food this week

Monday: fried chicken and creamy gravy with broccoli. The cutlets were really small, so the fried chicken turned out more like chicken fingers, which was something we've wanted to try for a while. we don't really fry the chicken, we brown it in oil then bake it the rest of the way. my gravy didn't turn out like it did before, and I think it was because i used whole wheat flour. mike thinks its because there weren't enough drippings from the chicken. it's hard to tell.

Tuesday: spaghetti and tuna with broccoli. there is a salmon recipe we both love, and this turned out to be a quicker lighter version of that. In the salmon recipe, you roast garlic for an hour, mash it in a mixture of chicken broth and white wine, simmer that, cook the salmon cubes quickly in the broth, then toss it with pasta, lemon zest, rosemary, and capers. in this version, you toss spaghetti with canned tuna, slivered olives, parlsey, and lemon zest/juice. for the broccoli, mon and tues, we blanched it, then quick cooked some garlic in very hot oil. removed the garlic, then sauteed the blanched broccoli in garlic oil with crushed red pepper flakes. soooo flavorful. you'd think you wouldn't be able to taste the broccoli with all the garlic and red pepper, but the sweetness of the broccoli really comes through.

wednesday: pan seared chicken with white wine and mustard sauce. exactly as simple as it sounds. sear chicken cutlets in oil. in skillet simmer white wine, add mustard and chopped parsley. the wine we bought turned out to be much too sweet for this recipe, so we were incredibly lucky to find that a well sealed bottle of leftover champagne from NYE had survived. Yes, it was still bubbly. served the chicken with minted whole wheat couscous. toss couscous with olive oil, lime juice, chopped scallions, and chopped mint leaves. yum.

Thursday: stir fry night. shrimp, bell pepper, onion, and szechuan sauce. rice. eat.

Friday: rigatoni with sausage peppers and onions. diced tomatoes, sausage, bell peppers, basil and onion simmered in a sauce of tomato paste and marsala wine. oh, and crushed red pepper flakes. toss with pasta. as mike stole the saying from giada's book, adding sausage to a pasta dish exponentially increases the number of people who will enjoy it.

Today's plan is to make whole wheat pizza shells and freeze them for future use. I've never made a yeast dough before, so wish me luck!