This Week's Menu

Monday 6/30:
* Fry Bread Turkey Tacos

Tuesday 7/1:
* Grilled Salmon
* Spinach Salad
* Garlic Bread

Wednesday 7/2:
* Chicken Club Wraps

Thursday 7/3:
* Chicken Enchiladas

Friday 7/4:
* Turkey Burgers
* Fruit Salad

Saturday 7/5:
* BBQ w/friends

Sunday 7/6:
* Rice & Beans
* Salad

Erin's Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Thank you Erin for sending me this recipe. This was a perfect dinner for a hot summer day. I grilled the chicken on a grill pan earlier in the morning so assembling dinner was a cinch. I added some tomatoes and used baby spinach instead of spring lettuce because that's what I had on hand. The combination of the blue cheese dressing and the spicy hot sauce is great. Here's Erin's recipe:

Buffalo Chicken Wraps
Chicken Breasts
Packaged Spring Lettuce Mix
Blue Cheese Dressing
Frank's Buffalo Wing Hot Sauce
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Wheat Wraps (or tortillas)

Cook chicken breasts and chop into large chunks. While chicken is cooking, place lettuce in mixing bowl, add blue cheese dressing and toss salad to coat. Lay wrap on plate and place desired amount of lettuce mixture on top. Sprinkle desired amount of shredded cheddar cheese on lettuce. Once chicken is done and chopped, place pieces in same mixing bowl. Add enough wing sauce to coat, toss chicken to mix well. Place desired amount of chicken on top of lettuce and cheese. Roll wrap and enjoy!

Pavlova

Are you not drooling just looking at this picture? I am. If berries and real whipped cream aren't enough, they are covering delicious, cruncy yet chewy meringue. We had a day camp for the 8-11 year old girls at church. There was an international theme to the camp and I became the Australian expert for the day. Well, I made the Australian dessert, Pavlova, to accompany the Australian presentation and craft. I made individual size Pavlovas. Traditionally, I think it is strawberries and kiwi on top but I had strawberries and blueberries. I used this recipe and I had to make it twice. The first time, I didn't beat the meringue long enough and it just kind of ran together. The second time I beat it really really well (I love my KitchenAid mixer!) so the meringue was nice and thick. I forgot to put the vanilla, cornstarch, and lemon juice in the second time and it turned out fine. I wish I had taken a picture of the meringue without the cream because it is so pretty. I put about a half a cup of meringue and pressed a spoon in the center of the mound. I did follow the advice about crumpling the parchment paper which made it easy to remove the meringues from the cookie sheet. This dessert is really, really good and the possibilities are endless! The crunchiness, chewiness, creaminess. Yum!

Cajun Chicken Caeser Salad

This recipe changes up a classic Caesar salad. I added avocado and I think tomatoes would have been a good addition, as well. I served this with some garlic bread. It was an easy summer meal. I liked the spicy Cajun chicken with the cool lettuce and Caesar dressing.

This Week's Menu

Monday 6/23:
* Rice & Beans
* Sliced Avocado

Tuesday 6/24:
* Cajun Chicken Caesar Salad

Wednesday 6/25:
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Spinach Salad

Thursday 6/26:
* Mom's Chicken, Rice, Tomato Dish

Friday 6/27:
* Erin's Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Saturday 6/28:
* Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato Sandwiches

Sunday 6/29:
* Fry Bread Turkey Tacos

Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches

When I made Chicken and Ratatouille earlier in the week, I grilled double the amount of vegetables to use for this sandwich later in the week. Here was the makeup of the sandwich:

Pesto mayo
Grilled vegetables (zucchini, summer squash, red pepper, tomato, onion)
Muenster Cheese

I brushed the bread with olive oil and grilled the sandwiches on the grill pan. Yum!

Grilled Chicken and Ratatouille

This recipe was great for a healthy dinner. I couldn't find Japanese eggplant and I had a yellow summer squash on hand so I used that. This was also oven-free! Great for a hot day!

Red Potato Salad

This recipe for potato salad is easy and I love that it is mayo-free. I didn't have olives or celery and it still tasted good. I didn't have Seasoned Salt so I added onion powder, paprika, garlic powder, and a little bit of chili powder. I think I'm going to have some of the leftovers right now!

Country Style Pork Ribs

This week Safeway had country style pork ribs on sale for 99 cents/lb so I thought I'd given them a try. I had never cooked them before and this is the recipe I found for them on Food Network. Emeril's marinade for the ribs is really good. The kitchen smelled so good when I was grating the ginger. The recipe turned out well but I'm not sure I would use country style ribs again because they are pretty fatty. I think this marinade would be so good on steak. I served this with a red potato salad and cornbread. A hearty meal for sure!

Slippery Chicken

Yesterday I had Slippery Shrimp, one of my current favorite dishes, on the menu. When I opened the freezer to pull out the shrimp, I discovered I had only about ten. Well, ten shrimp will just not fill us up, so I cut up a couple of chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks and prepared them the same way as the shrimp, coating in cornstarch then lightly frying. I added the chicken and shrimp to the sauce together. Dinner saved! It was great!

Shepherd's Pie

I used this recipe from 30 Minute Meals to make Matt's Father's Day request of shepherd's pie. I used ground turkey, sour cream rather than cream cheese, and I added a little whole milk to the gravy. The dish was pretty easy and it turned out okay but it seemed to be missing something. It just wasn't as flavorful as I expected. It did look really good, however. Next time I try shepherd's pie, I think I'll try this recipe, from Paula Deen, or, if anyone knows of a great one, let me know and I'll give it a try.

This Week's Menu

Monday 6/16:
* Slippery Shrimp
* Rice
* Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday 6/17:
* Pork Ribs
* Potato Salad
* Green Beans

Wednesday 6/18:
* Grilled Chicken & Ratatouille

Thursday 6/19:
*BBQ at the park

Friday 6/20:
* Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

Saturday 6/21:
* Cajun Chicken Caesar Salad

Sunday 6/22:
* Preschool Chicken
* Rice
* Mandarin Salad

Chicken Mozarella Sandwiches

Yum, yum, yum! This was such a good dinner! I'm getting hungry just looking at the picture. This is what I did:

4 chicken breasts
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil

Marinate chicken in a mixture of the vinegar and olive oil. Grill chicken until done. (Since I don't have a grill, I used my grill pan.)

8 slices of bread (I used Trader Joe's Tuscan Pane, which also makes good French toast)
3 Tablespoons Mayo
1 Tablespoon Pesto
Roasted Red Peppers
8 slices fresh Mozarella
Olive oil

Mix mayo and pesto, and assemble sandwiches: mayo, chicken breast, red pepper, mozarella. Brush one side of sandwich with olive oil and place down on grill pan. Grill about 3 minutes (while it is grilling, brush top of sandwich with olive oil) and flip and grill on other side.

Chicken Piccata

I had some capers to use and found this recipe for Chicken Piccata that I thought I'd try. The My Recipes site is a pretty good recipe source. They have recipes from Southern Living, Real Simple, Cooking Light, and other magazines. The Chicken Piccata recipe was really easy and a great recipe if you like lemon. I didn't pound my chicken breasts since they were pretty thin already. I doubled the sauce so there would be plenty to go on the pasta. I subsituted chicken broth for the white wine and this might have been the reason that the sauce was a bit soupy and I'll add some cornstarch next time to thicken it up. I really loved the lemon flavor and the tanginess of the capers. I cooked a couple of extra chicken breasts when I made this meal and used them to make a hearty cobb salad during the weekend.

This Week's Menu

Monday 6/9:
* Chicken, Rice, Tomato Dish
* Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday 6/10:
* Grilled Chicken Mozarella Sandwiches
* Spinach Salad

Wednesday 6/11:
* Beans & Rice

Thursday 6/12:
* Chicken Enchiladas
* Steamed Veggies

Friday 6/13:
* Vegetable Fried Rice

Saturday 6/14:
* Dinner with friends

Sunday 6/15:
* Shepherd's Pie
* Salad

Asparagus Tomato Salad

I had some tomatoes, asparagus, and green peppers that needed to be used and this recipe popped up when I did an ingredient search on All Recipes. I didn't have any mushrooms and I didn't miss them in the salad. I served the salad with the rice and beans and in addition to adding color to the plate, it rounded out the meal as a cool, healthy, refreshing side. A squeeze of lemon juice might give the dressing more flavor.

Rice and Beans

Well, to change things up a bit I thought I'd try a meal of rice and beans. This wasn't as low cost a meal as it could have been since I used canned beans instead of dried and, I also added a can of RoTel, but this was a satisfying, meatless meal. This is what I did:

1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 onion, chopped

2 T olive oil

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can RoTel (diced tomatoes with green chilis)

Cumin

Chili Powder

Heat olive oil on medium heat in skillet, add garlic and onion, and saute until onion softens (about 3 minutes). Add beans and saute about 5 minutes more. Add Rotel, a couple of shakes of cumin and chili powder, stir and heat through. Serve over rice.

When I made slippery shrimp on Wednesday, I made extra rice and served the beans over the rice. I topped mine with some cheese and would have added guacamole, but I had an unfortunate run-in with a knife while making guac earlier this week so I'm avoiding avocados at the moment (Reminder to self: Put the avocado on the cutting board! Do not hold it in your hand, Ashley!) There are so many ways to make rice and beans. If anyone has a favorite, post it or send it my way!

Le Bon Cafe

Le Bon Cafe is a tiny eaterie on Capitol Hill. I first read about it a few years ago in a Southern Living magazine article covering cheap eats in DC. I then came across another review in a guidebook. One afternoon a few months ago, after we had finished a Capitol tour, I remembered about Le Bon while we were trying to figure out where to eat. I couldn't remember exactly where it was so we asked a Capitol Police Officer if he knew where it was. He responded jokingly, "Do I look like a guy who eats at a place called Le Bon Cafe?" Then he got out his cell phone and called someone who googled the cafe and gave us directions. It was so nice of him! When he realized where it was he said that he did remember the cafe because he and the other officers frequent Pete's Diner, just next door. I'm sure that is good, too. We'll have to try it sometime. But, back to Le Bon. It's a tiny place where you walk up to the counter and order and wait for your food. They have a few tables inside and a few outside. We've been there twice for lunch and have really liked it. The sandwiches are substantial and not expensive. My favorite has been the Turkey Curry Salad Sandwich. It has only a hint of curry flavor but is delicious. I also really like the bread they use for the sandwiches. Perhaps the best part of the lunch is the little cup of red potato salad that comes with the sandwich. It is a vinegar-based salad (as opposed to mayo) and so yummy! I've heard Le Bon's pastries and breakfasts are great, too. Le Bon Cafe definitely has my vote for a tasty Capitol Hill lunch.

This Week's Menu

Monday 6/2:
* Dinner at Orioles Park (they're playing the Red Sox)

Tuesday 6/3:
* Crock Pot Fajitas

Wednesday 6/4:
* Slippery Shrimp
* Rice
* Broccoli

Thursday 6/5:
* Rice and Beans
* Asparagus Tomato Salad

Friday 5/30:
* Chicken Piccata
* Pasta
* Steamed Veggies

Saturday 5/31:
* Cobb Salads
* Cornbread

Sunday 6/1:
* Turkey Loaf
* Sweet Potato Fries