New Year, New Resolve!

Happy New Year!  Most of us make resolutions as the new year dawns with hope to change one thing or many things about our lives.  Many of you have been kind and have asked me to begin updating the blog again.  I decided that would be my resolution for 2013 - to update the blog more regularly.  For many of the blogs I follow, I notice the blogs are updated nearly daily - that won't happen here.  I will try again for weekly (although I hear Yoda in my brain saying, "Do or do not. There is no try") but I admit that finding the time can sometimes be difficult.

Let's talk about what will be different about the blog and where I've been for most of the last year.

What's different?
October 1, 2011, I decided to take a 30 day Vegan Challenge.  At the time, I did not realize that I would feel so good that it would become a long lasting change. I did have a few blog posts after first becoming vegan, but I was still finding my way.  What I have found is that vegan food is "normal" food.  It is very tasty.  Most of what I cook would appeal to anyone who loves food - not just vegans!  Cooking vegan does take more forethought and more experimentation but my body feels so good and I can eat so much more! (Without gaining weight.)  I have also found that I have learned so much more about flavors and spices.  Ethnic foods tend to lend themselves well to being vegan.  Vegan recipes abound on the web and in cookbooks - so there are many more recipes to try! (For more about how I came to the decision to eat vegan see the November 26, 2011 post.)

Where have I been for most of the last year?
 As I mentioned, cooking vegan took some adjusting.  I love to bake and I had to learn how to bake without eggs or dairy.  The pastries pictured are my version of a Hungarian pastry my grandmother used to make.  (Yes, I made the dough - it is not Pillsbury Crescent rolls.)  I find I actually prefer vegan baking and for most things my family does too.  I promise that you will not miss anything in my breads, cakes and cookies.  If I didn't tell you, you would never know what is not in my baked goods.  I have spent the last year re-working some of my favorite bread and pastry recipes to make them vegan but keep them delicious!





So What Now?
I want to return to the format of giving you a weekly menu including many of the recipes used in the menu.  The only difference is that now there will be no animal products included - no meat, no dairy, no eggs.  I hope the blog continues to be helpful.  I hope that you will give the renewed blog a look and tell your friends.

Happy New Year!  May 2013 be your happiest and healthiest and tastiest year yet!

Chopped - Vegan!

Sometimes the stars all align and all of life's joys converge!  My favorite cookbook author, Isa Chandra Moskowitz of the Post Punk Kitchen, used the inspiration of my favorite TV show, Chopped (on the food network) and offered a Chopped Challenge - Vegan Brunch.  The secret basket ingredients were butternut squash, fresh rosemary, popcorn, and apricot preserves.  Now since it is brunch, the challenge offered either savory or sweet dishes.  Okay, so favorite cookbook author, favorite TV show, I have to make my favorite food - the one I have been working to perfect since going vegan - I think I may have done it.  What did I make?  Can't stand the suspense?

Rosemary Infused Ginger Butternut Squash Ice Cream with Apricot Caramel Popcorn!

Now wait, I know what you are thinking, "Vegetable ice cream?" Well, I promise it is better than the sweet potato ice cream I tried earlier.  As a matter of fact - my husband said, "This is the best ice cream you have made!"  Wow!  I have tried many ice creams since going vegan.  I can honestly say it is the only thing I miss since becoming plant strong.  (That is correct, I don't miss cheese.)   So, now do you want to try this velvety rich scrumptious dessert with crunchy sweet and salty caramel corn for yourself?  I will give you the recipe as best I can because, I was cooking by taste.  Here it goes!

Ice Cream Ingredients

1 cup cooked butternut squash (I cut it into 2 inch "cubes" and boiled it until tender.)

1 can full fat coconut milk
About an inch of fresh ginger sliced
2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
Orange zest of one orange

1 cup almond milk
3/4 cup agave nectar
pinch of salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
A few shakes of ground cardamon

In a small saucepan, heat the coconut milk, ginger, rosemary sprigs, and orange zest until simmering (small bubbles.) Heat for about 20 min then turn off the heat and allow the milk to cool somewhat.  Remove the rosemary sprigs.

Put the squash,  coconut milk mixture, and the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  (I tasted here and decided to put just a little more orange zest in the mixture.) Put the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours.  (If I was on Food network"s Chopped I'd be using the blast chiller.)

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker.  Put the soft ice cream in the freezer to harden.

Now make your caramel corn.  My caramel corn was even more free form.  I used coconut oil because I felt there was less chance of burning.

First pop about a third cup of popcorn without oil.  I don't have an air popper so I will share my secret popcorn method.  I put the kernals in a large (8 c. or larger)  heavy class bowl (measuring cup) with  a plate over the top.  No oil.  I pop it for 3 to 3.5 minutes - until there are 2 seconds between pops.

Pour the popped corn into an even larger bowl.  Pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees.

I melted 1/2 c of coconut oil in a large saucepan.  I added 1/4 c brown sugar, 3/4 c. white sugar, 1/4 c. corn syrup, 2 scoops of apricot preserves, and boiled the entire mixture, whisking constantly until the sugars started to string a little.  I turned off the heat and added 1/2 tsp baking soda and a splash or so of vanilla. I poured the hot mixture over the popcorn and stirred rapidly then spread the mixture on a jelly roll pan. 

I baked the mixture in the oven for about 40 minutes, stirring every 10 and then let it cool.  My 6 year old daughter came out from her room where she was supposed to be sleeping because it smelled so good.

And that is how I created my Chopped Vegan masterpiece.  I hope my recipe is a winner, but even if it isn't I had a great time creating it.  I hope you will give it a try as well.  Eat your vegetables!  Eat Ice cream!

New Challenges

Wow! Time sure flies when you are having fun! I had no idea that it had been so long since I had updated this blog. Mom's Weekly Menus seems more like Mom's Quarterly Menus. My only excuse is that time is a limited commodity. Thank you for reading!

Well my life and my menus have changed in the past few months, specifically the past 57 days. In September I found a book called The China Study - Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell, PhD. Later in the month, I heard about a new documentary titled Forks Over Knives which I watched. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say watching that movie changed my life. The book and the movie are primarily concerned with how our diets contribute to our long term health. I was fascinated. The healthiest diets they found were whole foods, plant based diets. What does that mean? More foods from plants, less food from animal products. After watching the movie, I searched for books to further my understanding and found Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's book, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge. I enlisted my BFF and we decided to take the challenge together. So on October 1, 2011 I embarked on a vegan lifestyle. I originally thought I would just try it for 30 days, but I feel so good that I have continued. My wonderful husband has joined me on this journey. The food has been so tasty that I can honestly say that I have not missed meat, dairy or eggs. I have also enjoyed the new challenge of finding good vegan recipes. Through it all, I have kept my weekly menus. The only downside to being vegan is that going out to eat is not nearly as fun as it used to be. It is harder than I expected to find restaurants serving vegan meals - at least where I live. So, I have nearly two months of menus. I will choose a week's worth of my favorites!

Monday

With the weather becoming cooler, chili is a good place to start. Chili without meat is not even that much of a stretch. I have really enjoyed Chili to Take the Chill Off. It has great flavor and you won't even miss the meat. This is one recipe I have made several times in the last two months. I serve it with a green salad and corn bread. I know what you are thinking, "How do you make corn bread without eggs?" I love this recipe. It tastes as good as any cornbread I have made.

Tuesday

With our school and after-school schedule, Tuesday has evolved into my weekly grocery shopping day. The problem is that I usually make it home about dinner time so I need something quick and easy on Tuesday nights. For that reason, Tuesday has become pizza night. I buy (or if I have time, make) individual pizza crusts and use a jarred marinara sauce, then everyone makes a pizza to suit his or her taste. For the omnivores, I provide pepperoni and mozzarella cheese along with fresh cut peppers, mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, and even fresh spinach. Everyone simply makes their own pizza. My daughter wants only pepperoni and mozzarella. My son, when home, wants a mixture of all. My husband has vegetables and sometimes a little cheese. I use sauce and the vegetables with no cheese. Yes - pizza is still great with no cheese! I usually make a side salad to go with our pizzas.

Wednesday

Ethnic foods lend themselves to being vegan more than traditional American foods. I have enjoyed adding more ethnic flavors to our menus. I have started having some type of curry every week. I am still trying to find a curry I make that I like as much as some I have had in Thai restaurants. Thai Red Curry Vegetables is pretty good. I have several more I look forward to trying. Curry is always good with some type of rice - I like Basmati rice. Since this curry had so many vegetables, I added some fruit to balance the meal. Right now, citrus is plentiful so grapefruit or Clementines (Cuties) are good additions.

Thursday

Once I began to be more mindful about what I was eating, I realized that vegan food is not that strange or weird. Black Beans and Rice with a salad and bread is a pretty normal meal. I made a Caribbean Mango Black Beans from a new cookbook, but I like my usual black beans seasoned with oregano, cumin, onion and garlic just as well. I usually use brown rice, but have started to experiment with other grains such as quinoa. The local farms I visit have had beautiful Bok Choy this fall so I served a Crunchy Bok Choy Slaw rather than the usual green salad.

Friday

Okay, on Friday we still want quick comfort foods. There are quite a few good recipes in the 30-Day Vegan Challenge and I have found other good recipes in the Happy Herbivore. A very good meaty meatless dish is the Sloppy Joes found in the 30 Day Vegan Challenge. Instead of beef or turkey it uses tempeh. We have really come to love tempeh and I have used it to "veganize" a few old faithful recipes. Tempeh is made by fermenting whole soybeans with a grain, usually rice. It is very different from tofu in texture - much meatier. I served the Sloppy Joes with Rustic Yam Fries from the Happy Herbivore. It definitely reminded us of Friday night burger and fries!

Saturday

Mexican food lends itself to a vegan diet. Actually, I should say homecooked Mexican food. Restaurant Mexican food uses a lot of lard and cheese. We enjoyed simple bean burritos (the 30 Day Vegan Challenge) along with a Mexican style Jicama Cole Slaw. Of course, chips and salsa always add to a Mexican meal!

Sunday

Sunday is the day of the week that I often offer a meat for the omnivores that end up at our table. This menu is actually our Thanksgiving meal from yesterday. I had many omnivores at the table, so I made a turkey, but all of the side dishes were vegan. Because I wanted to keep as vegan as possible, I made everything from scratch and that included the rolls and the pie crusts. I found some awesome pie crusts! Here is the menu:

Herbed Turkey in a Bag (from the 1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook.)
Mushroom Gravy (the 30 Day Vegan Challenge) This was a hit with everyone! It is good on everything!
Grandmother's Dressing - I took the recipe from the 1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook and made it vegan by substituting vegetable broth for chicken, using the Vegan Cornbread mentioned above, using flax seeds and water to substitute for the eggs. It ended up a little dry.
Mashed Potatoes - used non-dairy milk and vegan butter and sour cream
Green Beans with Lemon Herb Sauce (1991 Southern Living Annual Cookbook.) I used vegan substitutes for the chicken broth and butter.
Roasted Beets and Garlic
Cranberry Salad I replaced the apples with crushed pineapple to mimic a congealed salad I usually make. With the added coconut in this recipe, no one missed the jello.
Sourdough biscuits
Apple Pie with a Flaky Pie Crust - the pie was okay. The crust was awesome!
Pumpkin Pie with a Buttery Crust - this recipe was given to me by a friend from her November Yoga Journal. It was fantastic!

I do not know how long I will remain vegan. I have loved it so far. It has not been nearly as difficult as I had expected. I just ordered and received two new cookbooks - Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar so I know I will continue cooking vegan for awhile. I have found a few things I do not like such as Seitan, but mostly I have loved the food and I have loved the way I feel even more. Mom's Weekly Menus will continue to exist but the food will be decidedly vegan. Even if you have no interest in a vegan diet, I hope the menus and the recipes will still help you plan your meals. I will keep you updated on my progress. I need to have my cholesterol checked to see if eating this way has already made a difference in my health.

Until next time,
Enjoy playing with your food!

New Normal

"New normal" is the code word around our house these days. Our older children have left for college. I've started homeschooling again with our five year old. The summer garden and all of its lovely fresh produce are dwindling. (The fresh eggplant in the picture is now only a memory.) The temperatures have finally started dropping to a comfortable temperature. I have purchased my fall vegetable plants and need to plant them. As I mentioned last time, our menu choices are changing as well. Less red meat, more seafood, chicken and meatless meals. I am also having to relearn how to cook for a small family. Change is good, but change requires adjustment - a new normal.

With the new school year also comes the return of after school activities. It makes it very difficult to find time to cook. Planning is important, but flexibility is also critical. Some nights you may have to eat the leftovers that you had planned for another evening. Try to keep a few quick meals in the freezer for times when starting from scratch is not an option. I know it isn't glamorous, but frozen pizza is something quick that everyone likes. I try to keep salad fixings on hand so I can always add a salad. Making something "semi-homemade" is usually healthier and less expensive than making a quick trip to the drive through. When I don't have homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer, I buy a jar at the grocery store. Just watch the sugar and sodium! Another trick I learned from a friend is to do as much prep work as possible early. I admit that I am still working on this one. If everything is chopped and ready to go, sometimes it doesn't take that long to throw it all together.

As you may know, I always love finding new recipes. As we are exploring this "new normal" of eating less meat, I needed some new vegetarian cookbooks to peruse. However, cookbooks are very expensive. I picked up one in the book store and its listed price was $55.00! There are lots of places online to find recipes, but sometimes I just want to thumb through the pages. The local library has shelves and shelves of cookbooks! Of course you can check them out for free and find some new ideas. You can try a few recipes and then return them. If you love the cookbook, you could then buy it after you have already tried it out.

I spent a lot of time on tips, so I am going to simply hit some highlight meals.

My favorite new vegetarian recipe

Pasta with Sunday Ragu' (This was on page 354 of the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Cookbook I checked out from the library. I couldn't find the recipe online.)
Tossed green salad
French bread
This "meat" sauce used a meat alternative. I used something I found in the natural foods freezer section. It was a fungi. It was good though. Everyone liked it. (No one was fooled that it was meat though.)

Short on time idea

I had to grocery shop late. Steamed shrimp at our grocery store is no more expensive than fresh at the fish/meat section. So I bought shrimp and had them season and steam it. At home I made a quick cocktail sauce out of chili sauce (ketchup works fine,) horseradish and lemon juice. That evening I had some leftover slaw in the refrigerator so dinner was on the table in a flash!

Comfort foods

Baked chicken
Barley Risotto (this wasn't as good as I had hoped, but it did have the comfort feature.)
Frozen green beans steamed and seasoned with butter and lemon.

Well, now is the time for me to plan my menus for next week. Keep up the good work in the kitchen!

Preparation

The whole idea behind compiling menus each week is to have the planning complete and be prepared for each week. To make your week easier and less stressful, I recommend any advance planning that works for you. I have been out of town for a large portion of the month of August, so my reserves were very low. Last weekend I had a weekend of preparation.

Let's face it - cooking takes time. I love to cook and yet I still have other ways I like to spend my time. I am also very frugal and hate paying for foods I know I can make cheaper myself. (Although I do avail myself of the occasional pre-made item. You have to do what works - eating at home with convenience foods is still better than running through the ubiquitous drive thru!) I also like knowing what is in my food. I read a post from a mom whose advice to her kids was, "If God made it - eat it. If man made it - probably don't." I have always said I want foods as close to natural as possible - but let's not go crazy! Well, Saturday night we were going out to a church function so I did not have to cook dinner so I used the Saturday for preparation for the week.

Last Saturday I made yogurt for the week. I think I have given you the yogurt recipe before, but it is so easy and so much better than store bought. It does have to sit awhile so you need to make it in advance of when you want to eat it. I also made cranberry orange bagels. I packed these in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer for future breakfasts. Sourdough biscuits are really more like rolls so I baked a batch of them to also keep in the freezer for adding to meals later in the week.

On Sunday our oldest left for his final semester of college. We decided to have breakfast for lunch so he could leave on time. It worked out well because we could put it all together after church and it is about the time he usually eats breakfast anyway. My husband is the breakfast cook so he made scrambled cheese eggs and pan fried apple chicken sausage. I cut up cantaloupe and sliced tomato. We heated up some of the sourdough biscuits and served them with honey and jam. We made hot tea. Yum!

After he left, I continued my preparation for the week and made another batch of granola.

Our middle son leaves for his first year of college later this week. I am beginning to prepare for another school year of home schooling our first grader. (Two in college - one in first grade - quite a gap, huh?) My menus will be changing because I have decided to significantly reduce the meat in our diets. I will include more meatless, seafood, and chicken meals. Cholesterol runs high in my family and I have seen mine creep upward the past few years so I am trying to make dietary changes while I can. I read this week that former President Bill Clinton has become vegan for his health. I'm not quite ready to go that far, I love ice cream and cheese too much.

Hopefully with our return to a regular schedule, I will return to regular blogging. Thank you for reading. Don't forget you can follow me on twitter: @momsweeklymenus

Until next time...

Summertime

My faithful readers, I apologize for the long lapses in blogging this summer. I love the song from "Porgy and Bess" that says, "Summertime and the living is easy." I find the lack of schedule difficult during the summer months.

I love cooking during the summer. I have regularly visited the local CSAs in our area. (CSA stands for community supported agriculture.) I have enjoyed stopping at farm stands and farmer's markets. The fresh fruits and vegetables have been outstanding. My own garden is starting to produce peppers, tomatoes and I just finished the last of the eggplant (much to the delight of my son.) The extremely hot temperatures of this summer have caused me to water more than I would like but I love eating something that I had the privilege of growing.

Now, the blog has suffered because the days are so filled with activity. Several times I have sat down at the computer to work on my blog only to look at more recipes. The great news about all of the great fruits and vegetables is that they need so little preparation. A slice of fresh watermelon or a slice of a garden tomato with fresh basil are hard to beat. I will be heading off once again this weekend, so the blog remains incomplete. I did have an idea though.

Working on the blog once each week takes several hours. (I try to find links for most of the recipes or type them.) I am going to try another medium to supplement the blog. I have started a twitter account for Mom's Weekly Menus. The twitter handle is @momsweeklymenus. Follow me and I will post any great recipes I run across or any fabulous menus. I value each person who takes the time to read the blog, so I want to make it more accessible for all.

I look forward to being back on a regular schedule this fall.

The Best of...

Wow! April and May were incredibly busy! I have not blogged in many weeks, but now it is summertime and the living is easy! I wondered how I could ever catch up blogging the many weeks of menus I have missed and then I had an epiphany - I will make the week a "best of week" - the best daily menus from the time I have been absent from cyberspace. You and I will then be caught up and I will do my best not to allow such a lapse again!

Monday

Salmon en Papillote

Salad

Rolls

My family loves this method of cooking salmon. It is from a Pampered Chef cookbook called Doris Christopher's Main Dishes. I could not find a replica anywhere on the web so here is the recipe:

Ingredients

2/3 c uncooked orzo pasta

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1/4 c green onions with tops, sliced

1/3 c pitted ripe olives, sliced

3 T prepared basil pesto, divided

1/2 t lemon zest

1/4 t salt

4 (4-6 oz) skinless salmon fillets

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut four 15 inch squares of Parchment Paper. Fold in half and cut to make large heart shapes when unfolded.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Place pasta in a large bowl. Add tomatoes, green onions, olives and 1 T of the pesto to the pasta. Stir lemon zest and salt into pasta mixture.

3. For each serving, open paper heart and spoon about 3/4 cup pasta mixture on right side; top with salmon fillet. Spread salmon with 1 1/2 t of the remaining pesto. Fold left side of heart over salmon. Starting at top, tightly seal packet by making a series of short, narrow, overlapping folds along the open edge. At bottom of heart twist tip and turn up.

4. Arrange packets on a baking sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes. (Carefully open one packet to test that salmon flakes easily with fork.) To serve, cut an "X" through top layer of paper and fold back points. (We just unroll paper.)

4 servings.

Tuesday

Pasta Pomodoro

Salad

Fruit

Bread

The May 2011 issue of Bon Appetit was devoted to pasta. I have always loved pasta. I enjoyed this dish and I learned a lot about making pasta but I admit that I really like my usual sauce simply poured over pasta better. As far as salad goes, I don't usually follow any recipe. Spring has so many great ingredients to put in a salad. I just clean some lettuce then open my refrigerator and start adding. Speaking of lettuce, we have a wonderful community supported farm here and I have been buying some amazing organic lettuces (including arugula.) Good lettuce makes a good salad. I also try to buy and serve fruit as often as I can. Fresh fruits and vegetables are very important in our house. I admit that the cookies often call my name, but adding extra fruits and vegetables to your menus will greatly improve the quality of your meals.

Wednesday

Black and Blue Salad

Roll

Speaking of salad, the warmer days of summer lend themselves to more main dish salads. This salad is one that I created. I had some leftover beef chuck steak (a meal I didn't report) and decided to slice that very thin and add it to some mixed greens. I then added green onions, candied pecans, dried sweetened cranberries and blue cheese. I tossed it with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and some herbs, but any vinaigrette would do. I think an orange vinaigrette would be spectacular. You can really impress people with your salads simply by adding some candied nuts. They are simple to make. I heat my trusty cast iron skillet, add a little butter and sugar and stir it until the sugar melts, stir the nuts in the butter/sugar mixture for a few minutes and then let them cool on wax paper. Yum!

Thursday

Honey-Glazed Grilled Chicken

Black Rice with Scallions and Sweet Potato

Sauteed Bok Choy

Frozen Rolls

Southern Living puts together cookbooks for each year of recipes from their magazines. I have all of the annual cookbooks from 1986 - 2001. For some reason I stopped after 2001. My four favorite years are 1989, 1991, 1999, and 2000. The Honey-Glazed Grilled Chicken recipe I found in the 1999 cookbook. Fortunately, that year is recent enough to be posted on the internet. The chicken was very good. With warmer weather I fire up my grill pretty often. Last year for Mother's Day I asked for my own gas grill. My husband has a large charcoal grill but it was too much trouble for weeknight grilling. I love my little grill. It definitely receives more use than the other. I am still a beginner griller, but I love that time outside while grilling. Of course I am usually making trips back and forth to the kitchen to continue making the rest of the meal.

I have seen in several magazines the health benefits of black rice. I think even Dr. Oz has sung its praises. Black rice is a whole grain rice like brown rice but is much less glutinous. The only problem with it is finding it. I have only found it in Asian grocery stores, but Asian grocery stores make a great field trip. I have found many unusual ingredients to try in the Asian stores. This recipe combines black rice with scallions, sweet potatoes and ginger. The rice is actually purple so everything it touches eventually darkens so the sweet potatoes don't stay orange very long, but the recipe is very tasty and very healthy.

I had some beautiful Bok Choy from our local farm stand. I decided to saute' it in some sesame oil and then add a little chili garlic sauce. The whole meal took on an Asian flavor.

I usually make all of my own bread products but with our busy April and May I bought some frozen rolls which I admit were very tasty.

Friday

I don't always do much cooking on Fridays. We enjoy wine and appetizers on some Fridays. I have been curious about making sushi so I tried it recently. The picture at the top of the page is my experiment into sushi making. I used two recipes spicy tuna salad sushi roll and smoked salmon and mango sushi with citrus soya dipping sauce. Both were very good and I was proud of my first foray into sushi making. The tuna salad sushi roll uses canned (pouch) salmon and so it was a good first try. My son thought this one was the best. It was spicy even though I did not have chili oil. I have since purchased some at the Asian market so I can't wait to try it again. The smoked salmon and mango sushi was preferred by my husband because he loves mango. I did have a sushi making set but it is not absolutely necessary to make sushi.

Saturday

When I first started the blog, a friend of mine from high school sent me a recipe for chicken wings. We tried it and it was great. The only problem was it was so good my kids kept inviting friends and we ended up having small portions. Thanks Marcy for the recipe!

Chicken Wings

Salad

Oven fries

Slow-Cooker Sticky Wings
Serves 12
In step 3, the oven rack should be 10 to 12 inches from the broiler element. Don’t wander off while the wings are in the oven.
1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger , peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves , peeled ( I used 1 small clove)
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 pounds chicken wings , halved at joint and wingtips removed
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
1. MAKE RUB Pulse ginger, garlic, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne in food processor until finely ground. Add mixture to slow cooker insert. Add chicken and toss until combined.
2. COOK AND COOL Cover and cook on low until fat renders and chicken is tender, 3 to 4 hours. Using slotted spoon, remove wings from slow cooker and transfer to clean large bowl (discard liquid in slow cooker). Let wings cool 20 minutes (or cool briefly and refrigerate up to 24 hours).
3. SAUCE AND BROIL Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat broiler. Set wire rack inside rimmed baking sheet and spray rack with baking spray. Whisk water, tomato paste, remaining sugar, remaining soy sauce, and remaining cayenne in bowl. Add half of sauce to bowl with cooled wings and toss gently to coat. Arrange wings, skin side up, on prepared rack. Broil until wings are lightly charred and crisp around edges, 10 to 15 minutes. Flip wings, brush with remaining sauce, and continue to broil until well caramelized, about 3 minutes. Serve.

With teenagers, the recipe doesn't quite serve 12. The wings were good and not too spicy. I will definitely make them again!

Sunday

Lemon Rosemary Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Coconut Mango Rice

Salad

Bread

During warmer weather, I have a love affair with my grill and one of my favorite foods to grill is

pork tenderloin. As long as you don't grill it too hot or too long it is very tender. I love the combination of lemon and rosemary (from my garden) so this was a wonderful dish for us. It was a meal that I could make after church since pork tenderloin cooks quickly. My husband loves both coconut and mango so when I found the coconut mango rice recipe I knew it would be a winner. We finished up the meal with a salad and bread.

I hope you enjoyed this compilation post. I hope to be back on track for weekly posts for the summer. Thank you for reading. Become a follower!

Until next time,

Enjoy your food!