A Week with Martha

Over the past year I have been subscribed to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. I have loved it because it's small, fits in your bag, and is full of recipes. Last week I was determined to make dinner at home (something I haven't really done since Felicity was born). So I looked through all my issues and picked out the best weekly menu. This is the best part of the magazine. They pick 5 meals and create a shopping list that you can just rip out and take to the store. No thinking involved. And this is what I needed. I don't have the energy to sit down and come up with a menu for the week. So I chose the meal list from the November 2011 issue and here's how it went.
(Links to the recipes on Martha Stewart's site)


MONDAY
Steak Pizza with Peppers and Onions

This was soooo good. It was the most filling and hearty pizza I've ever made at home. An easy short cut I do when making pizza is just buying the pizza dough from the Publix Deli. I get no satisfaction in making dough, so I don't even waste my time with it. The recipe says that it serves 4 and it really does. My only critique is that I would serve this with some mixed greens.

TUESDAY
Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Fall Vegetables
Yay for vegetables!! There aren't many vegetable recipes that I like, but this one was easy and tasty. I don't think I've had brussels sprouts since I was like twelve and my uncle wouldn't let me leave the dinner table until I finished eating all of them. Needless to say, that did not make me a fan. But now I am. I've also never had parsnips before, but they were pretty good. Dylan did not agree so next time I will just substitute carrots. I think what this dish was missing was somekind of grain. The meal went right through us and we were hungry an hour later. What I LOVED was how the recipe helped plan ahead for Friday's meal (you saved a portion of the tenderloin to be used later).

WEDNESDAY
Greek-style Chicken with Pickled Onions, Tomatoes, and Tzatziki
Flavor-fest in my mouth! I actually just made this meal tonight because we went out that night. It was delicious. This is one of the few meals where it actually took as long to make as the recipe said it would (normally I find that they take longer). Everything was easy. Instead of parsley, I used dill because I like dill in my tzatziki. Since Dylan hates white rice, I made pearl couscous. Will definitely be making this again.

THURSDAY
Mushroom and Lentil Soup
First off, this meal went wrong for us by not naming a meat protein in the title. And when you are making dinner for a man, I've learned, there needs to be meat. Lentils have a lot of protein in them but you either love 'em or hate 'em. I think Dylan hates them.

FRIDAY
Lo Mein with Pork

Again, I loved that the pork for this meal was already made early in the week. That saved so much time. I might have made too many noodles cause it was very "noodley". I feel like it could use more vegetables but I'm not sure what. Will make this again.