Meal Planning Saga: Week Thirteen

Well, I'm not sure what to say. The meal planning isn't really lasting through 'essay season'. Though we managed to get a few recipes in last week, this week has started badly - we're both tired, my nose is permanently in a book or in front of the computer and Charles' boss is away this week making for long days.

At any rate, I'm hoping to get things back on track as I enter exams, which I don't find nearly as involved time wise as papers. Fingers crossed of course...

On to the previous week (aka. Week Thirteen)!

Sunday - After spending the day in the library, I met Charles at Sugarbowl. I did the jerk chicken and avocado burger with Edelweiss whilst Charles did steak frites and Anchor Steam.

Sugarbowl on a Sunday with a tired Charles

Monday - Charles made mushroom soup from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. This was a great way to utilize the pound of mushrooms Charles grabbed at the market Saturday, though we both agreed it would have been extra great as a cream soup, which Bittman notes just below is easy enough to create.

Tuesday - Pulled Pork Sandwiches. We put a pork shoulder in the crock pot Monday night and let it go for about 8 hours. Charles stopped on the way home from work and grabbed some bbq sauce to throw in, along with buns and a few salads from the PO deli.

This sauce had a great salty-sweet flavour, though it wasn't nearly thick enough for pulled pork. Next time, molasses based, and hopefully, made at home.

Planet Organic deli salads - the yam salad was by far the best, with pecans throughout.

Charles also stopped and grabbed four cupcakes from Crave. The red velvet versions had cream cheese icing on them, which for some reason wasn't working for me. The chocolate, however, was excellent.

Wednesday - Leftover pulled pork sandwiches.

Thursday - Charles had grabbed some cod from Ocean Odyssey on Saturday, and pan fried it along with some steamed spinach for a late evening meal.

Friday - Steak with caramelized mushrooms and onions and leftover PO salads. I think I've sort-of mastered the steak grilling situation, which is great news for this summer!

Saturday - Charles was off to do some volunteering for a friend's work benefit, while I went to my parents, munched on a couple pieces of their Royal Pizza and worked on a paper.

As a small note, my application for graduation was approved today! Just nine more weeks and goodbye undergrad!

Enjoy the week everyone!

Meal Planning Saga: Week Twelve

Last week Kasia asked me how long the 'saga' will go on for. I realized I hadn't even considered the length of this project. Perusing meal planning sites, the goal usually seems to be 6 months, a year, etc. On Saturday morning Charles and I chatted and decided we will absolutely continue 'planning' until June 17th - the day I finish school (can you tell I'm counting the days?) - and after that we'll see what we think. I imagine myself having more time to cook this summer, and with all the unexpected items to be found at the market each week, I'm not sure planning before we shop will be as useful. I see more experimentation with this in our immediate future.

We ended up going to 'Beyond the Supermarket' a few weeks ago on Alberta Ave. Though a friend is urging me to grab a community garden plot (I am very jealous of his $28 seeds and the vegetables to come), it's not that easy. Like many people around town we are currently trying to get on a lengthy waiting list for the garden in our own neighbourhood, and a plot will likely not be available until the 2012 season (small update: I got an e-mail from the garden saying there may be a plot available for this season. At any rate we are on the waiting list). There are gardens further from our apartment, but with ETS or bicycle as our transport choices, we know we need (and would like) a local closer to home to make it functional. This is a long way of saying that we are leaning strongly towards the Green Eggs and Ham 'Futures' plan this year. So updates on that as the spring/summer moves along.

On to this past week's dishes!

Sunday - As per other weeks a roast chicken. This time though, I used some of the caramelized goodness at the bottom of the pan and made a quick gravy. It took our Sunday evening chicken to a whole new level.

Monday - Another familiar - risotto with mushrooms. The creaminess was right on that day, I have to say.

Tuesday - Charles was off to his mom's for dinner whilst I snack and worked on a book review.

Wednesday - We met up with Charles' mom, sister and nieces at Da Capo for pizza, salad and gelato (they've increased the number of flavours again for spring!). Excellent as usual.

A scoop of cinnamon

Thursday - Cold noodles with peanut sauce from David Lebovitz. Along with some roasted vegetables and leftover roast chicken, this was a quick, flavourful meal to throw together. Plus we've got some extra peanut sauce in the freezer for later days.

Jill (aka Sugar of Cream and Sugar) and I must be thinking on some similar wave length. Right after I scheduled this recipe I found she had posted on it. And yesterday she posted on the slow cooker butter chicken too. Their new website looks fantastic as well - good job ladies!

Friday - Lentil Loaf from We Eat Together. I really enjoyed the flavour here, but I think the lentils need to be broken down a bit more, which would hopefully keep the crumbly slices together as well. Next time I'll try to purée some of the lentils and see where we end up.

 Sobey's College Plaza has a nice array of Willow Creek products from Saskatchewan

Saturday - Lamb meatballs inspired by the Frankies'. We didn't have pine nuts this time (and Charles has a strong aversion to raisins so those will never make it in), but we did add sunflower seeds here which provided a similar softened crunch. Everything else was the same and these came out incredibly moist and flavourful. I made some tomato sauce while they were in the oven and steamed some spinach and we were good to go.

Action shot! Look at the grip.

Also, I was quite proud of my lunch on Saturday afternoon. Charles had brought home bagels and eggs from the market, and I used some frozen spinach up as well.

That was number twelve. I hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather! We took our bicycles in on Saturday for tune ups, and as soon as essays are through in a couple weeks I'm planning to break free from the library and live some sort of romantic lifestyle on my bicycle in between exams. Any similar plans?

Meal Planning Saga: Week Eleven

We are creatures of habit...

Sunday - We began the week with a brand new recipe - a Vegetable Tagine from Chow. This was certainly easy to prepare and the smell was incredible. That said it seemed to be missing something when we finally sat down to it, even with the addition of almonds, green olives and currants. I've bookmarked a few more veggie tagines that we can hopefully try later on.

Monday - More pizza. This time it was tomato sauce, leftover feta, Gruyère, cardamom salami, mushrooms and green pepper (the last on Charles' side only). We also munched on some very peppery arugula.

Earlier in the day I met Charles downtown at Transcend. He's been stopping there on his way to work for coffee and apparently needed more than one latte that day. Though I've been enjoying their cappuccinos lately, I'm excited for the increasing tea additions (I had 'mountain dragon' at the Garneau location today - alongside a waffle - and it was a great way to start the morning - can't wait for more).

Tuesday - Once again, Kindra's slow cooker butter chicken. I think we had a better handle on the spicing this time and this version was far better than the first alongside some whole wheat rice. Charles stopped for naan and must have had some extra time on his hands. He did coconut, garlic and plain naan from Daawat, then walked down the ave. and picked up plain from Origin India.

I quite enjoyed the sweetness of the coconut version, but for both of us it was Origin India's version hands down (crispy exterior, with a far softer, less chewy texture overall). At any rate we have a nice bag of naan sitting in the freezer for next time.

Wednesday - Study Potluck Two. Once again a few of us met up with food at Rutherford South to simultaneously study and do some end of term de-stressing. There was Academy Pizza, Ho-Ho's, and I brought fruit salad and chicken salad sandwiches from Upper Crust.

We're planning on doing another one in the midst of exams and are attempting to make it a 'healthy' potluck (everyone's eating habits seem to tank during exams). If we organize things soon enough, I'll be sure to post the time and date (and rules like no laptops unless your notes are there or you're working on an essay) here for any of you students out there. Alternatively, feel free to e-mail me if you'd like details.

Thursday - Birthday dinner/Anthro 'field work' at Corso 32.

Birthday cake

Friday - What turned into a post-birthday beer at Sugarbowl with Brenna and Charles quickly became dinner. Charles simply went for some home-made spring rolls, while Brenna and I both did the lamb burger, recently made extra-famous in Avenue's Top 25 Things to Eat. Beer wise, I've been enjoying Nelson Brewing's After Dark recently - smooth, chocolate-y and a little hoppy (and only $5.50 per bottle).

Saturday - We spent some time at Charles' mom's Saturday afternoon and as we were about to leave we remembered we had left our second fillet of white fish in her freezer. It began to soften a bit on the bus ride home, so dinner was basically planned for us. Once again, the fish in parchment. Alongside this time was wild rice and the rest of the green beans picked up the Saturday prior at the market. The beans were sautéed with some chili flakes, salt, pepper and lemon juice, and were a nice crispy contrast aside the fish.

Charles and I tried to work a few new recipes into week twelve, though we admittedly kicked things off with a roast chicken and mushroom risotto, and Tuesday and Wednesday have been left open since Charles' sister is coming to town.

I'm quite excited for Thursday and Friday - noodle salad with peanut sauce and the lentil loaf from We Eat Together (Somehow I've never noticed the lentil loaf in We Eat Together before. It must be because it's tucked in just before the dessert section). On Saturday we're going to re-try the Frankies' meatballs, this time with some of the ground lamb tucked away in the freezer.

Enjoy the remainder of the week everyone!

Meal Planning Saga: Week Ten

Week ten went well. Relatively stress free, we returned to some favourites from earlier in the 'saga'. I'm excited to see how things go as I head into 'essay season', which has officially begun. As others have mentioned, the planning is the easy part; the execution is a whole other beast.

Sunday - Bison and mushroom burgers. These were excellent, with mushrooms, an egg, oats, cumin, salt and pepper being our chosen additions. Best of all, our balcony door was ice free and thus we were able to grill!

Monday - Continuing with the mushroom theme, we did mushroom risotto. Luckily Mona Foods was at the City Market on Saturday and we picked up a half pound of mixed mushrooms for the dish. We also gave in and dug into the saffron jar, which made for an ultra rich and flavourful start to the 'work week'.

Tuesday - Kindra's Thai Green Curry, the same one from Week six. We used a different brand of coconut milk and weren't so successful this time. The sauce was a little watery. However, we made coconut rice from Moosewood's Simple Suppers which was a quick, easy and flavourful base. As a note, we skipped the chile and currants.

Wednesday - Another recycled recipe, this time from Week three - the steak and mushroom salad from Epicurious. We did shiitake mushrooms instead of crimini, and forgot the cilantro, but this was still a great mid-week meal. Since the patio door remained unfrozen, we opted to grill the steaks minus the sesame coating.

Thursday - St. Paddy's Day. Charles was off to pilates while I went to have a beer. Unfair, I know. It was a bit of a debate where to go. I've avoided all St. Patrick's Day celebrations at bars in the past, and with a friend informing us that one needs to arrive at an "Irish" bar around noon for a table, we eventually decided on Sherlock Holmes downtown, which was central to everyone in the group.

Friday - With Charles mom settling in, we offered to cook dinner at her place. We started downtown, grabbing a baguette and dessert from Queen of Tarts, then it was off to Ocean Odyssey Inland (thankfully within walking distance of his mom's) for some fresh fish. The final delivery of Slave Lake fish for the next little while (due to unsafe ice conditions) was in, so we picked up two large fillets - one for that evening, and one to bring home. Pat vacuum packed everything for us and we were off.

Once again we opted to use the fish-in-parchment method. The fattiness of the winter fish along with the herbs, lemon and butter made this my favourite meal of the week. And the carrot cake 'tulip' afterward didn't hurt either.

Saturday - As I mentioned above, essay season has begun. So while Charles went back to his mom's for meatballs, I stayed home to get some research done and had a bowl of the turkey soup she had given us the evening prior.

I'm both happy and sad to see repeat recipes surfacing. The fish in parchment, butter chicken, Thai curry and steak salad are certainly great, and I'm happy to have them in our repertoire; however I'm hoping we can make a conscious effort to incorporate more new recipes as we move into April.

Have a great week everyone! And watch out for that wind!

Meal Planning Saga: Week Nine

Wow. This past week was a little hectic and not nearly as well planned as I would have liked it to be. With Charles mom moving to town Monday, we just couldn't anticipate where we would be each evening, which was completely fine... it just meant reverting to some old (incredibly tasty) 'habits'.

Sunday - Things started off rather well with this butternut squash and caramelized onion galette from Smitten Kitchen. Some leftover roasted squash from Saturday's pizzas, caramelized onions and Fontina were great for my first galette ever. As Deb says, the dough is flawless. I even substituted some Greek yogurt in the absence of sour cream and it still turned out well. I can't wait to make some other fillings, especially as summer berries begin to arrive. This was great the next day for lunch at room temperature alongside some salad, and it even held up well in my backpack throughout the morning.

The onions are starting...

Monday - With a delayed flight and a paper due Tuesday morning, we found ourselves at Dadeo for the $8 Po-boy special. One catfish, one Philly cheese steak and two chili lagers.

Tuesday - A Zed family dinner of pancakes and sausages.

Wednesday - Salmon and braised lentils from America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2010. We certainly enjoyed this salmon prep, which was quick and easy, and the lentils turned out to be a filling, creamy base. Though this fish dish had nothing on the 'fish in parchment'.

Thursday - A little while ago Sharon posted on Mario Batali's Roman Egg Drop soup, so we thought we'd give it a try. Wow, she wasn't kidding - creamy and rich, the eggs did wonders here to turn chicken broth into a hearty winter soup. Charles stopped on the way to the LRT station and grabbed a loaf of bread from Queen of Tarts just as they were closing, along with a cinnamon-orange treat for dessert. We are realizing the positives of him working just a couple blocks away and a transit route back to Garneau that carries him near the spot.

A seedy bread

 The soup

Amazing cinnamon 'tulip' with pecans and orange-caramel

I also broke out this banana bread recipe again, though this time it was destined for muffins. I filled the tin to the top and as I looked in the oven about half way through I was sure everything was about to overflow. Thankfully it never did and I ended up with some excellent crispy muffin tops after about 45-50 minutes of baking... nearly Leva worthy, especially just out of the oven.

Friday - Urban Diner, Garneau. We had burgers planned, but getting home a little late in the evening after kitchen unpacking, we gave in and took a walk over to 109th. As we approached I was happy to see Friday was the first night Urban Diner would have Yukon Brewing's Porter on tap. I love this beer - it's incredibly creamy, comforting and easy drinking. As we arrived we found the place packed with porter lovers and I couldn't believe we were seated right away. We waited a little while for our food, but it was well worth it.

...worth freezin' for...

Steak sandwich

Reuben with caramelized onions and amazing cumin-curry-dijon

Saturday - This was the first snack based evening we've had in awhile, but it was leftover bread, cheese, salad, etc. from the week.

Earlier in the day though, we went to the City Market. We got there just as vendors were finishing set up and, finally, for the ringing of the bell!

The bell!

Meal Planning Saga: Week Eight

Last week was certainly highlighted by adventures around town more than our 'home cooking', though the butter chicken was pretty incredible...

Sunday - Once again, a roast chicken. There's just something about it that works well on a Sunday evening.

Monday - Braised beef with mashed potatoes. Inspired by our visit to Somerville Wine and Cheese we placed this roast in the slow cooker for about four hours with red wine and tomatoes. Next time a fattier cut of beef is certainly in order, but the flavours here were great all the same.

Tuesday - Chicken and vegetable soup.

Wednesday - Italian sausages with salad and roasted veggies. Digging through (I mean... 'organizing') our freezer a couple weekends ago, we found a neglected package of sausages that we were excited to barbecue. No go - the door to our balcony was frozen solid, and this time no hair dryer could fix it. So we simply poached and pan cooked them instead.

Thursday - Alley Kat was certainly the highlight of the evening here, and afterward a stop at Langano Skies finished things off nicely.

Friday - Slow Cooker Butter Chicken from Meal Planning 101. This was the most viewed recipe on Kindra's site in 2010, and for good reason - it was simple to prepare and incredibly flavourful. There's no doubt we'll be doing this one again. We grabbed some naan from the E-Zee Market on 109th to round the meal out. (We've walked passed this place hundreds of times but only recently went in to find an incredible selection of spices, curries and other dishes made fresh daily.)

Saturday - A few things were on our minds Saturday, namely heading to Queen of Tarts to check things out, and later in the evening to Refinery at the AGA. First though, I was distracted by the excellent snowflakes falling on Saturday morning.

Leaving the snowflakes outside, we were stunned as we entered the Queen of Tarts' space. It's both beautiful and well stocked, with products from The Jam Lady, Mighty Trio and others available amongst their desserts, breads and lunch items. I urge you to check out Sharon's pictures and thoughts here. We actually ran into Sharon and Mack while there, along with Valerie, which was great. I also ran into Liz, an amazing lady who I took both baking and chocolate classes with at NAIT last year.

Before getting into the tarts themselves though, Brenna and Catherine came over for some pre-Refinery pizza. A veggie for Catherine consisted of roasted red peppers, feta, bocconcini and tomato sauce, while the rest of the discs were made into white pizzas with roasted butternut squash, sage, prosciutto, bocconcini and Gruyère (that last one was the perfect sweet salty combo and a reminder of warmer fall days). We also drank a couple beers that I intend to post on a little later.

And for dessert - the Queen of Tarts' tarts. As expected they were lovely. The lime was rich while tangy (Brenna and Catherine both swooned) and the chocolate hazelnut tart was dense and chocolate-y, with an amazing sandy, hazelnut crust. Post dessert we ventured back downtown for a couple drinks, some new exhibits and an attempt at dancing in public.

And hello week nine.

Meal Planning Saga: Week Seven

Continuing with the 'saga', here's what we did for week seven.

Sunday - 'Basic Fish (halibut for us) Baked in Parchment' from Chow. This recipe was flavourful and incredibly simple. The fish stayed moist, clean up was easy and the citrus and herbs were bright and fresh on a cold day.

Monday - 'Pulled Jerk Chicken Sandwiches', also from Chow. Another slow cooker recipe that we will definitely use again. The chicken was slightly spicy, and the cinnamon and nutmeg filled our apartment with a pretty fantastic aroma. We added some roasted red peppers to the sandwiches as well.

Earlier in the day we had gone to my Nanny's for a 'family day' lunch. We did grilled sandwiches of various sorts, and for dessert, I made cheesecake brownies using David Lebovitz' recipe from Ready for Dessert (you can also find it on his blog here). I think I 'over swirled' the cheesecake, but these were still incredibly moist, dense and rich (and really good cold from the fridge).

Tuesday - The rest of the Frankies' Meatballs. We let these sit in the slow cooker with some tomato sauce for a few hours to take away some of the strength of the raw garlic, and they were incredible. Still with that incredibly light texture, we loved the addition of pine nuts in these. Along with some linguine and spinach, this was a satisfying meal early in the week.

Wednesday - Mushroom risotto from The Italian Slow Cooker. Maybe we weren't positive enough going into this recipe, but it just didn't work. Neither of us understood how the rice would become creamy and rich without stirring it over the stove, and in the end, it was just like eating a bowl of sticky, starchy rice. I just don't think risotto is meant for the slow cooker.

Thursday - With some leftover chicken in the freezer, we decided to throw together some tacos, which turned into 'wraps' after I couldn't find any taco shells in our area. We need to get down to Tienda Latina and stock up one of these days! Anyhow, we warmed the chicken with some sesame seeds, coriander, cumin and cilantro and wrapped it up with goat cheese and 'Sweet and Spicy Pickled Onion' from America's Test Kitchen. I can't say enough about the latter condiment. Throw everything together and it's good in the fridge for a week. Here's the recipe:

Sweet and Spicy Pickled Onion
from America's Test Kitchen (Cooking for Two 2010); this condiment is intended for their Steak Tacos recipe

1 small red onion, halved and sliced thin
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar (we usually use brown sugar)
1 jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded (we like to leave the seeds in), and sliced into thin rings
1/8 teaspoon salt

Place the onion in a medium heat-resistant bowl. Bring the venegar, sugar, jalapeño and salt to a simmer in a sauce pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar disolves. Pour mixture over the onion and cover loosely. Let cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes). Drain the onion, discarding the liquid, and serve. This is good in an airtight container for up to one week in the fridge.

Friday - We were off to check out Somerville Wine and Cheese. Here's the post.

Saturday - Veggie lasagna. Our lasagna's are always a mixture of whatever we've got around. Yesterday we did a tomato sauce with crimini mushrooms, green and yellow peppers, carrots, zucchini, goat cheese, Pecorino and feta. Charles made the noodles during the afternoon and we let things bubble away in the oven for a bit.

And that was week seven.