Happening in My Kitchen

I am not a great cook. I would like to be. My mom is...my grandmother is...my great-grandmother was. I am still aspiring. I have hope. I occasionally whip up a masterpiece. I also occasionally completely ruin something beyond salvaging.

We eat out far too often. I say this, not because I have a problem with eating out. Oh contraire!!
Mostly we just eat out too much because it has become a habit that started in earnest when the crabby and colicky (but otherwise lovely) Miss Em was born. Andrew was working his little rear end off with long hours, I was at home with a cranky baby and cooking was just not happening. And so began our love affair with pretty much any restaurant nearby.

Of course, this was never the intention and so I still did the weekly grocery shopping with the grand plans of cooking at home. It didn't happen much. But I am trying harder now. I'm up to cooking about 3 times a week on average. Some weeks are better than others. This week has been a good one so far. Maybe I've been inspired by the new fridge...or more money staying in the checking account. Either way, I thought I share a pictoral of this week's meals. They were all pretty successful, I must say.

It all started with a 3-qt. dish of completely from scratch four-cheese macaroni and cheese. Andrew and Emily are big fans of this new-to-me recipe. I think it still needs a bit of tweeking, but overall, it's pretty tasty. The top is fantastic; the inside needs to be creamier. Still, we have eaten it for two nights and still have half a casserole dish left. Not bad.

The above picture may not look too tantalizing, but it is...and it starred along with the mac and cheese on Monday night and then played a supporting role in tonight's dish. This picture is of my oven-baked teryaki chicken. I made the sauce myself and I must say that is much better than any bottled brand I've found so far. It's very simple to make, and by baking the chicken glazed with the sauce, it comes out very flavorful, juicy and tender. Next time, I'm going to add some pineapple juice to the sauce, just for fun, and maybe top with pineapple rings.

Tuesday night, the plan was to brown the 2 lbs of ground beef that I had bought and then use half for tacos and the other half for something yet to be determined (maybe spaghetti sauce or Hamburger Helper...we can't be too fancy!). However, a few minutes into browning the beef, I happened to look at the expiration date on my package of hard/soft taco dinner kit and noticed that it had expired nearly two years ago. Now before you get too excited, I do clean out my pantry at least twice a year, but somehow, this one got away. Never fear, however. I had an extra packet of taco seasoning and some tortilla chips, so we had nachos instead. Andrew declared it an "awesome" (albeit, of absolutely no nutrional value) dinner. Emily opted for left-over mac and cheese.

And tonight, I used the extra 3 teryaki chicken breasts and the left-over sauce to make this gorgeous stirfry concoction pictured above. I wasn't too sure of how it would turn out, since this is truly an original recipe. I threw in a little of this and that and tried my luck (which usually isn't very good!). However, I think we have a winner.

I started by adding a little oil to the pan, then the uncooked rice, a can of chicken broth and a tiny bit of soy sauce. When the rice had gotten a good start, I added the already cooked chicken and a bag of frozen stirfry veggies. Once everything had gotten warm, I added the remainder of the teryaki sauce and a can of pineapple tidbits (just for fun). The finished product was pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The only thing I would do different next time is to pick another kind of frozen stirfry veggie mix. I didn't pay close attention with this one and ended up with green beans, pea pods, yellow squash (yuck), tiny red peppers, broccoli and water chestnuts. I would have prefered red and yellow pepper strips, pea pods, broccoli and water chestnuts (for Andrew). I might also add more pineapple and maybe even get really fancy with some toasted almond slivers.

So that's what has been happening in my kitchen recently. Anyone have any good recipes they'd like to share?