Thursday, September 15, 2011

Meals

I've been trying to get creative with my meals lately. I have a general rotating menu:

1. Jambalaya with sausage and cornbread
2. Tacos
3. Chicken with sides
4. Pork chops with sides
5. Steak with sides
6. Lasagna with salad
7. Grilled cheese and soup (for when I'm lazy)
8. Tamales with chili and cheese

Please note that the sides for items 4, 5 and 6 are any combination of the following: Potatoes, Salad, Broccoli, Carrots, Rice, Crescent Rolls, Corn on the Cob.

Frankly I can tell we've been getting bored. Now that I work from home (Hallelujah) I have a bit more time to make some different meals. Here are my favorite two from this week:

Pork Roast with Mashed Red Potatoes and Steamed Veggies

Monday was a big day in our house. My darling Grant who is an amazing golf played in the qualifier for the Houston City Amateur Golf Tournament, and he made the cut for the 2nd year in a row! I am so, so proud of him. (This means that he is qualified to play in the real tournament in October).

To celebrate, I made this yummy meal for him!

It was easy peezy. I bought a 2 1/2 lb pork roast at HEB. I covered the whole darn thing in a lot of olive oil and then rubbed dry salad dressing (the mix stuff in a bag) on top of that. I threw that in the oven for about 2 hours. Then I made mashed red potatoes (those are our favorites around here). I'm a bit of a purist so all I added to those was half a stick of butter, a little bit of milk, and salt and pepper. Steamed veggies are simple enough, just olive oil for some flavor and salt and pepper! It was good and gave us good leftovers.

Pioneer Woman's Penne alla Betsy


I've made this a few times before and made it again this Tuesday. It involves shrimp which I do not eat but thankfully I can eat around them and the dinner is just as good! You can find PW's recipe here.  Any recipe that includes white wine is okay by me.


I don't eat any seafood. At all. Never have. So, if you had asked the non-married version of myself 7 years ago "Jen, do you ever see yourself standing in a kitchen pulling tails of of shrimp with your bare hands?" I would have said "HECK to the NO".

Ah, marriage. How it changes you.

2 comments:

Katie said...

Have you seen the Hormel Pork Tenderloins that are already seasoned? We're obsessed with them! They come in several flavors (Apple Bourbon is our fav) and are so. easy-- just pop it in the oven, throw your sides together, and dinner's ready in 40ish minutes. As much as I try to play like Martha/Julia/Paula in the kitchen, there are some days when I come home and want to say "The cereal? It is your dinner." and fall into the bed. It's those nights when I head for the Hormel :)

Do you do anything special with your chicken and pork chops? I try to keep basic in my rotation but plain old meat can get tres boring. Love this! I think I might steal your meal blog for my own little post today... :)

Kelli said...

I still struggle with cutting tomatoes and onions...

I need to make that PW recipe.

Can I please please have a jambalaya recipe? :) Love you!