Tales from La La Land

I apologize in advance. I am breaking all my blog rules in this post. I don’t usually fawn all over Laef here.

When we decided to do the coupons for Valentine’s Day, I figured hilarity would ensue. But, after using two ideas that came off those coupons, I don’t have much to say that won’t gross you out.

On Sunday, we went on a 5-mile hike in Brentwood. We ate a picnic lunch at the top of the hill, talked for an hour about anything and everything. It was a gorgeous day – not too hot, and we were able to see LA from the ocean to the Hollywood sign. It was a great day.

When we got in the car, Laef said: “That was so fun. Are you going to blog about it?”

Me: “I don’t know. I really don’t want to brag about our perfect day. I was counting on you to do something that would make it funny.”

Laef: “You peed. Twice.”

So, there was that. I can no longer make it more than 30 minutes without having to go pee. I was trying not to drink too much water so that I wouldn’t have to go every 3 seconds. But then my hands got totally swollen from me being dehydrated. You just can’t win in the game of pregnancy, I tell ya.

When we got home, we took a nap. Prior to falling asleep we read about Week 24 of pregnancy. More glamorous things coming, including a dark line that goes the entire length of my stomach. And the book mentioned something called skin tags. (WHATEVER you do, don’t google image that shit).

Me: “Thank God I don’t have that. Gross.”

Laef: …

Me: “What?”

Laef: “You have one. Let me show you.”

Me: “WHAT?! Why didn’t you tell me???”

So, I have an iddy-biddy tiny one on my boob. OF COURSE Laef knows EXACTLY where it is.

Supposedly it will fall off after pregnancy.

We can hope.

Anyway, yesterday was Valentine’s Day and Laef decided that he wanted to cook dinner for me. This is also one of the coupons. I got a text from him during the day with a giant grocery list of things he would need for this dinner.

I immediately worried about what he was taking on with this meal. I cook almost every night for us, but let me be honest. Some of those nights are soup and sandwiches, bean burritos, Cesar salad. I’m certainly not whipping up anything special on weeknights.

Then I got another text about an hour later: “I also need everything for red velvet cake and 24 oz. of white chocolate.”

At this point I am really worried for Laef. Not that he can’t do it, but that he has no idea what he is taking on. The only time I bake AND cook a difficult meal is on the weekend when I can start early and take a nap somewhere in the middle of it. It is a lot of work. Especially baking. It’s exhausting.

But, I oblige his requests and get everything at the store. I was tempted to get him 2 lemons instead of the 4 he requested to see if he would stomp his foot and say, “Baby wanted 4 lemons!”

He started cooking dinner at 6:45 ish. He didn’t want any help so I watched my shows and was dying to go into the kitchen to assess.

At 8 p.m. he presented me with this:

Are you fucking serious? I was speechless. It’s Chicken Piccata. And it was really, really good.

And this is the thing about Laef. He doesn’t really like cooking. Or doing dishes. Or doing chores. But when he starts something, he goes all the way. It would never occur to him that making me dinner on Valentine’s Day would be something simple.

The dinner would have been plenty. However, when we were done he kicked me out of the kitchen again and at 8:30 p.m. he started with his dessert.

At 10 p.m., I finally asked if I could please come in there because it is now past my bed time and he has been cooking for 3.5 hours. He says yes, and I stumbled upon cake balls:

So, he had to make a cake. Mash it in the mixer with frosting. Create little balls, and then dip them in white chocolate.

A. Lot. Of. Work.

And looking at him in the kitchen working so hard just melted me. I am really trying not to gross you out, but it was one of the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

I had two cake balls and went to bed. I have no idea what time Laef got done and came to bed.

He told me this morning: “I’m so tired. I don’t know how you do it. I really appreciate everything you do and making dinners and taking care of all that stuff.”

I make fun of Valentine’s Day because I think people get suckered into spending money. But if it gives us an opportunity to do something for each other that we normally wouldn’t and helps us appreciate and love each other for all we bring to the table, then I’m all for it.

Because I certainly am not looking forward to doing all the dishes. I really appreciate that I don’t have to worry about those everyday.

Somehow my salt-womb pork won the last Culinary Throwdown so I am hosting the first Culinary Challenge of 2010.

Of all the ingredients, themes, techniques, food-related things I could have chosen, I picked leeks.

A million things went through my mind – scallops, artichokes, chocolate, lemon, garlic, coffee – things I LOVE.

But, they’re all things I know and have tried. I have been curious as to what a leek is and how you cook with it, so I picked leeks hoping to learn a thing or two. I am also curious about braising, poaching fish in olive oil and molecular gastronomy, but I wasn’t quite ready to complicate things. And, let’s be honest, I don’t own a dry ice machine.

My mom sent me a recipe the same day I posted that leeks were the theme, so I decided to use it. I have mostly heard of leeks being used to make soup, so that’s what I was going to do, but the following recipe sounded simple and yummy.

The recipe is from Food and Wine Magazine.

Luckily for me, there were very few ingredients. That was nice considering I was still trying to recover from NYE and the Rose Bowl.

You will notice that The Sanch is NOWHERE to be found. That’s because he heard the word “Leeks” and was like, “Fuck that. Call me next time when there’s pork, beef, tuna or cheese”.

The leeks were full of dirt, so the first order of business was to thoroughly rinse them. I then sliced them as thin as I could and placed them in a deep skillet over moderate heat. By the way, why does the recipe say, “moderate” heat? Is moderate medium? Or is moderate low? Or is it medium-low? Is this a Swedish recipe?

For the second challenge in a row, my recipe used heavy cream. I figured if the leeks tasted like poo, the heavy cream would totally make up for it. So, I dumped cream on the leeks, added some spinach, salt and pepper. I mixed the creamy-leek sauce with the pasta and added some basil.

Voila!

Not the most exciting plate, but it really did taste good. The leeks were quite stringy and since Laef as never eaten a leek either he was examining everything and asked “Oooohhh…is this Parmesan cheese?”

How bad do you think I felt when I had to tell him it was a leek? He said he liked it, but he will eat pretty much anything. I could see making this again mainly because it was super, super easy and provided us leftovers. You really can’t go wrong with pasta mixed in cream.

Right now it’s hard to imagine cooking (or eating) anything.

Our Christmas Eve dinner consisted of a 15-lb prime rib covered in sea salt, horseradish, olive oil, garlic and pepper. Apparently, 1lb of meat per person wasn’t sufficient, so we also had a huge batch of my brother-in-laws homemade raviolis. And, of course, a bevy of side dishes ranging from oven-baked macaroni and cheese to spinach salad.

Here’s what a 15-lb piece of prime rib looks like prior to cooking.

For desert, we revisited the deliciousness that is the lemon pudding cakes.

Everything turned out really well despite the fact that there were multiple people trying to cook in the kitchen at once, and that every few minutes a three-year old would run by trying to grab everything in sight.

I started thinking about the Leek throwdown, which will take place on January 6, because the prime rib recipe called for parsnips. I had to google it before going to the store. I have never eaten a parsnip in my life. No one else seemed entirely sure what they were either. So, I was looking forward to cooking them with the roast and seeing what they tasted like.

They seem to have a pretty bland flavor on the own, so thankfully they were swimming in meat juice.

When I first told Laef that I got to pick the ingredient for the next throwdown, he said, “I know what you’re going to pick.”

And then he said: Garlic.

It is true. I love cooking with garlic. But, I wanted something I’ve never used.

I guess it’s only fitting that I chose leeks – a vegetable from the onion and garlic family.

Most of the recipes I have been wanting to try were some kind of soup, but after reading further, there are plenty of options for cooking with Leeks.

I hope you all will participate. Hopefully by January 6 you will be recovered from all the holiday food.

Once you have put your throwdown blog up, come over and leave a comment that says, “I’m up.” Moi will go around and visit all the sites and take care of the judging.

Maybe it’s the holiday spirit or Padma’s baby bump, but after a totally lackluster Top Chef season finale, I was kind of digging the reunion show.

I laughed quite a bit, so I don’t have a lot of negative things to say.

The way that they interacted on the reunion show and some of the clips that were put together only reinforced in my brain that the process is stressful. Unless you are Kevin, the chances of coming out looking completely sane, sweet and sincere are slim to none.

I will probably take a lot of flak for this, but I thought Isabella redeemed himself a little bit on the reunion show. He’s a jersey guy, which is a unique breed, but even Jen admitted that he was an OK guy. He could totally laugh at himself and seemed to take ownership of who he is. I can respect that.

Speaking of which…Um, could Bravo have been any more obvious when it panned to Jen and then to Isabella after Andy Cohen asked a viewer question about whether there were any on-set love affairs?

Rumor is that they had some kind of tryst, but seeing as Isabella was recently married, I’m sure we’ll never really know.

Other notes:

- I love Jen even more than I did before. She is one of the guys who likes to booze and cook. She is my pretend BFF.

- Ash is such a tool. I can’t pinpoint it, but something about him and his teabagging of the entire cast really annoys me.

- Bryan and Mike aren’t so bad. Bryan has zero charisma and Mike is quite confident, but bottom line is that their mom is good people and I would like to think that good moms raise good people.

- Ron. Andy said that people were sad when Ron was sent home. I don’t believe that. OK, he’s a cuddly teddy bear, but the dude was out of his league. Who was sad?

- Mattin. Thanks for playing, buddy. I got dry heaves again after having to look at your ceviche made in the desert.

- Padma. “I ate a lot of huevos…”

- Robin. At least you got air time. Can’t say the same for half the other people sitting there.

- Kevin. Best. Line. Ever. “It’s Fun To Be Smart.” He continued to be adorable. Even in his defense of Eli. So cute.

So, whatever, whatever. It is what it is. I had an OK time watching the reunion show. Felt like I could have gotten wasted with that crew and had a blast.

In other cooking related news!

I recently stumbled upon some cooking blogs that host a Culinary Throwdown. A couple of months ago, I got brave enough to tred into their turf and compete in the beet throwdown.

All of the bloggers that partake were very welcoming, friendly and encouraging so I went for it again a couple of weeks ago.

For each throwdown, there is a specific ingredient, style of cooking, method of cooking, etc., that must be featured. And usually, Moi will do the judging.

The winner of the challenge gets to host the next challenge and pick the theme or ingredient. Moi must have been drunk because she labeled my salt-womb pork the winner of the last challenge.

Sooo…I will be hosting the next Culinary Throwdown.

Yay.

Posts should be up on Wednesday, January 6. Don’t be shy! It’s a fun group and a fun challenge. Just put your post up and come on over to my blog and leave a comment saying, ‘I’m up.”

And now…for my choice of ingredient.

I’ll just say this: What I’ve loved about the throwdown’s is trying new things. I picked something that I have never, ever cooked with. I picked something that I always assumed I wouldn’t like, but never actually tried it.

I picked: LEEKS.

At first, the idea seems so logical.

Let’s make cookies for all of our friends and coworkers as gifts. It will be cheaper, more thoughtful and meaningful.

And then reality sets in when you actually count the number of people both Laef and I work with along with the neighbors, the UCLA basketball team and the mail man.

But, I was determined to make three kinds of cookies: Paula Dean’s Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, Paula Dean’s Ginger Cookies and Tyler Florence’s My Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies.

In the end, I realized the errors of my ways, and realized that making two different kinds of cookies – or even one – would have been more manageable.

I thought everything was fine until I hit a wall midway through Sunday afternoon, had a mini-meltdown and practically divorced Laef for eating the cookies and not vacuuming.

Seriously. I was a FREAK.

I was so tired from standing in the kitchen, rolling dough into balls and washing 4,343,502 dishes that I was beginning to go insane.

Which is the only explanation for also making Martha Stewart’s slow-cook lasagna in the middle of all the cookie mayhem. (It’s actually a really easy recipe and was to die for when it was done. Super yummy).

After it was all said and done, I was happy I did it and we had 40 bags of cookies that looked like this:

I have sent Laef to work with 20 bags, and am curious to know how many bags he eats and how many he gives away. The over under is at 10 each.

After the cookie debacle was finally done, we walked downtown to watch the annual Manhattan Beach Christmas firework show. For some reason, we have never been for this, and despite the fact that my back was killing me and I was at stage four of five on the psycho meter, we went.

We stopped by our neighbors’ house on 18th street to give them cookies and a Christmas card. These are the people who came out of their houses at our wedding to throw rice at us and give us champagne.

Neither was home. The current residents informed us that they are only there during the summer.

I hate them. They totally should have had Laef and I watch their houses during the winter. We would have gladly made sure nothing went wrong.

Anyway, all of the shops downtown are open. Some have hot cocoa, some have champagne and most offer some sort of treats. There are thousands of people camped out on the closed streets.

Despite the fact that Manhattan Beach celebrates Christmas with fireworks, it was the first time this month that I actually felt like it was the holiday season.

We walked home right after and I promptly went to sleep at 8:20 p.m.

Moral of the story: It sounds logical to make homemade gifts, but sometimes a box of chocolates is just fine.

Once again the Culinary Throwdown has led me down a road I’ve not ventured before.

This is my second throwdown, and it brought me as much excitement and confusion as the beet challenge.

This time around, La Diva Cucina is hosting. She won the last throwdown, and thus, got to pick the theme: Salt.

Obviously, I use salt to cook. But, I’ve never once made dish centered around salt. Which is weird because Cup ‘O Noodles is pretty much my favorite thing to eat.

I contemplated making some noodle dish with salty broth, but when I started googling around, I learned that there are actual techniques one can use to cook with salt.

In the end, I settled on Salt-Roasted Pork Loin. This is not an original recipe. Because this isn’t something I was familiar with, I figured I’d need a guide.

I have to say, I was skeptical throughout the entire process – how is dumping an entire 3 pound box of salt all over the pork loin not going to make it taste like ass? How is it NOT going to seep in?

So, with all of my confusion…I went for it.

I prepared my ingridents with a little help from The Sanch.

It was so disappointing to learn that you should hide bits of pancetta within the meat to prevent from drying. I HATE delicious chunks of pork hidden within pork! NOT.

That was pretty much all it took. I sliced holes in the pork loin and stuffed pieces of pancetta that were mixed with sage, nutmeg and mustard. Again, I was confused. I didn’t put anything on the pork loin. But, I have to say, the sage gave a really nice flavor.

Once the pork was stuffed with more pork, I buried it in salt. This is when I started questioning everything and started to think we’d be ordering a pizza for dinner.

As it was baking, I made the spicy apple creamy slaw thing that goes with it. I was thrown off by the horseradish. I love horseradish, but I normally eat it with beef, so I was unsure how it would go with pork. Um, it was delicious. Maybe it was the 5 tablespoons of heavy cream.

Finally, it was time to check the damage.

It was amazing. The salt formed a cave, never actually soaking into the pork loin.

After cutting it out of its salt womb, I sliced the pork and served with the apple slaw. It was super moist and an amazing revolution.

Spicy Salt-Roasted Pork Loin
2 1/4 pounds (1 k) bonless pork loin
A 1/3-inch thick (1 cm) slice flat pancetta (see link to photo), cut into half-inch sticks
3-4 leaves fresh sage, chopped
A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
A teaspoon ground mustard
A green apple, peeled, cored and grated
The juice of a lemon
5 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons grated horseradish
Pepper
6 1/2 pounds (about 3 k) coarse sea salt or kosher salt

Preheat your oven to 460 F (230 C).

Make as many cuts into the top of the meat as you have sticks of pancetta. Mix the sage, nutmeg, and mustard in a bowl, seasoning the mixture with a grind of pepper. Roll the pancetta sticks in the seasoning and stick the meat with them.

Line the bottom of a baking dish deep enough to comfortably hold the meat with a 3/4-inch (2 cm) layer of salt. Put the meat on it.

Cover the loin to an even depth of 3/4 inch (2 cm), using as much of the remaining salt as necessary.

Roast the pork loin for an hour and 15 minutes.

While it is roasting, squeeze the lemon, collecting the juice in a bowl. Peel and grate the apple, stirring the apple into the lemon juice immediately to keep it from discoloring. Stir in the grated horseradish too, and next lightly whip the cream. Fold it into the sauce too, cover the sauce with plastic wrap, and refrigerate it.

The salt crust will be browned, and may even look burnt because of the reaction between the heat and the juices drawn from the meat. Don’t worry, but rather crack it open, remove the pieces of crust, and brush away excess salt.

Aside from the incredibly amazing, stop-my-heart, jaw-dropping Oregon win at Arizona this weekend, there is nothing else special to say about our weekend.

The Duck game didn’t start until 5 p.m., so to keep myself occupied during the day, I made two recipes that I thought I’d share here.

Both come from Tyler Florence at Food Network (I know, I’m all over his jock, but like I said before, I see his show a lot and he makes everything look so easy and delicious).

I’d been holding onto this Lemon Pudding Cake with Fresh Mixed Berries recipe for a few weeks now. Laef and I are both huge fans of lemon-y desserts, and Laef is also a big fan of blueberries.

There were a couple of challenging things in this recipe. 1. Whipping egg whites until they become a fluffy mixture. I will admit, I had to bring in the DIVA to help me whip the whites. Mission accomplished:

Secondly, the recipe calls for you to put the ramekins in a baking dish and then fill the dish half way with warm water. Transferring the baking dish to and from the oven without spilling the water was not easy.

They made it safely in and out of the oven and all I can say is that whatever work is involved in this recipe IS SO WORTH IT. The major con is that I wish they were bigger. Of course we ate all of five of them that day. (I omitted the dusting of powdered sugar because they were already really sweet).

Lemon Pudding Cake with Fresh Mixed Berries

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2/3 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs, separated
2/3 cup reduced fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Garnish:

1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh blackberries
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and lightly sugar 4 ramekins (about 1-cup size).

In a mixer, add egg yolks, buttermilk, lemon juice and lemon zest and beat until well combined. Reduce the speed to low and sift in flour, sugar and salt. Continue to mix until combined. Beat egg whites until you get stiff peaks then combine the 2 mixtures by gently folding them together, a little at a time. Divide evenly amongst ramekins then bake in a water bath – set ramekins in a roasting tray and fill with water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 60 minutes until the top springs back when gently pressed and the cakes have a nice golden brown color. Allow to cool slightly, then carefully invert onto a plate. Serve with fresh berries and dust with powdered sugar.

**********************************************************************************

After we ate major amounts of lemon-y, sugary goodness, we napped. For dinner, I made Tyler’s Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Spaghetti is a staple in our house because it’s cheap and easy. I wanted to try something with more flavor and add meatballs. This recipe was a lot of work. I’m not sure how often we’ll make it, but the meatballs were so worth it. I guess anytime there’s mad amounts of pork involved you can’t go wrong.

And, of course, having spaghetti and meatballs let’s Laef beg the question: “Are you ready for my meat and my balls?”

Well, now that you mention it…um, No.

I’m linking the recipe above because it’s long. I will include a picture of the final, but it’s not that pretty. I should have used a non-stick pan to brown the meatballs. They got a little beat up. But, I was able to salvage them before baking and they tasted much better than they looked.

Let’s be honest. We all knew the Weekly Menu posts would last all of two weeks, right?

I’m still cooking and planning the meals the same way, but writing everything out on Sunday evening when I am pooped proved to be just one thing too much.

I figure I can update one or two of the recipes I do at least once a week. I got re-inspired to post a recipe after making Tyler’s Ultimate Chili last night.

Tyler has sort of become my new favorite (along with Barefoot Contessa) because he is on everyday at 12:30 p.m., which is when I’m on the treadmill at work. He makes simple dishes, but in a really spectacular, er, ultimate way. They’re all sort of labor-intensive and use a lot of ingredients so I don’t dive in very often. And, to be honest, I had to google at least four of the ingredients in this recipe.

It was fun to use new things. And now I have a huge bag of masa harina that I’m not sure what to do with! Tortillas, anyone?!

It finally got cool enough to even think about making chili so I went for it last night. This recipe is different because there are actually no beans, just heaps of delicious meat and spices. I may have used one slice too much of the jalapeno, and, thus our batch was spicy. I topped it with some sour cream and cheddar, and that help cut the spiciness. I also did not have any coriander. I looked at two different stores and they didn’t have it. Since it was one teaspoon, I omitted it.

I prepared everything I was going to need before even starting because it’s one of those dishes that moves quickly until you start simmering. Laef does NOT like it when I get all cutsie and put all my ingredients in separate little mixing bowls.

Laef: “You are not fucking on Food Network! Stop.”
Me: “What? It’s just easier. That’s the whole point of registering for these kinds of things.”
Laef: “You’re making 47 extra dishes so you can pretend to be Rachel Ray.”

(FYI. Brownies not for recipe. Wine not for recipe. Both are just staples in the kitchen)

So, anyway, it was a lot of prep work, but once you get everything in the pot, you basically let it simmer for 2 hours, which is awesome.

Unless your husband is Laef and he asks every 12 minutes how much longer.

Tyler’s Ultimate Beef Chili
Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds beef shoulder, cut into large cubes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 onions, diced
10 garlic cloves, halved
3 canned chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/2 cup masa harina
3 cups shredded white Cheddar, for garnish
2 bunches chopped chives, for garnish
1 1/2 cups sour cream, for garnish

Directions

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Season the beef shoulder all over with salt and pepper, add it to the pot and brown it. As it’s browning stir in the chili powder, coriander, cumin, paprika, oregano and cinnamon. Lower the temperature under the meat to “toast” the spices. In a food processor puree the onions, garlic, chipotle peppers, jalapeno, tomato paste and sugar and add it to the pot. Increase the heat to medium to steam vegetables a little and sweeten the peppers. Add enough water to cover by 1 inch, about 1 quart, and add tomatoes with their liquid. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat and simmer until the meat is fork-tender and comes apart with no resistance, about 2 hours. As it cooks down, add more water, if necessary. When done, stir in the masa harina. Take a potato masher and mash the chili so the meat comes apart in shreds. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish each serving with the shredded Cheddar, chives, and sour cream.

I recently came across some new blogs after getting some comments on my Top Chef recaps. The Troll Report offers some insightful commentary on the episodes and also hosts a Culinary Throwdown. He’s also a Gator fan, so by default he is in the same category as A. Sit. Which is a good category.

However, this particular Culinary Throwdown is being hosted by Bite The Apple.

From what I can tell (this is my first one), an ingredient or, in some cases, multiple ingredients are chosen and different bloggers whip up a meal based on that ingredient, take a few photos and post it online.

Bite The Apple will visit all the sites and judge the recipes.

I’m pretty sure I will not be the winner of my first-ever throwdown as the the star ingredient is the beet.

I have never eaten a beet in my life.

Which is why I was intrigued and kind of excited. I love food, I love cooking and I love trying all sorts of different things. I was like an 8-year old when it came to beets.

Hate them.

But, never tried them.

So, how do I really know?

And so I went online to figure out what the fuck a beet is and how you cook one. Because I’m a novice, I decided to roast them and stick with something very simple – a salad.

A staple in our house is an arugula salad with strawberries or apples, walnuts, some kind of crumbled cheese (feta, goat, blue) with a light olive oil dressing.

Because beets are supposed to be somewhat sweet, I figured I’d replace the fruit with the beets. They were very dense and reminded me of baby red potatoes. And they took equally as long to cook. I cook the baby reds the same way – drizzled with olive oil with salt and pepper, wrapped in foil in the oven.

I have to say, I really didn’t love the flavor.

However, the color of beets is nothing short of stunning.

Anyway, here’s what I prepared.

Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Feta Cheese and Walnuts

1 bunch beets, washed, trimmed, and quartered
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 oz. arugula, washed
1/4 cup walnut halves and pieces
feta cheese, crumbled
1 lemon, juiced
2 T olive oil

Trim the beets, cut into quarters. Place the beets on aluminum foil on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Fold foil to form a pouch and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

When the beets are done, let cool. Mix arugula, walnuts, feta cheese, lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl. Place mixture on a plate. Top with roasted beets.

It definitely hit me this week how much work planning meals can be. I think what pushes me through is knowing that we’re saving money and eating healthy. But, there are times during the week when I just want to make a frozen pizza or walk down the street for sushi.

I went to San Diego on Saturday to have dinner with my friend Erin for her birthday. Being diligent about menu planning and eating at home all month has REALLY helped me appreciate going out to dinner. We had THE BEST DINNER at Market Restaurant in Del Mar. The food was simply amazing. I am still thinking about it as I write this.

Anyway, here’s what we ate last week.

Sunday, October 11
Balsamic BBQ Chicken, Baby red baked potatoes and Corn on the cob.
(From Giada De Laurentiis on Foodnetwork.com)

In an effort to keep this blog somewhat short, I linked the recipe for the chicken above. The baby reds don’t really have a recipe. I just microwaved them for about 6 minutes and topped with butter and light sour cream. I chose the baby reds because they’re smaller than russet potatoes. I made a chili-lime butter sauce for the corn, which is basically a mixture of butter, lime juice and chili powder. I always use the grill for cooking chicken. I put the marinade on during the last five minutes of cooking.

Monday, October 12
Left over bbq balsamic chicken and side salad.

Rather than using the iceberg salad bag, I made a quick arugula salad with strawberries, walnuts and bleu cheese.

Tuesday, October 13
Grilled Chicken Ceasar salad

I don’t really follow a recipe for this. But, here’s a breakdown of how I make it (This is for 2 servings One head of romaine makes two huge salads, but it’s our dinner so it needs to be filling).

Ingredients
1 head romaine lettuce
2 chicken breasts
Freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste
Caesar dressing

Drizzle the chicken breasts with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Grill chicken until done (about 5 minutes on each side). While the chicken is cooking, slice the romaine lettuce and grate the cheese. I use about 1/4 cup of cheese. Toss the lettuce and cheese with Caesar dressing. Put the salad on the plate, slice the chicken and add to the top.

Wednesday, October 14

Turkey Burger and Oven Fries
Turkey Burger Recipe from The Best Life Diet Cookbook by Bob Greene
Oven Fries courtesy of Tyler Florence

These are super tasty. I added a little extra garlic for more flavor. We used whole wheat buns. I also added cheese to Laef’s. Also, I did not make bread crumbs from bread. I used store-bought bread crumbs.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey breast
1/4 onion , shredded, on the large holes of a hand grater or in a food processor
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion (scallion)
2 slices whole wheat bread , toasted and processed in a food processor for 1 minute to make crumbs
1/4 cup Better ‘n Eggs or 1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/8 tsp. ground mustard
Black pepper to taste
Vegetable oil cooking spray
4 whole wheat hamburger buns (about 115 calories each)
1 Tbsp. mustard
8 leaves lettuce
8 thick slices tomato
4 slices red onion

Thoroughly mix the turkey, onion, green onion, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, mustard and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Form the mixture into 4 patties.

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.

Lightly coat the pan with cooking spray and place the patties in the pan. Cook
until the pink just disappears in the center, about 4 minutes on each side, or until a thermometer inserted into the center of the burger reads 160°.

Slice the buns. Spread each top with mustard. Place the lettuce, tomato, onion and a
burger on the bottom bun and cover with the top. Serve.

OVEN FRIES
Serves 4
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

2 russet potatoes, cut in half lengthwise, halves cut lengthwise into fourths to make 16 big, fat wedges
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Toss the potatoes with the olive oil and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Then dump the potatoes out onto a baking sheet, spreading to a single layer. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes, shaking the pan every now and then, until the potatoes are cooked through, brown and crispy. Toss the fries in a big bowl with the parsley and cheese.

Thursday, October 15
Homemade Pizza and side salad

There are endless possibilities for pizza. Sometimes I buy a whole-wheat Boboli pizza crust, sometimes I buy fresh pizza dough from Trader Joes. Boboli also sells pizza sauce, and that’s what I typically use. I buy a block of mozzarella and grate it (it’s much creamer and fresher than buying the already shredded cheese). This time around I topped the pizza with mushrooms, onions and sausage.

Friday, October 16
Laef had basketball practice at 7:30 p.m. so we had left over turkey burgers. That’s the thing about cooking for 2 – most recipes serve 4 people.

Saturday, October 17
I went out to dinner with friends on this night and when I called Laef to see what he had for dinner, he mentioned something about CheezIts.

Until next week!