Home Chef - week 3

Home Chef week 3!

First up was the Roasted Chicken and Balsamic Pear salad. I like raisins and craisins in my salads, but I have never tried pears. I will definitely make this again! And goat cheese.... YUM!!!

Pork Chop Chateaubriand with duchess potators and roasted carrots. My only complaint with this recipe is that there was a lot of meat compared to the carrots and potatoes. But it was good!

Sirloin Steak with brown butter bordelaise and roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes. This was the fussiest dish to make so far. The reduction/sauce was phenomenal!! I had so many things going on in the kitchen this night, but for once, I ended up with everything done at the same time! And I was trying to move the potatoes from a hot pan with a fair amount of oil to a paper towel to drain a little when....

I grabbed the handle of a pan that I had just removed from a 400* oven. UGH!! Most the red spots were burns. But I put lavender essential oil on the hand once I plated the food and reapplied it before I went to bed and only had a little pain the next day. And it didn't blister. I'm thrilled!

Now, I need to figure out about a separate mitt for the skillets that go in the oven.

Home Chef week 2

I thought that I would keep sharing my meals that I am getting delivered.

For the second week, I got a late start on making the meals. The first was the Ditalini Chicken Ceasar Salad. The lettuce was a almost translucent, but since I didn't have anything else to make quickly, I just went ahead with it. I feel like it was a lot of chicken and not a lot of lettuce and tomatoes for 2 meals. But the homemade dressing was good. Garlicky, but good.

Dinner 2 was pork chop with candied walnut butter and Parmesan acorn squash. I've never had squash before that I know of and this was really good! And the candied walnut butter was fantastic! This is definitely something that I will make again!

Dinner 3 was London Broil sirloin steak with grilled zucchini and sweet potato fries. A lot of garlic in the marinade again. And I'm not a big fan of zucchini, but since I made it, I ate it.

On my way home from work one night, I stopped and picked up a fresher romaine and roma tomato and tried the ceasar salad again and it was perfect! Except I forgot to sprinkle with Parmesan. It was much easier to clean my plate the second time around.

I am surprised how easy it is to make sweet potatoes and plan on picking a couple up to have on hand for nights I don't have a meal to make. And I can't wait to get my meals every week to learn something new and try something new!

Cooking and Meal Delivery

One of the things that has been in the back of my mind for a month or so has been getting my dinners and lunches under control and being smarter about taking lunches and just having healthier options. Being single, I feel like it is hard for me to cook for myself and have a good variety of things to eat. Plus, I have never been very adventurous and have been making and eating the same food. Meal after meal. It gets old!

At Christmas, one of my aunts was talking about how she and my uncle signed up for Home Chef, a meal service, and have been using it since October. She pulled out her binder with all of the recipes that they have gotten and I looked through it and almost everything looked good and like things that I know I would eat or at least be willing to try.

So she sent me the link and I signed up! I got my first kit January 4.

And I COOKED! I actually COOKED real food. Good food! In my house. By myself!

(I'm a little proud of myself, can you tell?)

Ricotta and Mozzarella Tart with Arugula salad - I added craisins and left off the sauteed onions. This was the third meal I had made and, well, I was just a little sick of onions. Also, the grape tomatoes are blistered in the recipe, but I just cut them in half.

Pork Mostarda (a sweet mustard sauce, for those not in the know. I wasn't before I picked the recipe) with roasted sweet potato and Brussel sprouts. And news flash - I can eat Brussel sprouts!

And a Steak and Blue Cheese Salad - with homemade croutons and toasted walnuts and caramelized onions on the steak. I left off the blue cheese and added craisins to the salad. I also learned the caramelized onions are not horrible. SHOCKER!! But I don't care for raw or under cooked onions.

I had never made a steak before and that meal was fantastic! And I love pork chops, but I haven't done those at home. Ever.

And they are meals for 2 so I am taking care of some lunches with this, as well. Win-win!