Menu Plan Monday- September 17, 2012

Last week in my kitchen:

All of the brioche that I could find here had a frosting-like glaze on it and I decided that wasn't going to work so I made the Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Brioche with one of the big round Turkish breads that I cut into quarters and then made it into a little triangle pocket. Martijn really liked it but I thought it was missing something. Maybe some fresh chives or green onions. It didn't taste bad it just wasn't quite all the way there for me.

I really liked the bean cups from the Tuna Salad Bean Cups recipe. I used fresh korriander instead of parsley because in my mind that was a better pairing with cumin and I also had some korriander in the fridge and I didn't have any parsley. I went off on my own tangent a little with the tuna salad so I can't say if it was magically delicious or not but the bean cups are a definite keeper.

I didn't make the Mini Tamale Pies because I was too lazy. Surprise surprise.

Beef and Beet Salad- My father in law picked some fresh beets for me the other night and I roasted them up and will use them in this. I might add in some feta since that's supposed to be a good pairing with beets.

Carrot Souffle and uh... something else... maybe fish.

Taco Soup- I don't think I have a recipe for this. It's essentially stewed tomatoes, kidney beans, ground beef, corn, and onion with a few tortilla chips, cheddar and sourcream plopped on top.

Southwestern Chicken Wraps- These look nice and easy and I have some shredded chicken in the freezer.

That's it for this week...

I voted!

Yesterday, I got to do something pretty special.

I took myself and my stempas (voting pass) to the voting station and I voted in my very first Dutch election. I told the ladies there it was my very first time being able to vote here and they welcomed me and were very sweet.

It was slightly disconcerting that the ballot boxes were giant grey wheelie bin garbage cans but I felt quite pleased.

One more thing to cross off my 101 list!

Menu Plan Monday - September 10, 2012

We had a wildly successful time with the new recipes I made last week.

Starting off with the Thai Chicken Enchiladas. You need to make these!! They were most excellent. I used whole wheat tortillas. I think I'll add a little more cabbage and carrots next time but the flavors were spot on.

The rub on the Blackened Chicken Breast and Cilantro Lime Quinoa with Greek Yogurt Avocado Puree was nice and spicy without being burn your mouth off hot. You don't really need Greek yogurt for the sauce. In fact, I think it would be better with a regular slightly runnier yogurt.

I think there are endless possibilities with the Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps. It really needs the sour cream and probably salsa added inside. As written they're a little dry but the flavors are good.

I took the Cheeseburger Muffins to my North American Women's Club potluck. I used half BBQ sauce and half ketchup, added in a whack of horseradish and doubled the mustard and Martijn and I still thought they were a little bland. Still I think with a few more tweaks here and there they have some serious potential.

This week:

Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Brioche- Smoked Salmon is on sale this week. I don't know if I'll use brioche. We'll have to see if I can find it.

Tuna Salad Bean Cups- I found this one on my Pinterest. I don't remember pinning it but it looks promising so I'll give it a go!

Mini Tamale Pies- Ground beef is also on sale this week and I think these look tasty.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs- I have lots of rice leftover from the wraps I made last week so sweet and sour and some fried rice should just hit the spot!

Menu Plan Monday- September 3, 2012

I can't even talk about what a slacker I've become in the meal planning department so lets just pretend there hasn't been a huge gaping hole in the past few months and carry on.

Chicken breasts are on sale this week for a very good price so I'm stocking up and planning around that. The Cheeseburger Muffins are for the NAWC potluck on Tuesday so I'll make them Monday night for dinner just to be certain they're not yucky.

Blackened Chicken Breast and Cilantro Lime Quinoa with Greek Yogurt Avocado Puree

Thai Chicken Enchiladas

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Cheeseburger Muffins


Anything delicious on your dinner menus this week?

August Foodie Penpals Reveal

My Foodie Penpal sender for August was Lin. I knew I was in for some good things when she said she liked to add homemade goodies to her packages, and I was right!

When the postal delivery person handed me the box it made a sound a little bit like a rain stick... not always a noise you want to hear when taking possession of a package. When I got into the box I discovered the rain stick sound culprit! The box of lavender sugar (little box sitting on the green lid in the picture) had popped open. Lucky for me not all of it had come out so there is still enough to try a little in something. I've not cooked much with floral flavors so it should be interesting. Also included in my homemade goodies was some vanilla fudge (yum yum yum), a spice rub for meat or fish which Lin says is similar to ras el hanout (box sitting on the blue lid), and these stinking cute shaped sugars for drinks (box sitting on the pink lid).

I LOVE Christmas crackers. It's not a tradition we really have in the US or here in NL so I get all wild and (probably overly) excited when I see them. Lin said she likes to serve her guests these mini crackers on their saucer. I think it is such a fun idea. She also sent the cute little dishes that I put the fudge and crackers in for the photo. I have a few ideas of what I might use these for.

Every single time I go into the tokos (Oriental stores) here I see the "take me home and fry me up yourself" kroepoek (prawn crackers) but I've never had the courage to buy them and do them myself. So I was rather delighted to find the bag of them in my box. I offered the Espresso Dark Chocolate to Martijn since he's a coffee fiend and I'm not a coffee lover and he said it's "very dark but tasty." I don't often get my hands on Cadbury chocolate here so that was a nice thing to spot.

Lin, thank you so much!

I sent to Caitlin and you can see her reveal post here.