dinners last week

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Dinners This Week

Over the past few months (since October, apparently, which is when I last posted a Dinners This Week), I have been trying two new things when it comes to the persistent Sisyphean task that is Making Dinners for Myself and My Family:

Thing 1: I have given up on making dinner daily. Instead, I plan three meals per week, and the other days we either have Ham Sandwich (which means my husband and I fend for ourselves; he often eats an actual ham sandwich and I eat black bean tacos) or I scrape together a last minute meal based on what sounds good and what I have in the house. Most recently, this has been things like pizza or burritos or a big salad.

Thing 2: I have given up on keeping track of what I’m making or planning to make, in any sort of way, on my blog or in my email.

My assessment of how well these practices have been going: Thing 1 is going great, Thing 2 is going poorly. This means that I’m going to resume posting Dinners This Week. It seems a little silly, since I’m only posting three meals… but it’s a good way to keep track of what I’ve planned, so I don’t end up having to re-plan meals right before I go to the store. I may attempt to review the previous week’s meals, to track new recipes and whether they’ve been successful or not.

Dinners Last Week Report:

  • Pasta Primavera: What can I say? I had a dual craving for pasta and tons of veggies. I’ve made pasta primavera in the past, and it’s never lived up to my expectations, but this recipe was very tasty. The veggies I used were zucchini, red onion, peas, and red bell pepper. I also washed and chopped up broccoli, but forgot about it. I would definitely add it to the veggie mix next time. Oh! Since I didn’t have any fresh basil, I used frozen cubes of basil I had in the freezer, and that worked pretty well. Fresh basil would undoubtedly be better, though.
  • Chicken Curry with Peas: This is a super easy recipe, and it’s fairly tasty. I think I added some other vegetable – possibly the forgotten broccoli? – to it to amp up the veg quotient.
  • Crockpot Chicken Bowls with Yellow Rice and Cilantro Pesto: Birchie posted about this recipe and I instantly wanted to try it. Unsurprisingly, she was right on the money: the cilantro pesto is *chef’s kiss* wonderful. The pickled onions were a can’t-miss addition. I love a good crockpot chicken recipe, and this one was as easy as it gets. It did turn out a little… wet for my taste. I might halve the enchilada sauce for the next batch and maybe opt out of the cornstarch slurry step.
  • Pork Chops with Veggies and Basil Couscous: This was one of my scrape-together meals of the week. Pork chops were on sale last week, so I bought a pack of three. We had a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower in the freezer that I threw into the oven. And we had a box of basil couscous in the cupboard. This was a serviceable but not particularly enjoyable meal. The basil couscous was edible but mildly unpleasant; too salty and the basil flavor was kind of fake tasting.
  • Pizza: This was another scrape-together meal. I love this recipe for yogurt pizza dough because it comes together quickly and adds a little extra protein to my pizza crust. I divide the dough in half and roll out two thin pizzas, one for me, one for my husband. I made pizza last week, too, so I still had half a jar of pizza sauce in the fridge.

Dinners for the Week of February 10-16:

  • Beef Birria Tacos: This recipe looks a little involved, so I may hold off on it until the weekend. But I have a MAJOR craving for beef birria, so I think it will be worth it. Also, the recipe makes a TON of food, so I’m hoping that I have leftovers to freeze.
  • Salmon Burgers: My husband and I have made these a few times and they are SO GOOD. This is one of the only ways I can get him to eat salmon, too.
  • Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma: I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but it sounds pretty delicious. I might throw some chicken into the mix for my husband.