Tasty Thursday

     The past week has been an interesting and tiring one. Owen caught a cold (most likely at childcare during my workouts) and has been a handful for the past week. He was fine last Friday and then Saturday his nose started running and he was coughing and had a pretty high fever for a few days. He is still a very happy little boy though and plays like there is nothing wrong with him. And I still managed to make most of my planned meals last week so stay tuned for the reviews. Things got more interesting yesterday when Tim suddenly came down with his own cold and it snowed seven inches! At least. We were nearly out of groceries so I braved the snow and drove to the grocery store to pick up our groceries for this week and medicine for Tim (Thank goodness for four-wheel drive). Luckily I planned our menu for this coming week on Tuesday night and was prepared. Driving in the snow was actually a lot of fun and being able to see the city covered in snow was really neat. Pushing a shopping cart through snow drifts in the parking lot at Winco was not so much fun though. I plan to post pictures of the snow soon, so check back tomorrow. 
      I tried two out of the three new recipes I planned to make last week. Last night instead of making chicken tikka masala, I made chicken soup for the sicky husband. But the other two recipes I made were pretty good. The buttermilk chocolate chip scones were really good and very easy to make. I think it took me maybe 10 minutes to make the dough so I had them baked before Tim emerged from the bedroom last weekend. The stuffed cabbage casserole was good, but I think it would be better if it had more cheese. (Cue sounds of shock from those who know that I don't really like cheese most of the time). I had a problem with the layers kind-of falling apart and the cabbage sliding around, so I think if you had a layer of cheese in the middle as well as on the top, it would help hold it together better. Also, the recipe tells you to cook the cabbage on medium-high heat, but when I did that, it started to burn, so I would recommend cooking it on medium heat. It also made a lot so I froze about half of the casserole for another time and we ate the rest over a couple of dinners. And with that said, on to our menu for this week. Oh, and our weekend starts early because Tim just got a text that work was canceled today due to the snow and ice. (He already gets every Friday off because he works long days the rest of the week.) Yaaaaay for another long four-day weekend!
  
Thursday: Steak and cheese sandwiches with onions and mushrooms. (Well, not the mushrooms.) Tim has practically been begging for a sandwich similar to this that I made last year. It was a Pioneer Woman recipe so of course it used about 12 sticks of butter. So after making it the one time, I never really planned to make it again because it was so unhealthy. Then I found a similar recipe on Skinny Taste and decided to surprise Tim with this version of a steak, onion, and cheese sandwich.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Friday: Lightened up beef shepherd's pie. We will have this with roasted green beans. Tim has also requested Beef Shepherd's Pie on many occasions, but I have never found a good recipe for it. He particularly likes the beef shepherd's pie at The Cheesecake Factory. This will probably not taste anything like that because it is a lightened up version (and I heard that the beef shepherd's pie is one of the higher caloric options at that restaurant). I thought that it would be nice and warm comfort food for the really cold week.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Saturday: Leftovers. This time with steamed or roasted broccoli probably. Leftovers will be great today because we are going to my friend Kristina's son's first birthday party. And I am dragging Tim along because I want him to meet her husband. Haha!
Sunday: Crock pot chicken enchilada soup. Tim has also been wanting me to make soup for a while because the weather has been so cold. My friend Katie made this last week and said that it was really good, so I'm interested in trying it out. It uses chiles in adobo sauce so I'm looking forward to a soup with some spice. And the fact that I can make it in the slow cooker is an added bonus. 

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Monday: Leftovers.
Tuesday: Crock pot Bolognese sauce with spaghetti. I am really excited about this recipe because it looks really good and has a lot of interesting ingredients like carrots and pancetta. Plus it should make a ton and then I can freeze it for a last minute meal another time. We will eat this with sauteed brussels sprouts and maybe a side salad.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Wednesday: Healthy baked chicken nuggets. We will be having these chicken nuggets this week because A. They are really tasty and I already have every ingredient that we need, and B. We are expecting a shipment soon from my mom containing 5 Zaxby's sauces and about 10 various Chick-Fil-A sauces. We will have them with baked zucchini sticks and green beans.

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

    And our special treat for the week is this recipe for butterbeer cupcakes. Tim and I just received the last Harry Potter movie in the mail from Netflix and we will watch it this weekend while eating these cupcakes. I have had them bookmarked on Pinterest for a really long time and wanted to wait until the movie came out to try them.

Photo from Amybites.com.