- Spiced beef with hummus, the recipe is a was down on the page. Served with salad.
- Pork Chop Suey
- Southwest Pork Tenderloin Chili
- Oven fried Panko Chicken with green beans
- Spaghetti with broccoli cream pesto
- Calzones along the lines of these
Author: HungryDad
Meals for Sept 29-Oct 5
- Chicken with spinach and warm bacon vinaigrette
- Something along the lines of this pizza with zucchini, bacon and mozzarella
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Burritos
Steaks with Citrus-Soy Sauce and Edamame Slaw
Pink Parsley is always a source of great recipes, and the author is pregnant with twins and craving stake. Hence this awesome recipe she posted! This was simple and delicious, the sauce serves as a dressing for the slaw and gets reduced for a sauce on the steak. Easy enough for a week-night, good enough for company!
We tend not to have sesame oil like the original recipe calls for, so I substituted olive oil. We’re also not fans of raw red onions, so we we left that out too. With prepackaged broco-slaw mix and cooked edamame, this is really a fast meal to whip up. We served it with brown rice, which was the longest part of the cooking.
Steak with Citrus-Soy Sauce and Edamame Slaw
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 5 Tbs Low-sodium soy sauce this gets cooked down, and was plenty salty using low sodium soy sauce
- 1 Orange juiced
- 1 Tbs orange zest
- 2 Tbs rice wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Ginger powder or 1 Tbs freshly grated ginger
For the Broco-slaw:
- 10 oz package pre-cooked shelled Edamame
- 10 oz bag broccoli slaw mix
- 2 Tbs Olive oil
For the steaks:
- 1-2 Tbs Olive oil
- 1 lb New York strip steaks
- 4 Tbs butter
Instructions
- If serving with rice, start the rice.
- In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, orange juice and zest, vinegar, and ginger.
- In a large bowl, combine the broco-slaw and edamame.
- Take 3 Tbs of the sauce and add to the slaw mix.
- Add 2 Tbs olive oil to the slaw
- Mix and refrigerate until the rest of the meal is ready.
- Heat a pan on medium-high and add the olive oil
- Add the steaks and cook to desired doneness (~5-7minuted per side for medium-well)
- Remove the steaks and tent with foil while you cook the sauce.
- Add the rest of the sauce to the pan and simmer for a minute or two, scraping up the burned bits off the bottom of the pan.
- When the sauce is thickened, remove from heat and add the butter one tablespoon at a time, melting into the sauce.
- Slice the steaks
- To serve, put some slaw on the plate, top with stakes and the sauce.
- If serving with rice, put some sauce on that too, it's good stuff!
Meals for Sept 22-28
Fig Bismarck
I normally try to make something special for weekend breakfasts. It’s fig season, so I had a bunch of figs in the fridge to use up. I’ve made a pear bismarck before, and that went over well, so I figured that could be reconfigured to use figs. Turned out quite well. I did cook the figs for a bit to cook off the water and start browning them.
Fig Bismarck
Ingredients
- About a dozen figs
- 2 T butter
- 2 T brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- Maple syrup optional
- Powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450˚
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat
- Slice the figs in half or quarters
- Melt the butter and add the figs and brown sugar
- Cook, stirring occasionally until the water has been released from the figs and they start to dry out and caramelize a bit
- Meanwhile mix the eggs, flour and milk.
- When the figs are ready, pour the batter on top
- Put the pan in the oven and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, slice and serve with maple syrup and/or powdered sugar if desired
Ravioli with Sautéed Butternut Squash and Thyme
Frozen ravioli makes a nice start to a fast dinner. We had gotten tired of ravioli a while back since all we did was add some spaghetti sauce. This recipe is a relatively fast and easy dish that adds flavor, veggies and something different to the routine.
We used beef ravioli, though with cheese ravioli this could be a vegetarian dish. To make the cooking go a bit faster at meal time, you can dice the squash ahead of time and store in the fridge until your ready to go.
Ravioli with Sautéed Butternut Squash and Thyme
Ingredients
- 2 Tbs olive oil
- 1 medium butternut squash about 1 lb, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1 package ravioli
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the butternut squash.
- Cook covered, stirring occasionally, until the squash is soft and starting to brown (10-15 min).
- Meanwhile boil the water for the ravioli and prepare according to package directions.
- When the squash is ready, add the garlic and thyme and cook uncovered for a couple of minutes.
- Serve the ravioli, topping with the squash and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Sweet Potato Fries
This recipe came from DinnerALoveStory.com, one of my favorite blogs. Her site posts a stead stream of simple, healthy, yummy meals along with humorous stories about all kinds of things. Sometimes I’m in too much of a rush to read the stories, and head straight to the recipes, but I try to get back and read the stories when I’ve got a few minutes.
This recipe was simple and delicious, and our family devours sweet potato fries, so I added them as a nice side dish.
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Sweet Potato Fries
A simple, fast recipe for pulled chicken sandwiches, served with sweet potato fries
Ingredients
For the sandwiches:
- 1 cup barbecue sauce
- ½ cup cider vinegar
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 lbs Chicken Breasts about 4
- Potato Rolls
For the sweet potato fries
- ~3 sweet potatoes
- 2-3 Tbs Olive oil
- Salt
Instructions
For the sweet potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 450˚
- Slice the potatoes into ¼ inch stops
- Working in batches, place cut potatoes in a ziplock bag and add some oil
- Close the bag, shake to coat the potatoes
- Spread potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with salt
- Bake for ~30 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned
For the sandwiches
- While the fries are cooking, get a heavy pot
- Add the bbq sauce, cider vinegar, onion, garlic, bay leaf to pot and mix
- Add the chicken to the pot
- Add 1-2 cups of water to cover the chicken
- Add the bay leaf
- Bring the chicken to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove the chicken from the pot and turn up the heat a bit to cook the sauce down some more while you shred the chicken (10 minutes or so)
- Shred the chicken with two forks and return to the sauce
- Serve on the potato rolls with the sweet potato fries
Meals for Sept 15-21
Meals for Sept 8-14
- Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with sweet potato fries
- Risotto with roasted vegetables–probably broccoli & carrots vs radishes
- Crockpot Korean Beef Tacos
- Chicken, Black Bean and Red Pepper enchiladas
- Steak, peppers, and white bean burritos/soft tacos
- Ravioli with butternut squash and thyme
Sweet Potato Samosas
I’m always on the lookout for new sweet potato recipes. Besides being tasty and popular with the kids, they have a lot more going for them than regular potatoes (e.g.: this site). So when I ran across this recipe for Sweet Potato Samosas on Culinate.com, I decided to give it a try. I added some ground beef, though you can leave that out for a veggie option. I’ve also thought peas were a required part of samosas, so I added a can. These were quite good and made a lot. In fact, with the peas and beef, I think you would need 2 batches of the dough for all of the filling. We just served some filing on the side and for left-overs. The green sauce was especially good! 
Sweet Potato Samosas
Sweet potato, beef and pea samosas
Ingredients
Cream-cheese pastry
- 8 oz. Cream Cheese
- 1/2 cup Butter softened
- 2 cups Flour--we used White whole-wheat
- 1/4 tsp. Ssalt
Sweet-potato filling
- 1 lb Ground Beef or, for a veggie option, omit and add some olive oil
- 1 Large onion chopped
- 2 Tbs lemon or lime juice
- 1 tsp. Fresh ginger finely minced
- 1 clove garlic minced (about ½ teaspoon)
- 1/4 tsp. Cardamom powder
- 3 Large sweet potatoes
- 1 14 oz can Peas
Green dipping sauce
- 1 cup Low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
- 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves
- 1 jalapeño chile seeded, chopped (optional)
- 1 garlic clove
Instructions
Prepare the pastry:
- Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy.
- Add the salt
- Add in the flour half a cup at a time, mixing until it comes together in a ball.
- Wrap in plastic, flatten, and refrigerate while you make the filling. (You can make this dough up to 3 days ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze it for up to a month.)
Prepare the filling:
- Microwave or bake the sweet potatoes until soft.
- Peal and mash the potatoes in a large bowl.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Brown the ground-beef if using, or add some oil.
- Add the onion and sauté
- Add the lemon or lime juice, ginger, garlic and cardamom
- Transfer the beef and onion mixture to the bowl with the sweet potatoes.
- Fold everything together.
- Drain the peas and gently mix them into the mixture.
- Set aside to cool--the dough gets too soft if the filling is too hot.
Forming the samosas:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface.
- Using about a 3-inch round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter, cut circles in the dough--I used a big wide-mouth jar.
- Place spoonful of the sweet-potato filling in the center of a dough circle and fold in half, sealing the edges.
- Place on the parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Once the sheet is filled up, bake until the edges are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
Make the dipping sauce:
- While the samosas are cooking, combine the sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
Serve the samosas warm or at room temperature.