What we ate: week 1

1. Stuffed chicken, sautéed purple cabbage, mashed garlic and rosemary red potatoes: The filling was left over from the ravioli. I butterflied chicken breasts, filled them with the artichoke/ricotta mixture, topped it with red sauce and grated parmesan cheese on it. Baked it in a small glass dish for 35 min. at 400*. The chicken was a little dry, but I like it like that. So, I'd probably reduce the heat to 375 or 350* if you like it juicier. For the cabbage, I just shredded it and cooked it in a small amount of EVOO with salt and pepper. Sometimes I add the fresh, precooked bacon bits for a little extra flavor.
   
2. Homemade artichoke and ricotta ravioli, yellow squash: On the back of my leftover potsticker wrappers it said you can use them for raviolis, so I tried that. It was gross. The dough was too slimy when boiled. It may have been ok if we'd done fried ravioli, but I won't try it. The filling was good. It was my own concoction of garlic, onions, artichoke hearts, ricotta, parsley and salt.
   
3. Curried vegetables and paneer cheese, rice, baked green beans: We ate this the night my crockpot shattered. We needed something quick, and the curry mixture was prepackaged. It was Tasty Bite: Cuisine of India brand. We both really liked it. It was very tasty. I can't remember the exact name of it though. I baked the green beans on a cookie sheet with a little olive oil, garlic, onions and pepper. I really like beans done this way, but I always over cook them. I bake them on 400* and depending on the bean size, it will take 10-20 min. Stir and check them every couple of min. to make sure they don't get over cooked.
   
4. Beef and bean flautas, salad, and Matt made pico: The flautas are just flour tortillas with refried beans (cannery is what I use), cheese and seasoned ground beef down the middle. I roll them up without folding the ends (flauta means flute), and then I crisp them on all sides in a pan with a tiny bit of extra light olive oil.
   
5. Bean, veggie, and bacon soup, sourdough bread: The soup base I use for this quick meal is Campbell's Bean and Bacon soup. I dice and sautéed veggies (save the zucchini till after you simmer the rice though) to a crisp tender, added in about 1/4 cup uncooked rice, and about 3/4 c water. Covered and simmered on low for about 15 min. and then added the soup, 2 cans water, and a little "better than bullion chicken base" to make up for the extra water I added. Carrots, celery, onions, a little garlic, zucchini are the veggies I use, but I'm sure bell peppers and other veggies would work fine too.
   
6. Hamburgers,fries, and onion rings: Sometimes we indulge. For those in our area, Baker's drive in on Hwy 5 has great onion rings. Their fries are nothing special, the burgers are pretty decent, but their onion rings are delicious.