Thursday night: Homestyle Vegetable Beef Soup --This is a favorite of ours, and it didn't disappoint. Jenny got in at 5 pm, so I wanted something that could simmer on the stovetop for a while and didn't have a specific "ready" time. Also, I wanted to feed her something that she wouldn't normally eat with her vegetarian husband.
Friday night: Homemade Pizza--Also a favorite. Here's my pizza dough recipe:
1 cup warm water
1 pkg yeast
1 pinch sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 1/3 cups flour
Mix water, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit 10 minutes, or until frothy.
Add olive oil and salt. Mix in flour until you have a dough that you can work with.
Knead until elastic (10-15 times or so.)
Place in an oiled bowl, covered with a damp cloth, in a warm place until doubled.
Punch down and let rise again.
Stretch or roll out dough, top with whatever you want, and bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes. We like ours baked on a pizza stone, but a baking sheet works too.
Saturday: Spinach Lasagna-- Even my picky husband who "hates" spinach ate this up. We had half a pan left over, which I froze in individual portions so that Andy could supplement his meals as needed.
Sunday: Andy, Mom, and Dad arrived Saturday night after the kids went to bed, so they woke up to a wonderful surprise!
For lunch, we had Mexican Pantry Soup. This is a soup that I made up based on a couple recipes I remembered but didn't have in front of me at the time. It turned out so yummy that I make it on a regular basis now. We served the chicken on the side so that it was vegetarian for Andy.
For dinner, we celebrated my dad's birthday with Unsloppy Joes, Oven fries, and Tomato Soup Spice Cake. The unsloppy joes were a disappointment. The sauce wasn't "sloppy joe" enough (too much tomato, not enough tangy) and the veggies were still crunchy. If I made them again, I would...well...I wouldn't make them again, but if I were wanting a vegetarian beany sloppy sandwich I would just use a can of manwich with a can of kidney beans.
The oven fries, however, are a favorite around here. You just spray a baking sheet with Pam, cut up some potatoes thinly, lengthwise, place them in a single layer on the pan, spray them with Pam, sprinkle with salt, garlic powder, and onion powder, and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through.
The cake was also a hit. Moist, flavorful, yummy.
Monday: Indian night! We had an Indian restaurant that we loved in Doha, and I've been trying to replicate their murgh (chicken) tikka (grilled) masala (tomato sauce) ever since using the recipe on the back of the masala mix with no success. Finally, I found this recipe and it is so much better: Chicken Tikka Masala. I had planned on making Bhindi Masala (which had good flavor, if you care for okra) with it for Andy, but when I looked at the recipe again it didn't seem like enough, so I also made Aloo Gobi (which was absolutely delicious.) I also made bismatti rice and Andy made buttered nan for us.
Tuesday: A family favorite: Roast, Carrots, and Potatoes. Yummy. I also made white bread in our new breadmaker.
Wednesday: Mexican night! Spinach Enchiladas (too much ricotta, tasted like lasagna with enchilada sauce) and Chicken Enchiladas (oh so delicious!).
Thursday: For lunch we had Sweet Potato Minestrone with grilled cheese. The soup was very yummy and satisfying. And, bonus, Mom calculated that a bowl equalled 3 points with Weight Watchers. To balance out all that good for you stuff, we made grilled cheese with colby-jack on homemade rosemary bread.
For dinner, we ate Alsatian Onion Soup, which came from a restaurant cookbook, so I probably shouldn't post the recipe. It was yummy though. Think french onion soup with apples and rye bread croutons with muenster cheese melted on top. We also had cranberry pork tenderloin. Place a pork tenderloin in your slow cooker, sprinkle with a generous amount of Italian seasoning and salt, spoon a can of whole berry cranberry sauce on top, and add about a cup of apple juice. So tender and yummy in about 4-5 hours on low. We made a gravy from the juice and served it with mashed potatoes.
On Friday morning we headed up to Spokane/Ceour d'Alene to visit with family friends and drop my parents at the airport. When we came back Saturday night we had enough leftovers that I didn't have to think about lunch or dinner again until Tuesday.
Now that's a good week!
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