October 15 - 21

 I got two meals captured this week. Here's a cute kid pic to help round out the collage.

October 15 - Lentil, Cauliflower, and Sweet Potato Curry
This was decent and a good way to bulk up a curry with some protein and veggies, but it wasn't honestly my favorite curry recipe. I went ahead and bought the special Tikka Masala curry paste that the recipe calls for (I found it on Amazon, thanks Prime!) and it was pretty tasty. I think the proportions were a little off, though. I added more broth than it called for and it was still a little dry and the cauliflower certainly over powered the dish. I also forwent the black mustard seeds (found those on Amazon, too, just didn't want to have them hanging around) and I don't think we missed out terribly without their presence. If you're looking for curry I suggest a red lentil and butternut squash recipe that I make every fall or the chickpea curry that I made a few weeks back that was rad, both are superior to this one.

October 16 - Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Chickpeas
First of all the pecans in the salad were amazing. I'm planning on making them separately for Christmas gifts (and so the hubs can enjoy them again, he RAVED about them).

Second, the salad was decent but my fatal error was using chopped baby kale and dressing it too early before dinner. Somewhere in the midst of all that the kale wilted and it was a bit more soggy than can really be called delicious by the time we ate it. All that said: the recipe warrants making again because all the elements were yummy and it could go so well assuming I made those few changes. I'm thinking it would be a good side dish at a holiday meal.

October 17 - Frozen Pizza and Salad
I'm not proud of the number of times this meal appears in our menu plan, and yet, that doesn't stop me from eating it with unabashed joy. There is always salad. We always eat that first. And it is always good salad, with dark leafy greens. So, I can take some solace in that. As a final plea to my Catholic guilt, this was slated to be a date night and we stayed in because the kiddo came down with croup in the afternoon (no fun for him or a babysitter). So, pizza felt like a decent alternative to a meal out without a kid in tow.  We shopped at New Season for this meal (and just handed over our wallets upon entry, as is necessary when shopping there). We got a Caesar salad kit and I honestly don't recall the brand of pizza. It was neither  so bad or so good that it needs referencing here.

October 18 - White Beans with Spinach and Sausage
This was good and easy. Win. Win. Mine turned out a little salty, but I think it was my fault in the "to taste" seasoning rather than an error in the recipe. I almost always have all of these ingredients on hand and so this has become part of my "oops, what's for dinner?" playbook. There was also something for everyone in this dish: meat, beans, and greens makes it appealing and balanced. Wahoo.

October 19 - Parmesan Crusted Salmon with Broccoli
This was also good. I substituted GF bread crumbs and it worked well. I left the skin on the salmon and it turned out fine. And, I roughly halved the topping recipe as I had half as much salmon and it worked well. I'm always looking for a new way to make salmon and this is defiantly to which we will return. Something really gratifying about cooking everything in one pan (that's my dinner M.O.) and you'll love the oven roasted broccoli if you haven't had it before. Slurp!

October 20 - Pesto Pasta Toss with Italian Sausage
I've make a version of this every few weeks. Its is easy, mostly wholesome, and a crowd pleaser. For whatever reason I forgot to buy a zucchini and I was out of frozen stock from the summer (how is that possible?!) so I substituted with chopped spinach and broccoli. It turned it into more of a primavera style dish which was yummy. Great way to use up extra veggies in the fridge, too.

Chop a whole purple onion, a red bell pepper, and grate a zucchini. Boil water for pasta and cook according to package instructions. Saute the onion and 3 cloves garlic until onion is translucent. Add pepper. Add 1/4-1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. When pepper is crisp-tender, add zucchini, 2 TBS of white wine, and 2 TBS of lemon juice. After the pasta is cooked and drained, toss it in the veggie mixture and toss to coat with about 1/2 the container of pesto (about 1/4-1/2 cup). Then, use the pasta pot to pan fry the sausage (I pre-cut into rounds). Toss together and sprinkle with Italian herbs (fresh or dried) of your choosing and serve with grated parmsean and fresh greens.

October 21 - Taco Salad
Another standby. Open a can of black beans, drain, rinse, toss into a pan to heat. Chop a tomato, an avocado, a lime, cilantro (if you roll like that), and a couple leaves of romaine lettuce. Open your favorite bag of tortilla chips, can of black olives, salsa, sour cream, and pre-grated Mexican blend cheese (sure, you could be classy and grate your own cheese, that sounds like work to me). If you're feeling really adventurous and have the tortillas around, you can make some quesadillas with the extra cheese.

Assemble salad according to the wisdom of my great-grandmother: "Put what you like!" I start with a bed of lettuce, add beans and veggies, and top with salsa. I eat with a small handful of chips (small because otherwise I'd eat the whole bag: Yum!)