On the menu, week two

Last week I decided to challenge myself by posting our menu and promising to share how the new recipes tasted. Well here I am, back to share!

Monday I made Cornish game hens.

The verdict? They turned out pretty good! They were nice and juicy. Not as flavorful as I would have liked, but that could be because I halved the recipe since I was only making 2 hens. We did come to the conclusion that we aren't the biggest fans of hens, because they take a lot of effort to dig out the meat and eat. Haha! I did kinda make up a sauce recipe for the pasta side, and Ryan ended up loving it. I just made the pasta, poured it back in the pot, added a little olive oil, about 1/2 a cup of milk, 1 wedge of Skinny Laughing Cow Swiss cheese, a sprinkle of parmesean cheese, and a sprinkle of mozzarella. I think it'll be a new go-to side for us, since I usually have those things on hand! Mmmm.

Tuesday was our big Valentine's day extravaganza featuring FOUR new recipes. What? I thought that it would be overwhelming to cook it all, but it was actually quite great! I just started prepping hours beforehand so that it wouldn't get too stressful.

The main dish, Filet Oscar, was delicious, even though I did not master the bearnaise sauce--that's on my to-do list :) I didn't cut the butter into slices beforehand, and it was supposed to be added one tablespoon at a time, so I think the yolk and vinegar mixture had some time to separate...thus the sauce was not as creamy as it should have been. But other than that, the steak, crab, and asparagus were perfect! The creamy brussels sprouts were SO GOOD. Like, I would eat them every day good. Like, Ryan never eats his sprouts but he ate these good. Definitely a repeat. Same with the smoked gouda mashed potatoes---MMMM. They look deceptively gross/goopy in the photos, but they were GOOD! I added more gouda than the recipe called for, but in my opinion it was called for, haha. The faux-Red Lobstah biscuits also turned out great!! I used my heart cookie cutters from Gabriella to make them Valentine's appropriate :) I would add a pinch of garlic salt to the dry mixture--the recipe just called for you to add spices to the butter that gets brushed on top, but the inside was just a little bland to me.

Thursday I was supposed to make cheddar beer chicken in the crock pot....but life got in the way and I fell back on a familiar recipe, Chicken Tortilla soup. I plan to make the cheddar beer chicken this next week, though, so I can share the verdict!

Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday, February 20: Thanksgiving food! Yeah, we're both having major cravings, and we have some frozen turkey and some taters...I won't go all out and make green beans and sweet potatoes or anything (Ryan doesn't eat 'em), but the T-Giving trifecta (turkey, potatoes, stuffing--and gravy, too, but that's a given with the potatoes) is calling our names.

Tuesday, February 21: Creamy chicken & stuffing casserole (using leftover stuffing from Monday). This is a recipe from Ryan's mom that we love! It's delicious. I will share the full recipe in my verdict post.

Wednesday, February 22: I have class all night, so I don't cook!

Thursday, February 23: Bowtie pasta with feta, veggies, and lemon pepper chicken. This one looks very promising!

Friday, February 24: Pizza night! I have to take a night (well, besides Wednesday, haha) off sometime.

Saturday, February 25: Another old favorite, apple cider chicken with cous cous.

Sunday, February 26: Cheddar beer chicken.

I'll let you know how the next batch of recipes turns out!


Linking up to http://couponingncooking.blogspot.com's Meal Plan Monday!