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For dinner today I made Kale Polenta with Roasted Parsnips.
You take kale leaves & the smaller stems & chop them small, esp the stems. Then you boil them with garlic in stock or milk. I typically use stock esp if I have homemade stock on hand. Then once the kale is softened you blend it & use it to cook the polenta. It makes it very vivid green. Once the polenta is done add salt, pepper & grated parmesan cheese. Then you top it with the roasted parsnips. One thing about roasting parsnips is they have a very woody core so you have to cut that out. I cut the parsnip into 4ths & then cut the core out before coating in oil, salt & oregano. 

I also tried a new recipe for vegan (ish) chorizo. Actually I ended up altering & combining 2 recipes to make it, a vegan chorizo recipe & a vegan ground beef. I started off using the chorizo recipe except I substituted the mushrooms for cauliflower, since my partner doesn't eat mushrooms. Then I used the ground beef recipe's technique of baking the 'meat' in the oven to dry it out & then rehydrating it to get a more meaty texture. Before baking the chorizo was too sweet since the cauliflower didn't have mushroom's umami flavor. My partner suggested adding a mix of soy sauce, tomato paste, miso & oyster sauce. We had tomato sauce for pizza so that's what I ended up using. I added a small amount of each & mixed it before baking. Then I rehydrated in a mix of tomato sauce & chicken stock. It turned out really tasty! 

We aren't a vegan or veggie household, we are just trying to reduce our meat consumption. So the chicken stock & oyster sauce work for us. But you could easily use vegetarian oyster sauce or veggie stock. Or use mushrooms if you want. That's the lovely thing about cooking. You can accommodate all kinds of things. 

In the realm of sweets I made key lime pie for my partner's birthday last week, per his usual request.  I made it with this recipe but I used a large store bought graham cracker crust. We have 1 slice each left which we will eat after dinner tonight. I'm planning on making something chocolate next. My usual go to's are chocolate chip cookies or brownies. But I may make something else if I have time/energy.

I hope you have get to eat something tasty soon. :) 

Tonight's dinner was chicken tacos with salsa & pickled radish. I made fresh corn tortillas which turned out ok. The first batch was too thick. The second batch I rolled thinner but they didn't puff up when cooking. I'm not sure why.  This was the last of the pickled radish, which I made last week. The chicken was leftover shredded chicken from a chicken I roasted.

 This week i have done fairly well on making meals at home. I am trying to keep doing that for several reasons- money, better quality & taste, more variety in food. 

Risotto with bacon, roasted bell pepper & tomato. Finished with butter, parm cheese & lemon juice. Rather rich but it did have some veggies. Very comforting. Based on hello fresh recipe. 

Pot roast with carrots & russet potatoes. Also made dinner rolls to go with the leftovers. Very good. Remember to make rolls ahead of time so we can have them with the meal & not just the leftovers. Recipes for Instant pot pot roast & dinner rolls. Do put honey butter on them if you have honey. 

Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans. The meatloaf was my go to alton brown recipe with some alteration. I used a bit less meat, 1 lb each of ground chuck & ground turkey. Added 2 big handfuls of spinach. I used rits crackers since i didn't have any bread on the house. I have also used breadcrumbs from homemade bread & the crutons in the recipe before. They were all fine.  Mashed potatoes were done in the instant pot, though I did make sure to take the skins off. The green beans were good & I was surprised we ate the whole 1lb i made. I could have cooked them a bit longer but they were fine. 

Any meals you have made lately that were really good? The pot roast was the new recipe I tried & it is already saved for future use. 😁 

 
I have had a lovely holiday so far.   Thanksgiving dinner was a bit rough & stressful for me. We didn't make all the sides that were originally on the menu. Original menu included turkey roulade, potatoes, carrots, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce & ham.  We ended up eating cornbread dressing, turkey roulade, ham & cranberry sauce. I made simple cranberry sauce  , which turned out great. We used turkey legs for the roulade & deboned the meat, including taking out all the little bones. Next time, we are defiantly using breasts. For desert we got an apple cobbler, which is currently baking in the oven. We also got Mexican chocolate ice cream which is delicious. It has a swirl of cinamon in chocolatey goodness. :) <3

For the retail holiday black friday, after lunch of leftover sandwiches, we went to the movies. We saw Wreck it Ralph 2, which was full of internet references & inside jokes.  Cute kid movie & all the kids in the theater were very well behaved!  Afterwards we went to the thrift store, which was having a 50% off sale. I got a handknit sweater that fits great, a comercial argeyl sweater & a loungy long sleeve t shirt. J got a new pair of pants. He also got a second, small, computer monitor for $10! He has it all hooked up & is super excited about it. I also got a new purse, which I need to switch over to this weekend. 

How was your holiday, if you celebrated Thanksgiving & Black Friday?