It's not secret that I love the Triangle area - and the husband and I have really enjoyed getting to know our new hometown - Durham! Apparently we're not the only ones as the NY Times just named it one of the 41 places to visit in 2011 (it's #35!)
I hope this year to do a much better job highlighting fun things we do around the Triangle in general and Durham in particular :)
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Other meals this week (and Happy Saturday!)
Happy Saturday to everyone out there! The first week back after a holiday break can definitely be longg at work - it was great to sleep in a bit this morning!
We tend to only have time to make 3-4 meals a week - the rest ends up being leftovers or us going out to eat (which this week, Sunday, Thurs. and Saturday all will end up being eating out days, which is a bit above the norm for us). So as a result, we only ended up making three meals - the kale pasta and then slow cooked venison and last night we had sliders with fries, carrot sticks, and sliders.
The slow cooked venison was made with venison from deer that were hunted by the husband's family out in Illinois - it was delicious! We have quite a lot of venison since hunting season recently ended, so we'll likely be eating it quite a bit over the next few months. My husband has his own recipe for cooking it - it basically consists of the roast, a chopped up white onion, a chopped up mushroom (we used portabellas this time and they were excellent in it), and then some italian seasoning, red wine and salt and pepper. And as is the beauty of all slow cooking - you don't need to do anything when you get home from work except serve yourself!
Along with the venison, we also had this cauliflower mac and cheese - which was pretty easy to make and the husband loved it, as it was a great low carb recipe. We're still trying to figure out how to recreate a cauliflower cheese casserole we ate at Tupelo Honey in Asheville as this just didn't measure up - anyone know where we might find it??
I'll cover the sliders we had last night in another post - I'm off to Chick-fil-a for their new spicy chicken sandwich with some special visitors we had over night! :)
We tend to only have time to make 3-4 meals a week - the rest ends up being leftovers or us going out to eat (which this week, Sunday, Thurs. and Saturday all will end up being eating out days, which is a bit above the norm for us). So as a result, we only ended up making three meals - the kale pasta and then slow cooked venison and last night we had sliders with fries, carrot sticks, and sliders.
The slow cooked venison was made with venison from deer that were hunted by the husband's family out in Illinois - it was delicious! We have quite a lot of venison since hunting season recently ended, so we'll likely be eating it quite a bit over the next few months. My husband has his own recipe for cooking it - it basically consists of the roast, a chopped up white onion, a chopped up mushroom (we used portabellas this time and they were excellent in it), and then some italian seasoning, red wine and salt and pepper. And as is the beauty of all slow cooking - you don't need to do anything when you get home from work except serve yourself!
Along with the venison, we also had this cauliflower mac and cheese - which was pretty easy to make and the husband loved it, as it was a great low carb recipe. We're still trying to figure out how to recreate a cauliflower cheese casserole we ate at Tupelo Honey in Asheville as this just didn't measure up - anyone know where we might find it??
I'll cover the sliders we had last night in another post - I'm off to Chick-fil-a for their new spicy chicken sandwich with some special visitors we had over night! :)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Kale and Tomato Pasta
Two nights ago we tried a new recipe (from my favorite- Martha!) - and it turned out ok. I added some Parmesan at the end to throw in a little cheese and the husband added some butter and cheese to his to make a bit of a sauce. We're thinking of trying a buttery lemon sauce to go on it next time to add a bit of flavor and make it a bit more than just some vegetables with noodles.
However - for my first time trying something with kale I think it turned out ok and I definitely plan to try more kale recipes in the future - it's just a vegetable that's so packed with nutrients and super tasty in the winter!
Here's a few pictures from my prep last night:
And as I'm a bad blogger - all I have for the final meal is a picture of my leftovers for lunch yesterday :-/! But the website had a nice picture of what it ideally could turn out to look like.
Also - in case you're curious how the husband is eating pasta since he does low carb - he has found some shirataki tofu noodles at Whole Foods that are low carb friendly! I don't eat them - but it allows me to make pasta dishes and we just split the toppings between us!! If you want to find out more about these - check out this article here.
However - for my first time trying something with kale I think it turned out ok and I definitely plan to try more kale recipes in the future - it's just a vegetable that's so packed with nutrients and super tasty in the winter!
Here's a few pictures from my prep last night:
And as I'm a bad blogger - all I have for the final meal is a picture of my leftovers for lunch yesterday :-/! But the website had a nice picture of what it ideally could turn out to look like.
Also - in case you're curious how the husband is eating pasta since he does low carb - he has found some shirataki tofu noodles at Whole Foods that are low carb friendly! I don't eat them - but it allows me to make pasta dishes and we just split the toppings between us!! If you want to find out more about these - check out this article here.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year's Resolution #1
One of my main goals for 2011 is to really work on meal planning. After starting a full time job in August, I found that many nights we weren't eating until at least 8pm and often it was a less than satisfying meal because it was just thrown together. This year I am determined to do better!
I downloaded the "weekly meal planner" template from this website and after perusing several of my magazines [Everyday Food with Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens, and Southern Living in particular] and cookbooks, as well as keeping in mind what we had in the fridge/freezer, came up with the first meal plan for 2011!
As the week progresses I plan to post each meal and links to any recipes I used or took inspiration from and we'll see how it goes!{although the plan doesn't start until tomorrow night - we're going out to dinner with a friend tonight!)
I downloaded the "weekly meal planner" template from this website and after perusing several of my magazines [Everyday Food with Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens, and Southern Living in particular] and cookbooks, as well as keeping in mind what we had in the fridge/freezer, came up with the first meal plan for 2011!
As the week progresses I plan to post each meal and links to any recipes I used or took inspiration from and we'll see how it goes!{although the plan doesn't start until tomorrow night - we're going out to dinner with a friend tonight!)
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Starting off with the right muffin
In an effort to get back on track with my eating after a very unhealthy holiday season I baked some carrot banana muffins that I found in the January 2010 (yes- a year old!) issue of Everyday Food by Martha Stewart. The recipe can be found here, on the Martha website. I left out the raisins as I'm not a big raisin girl!
Here's how mine turned out - pretty tasty looking - and I sampled one right out of the oven - they're very tasty indeed! And at only 186 calories a piece, perfect snacks :)
Trying this again
Oops - guess last spring proved too busy for me to stick with blogging - finishing my master's degree was definitely a priority! But I'd like to try again for 2011 - which should be less crazy than 2010! We certainly rang in the New Year much more calmly this year - our friends hosted a fondue night and shortly after midnight we headed back home to our warm bed! This morning I woke up feeling a little stuffed but clear headed :)
For now - Happy New Year to all of you out on the internet - may it be your best year yet! :)
For now - Happy New Year to all of you out on the internet - may it be your best year yet! :)
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