This weekend I finally felt like cooking again. During the holidays, there's way too much that I HAVE to cook, either as gifts or family tradition or whatever. I was pretty burned out on the whole cooking thing. Plus we had enough leftovers to feed a small country. Finally they're all outta here, and thanks to Pinterest (you have heard of Pinterest, haven't you? More later, I'm sure) there were several new recipes I wanted to try. Chicken breasts and pork butt were on sale last week, two things I find hard to resist, so I got some of both--about 8 lb. of chicken and a 7 lb. of pork. I probably have enough food in my house for two or three weeks.
However, this week I will be getting my kitchen ready for a semi-remodeling--we're getting new floors and some cabinets where we didn't have any so far--so I had to get a jump start to have time to clean everything out. So, before a day-by-day meal plan, I'll explain what I made on Sunday and how I did kind of a bulk cooking day to make this week easier.
I made Chicken Gyros, Broccoli Cheese Soup, Pulled Pork, and Goat Cheese Quiche with Hash Brown Crust. It was a busy day, but well worth it. First, I started with the pork because it had to cook the longest. I use a variation of my girl PW, otherwise known as Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. We're tight. OK, not really. I have ea bit of a girl crush on her. More like I want to trade lives with her. I mean, who wouldn't want her hunka hunka burnin' love cowboy husband AND seemingly unlimited shopping budget that allows for $300 blouses she later decides she doesn't really like and gives away on her blog AND living on a gorgeous ranch with two houses in the country AND homeschooling her four beautiful babies. Just sayin.... Anyways, a la PW I put my giant pulled pork in my brand new giant slow cooker on a bed of onions with some salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and Dr. Pepper. Yes, you heard right, Dr. Pepper. Turn that baby on low and let her go for a good 10 hours. I have enough pork for three meals, at least one of pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and another of pulled pork tacos.
Next, I started on the Chicken Gyros from Bitchin' Kitchen.
Yummalicious, no? First the marinade, then the tzatziki sauce. We love tzatziki around here. Mmmm...
While the chicken marinated, I worked on the broccolii cheese soup like Panera's. I had picked up a couple heads of broccoli that were on sale and searched online for a recipe using fresh broccoli and real cheese, not processed cheese product. :/ This imitation is what popped up first. http://www.food.com/recipe/Panera-Broccoli-Cheese-Soup-150384 It looked yummy and easy to make. It was both. I will never make a single batch of this recipe again. Double for sure, maybe triple, from now on.
However, this week I will be getting my kitchen ready for a semi-remodeling--we're getting new floors and some cabinets where we didn't have any so far--so I had to get a jump start to have time to clean everything out. So, before a day-by-day meal plan, I'll explain what I made on Sunday and how I did kind of a bulk cooking day to make this week easier.
I made Chicken Gyros, Broccoli Cheese Soup, Pulled Pork, and Goat Cheese Quiche with Hash Brown Crust. It was a busy day, but well worth it. First, I started with the pork because it had to cook the longest. I use a variation of my girl PW, otherwise known as Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman. We're tight. OK, not really. I have ea bit of a girl crush on her. More like I want to trade lives with her. I mean, who wouldn't want her hunka hunka burnin' love cowboy husband AND seemingly unlimited shopping budget that allows for $300 blouses she later decides she doesn't really like and gives away on her blog AND living on a gorgeous ranch with two houses in the country AND homeschooling her four beautiful babies. Just sayin.... Anyways, a la PW I put my giant pulled pork in my brand new giant slow cooker on a bed of onions with some salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and Dr. Pepper. Yes, you heard right, Dr. Pepper. Turn that baby on low and let her go for a good 10 hours. I have enough pork for three meals, at least one of pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and another of pulled pork tacos.
Next, I started on the Chicken Gyros from Bitchin' Kitchen.
Yummalicious, no? First the marinade, then the tzatziki sauce. We love tzatziki around here. Mmmm...
While the chicken marinated, I worked on the broccolii cheese soup like Panera's. I had picked up a couple heads of broccoli that were on sale and searched online for a recipe using fresh broccoli and real cheese, not processed cheese product. :/ This imitation is what popped up first. http://www.food.com/recipe/Panera-Broccoli-Cheese-Soup-150384 It looked yummy and easy to make. It was both. I will never make a single batch of this recipe again. Double for sure, maybe triple, from now on.
Last up was Martha's Martha's Goat Cheese Quiche with Hash Brown Crust. I've made quiche a lot, but this was a little different with the hash brown crust and the goat cheese and looked scrumptious.
So with all of this yummy goodness already prepared, planning the meals for the week is pretty easy.
Day #1: Chicken gyros and broccoli cheese soup. All that was left to do for the gyros was bake the chicken, chop some tomatoes and onions and warm the pitas. I also just gently reheated the soup, and dinner was on the table in a flash. Plus, there's some left over for lunches later in the week.
Day #2: Goat cheese quiche (sliced and reheated in the microwave), tossed salad and zucchini bread that I made in the summer and retrieved from the freezer for dinner.
Day #3: Chicken fried rice and soy braised bok choy. I will share with you my own personal recipe for fried rice later this week.
Day #4: So, have I mentioned Pinterest yet? Well, I found this AM-A-ZING looking recipe from Kayotic Kitchen for Country Club Chicken. I can't wait to try it.
Day #5: Leftover night since with all this cooking we will have lots of them and my stove is not going to be accessible.
Day #6: Pizza night. Again, stove, floor, kitchen, blah, blah, blah....
Day #7: We've been invited to dinner with some friends, and since the kitchen will surely be pure chaos, I'm all in.
I share my recipes on Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday.
