Week 7: Wait, you want dinner EVERY night?

Okay, one more week. I'm getting a little tired of my self imposed rules, but I am determined to follow them out. I tried out 3 new recipes this week!

Sunday

For Sunday dinner I started with these two recipes as inspiration. Then I changed, added, and made them my own. These are super easy, and super yummy. We had fruit with them.

Stuffed Shells

20 jumbo shells

15 oz ricotta cheese

2 eggs

1 cup chopped fresh spinach

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 jar spaghetti sauce (again, I used Prego Traditional)

Cook noodles. In bowl, mix together ricotta, eggs, spinach, parmesan, and 1 cup mozzarella. Spoon into cooked shells. In 9x13 pan, put one cup sauce on bottom. Arrange shells in pan. Pour rest of sauce on top and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Cook at 375 for 30 minutes.

Monday

Since it was President's Day and yet I still had to go to work, I asked Pops if he would be willing to grill some chicken for dinner. He agreed and I planned to make a pasta salad to go with it. Well, when I got home, I found that Mom had already made a salad for me and planned to steam some asparagus. What a great surprise!

Tuesday

MARDI GRAS!! To celebrate, we had jambalaya. As you can see, this recipe isn't very exact, but as you probably know by now, I don't usually stick exactly to a recipe, so it was fine! I made this Monday night because Superdad had a meeting he needed to leave for at 6. Funny story, after it was made, Dad was helping me put it in a container to put in the fridge. He asked if he could try some, I said yes, then he asked if it was spicy. I said I thought so. He tried a little bit and said, "It's kind of spicy." About two minutes later, I hear him sniffing. I ask him what's up and he said, "Well, it doesn't get any less spicy!" Anyway. We had a green salad and an apple with it.

Wednesday

Daddy wanted to go to Subway sometime before the end of the month because it's any footlong for $5 this month. So, that's what we did tonight. We split a footlong sandwich. We brought it home and had some chips with them.

Thursday

We had a wonderful, basic dinner on Thursday: Shepherd's Pie. So easy to make, which was great because I had to come home quick from work, put it together, then go out to do some errands right after. I made a spinach salad to go with it.

Shepherd's Pie

Combine 1 lb gr. beef, 1 can green beans, and 1 can cream of mushroom soup. (I know that a lot of people use tomato soup instead, and I have one friend who makes it with vegetable soup.) Put mashed potatoes on top. (We use the potato pearls from the LDS Cannery.) Top with cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Friday

So, ol' man went to have dinner with his siblings, which meant I didn't have to cook dinner! Instead I just had some leftover jambalaya from Tuesday.

Saturday

Since today's dinner is something completely new for me, I thought I'd give a play by play of the day.

8:30 am. I put together the coconut chicken curry. As I was measuring out the spices, I kept looking back at the recipe to make sure that they really wanted me to put an entire tablespoon of both curry powder and garam masala. Yes they do. As I poured the sauce over the chicken, my eyes started watering. And it wasn't even cooked yet. I'm thinking this is going to be a lot spicier than I was anticipating.

10:30 am. Start putting together the naan bread (recipe at the bottom of previously linked page). I used the Kitchen-aid to make bread for the first time and it was pretty amazing! I discovered that the plain yogurt I thought I had in the fridge had been stolen by the Frigerator Fairies, so I had to go get some from Smith's. Let the mixer do it's thing, then I put the dough in the fridge until I was ready to get it out and let it raise.

Noon. Plugged in the crock pot to let it do it's thing while I spend the afternoon in Provo. (Can I just say how great all the appliances I have are? Kitchen-Aid mixers that knead for me, refrigerator to keep things cool, crock pot to do the cooking for me, a blender to make things smooth. Awesome.)

3:00 pm. Went to get brother and took him grocery shopping. Bought some Bazmati rice because I forgot to buy it earlier in the day.

4:00 pm. Took brother home to put his groceries away. Called Mom and asked her to take the naan dough out of fridge to raise. She already had! What a great mom.

5:15 pm. Got home from Provo with brother. Started the rice, got the naan ready to go in the oven. For the next 45 minutes I am getting everything ready for the meal. The curry smells great. (Another thought: isn't it amazing how many cultures have a flat bread/pancake as part of their cuisine? Fry bread, pitas, pancakes, anjera, naan, laffa, crepes. Seriously. So cool the things that connect the entire world.)

6:00 pm. We sit down to eat. The curry is not as hot as I expected, but it tastes so yummy! The chicken is really tender. The naan is great, as is the spinach salad I made. I think even Sir Dad-a-lot liked it--even though he says he doesn't like curry unless it's Ethiopian curry. Success!

And now, another different thing. A picture of this wonderful meal.