September 19 Spanish Baked Chicken

I love cheese and crackers. I was a vegan for a little while and cheese is what I missed the most.

I got dinner going and then I pulled out a piece of cheese from our supply from the under $3 bin at Whole Foods. This one was a win! Melkbus Truffle Gouda, $2.97 for my tiny chunk. The cheese goes for $26.99/lb.

For the main event we had a baked spanish chicken, a recipe that I found on pinterest which lead me here. It's a Nigella Lawson recipe and I am a BIG Nigella fan. I try to convince my husband that I look like her, he's not buying it. 

Hunter really liked the chicken. I thought it was good as far as baked chicken goes. A healthy dose of fat from spanish chorizo didn't hurt. The recipe was really easy to put together and everything went in one pan which cut down on dishes. Chicken, spanish chorizo, red onion and potatoes plus olive oil, salt, orange zest and oregano. Simple weeknight meal.

My biggest complaint is the strange smell while it was cooking. I guess it was the combination of the orange zest and oregano but boy was it weird!

I may make this again but I am not in a rush to do so.

I think the leftovers will come in handy in the coming days to.  

September 18 Dueling Pastas

Dueling pastas--thin spaghetti with bolognese and gnocchi with fresh pesto

I just didn't want to decide between red sauce and pesto. 

Whole wheat thin spaghetti with bolognese. The bolognese was created from marinara pulled out of the freezer. I just added a pound of lean hamburger meat and some additional herbs and spices. I also threw in a small rind of some parmigiana reggiano. 

The pesto was made from the rest of my basil crop. I loosely based it on this recipe. Instead of pine nuts I used walnuts and I didn't actually measure anything. It turned out quite delicious. 

To make the pesto gnocchi, I boiled store bought gnocchi then threw it in a bowl with about a half a cup of basil pesto. I thinned out the sauce with some pasta water.

Hunter said we should have dueling pasta more often. He also said he couldn't choose between the two because he liked them the same. Not much of a duel, I liked the pesto much better. It was a shockingly easy meal. I had leftover pesto which I put into an ice tray to have with the winter.