No, don't worry. This isn't going to turn into a cooking blog. I'm not good enough nor do I care enough about food to do that! However, since I've challenged myself to this 1-year menu planning thing I thought it might help me stay on track if I try to commit to a small report at the end of the month on the excellent dishes or spectacular failures (I'm totally expecting both. Especially since I have knowingly put things on the menu that Steve will hate but I will love. Ha! Setting myself up for failure, love it!)
My first completed menu was for October. I've made it pretty easy on myself because I have a husband who likes a small repetoire of dishes he likes and requests often so I've made sure to rotate those in on a regular basis. That means we have burritos on the menu each week, tacos twice a month (Steve swears they are completely different meals...REALLY?? The only thing different between tacos and burritos is whether you're using beans or meat. Whatever.) and at least one meal of spaghetti with red sauce (from scratch) and spaghetti with broccoli and bacon. Salad and bread is always planned for Sunday night and Saturday and at least one other weekday is wide open for leftovers or scrounging (because sometimes I just want popcorn for dinner!). So, you can see that it's not quite as ambitious as it may have originally sounds. But it's plenty of a challenge for me!
So, on to the meals of the month!
Chicken, Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta Lasagna from Closet Cooking
My sister and I thought this was phenomenal! Steve and the girls weren't as impressed... It's the squash, either you like it or don't. I would make a larger batch of the tomato sauce (there's also a bechamel sauce!) and, be warned, there's a lot of prep work.
Roasted Garlic-Potato Soup from MyRecipes
Super easy and oh so good. This one was approved by all. This made enough that I froze some for a meal later.
Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin from C&C marriage factory blog
Falling apart in the pan goodness that is a cinch to make in the crockpot! I'm not a meat fan and this was amazing! I have enough left over to use in some other recipe. I'm thinking enchiladas because it might be an interesting flavor mix. I love crockpot recipes!
That's it! There are no spectacular failures but that's only because I stacked the deck this month AND I didn't end up making the Gnocchi mac & cheese that would have definitely made Steve sigh with resignation!
No comments:
Post a Comment