July Eats

Well.

I haven't been doing so well in keeping up this blog this month, but vacation and stuff will do that to you!  That of course doesn't mean that we haven't been eating good stuff.

Fourth of July was super-rainy.  So instead of having a cookout or something, we stayed home.  And Brian made these homemade fish sticks.  They were SO much better than the frozen kind.  And I made a tartar sauce to go with them, which the kids of course wouldn't touch.  Tartar sauce surprisingly has few ingredients.  Mayonnaise, chopped pickles and capers.  That's it.

And for something fun, we decided later on to make lumpia.  Brian was looking for something different with ground pork and he came across this recipe--it's like spring rolls.  They came out awesome!!  There was pineapple fried rice to go with it, which needs improvement as it's a one-note wonder.  Still was delicious, though.

Now we've just gotten back from vacation--Orlando!  We stopped at Perkins once we got off the plane, which Brian and I both love.  Sadly, the closest one I've ever seen to us is Pennsylvania.  Their pies alone are worth the trip.  I just ordered a chicken tender plate, I had been craving fried chicken for some time but was trying to behave.  (Vacation is not for behaving.)  This is how I knew that we were in the South--when saying "Yes, I'd like gravy" I had to specify what kind.  Turkey, beef, brown, cream or plain.  This is what I love about the southern part of the country!

 Orlando brought us Disney World, with our first dole whip.  Pineapple juice and ice cream...I must have one again!  (I actually did see a recipe on Pinterest, will have to try.)  Food at Disney World, though expensive, is mostly delicious.  I say "mostly" because of course we did eat a lot of "kid friendly" stuff.  Will and I took a "Mom and Will Day" at Universal Studios to see all of the Harry Potter attractions, and one of the things that we experienced was butterbeer.  I always wondered what butterbeer was, exactly.  I can now tell you, butterscotch!  They had two versions, frozen and non.  Will and I shared a frozen one and it was incredible.  We stopped at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley (that is really fun to say, by the way!) and had a very British lunch of fish and chips for me, and macaroni and cheese for him.  (the other two items on the kids menu, Meat Pie and Fish and Chips, did not appeal.  Not surprised.)  The fish and chips was surprisingly one of the best I've ever had, and I had a non-frozen butterbeer.  It's still butterscotch but carbonated.  Incredible.

Another restaurant worth mentioning is Carrabbas.  It's Italian food, which is a crowd-pleaser in my family.  I always judge a place by their chicken marsala and this place didn't disappoint.  What was disappointing, is that there aren't any in the area.  In Massachusetts, yes.  In Central MA?  No.

Now we're back home and getting into the swing of things.  Got some new recipes to try in the next week or so, but tonight's an easy night:  Will's favorite, cheese ravioli.

Best Ever Chicken Thighs

Allow me to introduce you to some of the BEST chicken thighs I've ever had!!

Brown Sugar and Mustard Chicken Thighs and Sweet Potatoes.  

Here's the link to the recipe.

Hooray for awesome Pinterest finds!

Only one issue:  I really need to learn to read the recipe before putting it on the weekday menu.  This was an oven recipe, with almost an hour of baking time.  That being said, it was worth it!  Not too bad in calories and delicious to boot.  

Homemade Meatballs 'n Sauce

In an effort to be more health conscious, we've been eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water and reading labels at our house.

One of the biggest eye openers?  How much sugar is in everything!  Places you wouldn't expect it, either.  Ketchup, salad dressing.  And the biggest surprise:  jarred spaghetti sauce!

So Brian decided to give making some a whirl.  Not even from canned tomatoes, but fresh.  I always thought that tomato sauce, though worth the effort, took a ridiculous amount of time.  Not so.

We made it on a Thursday night, from "The Joy of Cooking."  And it was wonderful!  Served with homemade meatballs that had been in our freezer, and substituting a bit of the spaghetti with spaghetti sauce.  The sauce was a bit thin, which is another big surprise.  Why is jarred sauce so thick!  The thinner sauce was much more flavorful, and savory over sweet.  Delicious!

I'm not saying that we'll make homemade all the time.  Because I know that with two working parents, some prepared foods are necessary at times.  But this was well worth the effort, and the expense.  So much in fact, that we're doing it again on Tuesday.  :)

Summer Salads

In our house, we eat well.  In fact, I think a lot of the time that the food that Brian makes is better than most restaurant food that we get to have.  I'm not being braggy...ok maybe a little.  But in terms of cooking, I've always said that he is exceptional whereas my cooking is good for everyday.

Speaking of restaurant food...there is one food that I've always found better at a restaurant than at home.  Salads.  

Salads just taste better at a restaurant.  The produce is fresher, the presentation, the variety of ingredients.  Until recently, salads at our house were just green salads with a little tomato and cucumber on top.  Maybe some celery or carrots, and almost always featured "bag-o-salad."  You know, the big bag of mixed lettuce that you buy at the grocery store and pray that it will still be good in two days.  (It usually isn't.)

I'm starting to change my mind about salads....a couple of weeks ago Brian and I made a Chinese chicken salad using romaine, rotisserie chicken, oriental noodles, toasted almonds, mandarin orange slices, etc.  It was delicious!  It was also huge--and would've made great leftovers if we hadn't dressed the whole thing.  It was a soggy mess the next day.  So I've learned a few things:  the secret to a great salad is in the dressing.  Homemade is best, and honestly, it's not difficult or really time-consuming.  Plus, you know what's going into it and can adjust it to your taste.

So Brian and I have resolved to a salad dinner once a week, and here was last night's:

Rib-eye steak over watercress, radish and a little blue cheese, with a wine vinegar dressing.  

It was quite good and surprisingly, filled us up.  Can't wait to see what the next salad turns up like!

Quinoa Cakes

That's right....quinoa cakes.  Not like a sweet birthday cake, but a savory one for breakfast.  

I had pinned a recipe on my "Operation Healthy" pinterest board some time ago for cheesy quinoa cakes.  Since I had this in mind for breakfast, I omitted the lemon-garlic aioli.  Though I would like to try that next time!  I was at a conference last week and it might've been just the jump-start I needed to eat and be healthier.  One of the other RSC's gave me some tips on getting  more protein, especially at breakfast.  So I gave these a whirl!

Couple of things:  first of all, quinoa is messy.  And unlike making a patty with ground beef, it's sticky and falls apart easily.  I had to rinse my hands several times and there was cooked quinoa all over the counter when I was done.  Secondly, when the recipe says "Cook five minutes on each side," DO IT!  Don't just say "oh, these are vegetarian so they should be ok.  I have a whole bowl of screwed-up quinoa cake in the fridge.

This was delicious this morning with a fried egg on top.  And I wasn't hungry til lunch!  (Though I had a "Be Kind" bar for snack, which was equally delightful.)  

Unprocessing

The more things that we make from scratch instead of a box, the more things we want to try to make ourselves.

This weekend was homemade cornbread and homemade mayonnaise.  The cornbread was because we had our friends Tracy and Michael over for chili and not enough jiffy mix.  Brian chose a recipe online and ta-da!  Cornbread for a crowd.  It was quite unlike store - bought,  it had plenty of moisture!  That came from giving the cornmeal a 5-minute milk soak.

The mayo was also born out of necessity.... Brian went to make a roast beef sandwich and we didn't have any!  He said that it was quite an arm workout but that it was delicious.

So, in no way will we attempt to cut out pre packaged foods permanently, as they are a huge time saver for two working parents. But whenever there's time on our side, we are sure to do this kind of thing again.

Brian's Creations

Brian wrote the menu last week, and it was all based on ideas instead of recipes.  I don't usually cook like that, I prefer a recipe.  But he's good at it.  

First one was his new take on Chicken Parmesan.  He had seen something on a food network gameshow that gave him the idea, and this is the result:

Fresh Chicken Parm with Couscous

Pan-fried chicken cutlet, topped with canned tomato, a slice of mozzarella and a spinach-arugula blend.  Oh, and shredded parmesan.  Couscous was a nice departure from the normal spaghetti, too.  It tasted light and fresh, which while I love traditional chicken parm, one does not describe it as "light."

Seared sea scallops over linguine.

This recipe puts Olive Garden to shame!  I say that because we went to Olive Garden last month and it was truly disappointing.  I ordered a chicken pasta dish that was like sixteen bucks and what was it?  A pound of angel hair with a little butter and wine, couple of pieces of chicken and a whole pepper cut into huge hunks.  Not their best efforts.  This was scallops, a wine and butter sauce, pepper and onion stirfy and some more of that shredded parmesan.  Not to mention, the rest of that spinach and arugula blend, with Brian's own made-up balsamic and lemon dressing!  (Totally made up on the spot, and it was great!)

I wrote the menu this week, and it's back to recipes.  It'll still be good, though.