Shameful at it is to make this admission, I feel that I must tell on myself before we go any further. I fed my family Boxed Pasta Meal Just Add Beef last week. And the week before that we had pizza. Not homemade. The call-and-order-and-pick-up-after-work kind of pizza. It seems that we have been on an endless roller coaster of crappy food and over processed mixes. Shameful, because I know better.
About the BPMJAB - there was a time in my culinary life that I was ecstatic to find boxes of cheese flavored sodium with pasta on sale for $1. How great was that? Cheap mix, cheap burger, some milk and in less than 20 minutes you have a feast fit for a king. Or at least fit for a little white talking glove. For the record, I have never ever liked BPMJAB or Goulash. The rest of the family will eat it and not complain. Bleech.
I am a huge fan of the gawkerverse - foodgawker.com, dwellinggawker.com and craftgawker.com are my favorites. (There is also a weddinggawker.com but I don’t spend too much time there.) In an attempt to stop turning us into gastrointestinal garbage pits, I started to search for recipes the met the following qualifications:
1. Must be quick - I don’t have a lot of time after work, and even less if we are traveling to games or meetings. By quick I mean it should be ready to eat within an hour (if we are home for the night) or ready to be heated and eaten NOW (if we are on the road).
2. Must be able to get the damn ingredients - we have all found scrumptious-looking recipes that call for seasoning made from berries grown in the depths of a rainforest seen only by explorers who mysteriously disappeared…you get the picture.
3. Must use REAL ingredients. This is a new standard for me. I am cooking with more vegetables, better meats and making healthier substitutions for ingredients such as oil and margarine.
4. Must have flavor. Nothing is worse than spending time and money preparing something that you think is going to be revolutionary and being disappointed when the first bite tastes like you rubbed it with the dust in the vacuum canister.
It is always quicker to prepare as much as you can the night before. Since I planned out most of my week, I knew ahead of time what vegetables I needed cut for the next day and which meat needed trimmed, prepped or marinated. My menu looked like this:
Monday - Sweet & Sour Chicken with Brown Rice
Tuesday - Stuffed Shells with Garlic Bread
Wednesday - Onion & Pepper Smothered Round Steak with Noodles
Thursday - Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mashed Cauliflower
Friday - Leftovers or Stromboli
It’s getting that time of year when everyone has an abundant garden and is willing to share {zucchini} produce. Farmers Markets are in full swing and many grocery stores are featuring local produce. If I have said it a million times, I will say it a million more - BUY LOCAL!
Monday went off without a hitch. I had prepared the veggies and chunked the chicken the evening before. I used a recipe from LiveLovePasta.com a snappy blog that posts a new recipe Monday through Friday. The recipes are simple but not bland and are written step-by-step but are by no means labor intensive or confusing. The Sweet & Sour Chicken Recipe was by far the tastiest Chinese dish I have ever made.
I only posted a pic of my finished product - you can check out more pictures of the recipe by following the link above. All of the recipes on LiveLovePasta are categorized so you can easily find a number of quick and delicious ideas.
Stay tuned - I'll be back with more. I'm a little behind on time with my posting but I can assure you that the Wednesday meal was a winner!
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