Over the weekend our family sat through three sports games. That may not sound like a lot to the average American family, but it was record breaking for ours – #girlfamily. First up, we spent Friday night at the high school for the girls basketball game. Endless bags of Popcorn, a box of milk duds, and too many handfuls of Nerds gummy clusters had the youngest member, who was 100% certain she would not enjoy the evening, jumping up and down in her seat. Next up, on Saturday morning, we watched Nola and her basketball team sail to victory for their last game of the season. Finally, Super Bowl Sunday brought over our wonderful neighbors to watch the game with us. Chips with guacamole and queso dip, as well as Once Upon a Chef’s Ham and Cheese Sliders kept us fueled until the end.

Sunday, February 2, 2025

One-Pot, Vegan, Completely Delicious Lentil Soup (Alexandra’s Kitchen)

One-pot. One of my favorite recipe headings! This soup is so cozy and robustly vinegar forward, I don’t even care that’s vegan. Truth be told, we usually top ours with parmesan cheese.

We ate the soup, while watching the Grammy’s, with broccoli rabe. To cook the broccoli rabe, I brought one inch of salted water to a boil in a wide pan with a cover. Once simmering, I added the broccoli rabe and covered the pan for 2 minutes. I then drained the broccoli rabe, arranged it on a plate, and massaged it with a splash of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Like heathens we plucked it off the plate and ate it by hand.

Monday, February 3, 2025

Korean BBQ Burrito (Pinch of Yum)

We ate our BBQ beef as a deconstructed burrito bowl with steamed broccoli, kimchi, and sautéed frozen shitake mushrooms. I enjoyed the flavor of the beef, but my meat was super tough. This was likely due to the fact that I attempted to make it in my Dutch oven in a 300 degree oven.

No yum yum sauce on hand? Don’t buy it. Make this: Yum Yum Sauce.

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Warm Chicken and Piccata Salad (Bon Appetite)

A peppery salad filled with golden-crusted pieces of chicken, salty capers, and toasted breadcrumbs. The beauty of this salad is the warm lemony pan sauce that one pours over the components. I will warn you that this salad is very bitter. I will also tell you that I soaked my radicchio in ice water for 15 minutes to cut down on the bite. I furthermore found that I needed to add a splash of red wine vinegar to round out the pan sauce.

The girls did not enjoy the radicchio, but they did enjoy the chicken with cooked farro, topped with parmesan cheese, and roasted butternut squash.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Roasted Pork Tenderloin Sandwich (Lana’s Cooking)

I had a more complicated pork tenderloin planned for tonight, but I was not in the mood to cook and we had back to back after school activities. This recipe was such a revelation to me, as it is the perfect weeknight dinner and the combination of pork with sautéed peppers and onions checks all of the boxes. While I loved the concept of simply roasting the pork, as the recipe suggests, I was pressed for time and ended up searing the pork for 4 minutes per side before finishing it off in the hot oven.

Roasted green beans (blah! why do I ever make them this way!?) and salad rounded out the meal.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Leftovers

Friday, February 7, 2025

White Chicken Chili (Epicurious)

I forgot to take a picture of this in our haste to get to the basketball game, but this chili is truly delicious and a cinch to make. I find the cream unnecessary.

Treat of the Week

Chocolate Ricotta Cake from Yossy Arefi’s Snacking Bakes

I made this in an attempt to use up last week’s container of ricotta cheese. Also, I was hooked when I saw that this cake included 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom. Cardamom and chocolate? Yes! I want it now! This was great, warm out of the oven, but it was too dry and the remainder sadly ended up in the compost.