Weekly Menu & North Carolina

We're baaaack...from a wonderful wedding weekend in North Carolina celebrating Brandon & Miranda!  We drove through lush green countryside and mountains on the way to Asheville - what a treat!  Andrew was a groomsman in the wedding, as he was roommates and friends with Brandon at UT (note the Tennessee orange tie that Andrew's wearing).  Brandon was also a groomsman in our wedding!  Tis the season for weddings.  We have 2 more to attend this year!

Firstly, after a weekend of gluttony (re: made to order crab cakes & baked brie at the reception - YUM) I am ready to start healthy eating again!  Secondly, I rediscovered TONS of recipes from Real Simple & Cooking Light magazines that I have saved over the years (my mom would be proud).  I went through them and ripped out all the pages of recipes that I will actually cook (my mom would NOT be proud) and put them in a lil' binder for easy access.

Here's what we're eating this week...

CM Goat Cheese Ravioli with a Tomato, Spinach, Artichoke Sauce (that I whipped up!)

Summer Vegetable Frittata (Cooking Light June 2010)

Open Face Caprese Sandwiches

Baked Cod, Broccoli, and Vinaigrette Quinoa

Dijon Salmon Cake with Couscous (Real Simple August 2010)

Taco Salad! (Andrew requested I make these because it was a frequent meal growing up in the Wooster house)

The 4th & Yummies

We have been BUSY!  Or maybe I just haven't posted in awhile.  Anywhoo...

For 4th of July weekend, we went to Houston to hang out with Andrew's Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marjorie.  Twas a great time!  We ate lots of indulgences - Aunt Marjorie's "Grandma beans" & THE BEST potato salad to ever cross my lips, Black Eyed Pea Dip (very yummy and actually not too bad-for-you), Bloomin' Onion Bread (O.M.Good.God. so good, I ate nearly half the loaf), and my famous Reese's in a Cookie (can't you just taste it?!?).  We also made Michelada's (eh, not for me) and drank lots of beer floating in the pool. Smokey got to hang out with his cousins Baxter (fellow wiener dog) and Bear (little poodle, so cute).


I am running a 1/2 marathon in October!  See Jane Run 1/2 Marathon - supposedly we get chocolate and champagne at the finish line - why wouldn't I?!?!  The last (and I thought would be the ONLY) 1/2 marathon I ran was the San Antonio in 2008.  I didn't train as well as I should have, along with my poor hip strength & core stability made for a painful and demoralizing finish.  This time I'm motivated to run it with a bunch of lovely ladies, and my PT co-worker+friend Cindy is my running coach!  I ran 6 miles on Sunday without a problemo!

Finally working on wedding "Thank You's" and I made this...


My favorite places hearts - made out of maps!!!  I cut up an old atlas that was falling apart.  My mom wants one made out of places she has lived...


Oh yeah, Andrew and I still need one more "favorite" :)









Last but not least - I made this Rosemary-Rose Spritzer for a get-together this weekend.  Deliciously summery & refreshing!  I used up some rosemary from my herb garden.  I'm going to try the simple syrup in some lemonade later this week...

Weekly Menu

Well, we put the CSA on hold - Andrew is going to look into getting a 1/2 batch of veggies.  It only lasted a month but I learned a lot:  how to roast beets, pulled some old zucchini recipes out of the box, how to cook with eggplant but mostly that farm fresh veggies taste SO good.

Our best dish last week was the Veggie Wraps with Pesto and Goat Cheese.  This is what Beth fixed for us for my lovely shower in Chicago.  So yummy and brought back wonderful girly memories! 

This Week:

Salmon with Blistered Tomatoes, Herbed Cracked Wheat, and Pesto'ed Zucchini & Onions

Tamales & Gazpacho

Thai Stir-Fry

Breakfast Tacos for Dinner

Fourth of July Indulgences at Uncle Jeff's

Happy Birthday Mom and Happy 4th of July Everybody!!

Weekly Menu

I was a busy-bee cooking this weekend to use up all of our vegetables!  What should I do with a head of cabbage???

In store for this week...

Eggplant & Chicken Parmesan (Cooks Illustrated Light) with Carrot+Zucchini "Fettuccine Alfredo"

Garden Vegetable Pasta (Cooks Illustrated Light)

Grilled Veggie Wraps with Pesto & Goat Cheese and Strawberry Spinach Salad

Soho Crusted Salmon with Banana Pepper Quinoa & Gazpacho (Cooks Illustrated Light)

Cabbage Dish! (Something Asian?!)

"Date Night Special" :)

CSA - Community Supported Agriculture

We joined the Austin CSA through National Instruments (NI - Andrew's work) a couple of weeks ago.  Basically, a local farm delivers their fresh produce to those who sign up through the program.  We are not completely won over to the program & system after the first 2 weeks that we have been involved.





Pros:  Organic & fresh from the farm, supporting local business, conveniently delivered to NI, get to taste and cook with produce that you would otherwise not buy, tastes better than produce from the grocery,  I made a vegetable hummus tart:

Cons: produce is more expensive than purchasing at the grocery, do not get to pick quality/quantity/type of produce.

Hmmm, we'll see.  For now it's like Christmas from the farm every Thursday when Andrew brings the box of goodies home!

Weekly Menu

The BEST Blueberry Muffins were baked this weekend!  Our friends and future Austin neighbors Rob & Lisa were visiting this weekend, so what a great opportunity to show off my baking skills ;)  This will definitely be my new "go-to" muffin recipe - chock full of yummy fruit!! 

Here's what I plan to dine on this week:

Carmelized Salmon & Green Beans Amondine

Roast Pork (in the Crock Pot) with Roasted Broccoli

Goat Cheese & Spinach Quesadillas (had them at Iron Cactus this weekend and I bet I can make copy-cat recipe)

Tamales & Black Beans

Roasted Vegetable & Hummus Tart

Weekly Menu

We have not eaten any recipes that we consider keepers in a week or so - hopefully this week will be yummier!!

I forgot:  I did make King Ranch Chicken for the second time ever last week and this version turned out way better than my previous attempt.  The secret is green enchilada sauce, I think. 

The Plan:

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts (Cooking Light May 2010), Red Bell Pepper Rice, & Broccoli

Soy Chorizo & Egg Breakfast-for-Dinner Tacos with Refried Black Beans

Parmesean Crusted Chicken/Tofu & Spring Onion Pasta (Cooking Light May 2010)

Chicken/Tofu Stir Fry

Blueberry Muffins (Thanks Susan!)

Weekly Menu

Our favorite dish last week - Carmelized Salmon!  Pretty easy (the hardest part was finding all the ingredients - had to go to Central Market) and OH SO YUMMY!  Definitely our new favorite salmon recipe too, thanks Court5203 :)

This week we're having...

Mediterranean:  hummus, tabouli, grilled chicken & spinach

Curried Coconut and Chicken Soup (in the Crockpot)

Veggie Lasagna & Salad

Pizza-dillas

(Packaged) Lobster Ravaoli with TBD Sauce :)

Leftovers

Weekly Menu

Last week I learned that if you cook for 4 people when only 2 people eat a meal - you have lots of leftovers.  Also lots of leftovers after the delicious Easter feast, means that Becky didn't cook as much as she thought she would!  That's OK - I've been busy at work.


I made my best pizza ever yet last week - Pear, carmelized onion, gorgonzola & walnut - mmm, mmm! Andrew made classic pepperoni & mushroom with carmelized onions. 

On tap this week...

Ham, Broccoli, & Cheese Calzones (www.goodlifeeats.com)

Migas & Black Beans

Herbed Chicken & Artichoke (from our new CrockPot!) and Polenta

Carmelized Salmon (from Central Market, thanks Court!) and Fresh Herb Rice

Make Your Own Hamburgers/Veggieburgers and Sweet Potato Fries

Leftovers

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter!  Started off with mass, then a trip to Bed, Bath, & Beyond (they seemed to be the only store open) to buy a 20%offsale+20%offcoupon roasting pan from our registry, then breakfast tacos!  The rest of the day we worked hard to make our house sparkly clean and clutter-free (garage sale next weekend!).  The best part of Easter was sharing it with our "Austin Family" for a pot luck dinner.  Very similar to our Christmas dinner 2 years ago, we represented many religions - Catholics, Protestants, Jewish, Orthodox & Hindi!  Some how it ended up that the Hindu guy knew more about Catholicism & Jewish that the Catholics & the Jew :)  We dined on a variety of dishes - Indian samosas, fresh spring salads, corned beef & cabbage (from garden grown cabbage, care of Eric & Katherine), roast chicken (thanks new awesome roasting pan!) and of course the Easter ham!!!  We topped it all off with a "chocolate stout bread pudding" (chocolate+bread+ice cream on top=perfection) and the Mexicans made the American classic "apple pie."  Delicious food & awesome fellowship!

Weekly Menu

My first and foremost goal as a married woman is to keep my man happily & healthily nourished.  Here's what we plan to have at the dinner table this week...

Cheese & Herb Chicken/Tofu with zucchini and Italian bread with dipping  oils

Tamales (practically coming out of our ears - left over from the wedding) with Mexican rice and black beans

Make Your Own Pizza

Shrimp Pad Thai (Cooking Light recipe)

Poached Salmon (Cook's Illustrated recipe) with Maccaroni & Cheese and salad

Herbed Artichoke Chicken (from our new CrockPot!) with Polenta and salad

Easter Ham with pot luck with friends!