Dinner Menus 8/28/11

Continuing with my personal food diary, first I thought I'd wrap up this past week with a few comments on new recipes tried this week and then continue on to this week's food.

Thursday night's chicken and eggplant curry was a success. I used this recipe and just added a one-pound eggplant which I had cubed, salted and drained for an hour before adding (and put in an hour after the chicken went in). Served over couscous. The kids were suspicious of the eggplant, but Paul and I thought the whole thing was delicious. The kids did give a big thumb's up to the chicken and sauce though. I used coconut milk from the refrigerated section, not the canned stuff. I avoid cow-based dairy, and coconut milk is a delicious treat. I've been drinking a bit in my coffee and I like its flavor.

Pizza bites. Friday night, at the end of the first week of school really had us all wiped out. We just made these, played a few games of bananagrams and hung out. Next week is the start of cross country practice, so we'll be getting up even earlier...six weeks of getting to school by 6:30 am is in our near future. They're really good, but make sure you seal the bite well! Otherwise you end up with melted mozarella all over the bottom of your dish (which you can poke back in the bite, but that's sort of a pain).

This week: 8/28/11

Sunday (since I'm writing this Sunday night, I've already cooked for today)

• Breakfast- Peach and white chocolate muffins. I've made these muffins a couple of times and really like them, because it's a basic muffin recipe you can change according to your taste preferences. I left the oats soaking in milk and went to the market to see what was fresh. I came home with some great Texas peaches and paired one finely diced (that was a cup) with some white chocolate chips.
  
• Lunch - nutella and banana sandwiches in the panini press. My boys love nutella. A common weekday breakfast is nutella and banana on frozen waffle. Today we mixed it up by making one of the sandwiches nutella and raspberry. That was good too.
  
• Dinner - Porcupine Balls. I was interested in trying this recipe as my sister doesn't eat gluten. My traditional meatballs (which I love) have breadcrumbs, but this recipe uses rice instead. Porcupine balls are an old recipe, but not one I've actually tried before. My friend Ruth makes these for her family using Rice-a-roni, I think, but that also has gluten in the pasta. I also used low-sodium V-8 juice as the poaching liquid because that's what I had, left out the cloves. Also ground turkey instead of beef. The kids thought these were so-so, but I liked them. They kind of remind me of kibbeh.

Monday:

• Dinner - Roasted shrimp. I really like the flavor of roasted shrimp. Roasting really brings out the natural sweetness of the shellfish. I have a new recipe to try, and I'll post comments afterwards. It also helps that Monday is a soccer night, and roasted shrimp takes about 5 minutes in the oven.

Tuesday:

• Dinner - Korean pancakes with leftover shrimp.

Wednesday:

• Dinner - Probably some sort of tacos. It's a soccer night, with overlapping practices. In the afternoon, I add to the crockpot shredded chicken, corn, refried black beans, and taco sauce. Stir to mix. Cook on low about an hour, until melty. Whenever someone's home from practice and hungry, they spoon a couple spoonfuls into a fresh tortilla and add cheese. Before I stopped eating dairy, I used to add the shredded cheese to the mixture too. You could probably do that, and it's delicious that way.

Thursday:

• Dinner - Homemade pizza. I really liked the dough from the pizza bites recipe, but I think I might try a honey wheat dough. I have a function, but if I make the dough in the afternoon, the kids and Paul can manage to pat it out, spread the sauce, and add cheese and toppings. I make a sauce very similar to this recipe (I usually add some finely minced onion with the garlic) and luckily, I have some in the freezer.
  

Weekend:
We're off to Austin. I cook at my sister's when we're there, but it's impossible to know in advance what I'll be cooking. But I'll also go to Torchy's at least once and have their divine fried avocado taco. Love. It makes me happy just thinking of it.