Back on track!

It has been TOO LONG! I haven't cooked anything in like a month. Well nothing new anyway. It is hard to get off track, but I'm working on getting back on.

I'm leaving for home on Tuesday, so I'm going to make a menu for now until then...

Menu:
Friday: Easy Pesto Salmon with Brown Rice
Saturday: Mediterranean Chicken with Feta Rice Pilaf
Sunday: Garlic Chicken Pizzas
Monday: Chicken Nuggets with Sweet Potato Fries

Grocery List:
Dairy:
Fat Free Yogurt
Mozzerella
Feta Cheese

Produce:
Rosemary
Thyme
Lemon
Garlic
Spinich
Basil
Plum Tomato
Sweet Potatoes

Meats:
Salmon

Grocery:
Chicken Broth
Boboli Pizza dough

Week 4 update
I have been incredibly sick all week and barely stayed awake long enough to cook. I did get through a couple recipes....But I'll write about them later...
I'm taking this week off bc I'm home for Thanksgiving...

Week 4!

This week we're going to do Thanksgiving on Thursday, so that should be fun!

Menu:
Sunday: Feta Chicken with Vegetables
Monday: Spiced Chicken and Greens with Pomegranite Dressing
Tuesday: Chili
Wednesday: Middle Eastern Chicken Salad Wraps
Thursday: Thanksgiving - Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Jello, Cranberry Sauce, Pineapple Cherry Surprise
Friday: We're going to the Casino to see Montgomery Gentry!!!
Saturday: I'm going home for Thanksgiving!

Grocery List:
Produce:
Sweet Potatoes 3
Bananas 2
Onion
Celery
Red Seedless Grapes
Cranberries
Orange
Romain Lettuce
Hummus with Roasted Garlic

Dairy:
Butter

Meat:
Chicken (Turkey Breast?)

Grocery:
Brown Sugar
Stuffing Cubes
Frozen Peas
Canned Pineapple
Canned Cherry
Dried Coconut
Yellow Cake Mix
Grape Jello
Red Beans
Tomato Puree
Roasted Red peppers
Light Caesar Dressing

I guess I should catch up before posting about this coming week. Its been a little busy around here and I haven't been very good about posting on here.

Wednesday we had the dry rub chicken and it came out really good. The seasonings didn't get as far into the meat as I would have liked, but it was still pretty tasty over all. I liked it. We made baked potatoes to go with it instead of a pasta salad, but I suck at making those, and it took like 4x as long as it took for the whole chicken to cook!

Thursday we went out shopping so when we got home we decided to make the greek chicken instead of the salad. And as always the gyros were delicious! I love them, and that rice pilaf is to die fore I swear.

Friday we finally did have that chicken salad, and I have to say I was very diappointed with it. It is the first cooking light recipe that I have actually disliked. It was a little sad because I thought I was going to love every recipe I've tried so far. But as Kristyn put it, it tasted like Subway's Tuna...ICK!

We went out to dinner last night. yum.

So the artichokes were a big hit. Kristyn absolutely adored the dish, and I well, thought it was yummy. I didn't love it, but it was WAY better than I thought it would be. We served it with pasta, because it had so much extra sauce...It was tasty.

Heading to cook a dry rub chicken...wish me luck!

Last night was the Chicken with the Mustard - Dill Sauce. It was supposed to be a mustard - maple - dill sauce but Kristyn hates maple, so I replaced it with a little bit of honey. I really liked the mustard and dill combo. It was much better than I expected it to be. I also had a spinach salad with a mustard sauce. It was tasty, but it was a little too mustard-y for me for a salad dressing. I liked it though.

Tonight is artichoke stuffed chicken, I don't know how I feel about it. I'm really nervous about it because I haven't ever liked artichokes....Here's hoping.

I'm excited for Banana and Paul to come back to the Boston so I can cook for more people, who are more willing to try new things and kind of force me to.

Week 3 11/6/2006

So, last week we did really well, but there are still some recipes that need to be carried over, because I came home for the weekend. While I was home, I did make some stuff, just not off of my list because my family isn't as open as my roommate is. So, here's my menu for week 3.

Menu:
Monday: Pan Roasted Chicken Cutlets with a Mustard Dill Sauce, Spinach Pear Salad with Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette
Tuesday: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Wednesday: Dry Rub Chicken with Honey BBQ Sauce with Pasta Salad
Thursday: Chicken Salad with Green Beans and Toasted Walnuts
Friday: Feta Chicken with Vegetables
Saturday: Spiced Chicken and Greens with Pomegranite Dressing
Sunday: Greek Chicken Pitas with Greek Rice


Grocery List:
Produce:
Green Beans
Parsley
Mint
Red Bell Pepper (2)
Red Onion
White Onion
Salad in a bag
Red Onion
Orange
Dill

Dairy:
Gorgonzola Cheese
Yogurt

Meats:
Whole Chicken

Grocery:
Pita Bread
Pomegranite Juice

I'm not cooking something new tonight. My family heard me rave about the cashew stir fry and they want to try it so thats our dinner plan tonight. I think me and Precious are going to make it. I really hope it turns out as good as it did when me and Kristyn made it. mmm...

Day 10 11/2/2006

Tonight was Chicken with a Sage, Pear skillet chutney. It was really delicious. I liked the pears as a savory flavor. It surprised me that I liked that aspect so much, it was slightly sweet but had a carmel-y flavor to it. I really liked it. Then there was green beans and lemon hazelnut butter. That was absolutely delicous. I didn't think I'd like the hazelnut part, but it was amazing. The lemon flavor mixed with the slightly sweet hazelnuts was delicious...

Then tonight I had popcorn with italian seasonings on it. It was ok.

Day 9 11/1/2006

So tonight we had Cider-Glazed Chicken, Warm Spinach Salad with Apples, Bacon and Cranberries and it was delicious. The salad was to die for. It had a balsamic dressing that wilted the spinach a little and made it awfully delicious. The flavor combonation of the things together worked really well for me. In making the bacon to go on top o fthe salad, I burned it and set off the fire alarm in my apartment, that sucked a little. The campus police had to come turn it off for me. Talk about embarassing....He did say that dinner smelled really good though, so i'll take it as a compliment!

Day 8 10/31/2006

Last night we had the baked citrus salmon and it was delicious. I over cooked it a tiny bit, but it was still really tasty. My baked potato was slightly funny textured but anything with chive sour cream is tasty in my opinion!

On Sunday we had the Spinach pasta with sundried tomatoes, and that was pretty tasty. I didn't think I liked sundried tomatoes, but they were pretty good in the pasta. We also had the creamy tomato balsamic soup, and that was ok...I wasn't the hugest fan of that but it was edible.

Today is Halloween so Kristyn and I are going out to dinner, so no new cooking adventures tonight.

Week 2

Menu:
Sunday: Creamy Tomato Balsamic Soup, Chicken and Spinach Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes
Monday:Baked Citrus-Herb Salmon, Chive Sour Cream Baked Potato, Corn (Last Week's Recipe)
Tuesday: Out for Halloween
Wednesday: Cider-Glazed Chicken, Warm Spinach Salad with Apples, Bacon and Cranberries
Thursday: Chicken with Pear Sage Skillet Chutney, Green Beans with Hazlenut Lemon butter
Friday:Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Saturday: Pan Roasted Chicken Cutlets with a Mustard Dill Sauce, Spinach Pear Salad with Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette
Sunday: Dry Rub Chicken with Honey BBQ Sauce with Pasta Salad

Grocery List:
Produce:
Green Beans
Red Onion (2)
Red Bell Pepper
Sage
Cider
Pears (4)
Spinach (2)

Meat:
Bacon
Whole Chicken

Grocery:
Frozen Corn
Craisens
Hazelnuts
Dijon Mustard
Honey

Dairy:
Feta or Goat Cheese

Day 5 10/27/2006

Today I didn't make dinner, but I did make a bunch of other stuff. More info to come at a later date ;-)

Day 4 10/26/2006

Tonight we ended up having Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry and Rice because of time constraints. We were out Halloween shopping, and then we got home and were very hungry so we needed to make something that took a bit less time. It was delicious, I think I added too much hot pepper flakes, but it was still really good.


In other news, Kris and I might be going to Troy for the weekend, so some of the other recipes are going to have to get pushed back to next week. But week 1 went wonderfully!

The Crepes:


The Filling:



The finished product!



The crepes were amazing! They were some of the best crepes I had ever had! I was so proud of myself! I have wanted crepes for a couple weeks now, and I did it! I made them! WAHOO!

Day 3

So in addition to making enchilladas tonight, which isn't a new recipe, its actually one of my tried and true recipes, I'm making crepes for dinner. I plan on making a chocolate cool whip with chocolate chips. If it comes out decent looking, I'll take pictures and post them. I've been craving crepes for a long time now, and I decided to give in and just make them.

I'm debating entering my enchilladas recipe in one of the chicken cookoffs that are coming up this spring. Wish me luck.

I got notification that I made it through the first round of the build a better burger contest. So...wish me luck!!

Day 2 10/24/06

Tonight's dinner was Almond Crusted Chicken with Scallion Rice. The chicken part was really tasty, but the rice was really bland. I could have totally done without the rice. It needed something, like a sauce or maybe some fat. The chicken was very tasty though. It was very easy to make, really quick too. The chicken was huge, so it took a little while to cook. Unfortunately because of that, the almonds burnt on the pan a little. But they fell off, and nothing else even tasted burnt.

My Inspiration

I was reading again tonight and decided to see if I could find Julie Powell's original blog that she did when she did her Julie/Julia Project. I found it and if you're interested - you can find it: here

Dinner 1

Tonights dinner was Broccoli and Smoked Turkey Focaccia Sandwiches. I wanted to make them with potato salad, but the dill at the store tonight didn't seem so great, so I had to put it off. I also couldn't get focaccia bread, so I ended up getting a loaf of roasted garlic bread, and that was really good, but I'd be interested in trying it on the focaccia. I made it with a side of broccoli because I had extra from what I steamed to add to the sandwich.

Overall it was pretty good. Probably a better lunch than dinner, but good none the less. It was very simple, and quite tasty. I'm still a bit hungry so I might have a little more. I think if I made the potato salad, it would have been perfect. When Kristyn eats it I will probably tell her to have it with some soup if she's still hungry. And also to toast the bread.

So day one was successful! Talk to you tomorrow!

Week 1 10/23/06

So this is Week 1:

Menu:
Monday: Broccoli and Smoked Turkey Focaccia Sandwiches, Potato Salad
Tuesday: Almond Crusted Chicken with Scallion Rice
Wednesday: Enchilladas
Thursday:Baked Citrus-Herb Salmon, Chive Sour Cream Baked Potato, Corn
Friday: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Saturday: Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry, Rice
Sunday: Chicken and Spinach Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes

Grocery List
Produce
Chives
Scallions
Oregano
Terragon
Broccoli
Garlic
Lemon
Red bell pepper
Carrot
Frozen spinach


Meats
Salmon
Chicken
Deli turkey
Chicken thighes


Dairy
Sour cream
Cream cheese
Goat or feta cheese - crumbled

Grocery
Rice
Honey mustard
Roasted red peppers
Focaccia bread
Tomato sauce
Cumin
Paprika
Tortilla shells
Jalepenos
Refried beans
Canned artichoke bottoms
Corn starch
Pineapple chunks
Cashews
Sundried Tomatoes

My Cooking Blog!

So, in light of me reading a new book, I have decided to start a cooking blog, and post every day about the meals I'm making, and mishaps and other adventures that go along with it. I'm going to try to post my grocery list and menu every Sunday or Monday, and try to keep this very organized so that I can have the detail of this adventure documented. It is going to be cooking only, I have other blogs for my life experience. So here I go!

And if you want to be inspired like me, read "Julie and Julia: my year of cooking dangerously" by Julie Powell