Week Four: Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca, Pork Ramen, and Steaks

This week was very financially sound because all the meat used in these recipes came from my freezer. Oh yeah. Happened to have some chicken breast cutlets, a pork tenderloin that came in a pack of two (the first of which I used for my Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Apples from Week Three), and we had a couple large steaks leftover from awhile ago. Freezing meat, soup, etc. is such a great way to save and plan ahead for future meals; you just have to remember to transfer them from freezer to refrigerator in a timely fashion so they are thawed when you are ready to cook. I set reminders on my phone for such occasions. Because I'm forgetful sometimes.

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca

with Sautéed Broccoli

First of all. What on earth is saltimbocca? Apparently, saltimbocca is a dish (popular in southern Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Greece) made of veal topped with prosciutto and sage. But in this case, I made chicken saltimbocca; chicken wrapped in prosciutto and sage. And this is funny...saltimbocca (or saltinbocca) is Italian for "jumps in the mouth." And after eating this dish, I can confirm that it really does jump into your mouth. So good.

Find the recipe here: Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca. And this is, yet again, another dish from the November 2012 issue of Cooking Light. I'm telling you, they have some good stuff; fast, but really tasty weeknight meals.

Serve your chicken saltimbocca with sautéed broccoli, broccoli rabe, or green beans.

This was my first time cooking with prosciutto, and it is mighty delicious. Kind of salty, so maybe eat in moderation, but it adds such amazing flavor to your usual, plain chicken. Not to mention the hint of sage and fresh lemon. Mmmm.

Pork Ramen

As I write this, I realize that I forgot to add soy sauce to my ramen! Ahhh! I knew I had forgotten something. Never the less, this ramen was very delicious. Just don't forget to stir in the soy sauce towards the end of cooking. Lesson learned.

This was a Pinterest find. (Of course.) I'm addicted. And I don't even have an account. It's worse than having an account. I'm like a non-member, underground scavenger of Pinterest recipes and goodness.

Find the recipe here: Pork Ramen Soup. The neat thing about this dish, is you could re-work it a lot of different ways with various meats, vegetables, etc. I used my leftover pork tenderloin and the array of fresh veggies recommended for use in this recipe. I just love ramen noodles; always have. Using just the noodles and tossing out the seasoning packets gives you the opportunity to adjust the seasoning yourself. I added some crushed red pepper flakes also. This is one of those dishes that is even better the next day.

Steaks

and Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pear and Shallots

Well, I wanted to use these steaks I had on hand, so Zack and I decided to just keep it simple and do steak with some vegetables. I wanted to do something a little lighter and healthier than potatoes, so I turned to Power Foods. If you've been reading here for awhile, you may remember some of my earlier recipes came from this amazing cookbook.

Find the recipe for the roasted brussels sprouts here: Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pear and Shallots. I love brussels sprouts, and let's be honest, they just look like the epitome of health. I mean, really. They are a cluster of green leaves. It's like eating a bunch of baby cabbages. They're kind of weird, I guess. It did take me awhile to acquire the taste for them. But I love them now. And of course, pear and shallots are delightful. So this was a winner.

Cooking the steaks was very interesting in our apartment kitchen. Zack kind of headed up the cooking, while I ran frantically around the apartment, opening doors and windows, and fanning the smoke detector with a kitchen towel. We pan seared them on high heat first, then transferred to a hot oven for the rest of cooking. It was a sight to see, to say the least. Hope we didn't disturb the neighbors.

I haven't had steak in awhile, and well, it was tasty. And this brussels sprouts dish would be a perfect Thanksgiving side. Loved it.

Well, we're heading off to Portland tomorrow after work, so I'm posting this week's post a little early. Enjoy and cheers (this one's for you, Zack). :)

Week Three: Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Apples, Tomato Basil Soup, and Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas

We're still cookin'. It was a great week.

Spiced Pork Tenderloin

with Sautéed Apples

As you may recall, we've been rolling in apples over here...from our Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies from Week One of my new meal planning adventure, to our actual homemade applesauce from Week Two. And believe it or not, we still had apples left to spare. I was lucky to find a perfect fall dinner recipe (with apples) pretty quick into my recipe research for this week.

This awesome recipe came from the November 2012 issue of Cooking Light, so very current, evidently.  Find the recipe here: Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Apples. They recommend using Braeburn or Gala apples (whose red peels are very pretty in Cooking Light's picture of the recipe), but I just went ahead and used what I had on hand. The combination of apples with the thinly sliced shallots is really good. Furthermore, the flavors in this dish are really delightful and cozy for a cold, fall evening. Coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, apple cider...okay, so this is pretty much dessert for dinner. But good for you...? Ha. No, but really, this is true. I also served this dish with sautéed green beans.

So. Since we're talking pork. How done is done? As in, how pink or not pink should your pork be? It's funny, because people usually error on the side of overcooking something versus undercooking. But for some reason, I tend to do the opposite. I am so terrified of overcooking things! I don't know what it is! I just hate when my chicken is dry because I sautéed it for too long. Or my cookies have a gritty crunch to them because they continued to brown/cook after I took them out of the oven. Do you hear me, or do you hear me? So what do you do? You look it up on the internet. And apparently the USDA standard for pork is 145-degrees, which was lowered from 160-degrees not too long ago (much to the happiness of many professional chefs (I mean, I think so, but I probably shouldn't say since it's not like I'm best friends with Michael Ruhlman or Anthony Bourdain)). But there's a good idea for you none the less: 145-degrees for pork.

Tomato Basil Soup

with Grilled Cheese and Ham Sandwiches

Since Nordstrom's Split Pea Soup was so tasty, I thought I would give another one of their soups a try. Seriously, when did Nordstrom become known for something more than clothes and whatnot? I've been pretty impressed with their recipes after I was gifted one of their cookbooks last year for Christmas.

Well, I thought this recipe that I found was actually one of Nordstrom's recipes...from one of their cookbooks. But after perusing the internet, I realized that this is someone's interpretation or imitation of some amazing tomato soup made at the Nordstrom Cafe. Long story short, I found this recipe from someone's blog through Pinterest. Find it here: Tomato Basil Soup. 

The flavor is really good. Make sure you use real good quality canned tomatoes, such as San Marzano tomatoes; can't go wrong. You know what they say, always use good quality ingredients, especially if there are very few ingredients being used.

So, I'll just be honest and say that I sort of felt like I was eating really good marinara sauce while eating this soup. The writer and creator of the recipe said to leave a little texture to the soup when pureeing it with an immersion blender, and let's just say I think I left plenty. I would recommend not as much next time around. However, that being said, the flavor was fantastic and this soup was great with grilled cheese and ham sandwiches.

This is the greatest bread for grilled sandwiches and French toast.

It sort of feels like cheating using canned tomatoes, but hey, that way you can make a good tomato soup all year round. Plus, you don't have to wait or try to find perfectly ripe tomatoes, which is hard sometimes. And goodness, don't make tomato soup with tomatoes that are not truly juicy and red, and pretty much falling apart. I've done that before. You'll end up with orange tomato soup. Not so great. Nice and ripe canned tomatoes. Great.

Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas

Yes, I realize it's not actually summer right now...

I happened to find and tear out this recipe at the same time as the pork tenderloin recipe above. So, this one is also from Cooking Light. Find the recipe here: Chicken and Summer Vegetable Tostadas. Using frozen corn makes this a year-round option, but there's nothing like fresh corn on the cob. So I bought frozen corn on the cob, but it was a little strange. Kind of soft and not the same as fresh corn on the cob. Probably won't do that again. Luckily, the flavor was good and the lack of crisp-tenderness that I was wanting wasn't all to evident once stirred into the rest of the dish. Who knows, maybe I overcooked it and that was the problem. But I'm the one who never overcooks anything, remember? He he.

I've made tostadas like these before with the corn, zucchini, and red onion. It really is a great flavor combination. Plus, some good salsa verde just tops it off. Yum. The flavors and textures are just so wonderful.

A great, spicy salsa for dishes like this.

We made it easy and just made tacos (warmed our tortillas instead of toasting), but either way is delicious. Goodness, you could make burritos with this too. You could make a kind of fresh Mexican pizza. Ha ha. Okay, maybe that would be weird, but what I'm getting at is the is a great chicken and vegetable mixture.

That's it for now. Have a good weekend!

Week Two: Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew, Pasta with Light Turkey Ragu, Tortilla Soup, Applesauce, and Pumpkin-Spice Rice Krispie Treats

We are cookin' over here! I don't really know how something as boring as "meal planning" could get me so excited about cooking. I don't know about you working folks out there, but sometimes making dinner isn't the first thing you really want to do after a long day at work. Let alone, making up lunches to take to work the next day after you do dishes from dinner, when you really just want to relax or maybe exercise or hangout with your husband.

Now, I've realized it's not the cooking that I dread doing after work. It's the stress of, "oh, shoot, I need to run to the store because I don't have that on hand" or "wow, I wish I would have realized that this recipe takes like 4 hours to make and we won't be eating until 9 o'clock tonight." That's the thing! If you set aside a little time over the weekend or on Monday to plan out the week and grocery shop, you save yourself so much stress. Plus, it gives you more opportunity to eat more healthily and less of an inclination to grab take-out for lunch. And the idea of being able to pull good menus to use that I have from the past sounds just great.

Lentil and Sweet-Potato Stew.

Alright. So, Lentil and Sweet-Potato Stew. This was really delicious. And again, a recipe I found on Whole Living, one of Martha Stewart's websites. I know, I know...I keep going back to it, but all the recipes are so good! And this stew was no exception. Mildly spicy, with a subtle curry flavor, and packed with vegetables including sweet potato (evidently), onion, carrot, celery, and green beans. I almost considered adding some sort of meat, but I figured that the sweet potato and lentils would make it hearty enough, and they did. This soup stands alone.

When it comes to my next recipe, I have a confession. I do not have a Pinterest account (yet), because if I did, I would spend way too much time browsing recipes, home decor, arts and crafts, and whatever else happened to strike my fancy. Therefore, I have resorted to browsing through recipes only and I am already addicted. Now you may find a wide range in terms of quality when it comes to recipes on Pinterest, but there are also many gems which I simply take a screen-shot of and save for later. He he.

Now that you all know about the values of Pinterest, we can talk about the Penne with Light Turkey Ragu. So simple, and very tasty. Ground turkey, leeks, oregano, basil, tomato...delicious. I love leek; such a great vegetable. The recipe calls for penne, but I just used the pasta I had on hand which happened to be a mix of whole-wheat and regular rotini.

Tortilla Soup with Black Beans.

My third dinner recipe this week was Tortilla Soup with Black Beans, another Whole Living find. This is so easy, but definitely more than satisfactory. I added some ground beef, which I had been saving in the freezer for a time like this, and I'm glad I did. My mind must have been elsewhere when I was making this, however, because I neglected to add spices until towards the end of cooking, and then I forgot to squeeze fresh lime over the soup before serving. Oh well. I think my version will be better tomorrow after marinating in the refrigerator all night, and we still have limes. Ha ha. But even so, it was really delicious and a great go-to weeknight soup. We crushed our tortilla chips over our individual bowls right before serving, so as to prevent tomorrow's leftovers from being full of soggy chips.

To top it all off, Tim and Amy visited us last weekend, and were so kind as to bring us a big bucket of farm-fresh (I believe, Jonathan...?) apples and a watermelon. They even brought us pumpkins they had grown, which was so cool because we were considering getting pumpkins the day before but didn't. So, what to do with a bucket of apples? First thing we thought of was applesauce. My mom makes some great applesauce. Actually, she made an amazing batch with some Gravenstein apples that Tim gave us last year. So I thought she would be the best person to seek applesauce-making advice from.

She uses an adapted version of Julia Child's recipe from The Way to Cook. Basically, wash, peel, and quarter apples (you can leave on peels or reserve some peels to put in the pot, then sieve out later (Julia says they give flavor and body to the sauce)). Place apples in a heavy-bottomed pot with fresh squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest, and a little cinnamon. Cover and set over low heat (this is key); the apples will slowly soften, rendering juices. Stir and mash frequently until tender, about 30-45 minutes. At this point, if using apple peel, you can push the sauce through a sieve, return to pot, and add some sugar and vanilla extract, cooking a little longer.

I, being an amateur, just kind of threw some peels in with my peeled apples, thinking I would just pull them out later. But they kind of got mashed up too. Oh well. We skipped the sieving and ended up with some delicious, chunky applesauce. The apples were not quite as tender as I would have liked (I think we man-handled the apples a little too much with aggressive mashing), but Zack thought it was perfect and our friends enjoyed it too. Oh, and we used brown sugar instead of granulated sugar.

And lastly, our dessert of the week was Pumpkin-Spice Rice Krispie Treats, another Pinterest find. We made these to take over to our friends' house on the evening of Halloween. So festive, so tasty. It's amazing what a little pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg will do for a traditional treat.

Pumpkin-Spice Rice Krispie Treats.

Well, that's all for Week Two. Cheers.

Week One: Split Pea Soup with Cilantro, Chicken with Snap Peas, Greek-Style Halibut, and Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies

This week: Split Pea Soup with Cilantro (you may recognize this from a February 2012 blog post), chicken with snap peas, Greek-style halibut, and iced oatmeal-applesauce cookies. One grocery list, four recipes, three dinners with lunch leftovers for the next day, cookies for dessert, and even extra split pea soup to freeze for later.

First of all, the split pea soup comes from Nordstrom Flavors, a cookbook which continues to impress me and was gifted to me from my mom. And again, see my past blog post (link above) for more information about the recipe. It's a really great spin off of your traditional split pea soup; think, finely diced vegetables like potato, red bell pepper, carrot, celery, and jalapeño. And then add the great flavors of coriander, dry mustard, Tamari soy sauce, and cilantro.

Secondly, Chicken with Snap Peas. I found this recipe through Whole Living; I have this website in my Pulse News favorites on my phone. This is a great weeknight recipe...one pan, 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Heat safflower oil (or vegetable oil as the recipe calls for) over high in a large skillet. Season chicken with salt and fresh ground black pepper. I just used skinless, boneless chicken breasts, but you could use whatever chicken you have on hand. Cook chicken on one side (skin side down if not using skinless), until deep golden, about 8-10 minutes. Flip chicken and remove skillet from heat. Remove any fat with a spoon, then return skillet to heat. Add garlic, vinegar, a little bit of sugar, and crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then transfer skillet to oven. Bake for 17 minutes, then add snap peas and some fresh basil, baking for 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with more basil.

This dish has really great flavor, which was maybe even better the next day. I also made some quinoa cooked in chicken stock with diced carrots as a side dish.

Next, Greek-Style Halibut (which you may have seen coming if you've read previously about the frozen wild salmon and halibut fillets Zack and I have been getting from Costco). This is a "tear-out" recipe I've been saving for awhile and it comes from the January 2011 issue of Sunset magazine.

It's another easy one with awesome flavor and good next day quality. And this was also my first time cooking with fennel bulb, which I guess is like an onion with some grassy stuff growing out of it...? Uh, yeah. It has almost a licorice-like quality though, which really adds to the halibut.

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Rub halibut fillets with salt and fresh ground black pepper before browning in the pan on one side. Transfer to a plate. Add a little more olive oil to pan, along with fennel (trimmed and cut into wedges/slices). The recipe calls for adding a little ouzo at this point, but I just used white wine. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden and tender. Add finely chopped garlic. Add diced tomatoes with juice (low-sodium preferred), a little water, chickpeas (drained and rinsed), and fresh oregano. Reduce heat and simmer, lay halibut fillets (browned sides up) in sauce and simmer until fish is cooked through, 5-10 minutes.

And lastly, these amazing cookies. I'm telling you, you can't go wrong with Martha Stewart when it comes to cookies. Zack and I were thinking we wanted to make some sort of iced oatmeal cookie, and when I found these, with applesauce, we were sold. And they were not disappointing. Find the recipe here: Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies. These are the perfect fall cookie.

Well, that's all for week one of my meal planning, and believe me, week two is turning out to be quite lovely. Stay tuned.