Two New Recipes

Last night we needed a quicker dinner, as we were heading to our nephew's football game for 6:00. 

We made chili verde with sausage and pumpkin, and started by broiling this tray of veggies.

Then everything went into one pot, starting with some onion, then sausage meat, garlic, oregano, cilantro, and chopped pumpkin or squash.  It called for canned hominy too, but we couldn't find any, so we just added a can of corn, and it tasted great.

I thought it needed more liquid, as it wasn't saucy or liquidy enough for chili, in my opinion, so we added a can of beef broth that we had on hand, and about a 1/4 cup of water.

We made this dinner, ate, and were only five minutes late to the game.  I call that a win!  (And the team won too!)

This chili was so good, and it had just the right amount of kick.  I loved the leftovers for lunch today.  We'll add this to our make-again list, and you can find the recipe here if you want to try it out.

Tonight we made another new dish - grilled chicken thighs with ginger scallion noodles, but had mixed feelings about it.  I didn't think it was anything special, although Christopher really enjoyed it.

I thought this dish needed something more.  I added sriracha, but it still wasn't really doing it for me.  Anyway, the recipe is here, and it's an even quicker one.

I used to subscribe to many food and cooking magazines, but now I only have one subscription - Food Network Magazine.  Often, when we are menu planning and can't think of what to make, we turn to this magazine for quick and easy ideas.

(Note: I am not affiliated with them; I just like the magazine).

What's on the menu at your house this week?

Do you have any magazine subscriptions?

Where do you look for new ideas when you're meal planning?

Breakfasts

I had some delicious breakfasts last week, including avocado toast (one piece drizzled with balsamic, both topped with pink Himalayan sea salt):

Juicy nectarines from the farmers' market: 

And a chocolate oat parfait, with maple banana "soft serve". 

Chocolate "Overnight" Oats

1/3 cup raw quick oats
1 T chia seeds
1 T cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, or any milk-like drink

Mix everything together and let it sit about 10 minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight so it's even quicker in the morning.

Maple Banana "Soft Serve"

1 large frozen banana (or 1 1/2 small) broken into chunks
1 T pure maple syrup
Almond milk (or any milk) - start with a couple T and add more as needed

Throw the banana, syrup and milk into your blender or food processor, and mix until smooth and soft-serve ice-cream like.

Layer the oats and the soft-serve into your parfait dish, and dig in.

We spent the entire weekend at home, without leaving the house, which was great.  We had eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast on Saturday.

And then on Saturday evening we threw together a sausage-arugula breakfast strata, and tossed that in the fridge overnight, so it would be ready to pop in the oven this morning.

Sausage-Arugula Breakfast Strata

 

6 eggs
1 1/4 cup half and half
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chopped basil (or whatever herb you have on hand)
About 1/2 loaf of crusty bread, cubed (we used 200g rosemary focaccia)
1 lb (1 package) breakfast sausage rounds, cooked and cut into pieces
5-6 white mushrooms, quartered
1 cup arugula, torn or rough chop 
Olive oil (for roasting mushrooms)
1 cup of shredded cheese, whatever you like

Mix eggs, half and half, salt and pepper and basil.  Set aside.  Drizzle olive oil over the mushrooms, salt and pepper them, and roast @ 425F for about 20 min.  Once browned, remove and set them aside.  Spray your baking dish, then layer half the bread, half the mushrooms, half the sausage, half of the arugula, and half of the cheese.  Repeat with the other half of the ingredients.  Slowly pour the egg mixture over everything.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  The next morning take it out and leave at room temperature while you preheat the oven to 350 F.  Bake, covered, for 30-40 minutes, then uncover and bake another 20 minutes. 

This was a nice way to start out our morning.  More about our weekend in the next post.

What have you been eating for breakfasts lately?  

Have you ever made a strata?