Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair. This had some good flavors and the girls were particularly fond of the artichoke and the capers, but while it did taste good, we didn’t love it enough to think that we wanted to eat this again soon. We used whole wheat angel hair and instead of butter, we use smart balance.
Roasted Cauliflower Risotto. This is my first time making and trying risotto. I liked it, but it was okay. The girls ate it the first night, but they didn’t want much of it for lunch. I put slightly more cauliflower than it calls for and I like that it’s full of it. For the rice, I used arborio, which we had left over from when I bought some for the paella. To limit the amount of fat in the dish, I didn’t put the cheese in the risotto but sprinkled it on each bowl based on how much each person wanted. I also left out the almonds because True is allergic. We’ve got a big pot full left, so I have a feeling we’ll be eating this for a few days.
Cod with Herbed White Wine Lemon Sauce. This was served along with the risotto and they went well together. The girls loved this! I’m pretty sure my girls could be pescatarians one day, except True is allergic to shellfish. It was nice and lemony and I used smart balance instead of butter, and for the herbs, I used parsley and dill.
One week left and then it’s Christmas! I won’t be doing any Christmas cooking as special occasion cooking is usually up to Ben. This weekly family meal planning started up because I wanted to challenge myself to cook. Ben used to come home from work and I would say, “So what are you making for dinner?” Ben is the natural chef in our home and I need to have directions in front of me to make a good dish. I’m learning a lot and am so thankful that I am able to make these yummy, and healthy meals for my children.
I am especially so thankful for the time we spend eating together at the dinner table. My heart aches for the families in Newton, Connecticut, who will no longer be able to do that with their children. It’s all quite sad.
This is another so 3 weeks ago dessert. I made this along with the pumpkin cake to bring over to my mom’s. I just used Trader Joe’s boxed cornbread mix. Let’s be real folks, I don’t have time to make everything from scratch and sometimes boxed things are better than I could do. I made the cornbread according to the instructions on the box, then I put them in these little paper cups (filled up halfway), and baked them until they were a golden brown and my toothpick came out clean. After which, I inserted a toothpick in the center to make a little hole and then filled each hole with some honey. I made sure to do this while the cornbread was warm and still fresh out of the oven. Then, I made whipped cream with a bit of honey put in and voila! I topped my tiny cornbread cupcakes with the whipped cream and brought them to my mama’s house.
My mom was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over them, but it really wasn’t me, it was Trader Joe’s. With Christmas around the corner, I better get my holiday baking list ready. I’m thinking a Mexican chocolate cake is necessary to go with some fresh tamales. I’m hungry just thinking about it! What type of desserts do you eat for Christmas?
This is so 3 weeks ago. I made this dessert for Thanksgiving at my mom’s house. It was kind of experimental and I was just hoping it would turn out well. I figured a bunch of sweet things together have to taste decent, right?!
I used this pumpkin cake recipe for the cake portion. When it was done baking, I took off parts of the top of the cake and poured in some condensed milk (maybe 1/2 – 1 cup) all over. Next, I put those top layers back on. Then, I made some whipped cream and lathered that all over the top of the cake. I crushed honey graham crackers and english toffee and then sprinkled those all over the top of the whipped cream.
I crossed my fingers it would taste good with that random little combos I did and thankfully it did! Or maybe I just love all things sweet that it tasted fine to me and everyone else was too nice to tell me otherwise.
I did use that same pumpkin cake recipe for Soul’s birthday cake, but instead of raisins, we used chocolate chips. Also, instead of whipped cream, we did buttercream frosting. I love all things pumpkin and since it’s the season for it, we’re going crazy with it. Do you love pumpkin filled foods too?
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorino Cheese. I highly recommend this pasta. It’s easy, has vegetables, and so tasty. Next time, I would triple (or even quadruple!) the amount of swiss chard it calls for to get even more vegetables in. I didn’t add the red pepper in the sauce since I knew the kids would be eating this, but we just sprinkled it on our own plates instead. I also cooked some dijon mustard and rosemary marinated chicken breast, since the dish didn’t have any protein and I knew we would need it. It was a good combo.
Breaded Fish Tacos with Cabbage and Roasted Serrano Peppers and Onions. For the breading, I used panko bread crumbs, cornmeal, parmesan cheese, and salt. First dip the fish in egg, then coat with breading, then lightly pan fry. The best part, for spice lovers like us, is the thinly sliced onions and serranos sprinkled with salt and lightly coated with oil that was roasted in the oven. That spice goes so good with fish tacos. Yum!
Crunchy Turkey Tacos. This is how I ate tacos growing up… in crunchy shell. Ben isn’t a fan of the crunchy taco shell and he had his with whole wheat tortillas.
Vietnamese Chicken Pho. This time I added a bundle of cilantro in the broth while it cooked (as suggested by Joycie here). It was good, but maybe because I’m no pro and it all taste good to me, I couldn’t really tell the difference too much. Either way, I love pho!
Paella Valenciana. This was my 2nd reader’s recipe to try and we loved it. Paella sounds intimidating, but it really isn’t. Definitely doing this again! And I highly recommend you trying it out too!
The rest of the ingredients:
1. 1 large red and 1 green bell pepper cut into strips (we did two red bell peppers instead)
2. 1/2 to 1 lb. fresh green beans trimmed
3. 3 to 4 tbsp. chopped garlic
4. 1 large pinch of saffron threads (crushed with your fingers)
5. 2 tbsp. Spanish paprika
6. 1 – 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes drained
7. 4 to 6 fresh rosemary sprigs
8. 2 cup peas
9. 1 – 6 to 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
10. 5 to 8 skinless chicken thighs cut-up in thirds (we used about 4 chicken breasts cut up into fourths) – not pictured
12. 16 oz. (2 1/4 cups) California pearl rice (We used arborio, but just make sure not to use long grain.)
11. 1 cup or more of olive oil or canola (We used 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil, which is not recommended because it leaves a burned taste, but the reader who recommended this said she uses it and it comes out fine, and so we did too and we think it came out fine.) – not pictured
12. Cold water to cover – not pictured Directions:
1. First, mix together diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and chopped garlic and set aside. 2. Put oil in paella pan, wait until it gets hot, otherwise chicken will stick to pan more. Sprinkle some salt in outer edge of pan so that pan doesn’t burn as much.
3. Place chicken pieces in when ready, sauté for about 10 min or longer stirring frequently until chicken is medium brown. The longer you cook it, the tastier it will be at the end.
4. Next add pepper strips, peas, and green beans. Keep stirring and cook about 10 minutes or so, until they get a little limp. Once again, the longer you cook it the more “fond” you get at the bottom of the pan, which gives you the best taste results.
5. Add tomato mixture, stir a few times to mix in well, add paprika (paprika burns very quickly and it turns bitter when burned), so stir only 2 or 3 times and have your water ready to add immediately, add enough water to reach to 1/2 inch from top rim of pan.
6.Bring to boil, add saffron threads and salt to taste, add rosemary sprigs and boil for about 10 min. If after 10 min a lot of water has evaporated, add a little more. Never add water once you have added the rice, it makes it pasty.
7. Adjust salt, now you are ready to add the rice, distribute throughout the pan and don’t stir to much.
8. Boil on high the first 10 minutes, reduce heat to medium and cook another 10 more minutes. Rice takes about 20 minutes. to cook. It might take a little practice, but at the end of the 20 minutes, your broth should be gone and your rice cooked in give or take 3 to 5 min. Once cooked, let rest about 5 minutes. Serve with raw sweet onion wedges if desired.
This is the traditional, authentic paella, but for a variation add raw large shrimp on top of the rice during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
This recipe is from Jordan, whose mother-in-law is from Valencia, where paella first originated. Therefore, this recipe is the real deal folks. She was wonderful enough to share it with me , let me try it out, and now share it with you. Traditionally paella is cooked over a large fire and Jordan commonly cooks this with her husband every summer over a campfire, but we don’t have a fire pit and while I was originally going to try it out in the oven, I ended up putting it over two burners on our stove and that seem to be good enough. I would rotate the paella pan around to make sure it was getting evenly cooked.
The recipe came out delicious. I went light on the salt while it was cooking, so we had to add some after it was done, and next time I will be much more generous with the salt. We used chicken breast instead of chicken thighs, and my only mistake was I added more rice than it called for. That was an accident. It took a bit longer to cook because of that and I had to put a little bit more water. Other than that, it came out fantastic. We were really loving the flavors! Also, I have to admit, since we’re spicy lovin’ people, we sprinkled on some red pepper.
Thank you Jordan for sharing this absolutely scrumptious recipe! If any of you have any recipes to share, please do let me know. I want to try and make one of your family favorites too! Wanna see other reader’s recipes? Check out the Vietnamese Pho here.
*Make sure when you clean your paella pan afterwards, don’t let it air dry. We made that mistake the first time, and the whole pan instantly became rusty. I had to put a lot of muscle into it to get rid of that before using the pan to cook in again.
Mexican Chicken Soup with Chickpeas, Avocado and Chipotles.This is my favorite chicken soup ever. Ben’s the one who made it and discovered it on the NY Times, which is his go to place for recipes. It’s loaded with lots of veggies and we throw in whole wheat pasta. I feel so bad that I accidentally left the pot out one evening and since it wasn’t in proper food temperatures and left out for more than 4 hours, it had to be tossed. Bummer. Though, I did chance it and had one more bowl of soup (Ben wouldn’t even dare!). Maybe that was crazy, but it’s so good and I felt bad wasting it.
Quick Pizza on Lavash Bread. Using lavash bread to make pizza is quick and delcious. Oh and we really love turkey pepperoni!
Black Bean Chili. We used this black beans recipe for the beans in the chili and once again it’s from the NY Times because it’s Ben’s go-to place. We tripled the recipe so we would have tons leftover to freeze (yes, tripled!). I separated the tripled recipe into two separate batches so we had a batch of spicy chili for Ben and me and then another regular batch for the girls. I love it, but it would be good with some bacon bits. The recipe is a healthy one, so that’s probably why it isn’t in it, but for a little texture and that bacon flavor I would add it in (in small doses of course, if you want to keep it healthy).
Week 11/19 – 11/23
Monday: Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Pecorino Cheese
Tuesday: Pizza (or previous day’s leftovers)
Wednesday: Paella Valenciana (reader’s recipe)
Thursday: Thanksgiving feasting all day long!
Friday: Thanksgiving leftovers all day long!
I didn’t get to the Paella this week because Ben had two late nights at the clinic that I forgot about, so when it’s a long day like that for me with the girls, I go with really easy, and pizza is really easy! I’m sure the menu for this coming week may be switched around too depending how busy we get for prepping for Thanksgiving, but I am so excited about eating turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes! I look forward to it every year!!!
P.S. If you’re in the Los Angeles area and free this Saturday, Misha Lulu is having a trunk show at Common Thread, so maybe you can stock up on some gifts for Christmas or holiday clothes!
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair. This had some good flavors and the girls were particularly fond of the artichoke and the capers, but while it did taste good, we didn’t love it enough to think that we wanted to eat this again soon. We used whole wheat angel hair and instead of butter, we use smart balance.
Roasted Cauliflower Risotto. This is my first time making and trying risotto. I liked it, but it was okay. The girls ate it the first night, but they didn’t want much of it for lunch. I put slightly more cauliflower than it calls for and I like that it’s full of it. For the rice, I used arborio, which we had left over from when I bought some for the paella. To limit the amount of fat in the dish, I didn’t put the cheese in the risotto but sprinkled it on each bowl based on how much each person wanted. I also left out the almonds because True is allergic. We’ve got a big pot full left, so I have a feeling we’ll be eating this for a few days.
Cod with Herbed White Wine Lemon Sauce. This was served along with the risotto and they went well together. The girls loved this! I’m pretty sure my girls could be pescatarians one day, except True is allergic to shellfish. It was nice and lemony and I used smart balance instead of butter, and for the herbs, I used parsley and dill.
