Menu Plan for the Week

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Adam and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary (our anniversary was a few weeks ago, while we were at Bear Lake for a family reunion).  That meant we left Fox with my in-laws overnight (our first over night without him!).  He did amazingly well, and became best friends with my in-laws, going for walks, petting the dog, and eating like a champ.  It was reassuring to hear, but we missed him a lot, and spent some time that night looking at photos of him.  This is actually pretty typical for us, even when he is in the next room. We love looking at photos of him... :)

For our mini trip, we went up to Park City, and ate at a terrifically delicious restaurant called Handle for dinner, where we had Lamb belly (incredibly delicious, dispelling all my previous fears of eating lamb), a fabulous and beautiful goat cheese and berry salad, and fancy tater tots.  Adam and I had a total ball analyzing the food, deciding what we liked about it, and didn't, and how we want to change our eating habits after eating there.

We decided we would be okay with only going out to eat once a year, if it meant we could eat somewhere as carefully crafted and beautiful as this restaurant. Eating here also made me want to up my cooking game.   I guess we will see what comes out of my kitchen this fall.  I have big plans for lots more vegetarian meals, and ways to use up your CSA (we are planning on starting again when we get to Texas).  I am getting pretty excited!

Here are a few things that were on our menu last week.  Hopefully they will inspire you to get cooking in your kitchen as we head into fall!

Thai Chicken Curry Soup/Over Rice - I tried one bite and was super disappointed that it didn't have more flavor.  So I added a ton more curry paste and a boatload of sour cream, and oh my goodness, it was amazing!  The first night we ate it over rice, the second day we ate it as a soup.  It was great both ways.

Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas - These have been a long favorite.  I love that you can pack about 8 cups of vegetables into one dish, that even the 19 month old will eat!

Thai Chicken Pizza - I could swim in the sauce for this pizza.  It is SOOO good.  Also, the night I made these, my brother and a friend were coming over, and about 10 minutes before they were going to show up, I realized that my oven was not preheating.  It has been sitting at 135° for about 10 minutes, and had never gotten beyond that.  After several minutes of panicking, we decided to broil the top (that part of the oven was still working), and then we pan-fried the bottom.  They both got quite brown, and I was surprised and thrilled at how good they tasted despite not being able to cook them in the oven.

Taco Salad- Just your basic taco salad with ground beef, lettuce and beans topped with salsa.

Sweet Potato Honey Lime Tacos - I actually didn't love these, but Adam had a stroke of brilliance with serving them, and we made a white corn quesadilla and then topped it with the filling and ate it like a taco.  I still didn't love the filling, but corn tortillas hold up way better if you put cheese in the middle as a binding agent.  Way to go, Adam!