How Was It?/What's For Dinner?

Week in Review:

This could not have been Y's week more, the chili and soup were requests from him, and then all the experiments had an asian bent and he loves him some asian food. So he would happily welcome the return of any or all. The Chicken & Spinach being fine, but probably the least interesting.

The Kid pretty much spent the week "hatin' it". There was a lot of "Is this enough? Can I make something else now that I've tried it?" Some of it was too many veggies not from the approved list, which is longer than the approved fruit list, but doesn't give me a lot of variety. His problem with the salmon was that it was salmon. He is going to have to get used to it. I think he kind of liked the Pot Sticker Salad: there was too much soy dressing, and the bean sprouts were rather out there for him, but easy to avoid.

The pot sticker salad and salmon were the most successful. The salmon was probably the beginning of something good, the Lemon Brown Sugar glaze was both too sweet and not enough flavor for me, but I liked the sort of quick seer, finish in the oven technique. Now about the Pot Sticker Salad...I did start looking at the recipe, but it quickly went its own way. We tend to fry our pot stickers before finishing them by steaming, adds more flavor with sesame and chili oil. So after the cooked on one side and the package called for a few tablespoons of water to finish them via steam I also threw in the sugar snap peas and carrots, 3 minutes later all done and the veggies barely cooked, so much better. Kid and I, not fans of the cooked carrot; these were just right for not raw. The "steamed" veggies were served over bean sprouts which was pretty good, but I think tossed with veggies might have been better. New dressing recipe is definitely called for; I prefer the sesame in pot sticker oil, and too much soy, maybe a little rice vinegar or some thing would help. I'll write up my version when I find the right dressing.

Menu Plan:

A lot more old favorites, perhaps because it is back to school week and no one wants to think too hard. Also the kid deserves some equal time, so lots of his favorites. The two that are not old reliables are from realsimple.com, but we've had each one once before; Chicken with Potato, Bacon & Cabbage and Salmon with Gingery Green Beans & Bok Choy. I recall them being good, this will be the keeper test.