Night 79

Recipe 95

Island Bird: Pineapple-Rum Chicken

Matt rating ****1/2

*Sorry, forgot to take a pic for this one!!!*

Ingredients used:

Rice

Pineapple

Vegetable oil

Yellow onion

Garlic

Coarse salt

Red pepper flakes

Spiced rum

Chicken stock

Chicken breast halves

Coarse black pepper

Flat-leaf parsley

Cilantro

So I quickly redeemed myself by making this meal after such a sub-par meal a couple of nights before. We had company over and they all seemed to enjoy it. I have always had an aversion to mixing meat and fruit (i.e. pork chops and apple sauce, pineapple on pizza, etc.) but since I am always giving Matt a hard time about trying things he thinks he doesn't like, I had to give this a try. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this turned out! And boy, it went a long way! This meal fed 7 people (and a toddler) with some food left over, and that was with only 2 1/2 pounds of meat. I both love and hate proving myself wrong...

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Mandy

Night 78

Recipe 47

Couple-of-Minute Steaks and Potato Ragout

Matt rating ***

Ingredients used:

Cube steaks

Worcestershire sauce

Black pepper

EVOO

Baking potatoes

Coarse salt

Thyme

Rosemary

Yellow onion

Garlic

Dry white whit

Chicken stock

Cherry tomatoes

Flat-leaf parsley

Butter

You would think that with Matt being a midwestern guy that steak and potatoes would receive a higher rating, wouldn't you? I can't say I blame him on this one though. While I thought the potatoes were pretty tasty, the "cube" steak was what I call peasant steak...it seems to be just glorified hamburger. In all fairness, I don't think there is much you can do to make cube steak better, except to use it in salisbury steak - and even then, it's still glorified hamburger meat with a sauce to disguise it! The best part about this meal is that I had everything on hand, including the herbs and tomatoes that I have growing in my garden, except for that dreaded cube steak...so, it was very budget friendly! Definitely NOT a keeper.

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Mandy

Night 77

Recipe 182

Chicken with White and Wild Rice Soup

Matt rating ****1/2

Ingredients used:

White and wild rice blend

EVOO

Yellow onion

Garlic

Carrots

Celery

Bay leaf

Thyme

S&P

Chicken stock

Chicken tenders

Flat-leaf parsley

Dill

Lemon

Hot sauce

So after Matt brought back the frozen breaded chicken tenders (ya know, the chicken-nugget type frozen thing?) and told me that there was no such thing as chicken tenders, he went back to the store to bring me back regular boneless-skinless chicken breasts instead. He brought back a package of chicken tenderloins and told me that was all they had...ummm...okay? I had to explain to him that chicken "tenders" was just short for chicken tenderloins, hahaha! So after a false start, I was able to get dinner on the table in a flash. Matt and I both loved it - Judah, on the other hand, put it in her mouth and spit it right back out. Everybody's a critic, right?

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Mandy

Night 76

Recipe 36

BLT Pasta Bake: Bacon, Leeks, and Tomatoes

Matt rating *****

Ingredients used:

Coarse salt

Elbow macaroni

EVOO

Bacon

Leeks

Coarse black pepper

Unsalted butter

Flour

Cayenne pepper

Paprika

Milk

Chicken stock

Gruyere cheese

Dijon mustard

Cherry tomatoes (from my garden!)

Plain bread crumbs

I figured that for my last night with Matt before I leave town for a week that I would make him something cheesy that he would no doubt enjoy. As always, cheese never fails with my husband! I would consider this recipe another take on grown-up macaroni and cheese. This made A LOT, so I was able to put some into a casserole dish to freeze for a later date. There was also plenty left over to get Matt through a couple of lunches while I'm gone. With only 7 hours left until I need to get up to catch my flight, I'd better post this and hit the sack!

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Mandy

Night 75

Recipe 138

Spinach and Artichoke Calzones

Matt rating **1/2 (I would give it ***1/2)

Ingredients used:

S&P

Walnut pieces

Artichoke hearts

Garlic

Lemon zest

Flat-leaf parsley

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Grated nutmeg

Ricotta cheese

Frozen chopped spinach

Pizza dough

Flour

Shredded Italian cheese

I was blown away with how easy it was to make calzones! I will definitely make them again, but maybe next time make them with a meat and cheese filling to suit Matt's tastes. He wasn't too much into all the spinach, but I thought it was pretty tasty. The only thing I would have done differently for this specific recipe is to add some marinara sauce for dipping. Otherwise, I thought it was pretty decent!

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Mandy

Night 74

Recipe 51

Big, Thick, Hearty Thighs Spanish Style

Matt rating ****1/2

Ingredients used:

EVOO

Chicken thighs

S&P

Yellow onion

Garlic

Thyme

Chorizo

Dry white wine

Chicken stock

Red potatoes

Roasted red peppers

Frozen peas

Flat-leaf parsley

Crusty bread

This was a spin off of a master recipe that I cooked back in December that received the same rating from Matt. I used bone-in chicken thighs that I got from my food co-op, so I cooked them for a little bit longer than called for. The addition of chorizo and roasted red peppers made it into a totally different tasting dish, and even Judah liked it! The crusty bread was great for sopping up all the yummy juice.

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Mandy

Night 73

Recipe 304

Zucchini and Bow Ties

Matt rating ****1/2

Ingredients used:

Coarse salt

Bow-tie pasta

EVOO

Garlic cloves

Zucchini

Coarse black pepper

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Fresh basil

Changes to recipe:

Penne pasta instead of bow-tie

Garlic salt instead of garlic cloves (how was I out of garlic cloves?!?!?)

Added one yellow squash

Added fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden

This was a perfect summertime recipe with fresh veggies from my food co-op pickup yesterday as well as fresh basil and cherry tomatoes from my garden. Matt gave this a great rating, in spite of the fact that it didn't have any meat in it. It is great cold as well, as we found out after putting it on ice and taking it to a music festival at Deer Valley today. Smacky!

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Mandy