Recipe Recap, Jan 5-11

As promised, here is my menu list and recipe review for the last week. I don't think I will be doing this every week; I just happened to have a little bit of time to work on this today. If I'm inventing a new recipe, or excessively tweaking one, I'll do my best to post the completed recipe after I get the kinks worked out.

We plan our menu on a weekly basis, starting with Saturday night's dinner and going through Friday. This works the best for our schedule, as we are forced to get up every Saturday morning (the toddler just doesn't understand the "weekend" concept). So what better way to start the day than going out together and buying groceries? It works for us and we enjoy it.

And so, without further ado...


Sat 1/5: Baked Tofu Penne Bolognese

This is my own recipe, and it's definitely still in progress. I made the bolognese sauce from a Kimmy's Bake Shop recipe. The tofu I dried, coated in corn starch, and fried in oil to make it crunchy. I didn't throw the tofu in until after the sauce had simmered for a couple of hours. I'm not ready to share my recipe yet, not until I've had another chance or two to work it out. Obviously it's not going to be as tasty as the original recipe -- that ground beef really is essential -- but I firmly believe I can bring it up a few notches.


Sun 1/6: Korean Pork Medallions and Spicy Asian Slaw

This was very tasty and pretty easy to make. I cut down the amount of Asian chile sauce because I knew it was going to be too spicy for my taste. I was also surprised that the meal was so filling; after it was assembled on the plate I kept thinking it would need some rice to round it out and fill the belly. But nope, it was great just as is! Rice -- preferably jasmine -- would be tasty, but it was great even without the carbs.


Mon 1/7: Veggie chowder

This recipe was delicious, warm, and filling. But I made some augmentations and I can't quite recall everything I changed. I'm sure I used at least two carrots and two stalks of celery. I don't think I had quite two cups worth of broccoli available. And I might have used one more potato than it calls for. I do know that the potatoes were quite a bit more cooked than they should have been, but it was nice because they got kinda mashed and helped thicken up the soup.

I added the broccoli much sooner than called for so that it would have time to soften. I also used about 1.5 cups of half and half instead of using the called-for milk and water; this added some richness without making it too thick or creamy.


Tue 1/8: Lasagna Soup

Somehow I managed to download and print this recipe from two different sources without realizing it was the same set of ingredients. The instructions were slightly different on each recipe; I read carefully through both set of directions and definitely had a favorite.

Turns out, though, that I'm not especially fond of the recipe. It really is soup. It's soup with lasagna ingredients. I guess I was hoping for, I don't know, the taste of lasagna without all of the lengthy assembly. I also tried using some ramekins to serve the food. A traditional ramekin holds about 4oz of food, which is a good size for the toddler. I laughed when I was dishing out the soup and realized just how small 4oz is. So I pulled out our 14oz and 16oz mini casserole dishes for Nate and I; they were our "grownup" portions of dinner.

I am going to try making this again, but I'm going to do it very differently, aiming for something less soup-like. I will omit the ricotta and reduce the chicken broth down to four cups (not six). I'll use one can of diced tomatoes and one can of slightly pureed Italian stewed tomatoes. I will mix the cheese-topping into the meal a little bit more; as is, with it just piled on top, it formed a thick and difficult-to-penetrate layer of cheese. Annoying.

The above picture of this dish is one my own.


Wed 1/9: Yum Bowls

There's a chain of restaurants in my old college town that started popping up about the time I graduated and we moved on. I never went to one of them. I never had a Yum Bowl, had never even heard of it, until my SIL introduced us to them a couple of years ago. And then I promptly forgot all about them.

I'm not sure what made me remember that they exist, but Yum Bowls just suddenly came to mind about two weeks ago when I was planning dinners. How could I have forgotten such a simple, tasty meal? They work in the winter, if you serve them when the rice is still hot, or in the summer -- just let the rice cool a bit. As luck would have it, I mentioned this menu item to a friend last weekend and she said we could even get Yum Sauce at a local grocery. Score!

But you might be wondering, "What the heck is a Yum Bowl and what is Yum Sauce?" The meal is a bowl of rice with whatever toppings suit your fancy; we prefer black beans, corn, tomato, avocado, and cheddar cheese. Shredded chicken is good too, if it's available. Other toppings you could add or swap: olives, scrambled eggs, cilantro, sour cream, salsa, zucchini, etc. The sauce is, uhm... hard to describe. I found a copycat recipe that I'm going to try the next time we make Yum Bowls; it says that there's garbanzo and soy beans, almonds, oil, lemon juice, curry, and some other stuff in the sauce. That combo sounds about right to me   :o)  Whatever it is, the sauce is good, the bowls are good. I highly recommend this dish, especially if you're looking for a quick dish. Bonus: You can customize the contents for each member of the family with almost no hassle!


Thur 1/10: Leftovers


Fri 1/11: Chicken Taquitos

This recipe annoyed me from the get-go. I knew just by looking at it that there was not going to be enough food to properly stuff the taquitos. I added about half again as much of all of the ingredients and yet there were still plenty of wrappers left, so I mixed up even more. Clearly I should have doubled it from the start.

It's also important to note that you want to thoroughly spray the taquitos before they go in the oven, as the oil is what will make them bake up crispy on the outside. Definitely turn them over halfway through cooking.

I liked them in the end, the taquitos were tasty. It's just that the amounts in the recipe need some tweaking.


On the menu for 1/12-18: Swedish meatballs, spring rolls, saltimbocca, stromboli, and more!