This Week's Plan

This week, I'm going to make some food for the freezer, so I have things I can defrost and reheat. When I make soups, stews, sauces, and chilies, I try to double the recipe and freeze half in family-sized portions. If I do one or two dishes this way every weekend, I wind up with a wide variety of meals that I can just defrost and heat up. These meals are a great gap-filler for those nights we just don't want to eat whatever was planned. For example, last week, I baked a ham for Sunday. Although I had creative ways to use the ham, by Wednesday, we were all ready to swear off ham forever. So I needed a gap-filler. In that case, it was hot dogs. But if I'd had chili or spaghetti sauce in the freezer, we would have eaten much better that night.

So this week, I'm making a big pot of red sauce. I can freeze most of it and use it later for spaghetti, rigatoni, lasagna, chicken Parmesan, and even pizza. I'm also going to make a big pot of chili. Finally, I'm going to roast a chicken, and we'll get two meals out of that. So here's the plan:

Saturday: Spaghetti with Red Sauce & garlic bread
Sunday: Roast Chicken with Asparagus and Rice (my kids don't like
potatoes)
Monday: Green salad with chicken, apples, dried cranberries, and
pecans
Tuesday: Chili with rice
Wednesday: Chicken Tikka Masala
Thursday: Spaghetti, Chili, or whatever Rudy want to feed the
boys. I'll be out!

I'm going to do much of the prepping on Saturday and Sunday. I'll make the spaghetti sauce and chili on Saturday. I'll make the Tikka Masala from a Now We're Cooking recipe. I'll put the chicken in the marinade on Saturday and freeze it, then move it to the refrigerator for defrosting on Tuesday night. Then Wednesday, all I'll have to do is quickly cook the chicken in the sauce.

I'll post recipes later tonight.

And we have a very special guest post coming tomorrow. My friend Juliet, who is the best baker I know, has written up her recipe for Super Easy Pantry Snack Cake. My mouth was watering just reading it, and I know I'm going to try it for tomorrow night!

Hungarian Goulash

I made this last week, but I didn't want to post the recipe until I was sure how it came out.  It smelled a little odd while it was cooking, like I had over-spiced it, but the flavors were great.  They were even better the second night!

Hungarian Goulash

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 1/2 pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed of all fat and cut into 1" cubes.

4-6 teaspoons hot Hungarian paprika (don't use sweet or Spanish - it's not the same!)

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional, but gives a distinctive flavor)

1 15-0z can crushed tomatoes

6 ounces red wine

1 15-0z can beef broth

2 green bell peppers, seeded & diced

2 large turnips, peeled & diced

1 scant teaspoon thyme

1/2 scant teaspoon marjoram

1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

1. In a large dutch oven over medium heat, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the beef and cook until beef is browned on all sides, about 6-8 minutes.  Stir in half the paprika and saute 2 minutes more.  Stir in the tomatoes and saute 2 minutes more.
2. Add the remaining ingredients.  Stir well.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 2-3 hours, partially covered.  Taste, adjust seasonings, and serve.
3. Serve over pasta with sour cream and chopped chives as a garnish.

Note:  Hungarian Paprika is completely different from Spanish Paprika.  It comes in both sweet and hot varieties.  This recipe uses the hot variety.  The degree of spice can vary greatly based on brand.  It's best to add the paprika with a very light hand, then taste it about 1 hour in and add more if needed.  The turnips will soak up some of the spice and add a bit of sweetness, and the spice will mellow a bit while cooking.  But this dish can range from mellow to fiery hot depending on the brand and amount of paprika used.

This Week's Plan

I'm feeling a little loosey-goosey about planning this week.  I don't really have a set plan.  But I've given myself lots of options.  I was at Costco yesterday, and they had these gorgeous hams on sale.  So I bought one, and I'll cook it tonight.  That will give us a ton of options through the week.  I also got sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, peppers, mushrooms, and pasta.  Plus I'll make a hearty bolognese sauce today.  I'll freeze most of it, but we'll use it one night this week.  Then next week, it's easy to make a chicken parmesan or even a pizza one night.

As I said, it's loose, but the plan goes something like this:

Sunday:  Baked ham, roasted broccoli, sweet & spicy sweet potatoes

Monday:  Baked ham, sauteed green beans, mashed sweet potatoes

Tuesday:  Spaghetti Bolognese with extra veggies for mom.

Wednesday: Macaroni & cheese with ham & broccoli  (I'll make this Tuesday night and bake it Wednesday)

Thursday:  Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches with broccoli salad

I'll freeze the ham bone with the excess meat hanging off it and use it to make Navy Bean soup for next week.  I love ham for its versatility and complete reusability!

Tortilla Soup with Chicken

This is one of my favorite soups. I've added a ton of veggies, which makes it different from a traditional tortilla soup. But I feel better when soups have lots of veggies - some may sneak into the kids and husband! This soup is quite mild. If you'd like it spicier, use a jalapeno or two instead of the Anaheim chile, and add a bit of crushed red pepper. Alternatively, use a hot chile powder instead of a mild one.

Tortilla Soup with Chicken
(Serves 8 - I serve it to my family of 4 over 2 nights)

2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 Anaheim or Pasilla Chile, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 pound skinless boneless chicken, thighs and breasts are best
2 49-ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth
2 15-ounce cans petite diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn kernels (if canned, drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup cilantro, minced
4 teaspoons mild chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup brown rice (or white rice)
16 6-inch corn tortillas, cut into strips

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Add all the diced veggies (through garlic) to a large soup pot with a tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Saute until fragrant and onions are translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Stir in 2 teaspoons of the chili powder and 1 teaspoon of the cumin, and saute 2 minutes more. Add the diced tomatoes and saute 3 minutes more.
3. Add the chicken broth to another large pot and bring to a boil. Add the chicken, reduce heat to simmer, and cook 6-8 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the broth and pour the broth into the soup pot. Dice the chicken and add it to the soup.
4. Stir in the beans, corn, cilantro, and the remaining chili powder and cumin. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add a bay leaf and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the rice to the soup and let cook for 30 minutes more (if using brown rice, 10 minutes if using white rice). Add 3/4 of the tortilla strips and cook another 10 minutes.
6. Arrange the remaining tortilla strips on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake in heated oven for about 10 minutes until crispy, tossing occasionally.
7. Serve soup garnished with toasted tortilla strips, diced avocado, chopped green onions, and shredded cheddar cheese.

I make this in large batches and serve it over a couple of days. When I do that, I don't add the rice and tortillas until the night I am serving the soup. That keeps it from getting soggy.

This Week's Plan

Last week's plan worked pretty well! I had a plan for each night, and executed to it most nights. We never ate dinner later than 7, and most nights, I was prepping for the following night. So I'll do the same thing again this week, although with different menu choices.

It's turned cold and rainy here in California, thank goodness. I've never been so happy to see the rain. I'm hoping for a heavy rainy season so that our reservoirs are replenished, and so my new plants and trees get nice and strong for next summer. But cold and rain definitely bring out the cravings for comfort foods: hot soups, spicy foods, casseroles. I love them all!

Saturday: Tortilla Soup
Sunday: Hungarian Goulash with Herb-Roasted Potatoes
Monday: Tortilla Soup
Tuesday: Hungarian Goulash over pasta
Wednesday: I'm going out. Boxed mac & cheese for the boys (they love it).
Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas