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!