Tasty Thursday

      I'm kind-of getting tired of the same old, same old thing and I have really been craving some spicy food so my menu for this week reflects that. We're going to have a lot of peppers and Asian spices. It's going to be a tasty week! Last week we had four new recipes: steak and cheese sandwiches with onion, lightened up beef shepherd's pie, chicken enchilada soup, and crock pot Bolognese sauce. 


Steak and cheese sandwiches with onion: This recipe was pretty good. I did add a little butter when I was cooking it along with some Worcestershire sauce and I think that made the meat and sauce taste a little richer. Both Tim and I enjoyed them.


Lightened up beef shepherd's pie: This was probably one of the biggest let-downs of any Skinny Taste recipe that I've ever made. Tim and I both didn't really like it. I can't say for sure what the biggest problem with the recipe was, but there wasn't a lot of flavor and the frozen veggies were still pretty crunchy after cooking it. I probably will not make this particular recipe again. 


Chicken enchilada soup: Of all the recipes that we tried last week, this one was by far our favorite. It was so good and really easy to put together. The cilantro and chipolte chiles in adobo sauce really make this a delicious and unique recipe. I used twice the amount of chipolte chiles sauce as she recommended and it still wasn't very spicy to our palates. We both really like spicy food though. We will definitely be making this soup again, if not as soon as possible!


Crock pot Bolognese sauce: This recipe was good, though it still isn't my perfect pasta sauce. I'm still searching! It did get better with time though because the leftovers I had for lunch the next day were really tasty. I'm hoping that the leftovers that I stored in the freezer will just continue to get better with time.


     For any of the above recipes, link to my previous menu blog here and then click through to the link to the original recipe. And now, on to the menu for this week. 

Thursday: Steak fajitas. I have leftover beef in the freezer from last week that I'm going to make into last minute fajitas. I make them with a little garlic powder, some cumin, chile powder, onion, some type of pepper, and a squeeze of lime juice. Yummy! We will have our fajitas with black beans and rice. 
Friday: Pollo in potacchio.  This is a Skinny Taste recipe that I've been interested in for some time. She makes it in her Dutch oven, but I will be giving it a try in my slow cooker. I'm really excited about having another slow cooker meal because I love being able to throw everything together earlier in the day and have time to clean the kitchen before Tim gets home from work. I've been really trying to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen every night so that I don't have to wake up to a dirty kitchen that needs to be clean. I've been doing okay for the most part, but slow cooker meals definitely help cut down on the number of dishes that need to be washed in the evening. We'll be having this with roasted red potatoes and roasted parmesan green beans. 

Photo from SkinnyTaste.com.

Saturday: Sweet and fiery pork tenderloin. Not sure if I will make the fruit salsa because I don't really like mango. We will have the pork with brown rice and broccoli. I'm really excited about this recipe because I'm interested in trying the Sriracha sauce. Chefs always seem to be using it on the Food Network, but I've never had it. Otherwise, it just looks like an easy and yummy recipe. And if we like it, then maybe we can try it grilled when the weather starts to warm up. 

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Sunday: Beef and barley soup. This is a recipe that Tim's Aunt Beth made for us when we were visiting them before Christmas. Tim and I both really liked it and I'm always happy to add another soup recipe to my repertoire. 

Monday: Leftover soup.

Tuesday: Bangin' good shrimp.  This is a knock-off healthier version of my favorite dish at Bonefish Grill. We haven't eaten there in a really long time because Tim heard from someone at his work that they got food poisoning the last time they ate there. I'd still be tempted to risk it, but Tim doesn't want to. :) I'm hoping that this knock-off is really good. We'll have it with baked sweet potato fries because we haven't had them in a while and I think the flavors will actually go pretty well together. We may wrap the shrimp and lettuces in tortillas to eat them. 

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.

Wednesday: Skinny chicken enchiladas. We will be having these so that we can use up the entire pack of tortillas from earlier in the week. Also, these are highly rated on the Skinny Taste website, so I thought I would give them a try. We'll have them with corn and black beans. 

Photo from Skinnytaste.com.