Food Glorious Food

The temperature is warming up and I am feeling a need to use my grill more and eat lighter fare. I'm also having more trouble finding time to update my blog at the computer. I am still two weeks behind, but hopefully this will be the week I catch up!

Someone recently asked me if she had to make everything from scratch. Absolutely not! I like to cook, so I like to make lots of food from scratch, but I also like to take a few quick shortcuts here and there. I like knowing what is in my food, but I usually do not have time to spend all day in the kitchen. I love my freezer because I often cook extra so I have something ready and waiting in the freezer. I do make my breads from scratch so the freezer saves me lots of time there. I have a big bread baking day every few weeks and then we have home made bread for the next few weeks. They point of this blog is to help you plan so cooking takes less energy - especially less mental energy. What was cooking this week?

Monday

I still had most of a quart of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator. (I thawed it last week before we left town.) I simply bought some frozen cheese ravioli, boiled the water and cooked the ravioli. Warmed the sauce and poured it over the ravioli. Made a salad and, voila, a dinner everyone liked and it took very little time.

Tuesday

My grill beckoned this week. I grilled some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I didn't do anything too fancy. I simply put a little olive oil, lemon juice, and a few of my favorite spices on the chicken. Asparagus is also in season, so I roasted some asparagus. I placed the asparagus in a zipper top plastic bag and added olive oil, a little lemon juice, and some cayenne pepper and roasted it in a hot (425 degree) oven until they were crisp tender. I also used the oven for sweet potato fries. I peeled and cut two sweet potatoes into fries. I threw them in the zipper top bag and mixed olive oil, a little cinnamon and a little cumin on the potatoes. I then put them on a baking sheet and into the hot oven. The potatoes took about 30-40 minutes and the asparagus only 10-15 minutes. This was another relatively quick, easy and tasty meal.

Wednesday

Wednesday is the day of the week that I cook early so we can eat late. A small group meets at our house and I try to have everything ready so we can eat when the group leaves. This week I once again pulled out my trusty slow cooker and made Caribbean Style Black Bean Soup from my favorite slow cooker cookbook, Fix-It and Forget-It. Through the magic of the internet, I found that recipe posted here. I also made some brown rice because I like black beans over rice. I made a salad and it waited for us in the refrigerator. Everything was ready when our guests left. I really liked the black beans - I thought they had a great flavor. Everyone else in my family just thought they were okay.

Thursday

This particular Thursday was my birthday so my family took me out to dinner. It is always nice to have a break from cooking, even if you like to cook!

Friday

Everyone but my five year old daughter and I were out of pocket this night, so she and I simply ate leftovers from the refrigerator.

Saturday

Scrumptious is the word to describe this meal . I had originally planned it for Friday, but decided not to cook when it was just my daughter and I. Saturday's menu was Poached Salmon with Horseradish Sauce which is in the 1991 Southern Living Annual cookbook. I served the fish with couscous and Brussels sprouts that I cooked from frozen. I added some butter to the Brussels sprouts. We agreed the horseradish sauce worked very well on the Brussels sprouts. This salmon recipe has been a favorite of ours for years!

Saturday during the day was one of my days of cooking for the future. I made breakfast items. I made cranberry orange bagels, English muffins and granola. I am continuing on my quest to not buy breakfast breads.

Sunday

We normally eat Sunday dinner for our midday meal. This particular Sunday was a beautiful day and my younger son wanted to go golfing with his dad so we postponed dinner until our evening meal - supper. It also gave me the afternoon to make Sweet Buttery Rolls. These were some of the best home made yeast rolls that I have made. My daughter and I wanted to surprise the boys with some dessert so we made chocolate pudding. I overcooked it a little but it was still tasty. Okay, I started with dessert and rolls so you might want to know the main parts of the meal. I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer and some leftover bottled Caesar salad dressing in the refrigerator, so I thawed the tenderloin and marinated it in the dressing for most of the day. Then for supper, I grilled it. I made a mango salsa to accompany it. The recipe was in the 1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook. I can't find one similar on-line but it was great! We love mangoes. Quick Artichoke Pasta Salad added a starchy element to the meal. Corn on the cob and fresh pineapple completed this Sunday meal.

Enjoy cooking! I'll be back soon!