What's for Dinner? Week of 2/24

Cookbook Challenge: Week 6

Yep, you'll notice weeks 4 and 5 are missing. We're already slacking.

We (well, I) have come up with we have a more structured plan:

• Challenge recipes will always be made on Sundays, since we're less likely to use the ol' "I don't wannnna cook!" excuse that frequently plagues us after long workdays
• I Created a spreadsheet with a list of all the recipes we've earmarked for the challenge - why didn't I do that at the beginning? Once it's on a spreadsheet I'm not likely to forget it.  #nerd

A note of success (and only 6 weeks in!) - I've already recycled 3 cookbooks that didn't contain any recipes that appealed to me. The BH&G classic cookbook is cool-looking on the shelf, but the recipes I'd actually make from it are already in our routine, which explains why I've never opened it.  

But back to this week's recipe - I chose it from my Gooseberry Patch One-Pot Meals book. I'm a huge fan of throwing a bunch of ingredients in the Crock Pot in the morning and letting dinner cook itself throughout the day. No work for me when I get home! Win!

We've been on a quiche kick lately, so when I saw this I quickly added it to our challenge list - Turkey Spinach Quiche! Yum!

Dave is the resident quiche maker in our household, so I had nothing to do with its execution, but in the tasting department, it passes! We'll definitely be making this again - adding it to our quiche rotation, which currently includes breakfast and seafood versions.

What's for Dinner? Week of 2/17

You may notice some crossover from last week's menu :)  I forgot about Valentine's Day, plus a particularly crappy Tuesday warranted a night out!

Bucket of Love

Dave and I don't usually do gifts on Valentine's Day, but when I saw this adorable guy-specific gift I wanted to make him one!

He's pretty easy to please, so I got to work making his love bucket!  One trip to Target yielded a few of his favorite things:

• 2 bottles of Vitamin Water - his favorite flavors
• KitKats
• Storm Trooper note pad - to jot things down at work
• Beatles t-shirt!
• Single serving of his favorite cereal - Archer Farms blueberry granola with flax
• Advil - for his head after I nag him about something
• Wine thermometer - this was an impulse buy, but he'll get good use out of it.  It's like a pipe clamp that goes around a wine bottle so you can tell when it's chilled.  You could prolly also touch the bottle to find that out, but whatevs ;)
• Cashews
• Starbucks gift card

I also got him Big Lebowski on DVD (FINALLY found it at a store) but Bonnie prompted reminded me that she got that for him on his last birthday.  oops...so I got him Blade Runner instead :)

I feel like this little collection of inexpensive items pretty much sum him up - movies, chocolate, coffee, Star Wars, wine...yep, that's mah man!  I got a cheap metal bucket at Home Depot and filled it up:

Happy Valentine's Day, Dave! 

(pssst - don't tell him you saw his love bucket before he did! he has to wait 'til tomorrow.)

What's for Dinner? Week of 2/2

Brownie footballs!

I'm a huge fan of neither brownies nor NFL football - so why I chose brownie footballs as a treat to bring to Dave's parents' for Super Bowl viewing festivities, I have no idea.  They looked cute on Pinterest:

Pretty simple:

• bake brownies
• use a football-shaped (or in our case, round bent into the shape of a football) cookie cutter to cut out footballs
• pipe icing onto them using a piping tip or one of these

Cute, right?