Week One

Week One of the "official" meal planning went well. I had been doing meal planning for the couple weeks leading up to the first week we put everything on the website, but at least here I was taking pictures!

Sunday: General Tso's Chicken, peas, and rice. 

 Comments: So I ended up making peas to go with it, and hot damn. That chicken was delicious. Even my picky husband liked it. I have issues with this guy's sauces, in that they never turn out in the consistency that I think they should. Not to mention the 'make a caramel' step backfired and I burned my hand haha. So I ended up adding more water, and then put the chicken in a 8" glass dish, poured the sauce over it, and baked it in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes. OH and I only put in 1 1/2 tbsp of the chili paste. I felt it better to have not enough spice than to have too much. And for us, it was perfect, but if you like it spicier then adding the full 2 tbsp would have been good.

 
 Monday: Strawberry, Spinach, Pecan (and Chicken!) Salad
Comments: I just made a giant chicken, spinach, strawberry, and pecan salad with the balsamic vinaigrette in the recipe for the salad, rather than double up the balsamic. I did, however, season the chicken (I sliced it into strips and cooked it with a bit of olive oil in a frying pan) with poultry seasoning and salt and pepper, which kept it from being too plain. Tyler enjoyed it, so I'd say it's a win!

Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti
Comments: I added a couple pinches of cinnamon to the sauce (as I do with all of our tomato sauces) and then used more cheese throughout the casserole. All in all, it was delicious. I agree that it made a lot of food, but I was able to share it with friends/family that live close to us. So win/win!

Wednesday: Turkey Chili and Biscuits
Comments: Okay. I failed on making biscuits because of sheer laziness. It was a grey day, weather wise, so I was just sluggish and tired as a result. As for the chili, I only loosely followed the recipe. I added coloured peppers (about a cup worth, and I used red, yellow, orange, and green), did two cans of kidney beans, two cans of Heinz beans in tomato sauce, two cups of chicken broth (although next time I'd reduce to 1 1/2 cups) and a bunch more spices than this called for. With all the additions, it definitely will serve 8 people. I just don't really like the chunks of tomato (I thought I had crushed tomatoes in my pantry but I've only got the diced) so I wanted to make them few and far between :DFor my first time, ever, making chili, this was an epic success.


Thursday: Broccoli & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Quinoa, Steamed Broccoli
Comments: For our first time eating quinoa, it wasn't too bad. This recipe was actually pretty tasty, although I did alter the cooking method a bit (in that I put the garlic, thyme, and salt into the pot with chicken stock so that the flavours were absorbed better). The only issue was that it made a LOT. I don't know how they determined that it was 4 servings, but with Tyler and I each having a moderate amount, plus leftovers set aside for the next day, there was still probably another two servings in there. So next time, I'd definitely cut it in half.