Sunday’s turkey-spinach bake: everyone ate this, but I feel like it was a little less saucy than I would have liked. Next time I might double the tomatoes and cream used; I used one of the Philadelphia cooking cremes and skipped the onion step, FYI.
Monday‘s twice-baked cauliflower: I feel like I followed the steps correctly, but the texture of this once fully baked was more like rice than potatoes. My husband had two helpings and loved it (and is not usually a cauliflower fan), but I didn’t like the mouthfeel and the girls flat-out hated it. Not sure whether to try this again, but if I do, I might double the cream cheese and/or use my immersion blender before I bake it, to get a more mashed-potato texture, like I was expecting. Burgers were good, just Parmesan cheese, Italian dressing and some panko to bind and season them. Made the brownies for the girls’ lunches Monday evening.
Tuesday: Pork chops were another semi-failure, because for whatever reason, I have not yet mastered a good stovetop panfry-with-oil technique. Too much oil? Too impatient with the flipping? Improper breading technique? I’m not sure, but it’s frustrating! We all ate the pork chops anyway, but the real hit of the night were the potato wedges, though I had to alter the seasoning mix a little based on our taste and what I had on hand. Will definitely use this technique on wedges again.
Wednesday: made another batch of Colby-Jack biscuits, because I’m a little obsessed and because last week’s batch was just not cheesy enough. Have plenty of leftovers for everyone to choose from; cooking so much on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and then coasting a little is probably the best strategy I’ve come up with so far in this meal planning experiment!
Thursday: leftovers again
Friday: great success with the Kitchn’s thin crust pizza dough! Made two 10-inch pizzas, each half pepperoni, with Mozzarella, Colby-Jack, Parmesan, Asiago cheeses. So good, will definitely make again, though soon I’m going to start investigating pizza peels for an easier way to get them onto my pizza stone. Really looking forward to experimenting with toppings.
Recipes that went unmade: the carrot cake pancakes and chicken-white-bean chili; carrot cake pancakes will get made sometime this weekend, and the chili will get pushed to next week’s lunches
Keeper recipes: seasoned potato wedges, thin crust pizza
Lessons learned: I’m still overplanning a little, but grocery shopping has gotten easier and seems more efficient, and I’m NOT missing the panicky “What am I going to do for dinner?!” feeling.
Related articles
- Meal Planning Update, 1/20-1/26 (jackieregales.com)
- Meal Planning, 1/27-2/2 (jackieregales.com)
- “Tourtière” and baked cauliflower (bretonyarnerie.wordpress.com)
- Meal Planning, 1/20-1/26 (jackieregales.com)
- Spinach Tomato Pesto Pizza (sheslosingit.net)
- Heartbreak, Thy Name Is Pizza (smallthoughtsfromasmallmind.wordpress.com)
- Sassy Saturdays: Broccoli and Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes (PERFECT FOR SUPERBOWL!) (fattiedelights.com)
- Baked Cod with Mashed Cauliflower (mycornydiary.wordpress.com)
Do you like the wood oven flavor of pizza but can’t get it out of your own oven? Try using your outdoor grill if you have one! That’s how we ALWAYS cook our pizza now….and won’t go back. Check online for how to best accomplish this, but what we basically do is this: get all toppings cooked, chopped, and put in little containers, cups or on little plates; get dough rolled out to size and shape you want; get grill heated; oil the grill; put untopped dough on grill and grill til it gets big bubbles that then deflate; flip; put on toppings (this is the cooked side) and cook until the cheese melts and the toppings are hot. You get the lovely smokey flavor that is missing from using your oven. I don’t have a link, but definitely check online for specifics (timing and how hot the grill should be). Enjoy!
Jody, I have read about that before but never tried it–we are a bit too warm-blooded to grill in the winter, but will definitely try it come summer now that I have a good recipe for crust!
Luckily, I’m in NoCal, so our winters tend to be milder…
However, I canNOT emphasize the yummy goodness that is the grilled pizza! I’ll keep hoping spring upon you sooner rather than later so you can give it a go!
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