Roasted Broccoli

Have you tried roasted broccoli yet? Basically, you toss your broccoli with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roast it at 425 for 20 minutes and then sprinkle it with lemon juice and parmesan cheese. I did a cheater version tonight and used garlic powder and it turned out delicious. In fact, that's all I had for dinner... Unless you count candy corn...

Vegetarian Dinner

I made a vegetarian dinner tonight!  We are definitely meat eaters, so this was an exciting day.  I made kale stuffed portabella mushrooms and roasted broccoli.

Maybe because I'm a kale newbie, but I left the stems on and they were too crunchy.  Next time I think I will take the stems off.  And the broccoli was a little too lemony, due to the amount of broccoli I used.  But overall, a pretty good first try.

Homemaker

I finally finished and shipped my sister's wedding gift last week.  I also just finished a pair of socks for my other sister's birthday that was in May, apparently I've been working on them for a year and a half.  I have one more pair of socks to finish up before I can move on to a new project, Mr. Logical's Aran sweater.

A few months ago, one of my sisters gave me a cookbook that she got from a friend of hers.  I kind of just took it to be nice, but a few weeks ago I cracked it open in a moment of desperation.  It has been so hot out, that we can't bear to turn on any other cooking appliance.  This cookbook, The Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Cookbook, is awesome!  I'd used my slow cooker before, with rather disappointing results, but I've had great luck with the recipes in this one.  Tomorrow night, beef stew.

Cooking

So my menu plan didn't last one day, and last night we had to get Chinese.  But I pushed everything back one day, and made lettuce wraps tonight.  The grocery store had horrible produce tonight though, so I didn't make the cucumber salad that I had planned.  I also have two loaves of banana bread baking in the oven.   Lettuce wraps turned out yummy, although we agreed that they need a little kick next time.

Meal Planning

Mr. Logical and I have really been trying to eat better, and to save money.  In an effort to accomplish this, I sat down this evening and made a meal plan for the week.  This week is a little weird, because Mr. Logical will be going to a wedding and my mom will be visiting, but I still made one that I think will work.  Now I just have to go to the grocery store and get everything to make dinner this week.  I'm also trying out a few new recipes from allrecipes and Pinterest, which is a good thing.  

Here is what I have planned for this week:

Grilled turkey with spinach

Turkey lettuce wraps and cucumber salad

Chicken with mushroom gravy, egg noodles, and peas (crockpot)

Grilled fish tacos and black beans

Corn, tomato, and cheddar pie

Cottage cheese salad in tomato cups

This is way more heavy on tomatoes than a normal week would be, since Mr. Logical will be gone (tomato-hater) and my mom will be here (tomato-lover).  And I budgeted one night for leftovers or going out.  I also tried to find things that would be easy to make when I get home from work, since that is hard for me.  Wish me luck!  Hopefully I can keep this up through the summer.

Domesticated

Tonight I am making this sausage dinner, except I am using carrots instead of parsnips because that it was we have in the house.  I also turned the heel on Mr. Logical's dad's sock.  We are working on cleaning up our house, and it is looking much better.

Baked oatmeal update: turned out pretty good, but I would make some changes next time, like adding protein powder.

Sandwiches

Tonight I made these Vietnamese sandwiches for dinner.  They turned out pretty good, but I think that next time I might marinate the pork chops in something.  But not too bad for a last minute dinner.

Out to dinner

Last night Mr. Logical and I met my sister, her boyfriend, and my brother in Baltimore for Ethiopian.  I had never had Ethiopian food before, so I was really excited.

Mr. Logical and I split a combination plate with four meat dishes and five vegetable dishes, plus cheese.  Oh and honey wine, which I loved and Mr. Logical did not.

All in all, a fun evening!

Dinner

We had my parents over for dinner for the first time tonight.  It was a really nice evening. We had a slideshow of our wedding photos on the TV, had them watch Last Man Standing, and sold them my old down comforter.  Mr. Logical made steaks and green bean casserole, I made hasselback sweet potatoes and these delicious brownies topped with Tahitian vanilla gelato.

All in all, I'd say our first little dinner party was a great success!

Lentils

Mr. Logical and I both really enjoy cooking with lentils, so when it was my turn to make dinner tonight that's where I turned.  I found this recipe for Indian spiced lentils with chicken sausage, and we had everything but the tomatoes and sausage.  I made a grocery run, and gave it a whirl.  It turned out to be pretty tasty, but would have definitely been better with real sausage instead of the chicken.  Mr. Logical made chapati, and we had a cozy little winter dinner.

We used diced tomatoes fairly often, but we never have them on hand.  We are kind of bad about keeping staples around.  What are your pantry staples?

Cooking Dinner

Mr. Logical and I are both trying to lose some weight.  We have had success with the South Beach diet before, so we're trying it again, paired with exercise.  The first two weeks of this diet are very strict, no sugars or carbs.  Breakfast and lunch are somewhat easy for me: eggs, cheese sticks, deli meat, celery, nuts...  But dinner proves to be more of a challenge for me.

I am not a planner by nature, so thinking ahead to dinner is tricky for me.  Luckily, neither Mr. Logical or I are picky eaters, so I always eventually find something, but maybe not the best things.  Last night, on my way home from work, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up plenty of things for breakfast and lunch, but totally forgot dinner.  Now, I am here and hungry, with not many choices for dinner.

So, I am off to search for low carb ideas for dinner tomorrow and Friday.  We'll have to live off of canned soup tonight.