My week in food

Surprise! It's a post that's not about my kid.

For the past couple weeks, since our life has gotten somewhat back to normal, I have started my "weekly schedule." Basically it's a way for me to keep the house clean by only having to do one thing a day, remind me to study my Bible and exercise, etc. so I don't feel overwhelmed with my new housewife tasks (I know that sounds dumb, but with me, getting overwhelmed happens pretty easily especially in the midst of taking care of a newborn). So part of this weekly schedule is planning a menu and grocery shopping. I know many of you are friends with me on Facebook and might remember my status after I made my very first meal after having Ezra (the first day our friends stopped bringing us food and I realized that I was once again responsible for what we were going to eat). Basically it said something like the meal was nasty and Chad went out for ice cream and we had that for dinner instead. I had thought I was being all smart before the birth, so I had frozen some meals, and this one in particular was sloppy joes. Well, it was nasty. I took one bite and threw the rest away, which gave Chad permission to do the same thing (he is usually very polite when it comes to my meal blunders and at least eats firsts, even if he doesn't lick the leftover bowl clean). Anyway, I decided at that point that this was my job now. I HAD to start making better meals, because I just couldn't stand to eat meal after meal of my own bad cooking. And eating out for each meal for us is not an option, both for financial and health reasons.

So to go along with this, if you know me well or at all (and if you don't, why are you stalking my blog? Oh wait I do that too), you know that I love the Food Network. I have it on in my house pretty much all the time unless Top Chef is on, which incidentally is another food show in case you didn't get that from context clues. Problem is, none of that knowledge was really rubbing off, or I would see a recipe that looked good but never would try it. So now that I have more time to plan our menu and cook on a daily basis, I've been trying out a lot of recipes and they have all been good so I wanted to share. There's this new show on called Ten Dollar Dinners which is hosted by the lady who just won the Next Food Network Star, and I have tried a bunch of her recipes and they are all good. I am putting the links to all these recipes because I recommend all of them. The only issue I have with the "Ten Dollar Dinner" thing is that I don't think they always cost only $10. She calls for a lot of fresh herbs, thyme for example. That's fine with me because I have thyme growing in my backyard, as well as a lot of other herbs, but to buy herbs like thyme and basil in the store costs a good $3-4. Also, for the recipe I'm making today, it calls for white wine. Well, we don't have wine at our house, so I had to buy a bottle and even the cheapest wine is $5 or $6 a bottle. They always say on these shows "Cook with a wine you would drink," which to me means don't cook with wine, because I wouldn't drink wine. So I really don't know what that means, except I do know not to buy that "cooking wine" they sell next to the vinegar. I think it has salt in it or something. On the other hand, she will plan a menu that uses all of one thing (like a lemon in the salmon cakes/asparagus/orzo meal) so nothing goes to waste. I like that because I hate having a part of something left over and then feeling like I need to use it for something, but really having to throw it away most of the time. So here is what we've been eating the past couple weeks:

Potato Bacon Torte (used refrigerated pie crusts instead of making my own)
Roasted carrots

Salmon cakes (sidenote: when I told Chad, who's not a huge fan of fish, that we were having salmon cakes, he said, "I'm scared." I was too. Anyway, they were really good and Chad even had seconds and then ate the leftovers, so there you go.)
Orzo with thyme and lemon zest
Roasted asparagus with Lemon vinaigrette

Crispy-skinned chicken a l'orange (I made the leftovers into chicken salad and it was really good)
Basic fruit salad

I also made my mom's friend Genie's pork tenderloin recipe, and it was really good as well and the best part is I have all the ingredients at my house already. The other good thing is that although pork tenderloin is a more expensive cut of meat, there are usually two per pack and it's really hard to mess up. Here it is:

Mix all together and coat meat on all sides:

1 tsp chili powder
chopped garlic
3 T brown sugar
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese
olive oil

Sear meat 2 minutes on all sides to brown.

Roast at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or if you use a meat thermometer 160 degrees internal temperature. I guess the time depends on the size of the roast.

Today I'm making North African meatballs with Couscous with dried dates and tomorrow I'm making one of Ina's recipes, chicken stew with biscuits. I'll let you know how those turn out. (Update: made the meatballs and couscous and it was really good, but I probably won't make it again for a while. It had a lot of ingredients I don't normally have on hand, like kalamata olives, dried dates, etc. But it was worth trying once).

I am starting to get my cooking confidence back. Every single one of these meals has been good, and the positive side to it is that we have eaten all the leftovers. It's my job to clean out old food from the fridge, so it's been nice to not have to do that. It has made me enjoy cooking again, and now I look forward to cooking dinner every day. I'll probably start posting the links to whatever I am cooking each week, only I think I'll post them after I cook the meal. Then I can say if it was good, and if it wasn't, I won't be recommending it.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend...we are having friends in town and grilling on our new grill! Chad went out and bought one the other day. Which reminds me, does anyone have a good recipe for pork chops on the grill?

P.S. for all you other Food Network lovers out there...is there anybody else who couldn't care less what Brian Boitano would make?