stephmodo: Menu of the Week

Menu of the Week

• 14 November 2011



With Autumn in full swing, this week was about warm soups and other comfort foods incorporating seasonal ingredients like butternut squash and kale--yet another reason to enjoy this glorious season. Hopefully these will inspire you to cook some wonderful meals in your own kitchens!  Oh, and if there is something you've prepared recently that you just love to eat, do share with us all please :)

Lemon Herb Roast Chicken, fresh pineapple, red bibb lettuce salad - my house smells amazing whenever I make this.  It's such a cozy, comfort meal when it's chilly outside.  One of my entertaining stand-bys for sure.  Also, use the leftover carcass to make chicken stock...it sure comes in handy when soup is on heavy rotation!  I typically do what Jamie Oliver does, but I add celery and carrots as well.

Butternut Squash Risotto - I am making this risotto again this week because I loved it so much! It's officially my new favorite vegetarian risotto.  A few surprise ingredients make the flavor incredible.  I buy the arborio rice in the bulk section of my local grocery store; it's less expensive this way and allows me to buy only what I need.

Crunchy Turkey Tacos, steamed broccoli, fresh fruit- made a far less spicy version of these tacos by lessening the chili powder--my kids won't eat anything spicy.  Also, I added in black beans and a little leftover rice to make the mixture more substantial without adding more meat.  My kids also thought the crunch taco shells from Trader Joes quite the treat. 

{Leftover} Fried Rice - a great meal to make when you have a little of this and a little of that.  I threw in whatever vegetables I had on hand, as well as a little meat leftover from the roast chicken.  Also, I doubled the egg because I like a lot of egg in my fried rice.

Rigatoni with Sausage and Basil, baguette, greens with Dijon vinaigrette - because everyone in our family loves this pasta and sometimes you need to throw in a guaranteed favorite during a week when you're trying out a couple new recipes.  Note that it's important to use high-quality sausage here, preferably an Italian sausage with hints of fennel.

A version of this White Bean and Vegetable Soup with Sour Milk Biscuits - I was thrilled when my son asked when I was going to make bean soup again.  While I didn't have everything on hand to make this recipe exactly, I did make a version of it with what I had in my fridge and pantry. 

Still hungry?  Take a peek at my previous menus of the week for more meal planning ideas.

images by Stephanie Brubaker for stephmodo

4 comments:

  1. thank you for posting your menus! they are such an inspiration for me. i make dinner nearly every night and am always looking for tasty ideas. love your blog, and the more menus the better! :)

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  2. Your lemon herb roasted chicken is getting a lot of play in our house recently. Twice in the past week- once for a dinner party, and once as a big Sunday meal to save leftovers from. I had some of the vegetables for breakfast this morning, actually, and it was amazing!
    Love your menus :)

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  3. Soup is better known around here as the one pot wonder.

    I am loving this Winter Vegetable Soup:

    http://lisetteandcameron.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-to-do-with-all-that-squash.html

    and Garden Minestrone:

    http://lisetteandcameron.blogspot.com/2011/11/garden-minestrone.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your menus. They are the perfect balance of sophisticated, simple, healthy and tasty. Thanks for sharing - I try to feed my family really well especially since my 7 year old daughter has leukemia. I am always looking for new ideas -- ones that I can pull off without spending forever in the kitchen.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to drop a line. I really appreciate it!

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