Recipes

Dinner

Derek and I were getting a little bored with our dinner routine, so we started a search for some new recipes. Around the same time, the new issue of Real Simple came, and it had an entire section devoted to four weeks of meal planning, complete with shopping lists. We started with Week 2 and made four different meals: Chicken with Wild Rice and Grapes; Shrimp Tacos with Black Beans; Steak with Cognac Sauce and Salad (we substituted Bourbon because we didn't have any cognac); and Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes. (I completely forgot to take pictures, but the recipes at Real Simple have photos). Overall, we really liked the recipes -- our favorite was probably the Steak, followed closely by the Chicken and Shrimp for me. All of the recipes were really quick and relatively cheap.

After a week off, we tried four of the Week 1 recipes: Tomato Soup with Roast Beef Panini; Pork Chops with Roasted Beets and Oranges (we left off the beets...gross); Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon, and Cabbage; Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina. These were also a hit, minus this: I still hate cabbage...even when there is bacon on it (and that is saying a lot), so I think we will do spinach next time. My favorite was the Tomato Soup and Panini, followed by the Tortellini, and the Pork Chops.

I even remembered to take a picture of one of the meals -- Pork Chops (with couscous).



One other recipe we discovered (from Rachel Ray) that I am in love with is Lemon Spaghetti (I could seriously eat this everyday and not get sick of it). You can find the recipe here.

Pumpkin!!

Now that Fall has officially arrived, I started my annual pumpkin obsession. I was in search of some new recipes and found a few on Pinterest. I followed this recipe to make pumpkin bread, and it was awesome.



My second pumpkin attempt, however, was not as successful. I tried this recipe for pumpkin/chocolate chip brownies, and they were just ok. The consistency was off or something...they just sort of tasted like pumpkin bread with chocolate chips rather than brownies.

Derek and I took Eleanor to the pumpkin patch (post on that to come later), but we picked up some little gourds and stuff for decorating, so now our house looks a little more ready for the Fall.