Two More Weekly Dinners

I managed to keep my dinner cooking momentum and prepare 2 more delicious meals last week.  I make sure to plan on the weekend, and then pick up ingredients on Tuesday.  The commissary is closed on Sunday and Monday each week, so after work on Tuesday is the best time to go.  I aim for cooking Tuesdays and Thursdays so Ryan can spend those nights focused on homework.

Last week I made one soup and one pasta dish.

My first recipe came from this really good diabetes cookbook.  The information added to this book by 2 RDs is fantastic and I love all of their helpful hints.  Mixed in with the recipes are great blurbs that can really help someone with diabetes.  I like this cookbook so much that I bought it for my dad too.
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If you remember from my last post, I picked up some red lentils, so when I saw this recipe, I knew it would be perfect.  Even more perfect was the weather.  Well, not to much the weather itself, but last Tuesday was our first real fall day, and this soup was perfect timing to warm us up.
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The basis of this soup was carrots, celery, onions and garlic.
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Then it called for water and chicken bouillon, but I used some “chicken” powder instead.
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Next up were the lentils.
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After 15 minutes, the final ingredient was a can of diced tomatoes.
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Look at that!
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I served it with some seeded bread.
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It was so good.  Ryan really liked and so did my coworker.  I will definitely be making this again.
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A little later on, we decided to try out these little cakes we bought at the local grocery store.  We had to type the directions into Google translate to figure out how to make this.
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They are little cakes with gooey fudge in the center.
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Only 15 minutes in the toaster oven, and we had some yummy cake.
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Thursday I went with a pasta dish from this random cookbook I must have picked up at the grocery store.
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I found this recipe, but I had a few changes.  Around here you take what you can get, so I had to get full fat ricotta because they did not have any part skim.  I also prefer Tagliatelle,  so I used that for my pasta.
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I found one with wavy edges and thought that would be fun to try.
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The sauce consisted of artichokes, white wine and some seasonings.
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After that cooked together for a few minutes, the ricotta was added.
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Because it was the full fat ricotta it had less liquid so it was a little on the thick side.
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Overall, it turned out pretty well.
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We both enjoyed it and even had some leftovers, which make a great lunch at work.
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So, are you impressed I have kept up with my plan to cook dinner twice a week?  I think Ryan is impressed.

QUESTIONS:  Do you ever have trouble finding ingredients at your grocery store?  What is your favorite fall food?

7 comments:

Kristen (swanky dietitian) said...

Good for you for keeping up with cooking! It can get so hard for me during the week. That is why I normally make one of two dinners and eat them over the course of the week.
Pumpkin is by far my favorite fall food! yum!

Simply Life said...

my favorite fall food is fresh apples!

Emily said...

Great job keeping up with your home cooking! I haven't tried red lentils yet, but I really want to.

pumpkin is definitely my fave fall food!

Unknown said...

3 words Butternut Squash Soup :)

Gina; The Candid RD said...

Oh yes, very impressed!! And both meals sound delicious. I think that book is really popular and I would love to try some recipes from it. I always tend to buy cookbooks and never use them though, that's a problem!

Favorite fall food? Pumpkin or any type of squash. I love butternut squash this year too.

Special K said...

Fall food...APPLES...am making apple butter this weekend. In fact, my three favorite foods of all time include apples (tomatoes and peanut butter are up there as well...and dare I say that I HAVE attempted to combine them all in an african stew that was yummy once!)

Lori said...

That lentil soup would be great with the fall weather we are having here. I love artichokes too so I'd love the pasta dish.

I find I'm constantly going from store to store - Kroger, Whole Foods, Int'l Markets and online to find all the ingredients I like to use. However, it is no where near as bad as when I was in Brazil! :) Fave fall food/drink is a tie between pumpkin and apple cider.

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