Week #5: April 5-8, 2010.

I'm a bit late in writing about last week because my prospectus was due this weekend. Whew, whew, and whew again. : )

Night #13: Monday, April 5. 2 varieties of Bean soup, broccoli with cheese sauce. I made a couple of different versions of the bean soup...one meated, one non-meated. I had beans that I needed to use, and potatoes that I needed to use. Basically, I just soaked kidney beans, great northern beans, pinto beans and black-eyed peas overnight, and then simmered them in veggie stock for a couple of hours with onions and garlic. In one of the pots, I put chunks of potato...in the other, I put ham. Both turned out pretty good, although the potatoes I used were from my grandmother's house and tasted a little green. Weird. I also steamed some broccoli florets, and made a cheese sauce with milk, butter, lots of shredded cheddar cheese, and some garlic salt. The family loved this a little too much...my mother ended up eating the cheese sauce straight out of the container. : )

Night #14: Tuesday, April 6. Lentils and rice with onions, steamed carrots with allspice and cinnamon. The lentils and rice were good, but I'm not a fan of the seasoning. The onions were simmered in oil and butter, and spiced with cinnamon, paprika, cumin and coriander. I think it's just the cumin that I don't like...it's got a dull taste to it that does not go well with lentils, which also have a dull taste. Lentils need more of a spicy seasoning to wake them up, and cumin does not work for that. The carrots were a popular repeat...I had to repeat a couple of things this week due to being pressed for time. Subsequent weeks will not involve quite so much repetition.

Night #15: Wednesday, April 7. Shrimp fra diavolo, with garlic bread. This was AWESOME. I once again used the Cook This, Not That cookbook, and was not at all disappointed. I even doubled the recipe, and had barely enough left for lunch the next day. I used the Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes, as suggested by the book, and I don't think I will ever use another kind of tomatoes for anything ever. Also, with the recipe doubled, I used 2 whole cups of white wine in the sauce. WIN. The garlic bread was the same I did the week before, and it was just as awesome as before. But yes, this shrimp recipe is going down in my list of favorites.

Night #16: Thursday, April 8. Tofu, squash and rice, and broccoli with cheese sauce. Bleh...more repetition. But hey, they liked it. The tofu, squash and rice is a recipe from my friend Amanda. Brown rice, cooked in veggie stock...yellow squash, cut in half and broiled with some olive oil and Cavender's Greek seasoning...extra firm tofu, sliced very thin and sauteed in a pan with olive oil and Cavender's...and then everything cut up and mixed together. It's a great recipe...the tofu is cut so thin that it's almost like chips, and it tastes like chicken if done correctly. I used a whole two blocks of tofu, at my mother's request, and I think I'll do that again in the future...it leaves plenty for eating as I go along. : )

So, that's last week. This week will be slightly more original, with some new experiments. Every Wednesday features a new kind of seafood...this week is scallops. Fun, fun.

Ok, later! : )