Recipe Dump!

So often, I find it difficult to keep up with updates because I cook many of the same 20 dishes in different combos so often.  Not this week!  After the jump find a slew of recipe sources and interesting things to make this Fall...

Reckoning #4

So...how did the menu plan work out this week?  Let's take a look...

	Breakfast	Lunch (Snacks)	Dinner
Monday	coffee, leftover rice	rich tea biscuits, carrots, peas, apple, cheese stick	Treated by a friend!
Tuesday	coffee/lemon pound cake *	Ratatouille and leftover kimchee fried rice	chicken breast with mirepoix and wine gravy
Wednesday	coffee/tea/pumpkin scone *	leftover chicken with peas and carrots	split chicken finger app. w/a friend post-concert*
Thursday	Focaccia and Coffee	rich tea biscuits & cheese, sliced zucchini & squash	Fried Rice w/peppers and carrots
Friday	Hot rice cereal, coffee	Rice and Mango, Cheese Sticks and biscuits, apple, tea	Rice and Mango and then a Party!

*Another fail this week -- I had a singing gig 1-hour north of where I live.  Sadness, I stopped at Starbucks a few times this week...

Recipes and notes for this week after the jump...

This is what it should look like

My neighbor is super awesome.  She went shopping with me last week and when I bought those chicken breasts on sale, she jumped right in and bought some of her own...without realizing they were bone-in and included skin.  This is not something that she has ever dealt with before but rather than panic, she did what I suggested earlier we should all do more of...she used the Internet as her menu-planning friend.  I've included my own summary and a copy of the recipe below the fold...

Reckoning Week 2

So...how did the menu plan work out this week?  Let's take a look...

	Breakfast	Lunch (Snacks)	Dinner
Monday	2 slices of Friendship Bread and Coffee	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, 2 string cheese (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Pelmeni w/ sour cream, sauteed kale, cream cheese stuffed sweet peppers
Tuesday	Scone and Coffee	Sauteed kale, black beans and rice, carrots (string cheese, tea)	Chicken Picadillo, black beans and rice
Wednesday	Apple and Coffee	Chicken and Barley Soup / Sugar Cookie *	Chicken Picadillo, black beans and rice
Thursday	Mango slices, baby bell cheese and Coffee	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sliced red and yellow bell pepper, baby carrots (3 string cheese w/tea)	Vegetable Stuffed Crepes
Friday	Scone and Coffee	Pizza Party at work! Freebie meal!	Heavy hor d'oeuvres and wine at a church function! Freebie meal!

* I admit, I didn't leave time to pack lunch that day.  I had to rely on the coffee shop downstairs.  Fail.  And crazy expensive.  Seriously, $4 for a cup of soup and a cookie.  Gah!

This was a performance week for me (meaning I had rehearsals or concerts every night except Friday).  Because of that, dinners had to be particularly quick and light.  Each recipe this week had to take under 30 min. to prep and cook..leftovers featured prominently.

Recipes and notes for this week after the jump...

Reckoning Week 1

So...how did the menu plan work out this week?  Let's take a look...

	Breakfast	Lunch (Snacks)	Dinner
Monday	1/2 of a left-over turkey sandwich w/cup of coffee	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, 2 string cheese (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Pelmeni w/ sour cream
Tuesday	1 whole kiwi, a low-fat string cheese, and a cup of tea	Leftover pelmeni (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Lamb ragout
Wednesday	1 Avocado w/s&p and a cup of tea	Almonds/roast soy bean mix, sugar snap peas, baby carrots, 2 string cheese (4 rich tea biscuits w/tea)	Roast Chicken and Gravy with Ratatouille
Thursday	2 slices of Friendship Bread and Coffee	Leftover Roast Chicken and Ratatouille	Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles
Friday	2 slices of Friendship Bread and Coffee	Leftover Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles (sugar snap peas, baby carrots, cup of tea)	Leftover Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles

Recipes and notes for this week after the jump...

Starting with a Chicken

Roast chicken is one of the best ways to get a lot of food for a little.  But the more I've shopped this idea around the more I've come to learn that few people really know how to roast one.

I make this for my friends all the time and they are blown away.  I have people come up to me in the grocery store (abashed) asking how one prepares a whole chicken.  Even more impressively, I had my mother over and while she can cook a chicken, she never learned to carve one.  I have a secret: this is one of those things that I learned from the Internet.

  
Here are some of the best links to get you started:

How to Roast a Chicken
This page from about.com is spectacular.  A no-fail basic roast chicken recipe complete with links to making no-fail basic gravy and no-fail basic chicken stock AND teaches you fancy French words for things you already knew how to do.  Adding chopped veggies to the roasting pan? You've made mirepoix.  Gravy? You've probably made a roux and bechamel or veloute sauce.  Aren't we fancy?

How to Carve a Chicken
This video is great.  I love watching chefs do things because they make it seem so easy (and not scary).  The first time I watched this I actually went to Target and bought a fresh new carving knife just to try it out.  It wasn't expensive (about $3).

What to Do with the Leftovers
Cheap Healthy Good is one of my favorite food blogs.  They have helped me out a lot when I'm in a pinch for fast recipes.  "1 Chicken 17 Meals" is one of my all-time favorite posts. All recipe links are included and they are easy to manipulate with whatever ingredients you have on hand. The sesame noodle/peanut sauce recipe might have redeemed my cooking skills in the eyes of my mother.  Powerful stuff.



Credits
Image: Roast Chicken a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from kirybabe's photostream