Meal Plan for October Week 3

Welcome to our new series of weekly meal plans! This month, Summer Miller will be sharing with us what meal planning looks like in her house. Summer is a mom, a full-time food writer, and also helps test the fabulous recipes we bring you every week at Simply Recipes.

Life is busy. Leftovers are nice.

Eating leftovers wasn’t at the top of my “to do” list when I was a single 20-something. Now that I’m feeding a family of four, and doing so three times a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, I welcome the opportunity to double up a dish so I can freeze some for later or pack it up for lunches the next day.

This change in lifestyle was dictated by more than just having a family. I moved to the country several years ago, and no one delivers pizza to a rural address. If I want to eat, I have to make it.

Learning to think ahead took some time, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. I generally have something at the ready when work deadlines collide with getting dinner on the table, or when the kitchen is in shambles after a day of recipe testing, or when I’m not feeling so great myself and still have mouths to feed. (It turns out you still have to feed your children even when you’re sick and your husband is out town. Who knew?)

Once you establish the habit of cooking with leftovers in mind, I think it is actually more convenient than picking up take-out. It’s certainly healthier than what shows up at your door in a cardboard box!

Each recipe in this week’s meal plan is either large enough to feed an army or is easily doubled, and the leftovers will either last all week or can be frozen for later. A few of the recipes require a little heavy lifting on the weekend, but the payoff comes when you’re eating home-cooked comfort food on Wednesday and you didn’t even need to bring out your cutting board.

Meal Plan for October Week 3

1 Beef and Barley Stew with Mushrooms: This rich and filling stew makes enough for Sunday dinner, then pack the leftovers in lunchboxes for the rest of the week. If you have time, make these potato dinner rolls – they are simple to make and you can freeze them, too!

 

2 Baked Vegetable and Cream Cheese Wontons: Spend a little time on Saturday or Sunday assembling these wontons, then freeze them. Bake them straight from the freezer for a quick weeknight dinner, or save them to serve as an appetizer at an impromptu party. The recipe makes about fifty wontons, and makes a fun family meal with some miso soup or stir-fried greens on the side.

 

3 Black Bean Burrito Bowls: Burrito bowls are one of my favorite meals, but rice and dry beans can both take a while to cook. I usually make double batches of both things on Sunday. They freeze beautifully, and thaw quickly, which makes them ready when I am!

 

4 Mini Salmon Quiches: These little quiche bites are a universal food. They are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. Serve them with a salad, like this Quinoa, Feta, and Arugula Salad, and you have a quick and light weeknight meal. This recipe makes twelve mini-quiches, but they’re so fast to make that you can easily double it. Freeze the leftovers and save them for a rainy day.

 

5 Pasta Skillet with Chicken Sausage, Cheese, and Spinach: You’ve made it to Friday! Yay! You should have enough leftovers in the fridge or the freezer to make this weekend kitchen-free. Cook up this nearly effortless skillet pasta, then pour yourself a hot toddy, watch Netflix and chill. (If you like, lighten the load of this carb-loving dish by serving it with this lemon and garlic-kissed broccolini recipe.)

Continue reading "Meal Plan for October Week 3" »

from Simply Recipes http://ift.tt/2xH45hD
via IFTTT

How to Make Poached Pears, the Easiest Fall Dessert Ever

Poached pears are the Cinderellas of the fruit world. Sitting modestly in the produce aisle, raw pears don’t turn heads. But serve them poached, and dinner guests will fawn over their sophisticated elegance. Even if you don’t possess any fairy godmother magic, you have the power to transform pears from drab to fab with as little as a pot and a few key ingredients.

First you’re going to need some pears—Bosc, Anjou, and Bartlett are common choices. Be sure that they are still rather firm and not too ripe. Then, peel them and cut out the cores via the base of the fruit. Some people also slice a few millimeters off the bottom of the pear, creating a flat surface on which it can stand upright. As for the stem, leave it on in the name of style.

Next it’s time to draw a bath for the pears, for which it’s common to use either water or wine. Although the thought of pears drinking a bottle of red instead of me makes me cringe, this method does lend the final product a vibrant ruby hue. Depending on your recipe and preference, you’ll also add a sweetener, vanilla, and spices like cinnamon and clove. You’ll bring this mixture to a boil and then down to a simmer. When you add the pears, the liquid should just cover their tops.

As the pears spend about 20 minutes in their hot tub, you’ll need to turn them a bit in order to achieve even cooking and coloring throughout. When you think they’re ready, poke one with a knife or fork. If you meet no resistance, it’s time to pull them out.

At this point, you may choose to let the pears and the liquid hang out overnight in the fridge, allowing the fruit to absorb even more flavor. Another option is to strain any solids from the liquid and continue reducing it in a saucepan until it reaches a syrup-like consistency. Then drizzle the reduction over the pears before serving.

Although they appear glamorous, poached pears are actually quite easygoing. You can serve them warm or cool with pretty much anything from whipped cream to chocolate to cake and pastries. You can keep them in your fridge for up to five days. And you can even add them into baked goods, either whole or diced.

Ready to whip up one of these extreme makeovers in your very own kitchen? Here are a few recipes you can use to write your pear Cinderella story!

Red Wine Poached Pears

The Spruce

Use this recipe to get the classic, deep-red look. Get the recipe.

Poached Pears with Cardamom

Champagne Tastes

If you’re more likely to have white wine in the house, this one’s for you. Get the recipe.

Spiced Poached Pears with Warm Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Tartelette

It’s a truth we’ve known since we started eating solid foods: Everything’s better with chocolate and ice cream. Get the recipe.

Chai Poached Pears with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Oh My Veggies

This simple recipe uses tea bags to lend a spicy flavor. Get the recipe.

Vanilla Poached Pears with Simple Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things

Move over, caramel apples. Get the recipe.

Honeyed Pears in Puff Pastry

Sprinkle Bakes

You could serve your poached pear next to a pastry…or you could wrap it in strips of puff pastry and bake yourself a pear-in-a-blanket! Get the recipe.

Poached Pear Tarts

A Cookie Named Desire

Here’s one way to use poached pears as a baking ingredient. Get the recipe.

Ginger Cake with Salted Caramel Poached Pears

Sugar Et Al

The pears form a sort of crown atop this ginger cake that’s also garnished with crushed chocolate coated honeycomb. Get the recipe.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2gFVk1q
via IFTTT

A Beginner’s Guide to Jewish Food

Jewish food tends to get a bad rap. When it comes to fine dining, it’s usually French or Italian food, not Jewish food, that you’re having in a restaurant or cooking at home (unless, of course, it’s made by your bubby). Gefilte fish is perplexing, noodle kugel is a strange paradox of creamy noodles studded with raisins and sweet spices, and matzah is, well…tasteless unleavened cardboard.

Despite all the stereotypes surrounding Jewish cuisine, lately there’s been a rise in Jewish food everywhere: bakeries are popping up showcasing a mix of Jewish and Middle Eastern delicacies, more and more cookbooks are launching with a focus on the cuisine, and specialized Jewish restaurants have become omnipresent in big cities, pivoting from typical Jewish deli fare to smoked eggplant carpaccio and Nutella stuffed chocolate babka. Which is one super long way of saying that Jewish food isn’t its stereotypes—it’s actually really good and underrated.

Read on for an illumination of typical—and not so typical—Jewish dishes, from babka to pastrami.

Babka

Baker By Nature

Babka is a sweet, yeasted, cake-like bread, dense, swirled with chocolate or cinnamon, and often topped with a sugary streusel. While babka was once only found in Jewish or Eastern European bakeries, it’s now everywhere, and for good reason: the irresistible juxtaposition of dry layers of bread and moist swirls of chocolate and cinnamon make it a perfect compliment to coffee or a scoop of ice cream.

Bialy

Alexandra Cooks

Although bagels tend to be the bread star of the morning, bialys are bagels’ lesser known, but just as delicious, cousin. Originating in Bialystok, Poland, the traditional bialy is a flatter version of a bagel (more similar to a roll), just without a hole in the center. Unlike the bagel, which is boiled before being baked, a bialy is simply baked. All bialys boast a small concave depression in the middle, which is traditionally filled with onions and sometimes poppy seeds and garlic. While purists tend to prefer them straight up, try one with cream cheese—you may very well never go back to bagels.

Blintzes

Smitten Kitchen

Quite simply, blintzes are the Jewish answer to French crêpes. Blintzes are an evolved form of blini (a flat Russian pancake made of buckwheat flour and served with sour cream), but with both sweet and savory versions. They too are thin pancakes, but made out of wheat flour, which gives them a slightly different texture. Each pancake can be filled with ingredients like jam, fruit, potatoes, farmer’s cheese, cottage cheese, ground meat, chicken, cabbage, and onion. Once it’s filled, the pancake is folded into a rectanglular pouch and sautéed or baked.

Gefilte Fish

Chowhound

Gefilte fish may not look all that appetizing, but it’s actually quite a symbolic food for Jews. The dish is traditionally served on Shabbat to avoid borer (literally selecting or choosing, which is an activity prohibited on Shabbat). Because gefilte fish is a poached mixture of deboned fish—like carp and whitefish—no one needs to worry about picking bones out of the dish, making it an ideal food to serve when exploring the Jewish culinary landscape.

Halvah

Joy Of Kosher

While halvah is eaten across the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa, the Jewish version is a bit different. Served in long, rectangular blocks that are sliced into individual slabs, halvah is a nut butter-based dessert, usually featuring tahini, and studded with a variety of nuts, chocolate, or dried fruit.

Knishes

Mostly Foodstuffs

A knish is an Eastern European snack food made popular in North America by Eastern European immigrants. Traditionally, a knish is a handheld, small, doughy pastry that’s loaded with fillings like mashed potatoes, meat, sauerkraut, cheese, and onions. While it’s considered an old world food, it most notably underwent a revolution recently, with mom and pop establishments setting up shop in large cities selling innovative takes on the classic dish with a modern twist.

Latkes

Chowhound

Ah, latkes: the best reason to eat fried potatoes. Latkes are served during Hanukkah, to pay homage to the oil that lasted eight nights. Shredded potatoes and onions are formed into patties, fried in oil, and served dipped in applesauce and sour cream.

Matzah Ball Soup

Chowhound

While anyone can attest that matzah ball soup is guaranteed to cure any illness, it is a bonafide fan favorite amongst everyone. It’s basically chicken noodle soup, and while it doesn’t boast noodles, it does feature densely flavorful matzah balls, made from a combination of matzah meal and eggs. The soup tends to be paired with sliced carrots, celery, and occasionally bits of chicken.

Noodle Kugel

Chowhound

To outsiders, kugel is arguably a bit of a confusing paradox. It’s this delicious mixture of savory and sweet, all in one fat-filled noodle dish. The dish is loaded with cream cheese, sour cream, butter, sugar, and egg noodles, and some recipes call for sweet spices like cinnamon, as well as dried fruit, like raisins. It tends to be served on special events, like holidays or Shabbat.

Pastrami

Chowhound

Pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before refrigeration by Jewish immigrants, who would cure raw meat and season it with a special spice blend. It was smoked and steamed, then paired with a hefty smear of mustard and rye bread. Nowadays, pastrami has become much more mainstream, having first found a home in Jewish delis before migrating into more unconventional settings. It has found its way onto tacos and even into breakfast sandwiches, as an ironic substitute for bacon or sausage.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2gGBymp
via IFTTT