Menu for 4/20:
Ingredients:
Trader Joe's® ratatouille, crushed or minced garlic, dry white wine, wild halibut, red chili flakes, salt & pepper.
- Steamed broccoli
- Garlic potatoes
- Swordfish steaks
Ingredients:
Fresh broccoli, a bag of garlic potatoes (they appear to be roasted-ish), swordfish steaks.
So you may have noticed that the first attempt at a menu is all crossed out. This is because I could not find the all ingredients for the first recipe. I tried too. I went to three different Trader Joe's®, in one day, to find the essentials. No dice. So by the end of the day, both the boy and I were exhausted and just wanted to go home. We decided that this week, I am going to wing it. That is right, I am going back to winging the dinner this week.
Upon leaving the third TJ's, I turned to my darling and told him that I had two frozen swordfish steaks and a bag of garlic potatoes in the freezer and I had some broccoli. I then stated that if we put all those things together on a plate then it could be classified as a meal, and a some what healthy one at that. He liked this idea, and I am fairly certain that he was just tired of driving and wanted to go home. So thus is our dinner. I promised him that I would use some of my smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce on the fish. Swordfish is a rather dense fish, so it can hold up to the spice. As for the other things; the potatoes are coming from a bag and the broccoli is of the type that can steam in the bag that I bought them in. I am not expecting it to be a difficult dinner, but I will let you know if this prediction is a false one.
I would also like to apologize for updating a week late. These weeks when I have Monday off always throw me for a loop. Tuesday is Monday but it is Tuesday. Crazy.
Menu for 3/23:
Bangers:
Chicken sausage, veggie Italian sausage.
"Bangers" is British speak for sausages for those who are not in the know. Now you are in the know. Don't you feel special?
Mash:
Yukon gold potatoes, whole milk, creme fraîche, Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, dry mustard, salt & pepper.
This is another Ina recipe. When we were looking for recipes last week and came across the tuna sandwiches from last week we came across this one too. It was decided that this would be another on we would need to try but that the tuna would be first. I have a feeling that this one may be a little bit labor intensive than the tuna, but just as delicious. I also think that the "mash" (British speak for mash potatoes, look at how much you are learning today!) is going to be a bit 'knock you socks off' spicy with all the mustard. That will be just fine though, it is allergy season after all and who doesn't need their sinuses cleared a bit, right? I am intrigued to be working with dry mustard as I have never worked with it before. We also had to go on a little bit of an adventure because our local Trader Joe's didn't have it. I told my darling that by the end of this little experiment I think I am going to have one of the best stocked spice cabinets ever. I might need a whole room just for the different spices. Okay maybe not a room, but I will definitely be needing more shelf space.
Menu for 3/16:
- Tuna on sourdough with homemade hummus sandwiches
The Sandwiches:
Tuna in olive oil, minced celery, minced yellow onion, lemon juice, "good" mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, salt & pepper, hummus (ingredients to follow), sourdough bread.
The Hummus:
Canned chickpeas, tahini or sesame sauce, minced garlic, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, salt.
This recipe is from my Ina book. When we (my darling and I, not the royal 'we') first looked through this book we never considered looking at the lunch section. I think that we figured that since this whole project is about making him dinner then we should look at only dinner recipes. HA! We're adults! We could have ice cream for dinner if we want! Therefore we are living on the edge this week with this LUNCH recipe. Daring, I know. If I had an ice cream maker I think that I would make ice cream for dinner one of these nights and he would be over the moon. Alas though, I do not own an ice cream maker. *sigh*
Back to the recipe! This was one of the ones that we both agreed sounded om nom and since I am no stranger to making hummus from scratch, it doesn't seem like it will be all that difficult. I have to say that as of late the ease factor of a given recipe is a large part of whether I pick it or not. On weeks such as 10,8,7, and 4, I was nearly falling asleep while eating. So that fact coupled with the fact that I have been waking up at about ten of five in the morning to go to the gym at least twice a week makes the ease factor a huge deciding point. That and this one is rather healthy compared to some of the others that I have prepared for him *cough cough* steak *cough cough*.
I am planning on trying to stick to the letter of these recipes. I will tell you that I did omit the cornichons from the tuna because pickles give me heartburn like none other. It's weird, I love cucumbers (in my world they are called crunchy water) and I love dill and I love vinegar, but put them together and my body revolts and tries to burn itself from the inside out. Sad in a way. I have already asked him if he wanted them and he said no as well, so it is a mutual thing.Tahini has proved to be a difficult find so I have compensated and bought yogurt as a substitute. From my earlier hummus making experience I know that it is fine to use. I will still go out and look for it but I am not holding out much hope. I have to get Tabasco sauce too, preferably the smoked kind.
For easy shopping I took pictures of the recipe with my camera phone so I could see the ingredients. I might do that from now on and publish them at the end of my 'finished product' posts. I don't know though, what do you guys think?
