Hits and Misses Meal Plan Week #6
Last week was full of shared meals and meal preparation. Sharing food together is always a special time and tradition for my family. It is around the table that we are together and those times are filled with chatter and laughter. This week has been no different.
Monday Night. Pizza Night. My son has become a pizza expert and it seems that he fine tunes his creations each time. He uses the Big Green Egg
which seems to work just as well as the traditional brick pizza oven. He makes his own pizza dough and actually tosses it and spins it in the air. No easy feat. Tonight rather than making several flavors he made the family favorite…barbecued pork pizza. Four pizzas were delivered to the kitchen island where we gathered with red wine, moscow mules, and a fabulous salad prepared by my daughter in law. Wow, what a meal. We all over ate, but did not regret one single bite. Sumptuous.
Tuesday. The ‘Ole Buckeye and I invited our daughter and son in law for a dinner for 4 at our house. We always try to have one meal with just the four of us during their visit to give us more one on one time with each other. We had grilled ribeye steaks, grilled avocados, Valdalia Onion Casserole and Cantaloupe and Arugula Salad. By the way, if you have never grilled avocados you are missing out. They are outstanding and a great side with a grilled meal.
http://threeforksintheroad.com/category/food-and-drink/side-dish/page/5/
Chicken Fruit Salad
I found it!! Over the years I have made a chicken salad in the summer that I have used for showers, for Sunday brunch, and for easy entertaining on our sailboat. But I lost it! Oh, for sure, I could most likely recreate it, but I was not certain it would be just right.
As an appetizer I served small portions of the left over shrimp and grits which they loved. I was impressed with how good this recipe reheated (maybe better than when first served.) After finishing a game of Eucre (girls winning), we splurged and enjoyed Root Beer Floats made with It’s Not Your Father’s Root Beer and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Yum.
Root beer that tastes like root beer with 5.9% alcohol. What could go wrong?
Wednesday. Wednesday is my usual day to make a family dinner. This week there will be 8 of us and I had already planned to make my Smoke Alarm Pork Loin. The sides would include a tried and true cauliflower casserole since I had a huge cauliflower that needed to be eaten, a Ramen Noodle salad recipe that I have wanted to try for several months and a new sweet potato recipe. I really enjoy coming up with recipes that go with pork, since I fix it frequently. I will post the pork loin recipe in the blog recipes. I have had it written for months, but keep forgetting to take a photo. Last night was no exception. Delicious pork loin with no photo.
The salad was a HUGE hit.
Crunchy Asian Ramen Noodle Salad | Gimme Some Oven
I made a few modern updates to this Crunchy Asian Ramen Noodle Salad. It’s still the same easy and crunchy salad that everyone loves, but made with natural sweetener and some tasty fresh ingredients! Alright, show of hands. Who else grew up eating ramen noodle salads?!?
I realized when I made the salad, that I had used all of my green onions in the cauliflower, so that ingredient was lacking. The salad was great, but the green onion would have made it even better. This will be a favorite and take the place of a similar recipe I have made in the past. I might add, I am not a fan of picking and slicing mango. I normally make it into a mush. I lucked out and found pre sliced mango at Trader Joes’s, which gave me the impetus to try this salad. So glad I did.
I had a whole bag of sweet potatoes, a favorite of the grand girls. They have them fairly frequently and I am always looking for new ways to prepare them. Normally the new ways are not as successful as a simple cut and roast, but this find for sweet potato wedges was amazing. I don’t think I will roast them any other way. The difficult part is cutting the potatoes into wedges without loosing a finger or thumb. Sweet potatoes and squash are not my favorite foods to carve.
Extra Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges – Baker by Nature
Golden, crunchy, and crisp sweet potato wedges are easy to make at home! When it comes to real meals, our weekday menu is nothing fancy. Most nights I’m so exhausted from baking all day I just want to plop down on the couch, turn on the tube, and order take-out.
I actually roasted these beauties a little longer that the recipe called for, but my wedges were fairly large. I also kept them oven warm until serving without doing the broiler ending. I have a tendency of ruining anything I broil.
Last but not least I served Loaded Cauliflower. I have made this for years. In fact the ‘Ole Buckeye has even made this when I was working. I tend to find ways to add calories to vegetables!
Loaded Cauliflower Casserole
Loaded Cauliflower Casserole is unbelievably tasty and full of fantastic flavor! I love that is tastes like loaded potatoes, but without all the carbs! I was having dinner with my five year old daughter and she loved it too! She said that it was so delicious and asked me to make it again!
Dessert…easy, breezy. I served a pre-bought, frozen dessert. Normally a no,no, however the desserts from this company have been routinely pretty good and the ‘ole Buckeye is a key lime fan. Edwards Key Lime Pie.
Thursday. Dinner for two and leftovers. That’s good. A lot of family time for the past days. The brother and sister families need time together without the P’s. Dinner tonight Pasta e Fagioli Soup, Sausage Casserole and Focaccia. Quiet evening at home in front of the fire.
Friday. Potluck with Family and Neighbors. Colonel Paul and Miss Kim are neighbors and great friends of my son’s. My son has been away on DET for several weeks and they wanted an informal get-together. Kim volunteered to bring Mexican Lasagna. Our daughter in law made a huge salad with a wonderful cilantro based dressing and the ‘Ole Buckeye made his world famous guacamole….truly delicious. I made a flan, a last minute decision because I had all of the ingredients on hand. Unfortunately I pulled it together in a hurry and added too many eggs. The flan tasted great, but was a little soupy. It required spoons rather than forks. It was a a relaxed evening of good food, conversation, and laughter. I even took my leftover squash and black bean enchiladas and they were finally finished off. Unlike the ‘Ole Buckeye, this crowd actually enjoyed them.
Saturday. Tonight was the last night that our daughter and son in law would be visiting. I had 8 fresh chicken breasts and volunteered to do a crockpot chicken, however my daughter wanted to make a chicken dish with sage, prosciutto, and provolone and accompany the chicken with pasta. The meal was completed with roasted broccoli and a huge tossed salad with a superb dressing. Tessemaes dressing—outstanding. She also uses the dressings as marinades. She used one on the beef Monday night.
We had a wonderful family day. Later in the day we played a game with props. Playing this was by demand of the grand girls. We played this last year. So fun. I had gathered a variety of items and divided them evenly in bags. We divided into teams and used the mystery contents to come up with a skit. Hilarious. This game began last year and I guess it is now a “tradition”. The kids love it and everyone can use their imagination. So fun.
Sunday. I finally made the Zoodle Rosa! The zucchini and mushrooms begged to be used, and although I had plenty of leftovers, I decided to make this new meatless recipe. We ended the day at my son’s with his family and helped clean out the refrigerator of leftovers. Chicken, salad and the zoodles. Huge hit. Even though the 12 year old doesn’t like mushrooms, she ate 3 helpings of this dish. We all enjoyed it and the huge skillet full of veggie yumminess was gone in a heartbeat.
Zoodle Rosa – Simple Roots
Remember that horrific gift my husband gave me a few years ago? Turns out, it isn’t so horrific after all. Once I was able to forgive him for buying me a kitchen gadget, dusted it off and embraced this wonder that I’ve had in my cupboard for far too long, I’ve become slightly obsessed.
We had such a wonderful week with family. It seems that so many of our precious memories happen around a table sharing food. Yet again we enjoyed each others company and caught up on life. It was sad to see it end, but we will look forward to more enjoyment in the future.
