grilled salmon, steamed broccoli, steamed brown rice
I dust the salmon with a rub I bought at Pampered Chef: Lemon-Basil Rub. Any similar spice mix or rub will work, or you can use lemon pepper and add dried basil. That's all I do to it before I grill it on my indoor smokeless grill (like George Foreman).
Monday: One of the ladies in our meal swap made us a soup. I'm going to heat that up for tonight. In fact, since it's a baseball game night, I think I'll throw the frozen block of soup in my crockpot and turn it on in the morning. Soup should be hot and ready to eat when we walk through the door after baseball in the chilly fall weather!
The cold weather is bringing out the Minnesotan in me. This one of those meals that seems like too much work, but really it's a fast prep. Long cooking time, but that just means your oven does most of the work, leaving you free to do other things. Also, with the sides built-in, it comes out of the oven as a meal ready to serve. Get it going in the morning and it will be like someone cooked dinner for you. (No time in the morning? Prep it the night before--in your crock if you have a removeable crock, or in a separate bowl if you don't. Then pull it out in the morning and turn on your crock pot.)
Classic Pot Roast
1 beef pot roast of your choice (shoulder roast, chuck roast, blade, etc.)
1 bag baby carrots
1 bag baby new potatoes (or 3-4 white potatoes, peeled and quartered)
3-4 onions, quartered
acorn squash, seeded and wedged (optional--I like it in pot roast, but some people don't)
2 envelopes onion soup mix (such as Lipton)
2 cups water
Place pot roast in crock pot; sprinkle with soup mix. add carrots, potatoes, and onions and squash. Pour water over pot roast. Cook on low 8-10 hours or until meat is done and veggies are tender.
Chocolate-Raspberry-Truffle-Bombe:
1 qt. Baskin Robbins (or brand of your choice) Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Ice Cream
1 box your choice brownie mix (family size....I use Pillsbury Triple Chocolate), plus ingredients to prepare brownies
1 can dark chocolate fudge icing
(seriously--three ingredients!)
Prepare and bake brownies according to package directions. Allow to cool. Trim hardened crust, if any, from brownies. Cut brownies into small (1-2 inch) pieces. Line glass or other freezer proof bowl (about 2 qt.) with plastic wrap. Mash brownies into bowl, along bottom and up the sides, to form a crust. Freeze well. When crust is frozen, add ice cream inside crust, mashing to eliminate air bubbles. Freeze until firm. Turn Bombe' out onto cookie sheet, platter, or other flat serving dish so chocolate crust is up. Melt icing (in its can, but be sure to remove ALL of foil safety seal) in microwave approximately 1 min or until melted. Pour melted icing over frozen bombe and return to freezer until firm. Serve frozen, cut into wedges. (hint, for a more elegant presentation, I shave dark chocolate over the melted icing and add fresh rasperries both on top and around edges of bombe). **This ends up being kind of a pricey dessert, as MY desserts go, with the premium ice cream. BUT, my husband tolerates my experiments in the kitchen and prefers NOT to go out to eat...we end up saving huge even with this expense. The premium ice cream is a splurge for this occasion and is well worth it. If Baskin Robbins doesn't carry the Raspberry-Truffle, go to a Cold Stone and have them mix in chocolate truffles and fresh raspberries into their darkest chocolate ice cream.
Thursday: My parents are in town! (a lot of company this week, which I'm totally happy about!) I'm serving hamburgers, home fries and home sweet potato fries, and cole slaw. The fry combo is because my dad loves sweet potato fries but my mom doesn't care for them. It'll be fun to have both on the table.
Friday: We're headed out to eat to celebrate all the birthdays--my husband, my neice, and my mom all in the next two weeks!
Saturday: Everyone's gone by now--we're sticking with our Saturday Pizza night.
