As usual, I served this with rice (for Paul) and braised cabbage (for me) instead of polenta.

Tuesday: CrockPot Pumpkin Turkey Chili

Wednesday: Out to dinner

Thursday: Weeknight Bolognese

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Out to dinner

Sunday: Black Rice with Shrimp, Peaches and Snap Peas

My sister made this last year and I’ve been wanting to try it out. I’m glad I did. So, so good.

Changes: 1) Used nectarines instead of peaches; 2) Substituted coconut aminos for the soy sauce; 3) Only used 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil while cooking (instead of 3 Tbsp + 1/4 cup as recommended).

I also made another batch of CrockPot Curry-Spiced Lentils & Spinach so I could eat the leftovers during the week ahead.

Changes: 1) Didn’t add rice; 2) Used homemade chicken stock instead of veggie stock.

Tuesday: Ratatouille and Turkey Burgers

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Spiced Chicken and Chickpea Stew

This was pretty tasty. I’d definitely make it again.

Friday: Tacos

Saturday: Richmond visit

Sunday: Baked Salmon with Roasted Broccoli

I make salmon a lot on Sundays because 1) I like to cook it soon after I’ve bought it for freshness purposes; and 2) it’s quick and easy. Add some olive oil, salt and pepper, throw it in the oven for 20 minutes. The broccoli can go into the oven simultaneously and they’re both done around the same time.

Pea puree and lemon sauce with salmon? It’s a fancier version than I usually make but I wanted to try it out. Delicious.

Since I worked from home on Monday (and had purchased a ton of veggies the day before), I was able to put together a few more dishes so they could be eaten throughout the week.

I ended up making another (double) batch of Crockpot Eggplant Tomato Stew with Garbanzo Beans as well as Spiced Roasted Cauliflower. I would use less spice the next time around; as you can see it ended up being a bit spice-heavy.

Tuesday: Ratatouille

I had never made this before but I’ve loved it whenever my mom and sister have made it. It’s also customizable, which is nice — you can add more or less of something depending on what you have available.

This turned out really well. I’ve already decided to make another batch next week!

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Crockpot Brazilian Curry Chicken

Friday: Out to dinner

Saturday: Out to dinner

Sunday: Kale, Cabbage and Sausage Soup and Baked Salmon with Roasted Broccoli

The soup was a pre-dinner snack (we would eat the leftovers later in the week); the salmon and broccoli was our dinner.

This was my first time making the soup. I admit to having an ulterior motive — Paul professes to dislike both kale and cabbage, so I wanted to try combining them in such a way that he wouldn’t mind the individual flavors so much. Guess what? Mission accomplished. Apparently adding sausage is the way to go!

I was worried this might not turn out well since I only haphazardly followed the instructions (I should have called this recipe “Lazy Vindaloo Vegetables”), but it ended up tasting great.

Changes: 1) Didn’t do the advance prep (blending the spices into a paste, cooking the onions and carrots in advance — I just threw everything in the CrockPot at once); 2) Didn’t add brown sugar; 3) Used yellow bell pepper instead of green.

Paul had his servings over brown rice but I ate mine straight out of a bowl.

Tuesday: CrockPot Red Curry Pork with Pickles

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Greek-Style Shrimp with Feta

This was pretty simple to make and tasted better than I expected. I’d make it again.

Friday and Saturday: Went out to dinner

Sunday: Salad

I had intended to make a new recipe on Sunday night, but after I found out I could work from home the next day (my bosses would be in an off-site meeting), I decided to leave the weekend food prep and new recipe for Monday night’s dinner instead.

We ate at Chipotle for a late lunch so I made myself a salad later in the evening for dinner.

I feel like I haven’t been eating enough veggies (I tend not to cook them as a side dish), so I decided to look up some soup recipes that I could add lots of veggies to. Mission accomplished!

Changes: 1) Didn’t add kidney beans; 2) Substituted homemade chicken stock for the veggie broth; 3) Since I was going to be chopping so much anyway, I decided to double the recipe to make it worth my while. I love leftovers! You can click on the link above for the full recipe instructions, but here are the quantities I used:

2 medium eggplants
2 14.5-oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
3 cups sliced carrots
2 15-oz cans garbanzo beans
1 large onion
2 cups chopped celery
3 cloves garlic
6 cups homemade chicken stock
6 ounces tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Went out to dinner

Thursday: Tacos

Friday: CrockPot Curry-Spiced Lentil Spinach Soup

I doubled this recipe, too. If you’re planning to make soup in the CrockPot, why not make a bunch? Both of the soups this week turned out well, which was a nice encouragement to make them more often. (Although as you can see, my lentil “soup” absorbed most of the liquid so it wasn’t very soup-like. I would add more chicken broth next time.)

Saturday: Went out to dinner

Sunday: Baked Salmon and Sauteed Broccolini

This was my first time making broccolini. I followed the recipe as written except for using bottled lemon juice (which means I left out the lemon zest). Very good!

Monday: Leftovers

We ate Easter dinner leftovers at Paul’s parents’ house before we left for the airport. We had a snack later but didn’t make a separate dinner when we returned home.

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Country Captain Chicken

Thursday: Weeknight Bolognese

Friday: Leftovers

I developed a cold later in the week so I didn’t feel like cooking on Friday night.

Saturday: Baked Chicken in Creamy Tomato Sauce

I just made this for the first time last week, but the ingredients are simple and I had everything I needed to make it again.

Changes: 1) Used 3-4 oz Monterey Jack cheese instead of mascarpone; 2) Used 28-oz can diced tomatoes (15 oz wouldn’t have been nearly enough sauce); 3) Added 10-12 diced kalamata olives.

Sunday: Pomegranate Pork Loin with Cabbage

I don’t think I would have been able to identify the flavor as pomegranate (due solely to the 8-oz bottle of POM juice I added to the braising liquid), but it was definitely tasty.

Changes: 1) Substituted coconut aminos for the soy sauce; 2) Paul doesn’t care for cabbage so I cooked it separately instead of adding it to the dish at the end (as the recipe calls for). He ate his pork over rice. As you can see, I used a combination of green and purple cabbage:

This week was different because I was entirely OFF WORK. It was wonderful. I got a number of things accomplished and made a new dish every night I was home (Mon-Thurs) since I had extra time on my hands.

Here’s how they turned out!

Monday: Baked Chicken in Creamy Tomato Sauce

This was really good. Even though you have to cook it on the stovetop and then transfer it to the oven, it’s very simple (and also not a lot of cleanup because you use the same pot for both steps — I used a Dutch oven). I served it with braised cabbage (me) and brown rice (Paul).

Changes: 1) Added 8-oz package of chopped button mushrooms; 2) Substituted Monterey Jack cheese (3-4 oz, cut into chunks) for the mascarpone.

Tuesday: Thai-Inspired Salmon

I really, really liked this. Usually when I purchase salmon I just bake it, but when I saw this recipe I knew I wanted to try something different. This is definitely worth making again.

Changes: 1) Didn’t add scallions; 2) Didn’t add fresh cilantro but I did use 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil. Also, the recipe didn’t mention this, but once I put the salmon in the sauce and let it simmer, I would periodically spoon the sauce on top of the fish to make sure it was properly soaking in (the sauce didn’t fully cover the fish when it was cooking).

Wednesday: Smoky Tomato Lentil Soup with Spinach & Olives

I found this recipe when someone posted it on Twitter. The only change I made was substituting homemade chicken broth for the veggie broth.

Paul usually picks out any olives he finds in his food but he ate this soup as-is. So I give it additional points! I would definitely make this again.

Thursday: Quinoa, Spinach, and Shrimp Salad

My sister Elissa made this when I was Richmond last weekend and I loved it. She hasn’t posted the exact recipe because she doesn’t measure the ingredients when she throws everything together. I made note of what I did:

1 cup dry quinoa, cooked
1 lb shrimp, cooked in 1 tbsp butter
1 cup black beans (from a can), drained and rinsed
diced red onion (1/2 cup)
1 large avocado
1 tbsp dried cilantro
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder

It was super tasty. I served it with a side of fresh steamed green beans (not pictured).

Friday-Sunday: Buffalo, NY

Paul and I flew to Buffalo on Friday night to spend the weekend.

Tuesday: CrockPot Pumpkin Turkey Chili

I was making this pretty regularly for a while (every 1-2 weeks), but I got tired of it and needed a break. Two months later, here we are again!

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Spinach Feta Turkey Burgers

Simple to make: Combine 1 lb ground turkey, 5 oz frozen spinach (I use half of a 10-oz package of frozen, defrosted and well drained), 1/2 cup feta cheese, and salt and pepper. Mix it all up and cook the burgers until no longer pink. Easy!

Friday: Shrimp Simmered in Garlicky Beer Sauce

I originally found this recipe in Aida Mollenkamp’s Keys to the Kitchen (my sister Elissa owns a copy), but the full recipe is also available online.

Changes: 1) Used 2 tbsp already-minced jarred garlic instead of fresh; 2) Used bottled lemon juice instead of fresh; 3) Used a few tsp of dry parsley instead of fresh (are you sensing a pattern here?).

I served it over braised cabbage (for me) and brown rice (for Paul), and sprinkled crumbled feta cheese on top.

In hindsight, I should have cooked 2 lbs shrimp and doubled the recipe. Although it may have been more food than we needed, at least we would’ve had leftovers. This turned out well and both of us could have eaten more.

NOTE: I used Dogfish Head beer (I occasionally eat/drink gluten, just not very often). You can easily substitute this for gluten-free beer.

Saturday: Rotisserie Chicken

We purchased a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and ate that before we left to attend a friend’s party.

Sunday: Diane’s Roast with Pickles

This is Paul’s favorite childhood recipe; I adapted it slightly from the version my future mother-in-law sent me last year. (My dinner calendar showed that I hadn’t made this since October 18th! Sorry, Paul.)

It’s bit time intensive to make since I have to cut the beef into bite-size pieces, so I tend to save meals like this for Sundays when I have more time to prepare.

The effort was worth it. I wanted to do something special for Paul because he’ll be in Florida most of next week (the longest period of time we’ve spent apart since we moved in together in December 2011).

I liked this so much the first time I made it that I published the recipe on my blog. It was just as good the second time!

Tuesday: The Hamilton

I met Paul after work for dinner with a group of his co-workers.

Wednesday: Mediterranean Chicken with Lemon and Olives

This was okay, but nothing special. I likely wouldn’t make it again.

Thursday: Cafe Asia

My mom was in town for a few days so we took her out to eat. Sushi for me!

Friday: Fish Stew

I’ve made my sister’s recipe for Fish Stew many times but my mom had never tried it. Luckily, she really enjoyed it and said she’ll attempt to recreate it herself.

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: CrockPot Chunky Chicken Vegetable Soup

This was the first time I made this recipe. I changed a few things and it turned out well. I’d make it again.

Changes I made: 1) Used 2 lbs chicken breast; 2) Didn’t pre-cook the chicken or veggies before putting them in the CrockPot; 3) Used an 8-oz package of button mushrooms, chopped; 4) Used 3 cups homemade chicken stock — the original recipe only called for 1/2 cup, which didn’t seem like nearly enough to make a proper soup.

This version tastes much better. The major changes I made were adding more veggies (spinach and mushrooms) and decreasing the amount of pasta (I thought there was way too much in the first version; I didn’t want the pasta to overwhelm everything else).

When I make this in the future, I’ll try a combination of ground turkey and ground sausage — I bet that would be pretty delicious. I would have done so this time except I didn’t have any sausage available.

CrockPot Turkey Pasta with Spinach and Mushrooms

(Adapted from Add a Pinch)

• 1.5-2 lbs ground turkey
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 8-oz package button mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 10-oz package frozen spinach, unthawed and thoroughly drained
• 1 24-oz jar marinara sauce (I used an organic brand with very little sugar)
• 2 cups pasta (I used brown rice penne)
• 1 15-oz container ricotta cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated (you could also use Parmesan)

Brown ground turkey in a medium skillet. Drain and set aside. Add the onion, mushrooms, garlic, and oregano to the skillet. Cook until veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.

Add ground turkey and marinara sauce to the cooked veggie mixture. Fill the marinara jar about halfway with water (make sure to shake it around to get all the remaining sauce) and add it to the ground beef mixture.

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Spoon 1/2 of the turkey and marinara mixture into the bottom of the crock. Pour in all of the noodles and stir.

Spread the container of ricotta on top and sprinkle with 1/2 of the mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses (1/2 cup of each).

Spoon remainder of turkey and marinara over the cheeses and cook for 5 hours on low.

Before eating, remove lid from slow cooker and add remaining cheeses. Return lid and allow cheese to melt for about 5 minutes.