MPM--Winners and Losers Edition

So, here we are, ready to begin a new week. Here's how last week went.

Happily, tacos are still a huge hit and can be totally counted upon to feed my older son. In fact, he asked for 237 tacos! But I made a deal with him on leftovers night that I would feed him tacos until there were no more. Luckily for me, he took the deal.

Remember the crockpot autumn pork roast? Alas, I'm not sure what happened to it. I think my overheating crock pot struck again. Even on low, it was way too long and my stomach still rolls a bit at the thought of the smell. So that, alas, was a loser, which is a shame because it sounded so so good. Might try again cooking just in a regular oven instead, because I have the other half-bag of cranberries and not much to do with them (except for the totally tempting Smitten Kitchen thing).

But the winner to come out of that unexpected unfortunate mess? The Tandoori-Style Chicken Burgers. They were awesome. SO easy, I could pull them together when I realized the pork was going nowhere. I went light on the spices, which was a good thing for our tastes. Next time I will add more scallions; and it should be noted, I used a pound of ground chicken breast rather than the 1.5 lbs of the chicken thighs that are suggested. This saved lots of time. Next time, too, a raita recipe might be a nice compliment as well.

And in the not-as-great-as-I'd-hoped category was the savory bread recipe from Dorie Greenspan from Bon Appetit. After The Best Babysitter in the World kindly shipped us dried pears from Manhattan since they are nowhere to be found in the Philadelphia suburbs, I was eager to try. We fried up the bacon, used the good cheese, chopped the pears and bickered over the rest since both my older son and I loved them plain. The dough came together nicely, baked up beautifully...and in the end, lacked the punch I was hoping for. I don't think I did anything wrong, except that maybe this needs a really, really strong cheese to work, and I was not wasting great cheese on an unknown recipe. Meanwhile, it was fun to do, it looked great, and I love the idea of the one with black olives and parmesan, so now that I own a loaf pan, I will probably try again. And not skimp on the cheese. Ironically, the hit of the day? The pears. My older son and I both adored them and finished off the extras before the bread was done baking. Yum.


On to this week.

Monday: Rachael Ray's Turkey Shepherd's Pie, salad

Tuesday: Chicken Roll-ups, broccoli (with pepper and olive oil, popped in the microwave for 3 minutes), mashed potatoes

Wednesday: Asian Turkey Burgers (recipe from Dinners By Design; I'll post it if they are good), salad, rice, carrots of unknown recipe (I have some cool rainbow ones from the CSA that I'm trying to do justice to)

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Real Simple Ravioli (either this one or this one)

Or, maybe a Friday football game as the nephews' school keeps winning. However, they keep winning in crummy weather so I have a backup plan ready.

Best part about this week: I have everything I need except for some of the meat, so it should be a one-trip-to-the-market week. Woo-hoo! Have a good week. Want more meal ideas? Go here for OrgJunkie's MPM list!