turkey burgers with creamy romaine slaw.

Was the recipe easy to follow?
Super easy, and only took 20 minutes.

Did it taste good?
Yummy. The mustard in the burger added nice flavor (and just last week I made a recipe for turkey burgers that had parsley and soy sauce and was also quite good). The slaw was tasty.

Kid friendly?
Yeah. Well, there was no way either of them were eating any slaw. I'm surprised the dynamic duo like turkey burgers, but they do. We had sliders last week, which work better for them, but Elizabeth took a few bits of the burger on a bun, while Andrew took his burger apart.

Adjustments?
Well, this is supposed to be a full meal, right? A turkey burger with a couple of pickles and optional potato chips on the side is NOT a full meal. I thought I had sweet potato fries in the freezer, which would have been perfect, but I didn't. So we had regular fries (baked in the oven) and some peas and some garbanzo beans so we wouldn't leave the table hungry!

Would I make it again?
Sure! The only bad part was the Touching Of The Meat. I was a vegetarian for 9+ years, and am still squeamish about raw meat. So I had hoped Rich would make the burgers, but no such luck. You're not supposed to overwork ground meat anyway so the burgers don't get tough, so it was just the forming of the patties that made my skin crawl. Sliders are definitely not as bad, as I use a scoop to put the meat in the special slider pan (of course we have a special slider pan!) and smoosh it down with the slider lid.

October 1 - stalked heels

What: size 8 high heeled plaid peep toes
From: AK Anne Klein - cyber stalked not sure where
Purchased: 2008
Cost: $40 ?

I've written before that I went through an AK Anne Klein phase in 2007-08. I saw these shoes online and fell in love and cyberstalked them for a while. I can't remember what price I finally paid or where I got them, but I know I watched them for a while. (hmm, I may go back through my bank statements!) But once I got them, they waited in their box. I just never had the occasion or outfit to wear them. The heels are awfully high, so it has to be the right occasion, and while I love the glen plaid, I just don't know how to work it. The heel is brown, and the buckle is gold, and there is a bronze-y trim, so I think they'd go well with brown dressy trousers, of which I own zero. But then what else? Dark brown pants, red sweater? (what under the sweater? white? tan?) Dark brown suit with skirt (I own one), and red top? Tan pants/skirt with blue top and carry red bag?

I wore them out to dinner with friends with cuffed jeans, a red t-shirt, olive green cord jacket, and green long necklace. That worked, but how else could I wear them?

These remind me of a jacket Rich once bought - a plaid sportscoat for $25. But the mix of colors meant he never quite was happy with the rest of his outfit. See, the red is prominent, but the other colors are really blue and gray and a light tan. Any ideas?

These are the shoes that first made me think I was turning into a shoe collector, not a person who owned a fabulous shoe wardrobe. If you owned a pair of shoes you could never style (for want of a better word) would you get rid of them or keep looking for the right outfit?

Bottom line: keeper. I should sell them on ebay.

Week 1 - Tuesday pasta

Last night was supposed to be penne with tomatoes, eggplant, and mozzarella. Here's the thing: I hate eggplant. So, two days in and we're already 2 for 2 in making changes. Rich suggested subbing zucchini, which worked fine. This is similar to recipes I used to make all the time when I was a vegetarian and still often do. Easy, fast, tasty, relatively healthy, and filling.


Was the recipe easy to follow?
Super easy. Definitely a 30 minute meal.

Did it taste good?
It was really good. Nice mix of flavors. I've never added mint to a pasta dish like this, but it added good flavor. And I never would have added red pepper without the recipe, but that gave it a little kick without making it spicy - the kiss of death for Elizabeth.

Kid friendly?
Yeah, mostly. They ate the pasta and some tomato and cheese. I think they got some nutrients beyond plain pasta (sometimes I use whole wheat pasta, but honestly I grew up on plain pasta and just prefer it). I keep offering zucchini and they reject it every time. I keep trying, though (I'm actually not wild about zucchini, either, but I eat it).

Adjustments?
The recipe calls for 1/4 cup olive oil to sautee the eggplant (in a non-stick pan!). I never cook eggplant, but isn't it known for soaking up oil? Why so much oil? I sprayed the pan with Pam and sprinkled in a little olive oil for flavor. Also, had olives left over from the day before so chopped them up and added. Yum.

Would I make it again?
Sure. This was a tasty variation on a pretty standard meal. We need to grow mint in the yard - I've always been afraid of it taking over the garden, but it's really a shame to buy mint when it is so easy to grow.