Kitchen

I don't have a lot of exciting stuff going on this week (gasp!), so I thought I'd write a bit about what's going on in my kitchen!  I love food blogs.  Loooove them.  I also love cookbooks.  Looooove them, too (and am in the market for some new ones so feel free to dish on your faves or fails).  They are so awesome because they exist so I don't have to create my own food ideas!  I'm an awesome cook - meaning, I can follow a recipe like nobody's business.

Every Friday or Saturday, I sit down with my cookbooks and computer and "research" what I want to make for the week.  So I can go to the grocery store with a plan.  I have a few weekly requirements:

• I will not make the same meal for two weeks in a row, no matter how much my husband likes it and begs for it.  No matter!  
• At least two meals have to be vegetarian.  With vegetables in them.  It helps me to make sure my family and I get proper nutrition.
• All dinners must have at least one side veggie item or have lots of veggies in them (if it's a casserole, for example).
• Three of the four meals must be relatively "quick fix" since dinner making hour is "mad dash" hour in my house.  
• One pasta dish per week maximum.
• I try to make enough so there are lunch left overs for me and the hubbster.  Sine my toddler basically doesn't eat, I don't worry about her leftovers. 
• Speaking of toddler, I try very hard to make meals "toddler friendly," (but she doesn't eat them anyway, so... "pfffttthhh" to her)  
• Make foods that don't upset my husbands abundant food allergies.  

I think that's it for my requirements.  I typically don't cook a ton of ethnic foods, partially because I'm not sure how they taste and partially because who needs a bunch of random ethnic spices in my tiny spice space in my cabinet that I'm not going to use but once a year.  I would like to cook more Indian food, because I loved it when I ate a ton of it in the UK for the year I lived there, but I'm kind of afraid to try.  I also don't cook fish hardly ever, which is also something I'd like to change within the next few months.  

This week, I decided to make the following: 

Monday: Cheeseburgers on whole wheat buns, with Cheddar Cauliflower and potato chips (my toppings were mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato and pickles)

• Note: I think next time I might try to slide in some hidden veggies and see how that turns out.  Hubbs eats veggies, toddler doesn't eat anything, so it's not for the "hiding" factor, per se... but I always like to pack as much as I can get away with while trying to satisfy all of us.  These had onions, salt & pepper, Worcestershire, whole wheat bread crumbs and an egg.  I could probably mince some zucchini  or really grate the hell out of some carrots next time.  Hmmm....

Tuesday: Beans and cornbread (without the bacon, maybe.  Maybe.) with a cucumber salad

Wednesday: Grilled cheese on whole wheat bread, roasted red pepper and tomato soup and roasted broccoli

Thursday: Springy Shells (i.e. springy whole wheat penne)

Friday: Pizza night

Saturday: Leftovers

I'm excited for Springy Shells night.  I LOOVE The Pioneer Woman.  I don't cook her food that often, despite using her recipes twice this week, because they are often heavy in butter or creams or meat (yum, YUM YUM!!!), but I love the way she writes and her food is fantastic!

Okay, well I'm off to start my pot 'o' beans and play with my baby!