I've cooked this meal at least 97 times. It's my go-to crowd pleaser. Chicken breast, seasoned with chipotle pepper and some kosher salt, and then, after grilling, drizzled with lime. Grilled peppers and onions with fixings like guacamole and salsa on the side. (Sometimes I buy the guacamole and salsa from Whole Foods. Shhhh).
My family knows this meal. We eat it at least twice a month.
This is what my dinner rut looks like, which isn't terrible.
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For those of you who are just joining, here's a quick recap: I'm in a dinner rut and to get out of it I am working my way through an advanced copy of Dinner: A Playbook. At the beginning of the week I picked some recipes and made a meal plan for seven days. I've also been following some of the author's tips for how to make dinner easy and breezy (which I will recap at the end of the week).
Monday night dinner, Tuesday night dinner, Wednesday night dinner, and here is Thursday night's dinner: nothing? Should I say it? The most over used internet expression right after "best _____, ever." Ok, I'll say it. Dinner on Thursday night was an EPIC FAIL.
Ok, surely I fed my family something for dinner on Thursday night. The original plan was fish tacos, but when I arrived home I found the fish hadn't fully defrosted. I was exhausted so we made turkey and avocado sandwiches (not pictured because, of course; this photo is more dramatic).
The next night I had friends over and we grilled pizzas. Some great topping combos, which hopefully, someday I'll share. Then, on Saturday night, we finally ate the fish, but I didn't make tacos because I had to use up some green beans in my crisper drawer.
So despite having planned on seven nights of meals, I really only did three. That was the end of my Dinner: A Playbook project. I have some thoughts I want to share on the book and I hope to find some time over the holiday weekend to write them up. Stay tuned.
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For those of you who are just joining, here's a quick recap: I'm in a dinner rut and to get out of it I am working my way through an advanced copy of Dinner: A Playbook. At the beginning of the week I picked some recipes and made a meal plan for seven days. I've also been following some of the author's tips for how to make dinner easy and breezy (which I will recap at the end of the week).
Monday night dinner, Tuesday night dinner, and here is Wednesday night's dinner: Chicken and Barley Soup.
I made the soup ahead of time on Tuesday night because I knew I would be at the pool on Wednesday night. All I had to do when I got home was heat it up and toast some bread. Of course, this was more like chicken and barley not soup since the barley absorbed all the broth over night. Not such a big deal; instead of soup we ate really well-flavored barley. If I were to make this again (and I will), I would cook and keep the barley separately and spoon it out when I was ready to serve.
As a side note, I'm not sure this dish got me out of my dinner rut. I think I've made this soup before, but with rice or pasta. I will say, however, that it helped me use a box of barley that's been in my cabinet for approximately 1 million years. Nutrition wise barley beats rice, easily (though it has significantly higher calories). Here's the skinny.
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For those of you who are just joining, here's a quick recap: I'm in a dinner rut and to get out of it I am working my way through an advanced copy of Dinner: A Playbook. At the beginning of the week I picked some recipes and made a meal plan for seven days. I've also been following some of Jenny's tips for how to make dinner easy and breezy (which I will recap at the end of the week).
Here's Tuesday night's dinner: whole wheat linguine with broccoli and anchovy bread crumbs.*
The results? Josie ate the entire bowl of pasta, including the broccoli. Win! I did have to gently remind her that if she wanted ice cream, then she would have to eat her broccoli. I feel mixed about such acts of bribery at the table. I can see that it works. The minute she sat down, she removed said broccoli from the top of her linguine and proceeded to eat the linguine. Then, as she was coming to the end of her linguine I told her that she had to eat the broccoli if she wanted dessert. She scrunched her nose and ate the broccoli.
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For those of you who are just joining, here's a quick recap: I'm in a dinner rut and to get out of it I am working my way through an advanced copy of Dinner: A Playbook. At the beginning of the week I picked some recipes and made a meal plan for seven days. I've also been following some of Jenny's tips for how to make dinner easy and breezy (which I will recap at the end of the week). For now, here's the first night's dinner: Buttermilk-Herb Baked Chicken Fingers.*
Continue reading "Monday Night with Dinner: The Playbook #dinnerplaybook" »
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Planning and cooking family meals takes up around 10 percent of my total time each day.
Is that right? Wait a minute, that seems too small.
Another way to look at it is to take out the fixed time, like sleep (8 hours, LOL, I wish) and work (8 hours) (16-24 hours=8 extra hours in the day) and then getting family dinner on the table (2.5 hours on average, which includes meal planning, shopping, cooking, and clean up) takes about one-third of my "extra" time (2.5 hours/8). Let me say it again:
Planning and cooking family meals takes up about 30 percent of my total extra time each day.
That's time I could be using on other things, like exercising (or let's be realz, getting a pedicure), doing puzzles with Josie, reading the New Yorker, floating in the neighborhood pool, living the Fitbit life, teaching Josie to swim, going to the movies with my husband. The list goes on.
Somewhere along the way I decided it was important for all of us to eat together. That it is worth my time and effort. It's purely selfish of me really. I like sharing meals. It's one of my favorite things to do. So while I don't really love the planning and cooking part, the end justifies the chore of it all.
Sometimes I want to toss in the towel. I've considered Blue Apron and Plated, the services that do the planning and shopping for you, but they cost a lot more than just doing it yourself, so I haven't made the leap (I haven't ruled it out either, especially since a lot of my friends, working Moms like me, rave about them). I suppose I could just wave a white flag and give in to my husband's version of dinner, the one where we all stand around the kitchen sink eating bowls of Cheerios like members of a fraternity.
I haven't given up yet, though.
Continue reading "Dinner: The Playbook by Jenny Rosenstrach #dinnerplaybook" »
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At the beach a few weeks ago I finished, Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen. If you read the author's blog, then you know this "tell-all memoir" (<air quotes) describes Alyssa Shelasky and Good Stuff Eatery's Spike Mendelsohn's rocky relationship, with food tales tossed in (including a few tasty sounding recipes).
Yes, it's a bit trashy, and that's exactly why I liked it.
Ms. Shelasky is a good writer. She has a voice and a style all her own. I'm fond of her Carrie-like gift for asking pop candy questions ("When did tweeting become the new chain smoking?") and for zippy lines ( "Zagat is my Zoloft"). Apron Anxiety's pages kept me busy for a few hours, as I relaxed in my beach chair at the water's edge.
Continue reading "Apron Anxiety, Plus Herb Crusted Chicken (For Hungry, Important People)" »
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I really liked this dish. The flavors are bright and it's filling without being heavy. It's the first recipe I've cooked from Jamie At Home, Cook Your Way to the Good Life. I'm really enjoying this cookbook. It's my style of cooking: simple, seasonal, flavorful, and I can actually hear the voice of Jamie Oliver as I read the cooking instructions. "Keep frying until the meat is lovely and crispy." It's like he's in my kitchen.
Continue reading "Lovely and Crispy Carrot Salad with Indian Lamb" »
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