What We Cooked for Grandpa

My father-in-law came to visit - a little unexpectedly - so I had to re-work the meal plan a bit (I didn't think he would like black bean chili or braised kale with chickpeas), but this is what I managed to feed him.

While browsing the web, I came across a cookbook title that was so applicable to my life that I had to borrow it from the library: Parents Need to Eat Too: Nap Friendly Recipes, One-Handed Meals, and Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks for New Parents. I'm not a new parent but with the baby demanding to be held all the time and snatching anything in my hand so she can shove it into her mouth, I thought it would give it a try.

Honey Soy Salmon - A winner. The marinade is made of honey, soy sauce, and sriracha. Incredibly easy. Marinate salmon fillets for 20 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge and stick in the oven for 12 minutes then serve. Everyone loved this meal, including the 4 year old, who gobbled it up, and my father-in-law, who ate it with as much gusto but with much more refined table manners. My husband asked that I add this one into the regular meal rotation. I served it with steamed rice and stir-fried broccoli.

Apparently, this is also a freezer friendly meal. Just marinate the fillets and freeze. The fish will marinate while it thaws.

Overnight French Onion Chicken - I wasn't a big fan of this dish but I'm glad that I tried it. The recipe calls for caramelizing 6 finely sliced onions in the slow cooker overnight and then adding chicken, broth, sherry, and thyme in the morning. Just before dinner, I also toasted Italian bread in the oven and melted gruyere on top. The preschooler refused to touch it. The husband picked out the onions. I thought it was a little too sweet and slightly disappointing for the effort. My father-in-law really liked it. One note in the book suggested keeping the leftover onions and using as a base for French Onion Soup so I may do that.

I haven't decided what else I'll make from the book. Below are recipes that I found elsewhere.

Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad - This was my first time making a raw kale salad, which I served with the French Onion Chicken above because I wanted some kind of green added to the meal. I liked it but everyone else refused to touch it. I think I'll try to make other raw kale salads.

Roasted Mushroom and Beef Barley Soup A nice standby soup recipe for cold weather. My 4 year old used to love the barley in this soup and would ignore the mushrooms, but this time around, she refused to touch the barley and would only eat the mushrooms.

Chocolate Banana Bread - A recipe I found off the Cook's Illustrated site - I didn't add the link since you need to be a subscriber to get the full recipe. I am not a good baker, but this was simple and good. The bread was nice and moist, it had good banana flavor, and it wasn't too dense. It has been our unhealthy snack of the week.

Bernadette: back to the kitchen

With more than a week of illnesses by various members of the family, including a case of pneumonia, as well as a move earlier this week, we've been eating out - or ordering in - a lot. Too much. So I'm looking forward to some very simple to make, home cooked meals.

Today, lunch was a bit random with PB&J sandwiches for the toddler and leftover pasta for me, but I served a little mango before we dug into our respective entrees. This particular mango was one of the smaller, yellow champagne mangoes which are sweeter than the big green and red ones. The toddler has loved mangoes ever since she could eat finger food but for some reason I haven't bought them for awhile. Growing up, we always just sliced the mangoes into slivers, but years back, I saw Martha Stewart serve up mangoes in a much prettier way.

The toddler refers to mangos served up this way as "puzzles."

The presentation delighted the toddler and she's getting the knack of taking her spoon to scoop off the cube of her choice. I still have to help her a bit though since she can get a little fastidious at meal times.

I also finally figured out where the movers stowed the slow cooker and made beef and black bean chili. I used the precut beef stew meat from the butcher and plopped it into the slow cooker along with the black beans, red onion, garlic, chili powder, salt, pepper, and 2 cups of water. Eight hours later, the toddler refused to touch it so she had pasta noodles and the husband and I had delicious chili. The recipe recommends topping the chili with diced red onion and sour cream but the husband topped his with pasta (weird because I would think pasta would go on the bottom) and I topped mine with sliced avocado and shredded colby jack. I like this recipe a lot because it's 10 minutes of prep for a big, hearty meal packed with a lot of rich flavor.

My food photography skills need a bit of work.

We're going to eat leftovers til I figure out the next batch of dinners. I'll re-form the leftovers from our turkey taco night earlier this week into turkey taco salad and eat more chili. As for next week, I've only decided on making linguini with avocado and arugula pesto and will figure out the rest later.