Ready Set Cook

So, as I mentioned I am moving forward onto a new endeavor of cooking. It is a real challenge for me but it is an area where I want to improve so here goes nothing! I am not doing anything too fancy this week, all meals that I have cooked before, but I am committing to them. That being said, there are no frozen entrees, canned entrees or delivered meals on the menu, so I would say we are already ahead of many of American families- Unfortunately. These meals will take effort, time and planning. Here goes nothing! I have planned the following dinners for this week.

Tonight will bring Pesto Pasta. It really is not that difficult to make pesto sauce from scratch with some basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and some cheese. Paired with mushrooms this dish is rather delicious. We may have salad with this. We are able to pick up basil and garlic at the farmers market and it is MUCH less expensive than purchasing in the store. Plus its fresh! I picked the mushrooms up at the farmers market as well.


Tuesday’s meal is BBQ chicken. My husband is being difficult about this one. I offered to make him some fake chicken, tofu, or a BBQ veggie burger, none of which he wants. He doesn’t want “anything” barbequed. Whatever. He can choose from the above options or have frozen buffalo wings or a veggie dog. His choice. With these items we will have corn on the cob and coleslaw. I have never made coleslaw before but it seems easy enough. I didn't think well enough in advance for this one, so while I picked up corn and carrots at the farmers market, I will have to purchase cabbage at the market. Bummer. Highlight of this meal: I bought a new grill pan to cook it in! We don't have an outdoor grill (yet) and the only other option would be to go to the park and use the public grills. No thanks. Not for a tuesday dinner.

Wednesday I will be making homemade pizza! I will make the dough with my mixer and top the pizza with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil. Yum. Again, we got the tomato and basil at the farmers market. I forgot to pick up mozzarella, so this will be added to the list with the cabbage. The mozzarella was actually on my list though.  That's what hurts about this one! Salad will be served on the side. I may need to enlist my husbands expertise when making the pizza crust. We have made it together before, but I don't want to mess it up! You know, this much of this kind of flour and this much of the other....

Thursday will be Mexican night! Tacos! I will use beef in my tacos and beans in my husband’s. I will offer to use fake meat in his, but most likely he will want beans and what this will translate into is "a burrito is preferred". With this we will have chips and homemade guacamole. The guacamole is another enlist my husband's expertise dish.  He usually makes it (and makes it well) so he just needs to teach me!

This is as far in advance as I am planning. We were invited to a BBQ on Friday and we are contemplating going out of town so I did not plan a meal for that evening. The truth is, if I make it through this menu I will be extremely pleased with myself simply for following through. We can then work towards making more new items. At least there is some variety here. Ready Set Cook!