What's for Dinner Returns

Finally updated the What's for Dinner sidebar, but I'll source it over here. It is the end of the year and it is a mix of new favorite sources and old reliables already recorded elsewhere on the site. Also the days will be in a slightly wonky order, Tuesday to Monday. Not quite the calendar version of the end of the year, but until the Ducks play in the Rose Bowl it will 2011 in my head. If the beginning of the week looks like it lacks change next week you'll understand.

Old favorites:

Crock Pot Split Pea & Ham Soup: the ham bone was already here after Christmas.
Spicy Black Bean Turkey Chili: we had leftover Fritos from teenage nerdfest the day before, so it was nearly Frito Pie. Both recipes are already posted under the soup tag.

Favorite Sources:

Pan Sauteed Chicken w/Garlic Spinach & Sweet Lemon & Soy Salmon from dinnersforayear.blogspot.com. Also found in my links list. We love so so many of her recipes, tasty and often fast and can be made from what is on hand in the pantry and freezer. This one wasn't a huge success, but I think it may have been more me than the recipe.

New sources:

Sweet Lemon & Soy Salmon, Chicken Satay, Pot Sticker Salad, all new to us recipes, all from the realsimple.com website. We had great luck with their month of easy dinners that I downloaded their app this week.

I am going to move the blog to more of what we loved than what we tried. I'd like it to grow as a resource for collecting favorites and planning meals; more results posts and maybe more pictures.

Update, err Corrections: I was going too fast. This weeks Salmon dish was from dinnersforayear nor real simple. My mistake.

Try, Try Again: The Gadget Nerd Version

So this year has been shockingly un-bloggy. Apparently that farm box structure may have been essential to my blogging consistency. Now on a new coast, CSAs or farm boxes are rarely year round and a bit more exotic (the service, not the offerings). Well I'll try something new. We are still eating dinner, and I still, ideally, have to plan for it and to help the kid's lack of mad organization skills we are all giving the Rembember the Milk (RTM) App & Website a try. So maybe I can re-build blogging into my routine. Actually I meal plan on Google Tasks, this way it shows up on the calendar, but I am migrating my shopping list to RTM.

I am hoping for three post to end the year; this re-launch, the annual holiday cookie plan and a last 2011 menu plan. Hopefully these will get the rust off, and regular at least weekly blogging for the new year will commence.

The new menus may be of a slightly more health aware bent; as always Y & I could shed a few pounds, my cholesterol level is getting the stink eye from my new doctor, and I have a vitamin D deficiency (yeah not in California anymore, where it comes from the sky). Now vitamin D & cholesterol recommendations are almost diametrically opposed; egg yolks would help and milk and yogurt, do NOT eat more than 2 yolks a week. I can only shrug my shoulders and try to eat fresh whole food, maybe a little less beef and cheese, more fish, take my crazy prescription vitamin supplement and add some Omega 3, 6 and fish oils to the mix. Sadly there will be less baking after the new year, and I'll miss it, maybe it will return one day. We have some very nice farmers markets nearby and I have a lead on a nice local CSA, so maybe that will return before too long. If the blogging mojo returns maybe I'll add a lunch plan, my daytime eating could certainly use the structure. Yikes, I've nearly made resolutions and I don't make resolutions.

Anyway Happy New Year to All! Here's to a happier, healthier 2012.

The Rest of The Week

So this is a week of experimentation brought to Chez Plaidsneaker by Real Simple. The current issue has four weeks of weekday meals and I have kind of cherry picked it down to a solid two. So first if something listed in the plan sounds good checkout the source. I'm not going to log the recipes unless I think we find a keeper for at least semi-regular rotation. But I thought I might review the experiments anyway.

Last night we had the Salmon with Ginger-y Green Beans & Bok Choy, which honestly could have been more flavorful. The salmon was fine, but basic. I'm not sure if the error was mine or the recipe but for all the ginger and garlic I threw in that pan before the veggies, I would have expected the more zing in the taste department. This is not an uncommon concern for me with magazine recipes, cautious with the bold flavors equals boring and bland.

So the rest of the week is already off. We ran to Five Guys Burgers and Fries tonight. I had to have wrist x-ray-ed this afternoon for a possible break that I have been attempting to ignore as a sprain since Thursday. Now that my right wrist is all wrapped up, I have kind of lost interest in powering through a bunch of chopping, stirring and dishwashing. I'll have stronger meds tomorrow so perhaps I can recover my macho/pioneer woman mojo and get back to Chicken with Bacon, Potato and Cabbage.