As close to a French table setting as I'll get here, except for the ketchup,but Trent loves the stuff. I'm more of a mustard girl.
I've found some pretty good recipes over the past couple weeks. Usually I start cooking around 7 PM after I get home from work, so my main goal is something good, but fast. I love food too much to just eat whatever I have laying around for dinner, but I am not going to slave in the kitchen for over an hour when I'm starving and have been working all day. Here are some quick but so delicious recipes that I'm pretty sure they are going to become ones I make over and over again.
Green Beans with Andouille Sausage and Croutons
The original recipe called for asparagus and chorizo, but some of the comments mentioned how green beans might work well and I had some Andouille sausage that my aunt got me (along with 3 awesome cheeses and some dry sausage from a gourmet food website). Fresh green beans were on sale for .99 a pound so I grabbed a half a pound and a can of Great Northern beans. I would suggest if you are going to use canned beans to pour them in a strainer and rinse them and dry them. Even though I poured out the excess liquid, there was still way too much and it made the croutons a little soggy. But, even with that mistake, this was still an awesome meal! The sausage flavored everything so well and it was super quick. Best part, I'm pretty sure I paid $1.50 for the entire meal which fed me, Trent, and there was enough leftovers for my lunch the next day!
Exchange Gang Pasta with Shrimp
I'm much more of a cheese sauce kind of person when it comes to pasta and I love when I can find a simple one that works this well. I love that it uses half and half as well, instead of heavy cream because I am much more likely to have that hanging around because I put it in my coffee. I think you could really just throw in whatever vegetables you have and easy substitute chicken for the shrimp!
The original recipe called for asparagus and chorizo, but some of the comments mentioned how green beans might work well and I had some Andouille sausage that my aunt got me (along with 3 awesome cheeses and some dry sausage from a gourmet food website). Fresh green beans were on sale for .99 a pound so I grabbed a half a pound and a can of Great Northern beans. I would suggest if you are going to use canned beans to pour them in a strainer and rinse them and dry them. Even though I poured out the excess liquid, there was still way too much and it made the croutons a little soggy. But, even with that mistake, this was still an awesome meal! The sausage flavored everything so well and it was super quick. Best part, I'm pretty sure I paid $1.50 for the entire meal which fed me, Trent, and there was enough leftovers for my lunch the next day!
Exchange Gang Pasta with Shrimp
I'm much more of a cheese sauce kind of person when it comes to pasta and I love when I can find a simple one that works this well. I love that it uses half and half as well, instead of heavy cream because I am much more likely to have that hanging around because I put it in my coffee. I think you could really just throw in whatever vegetables you have and easy substitute chicken for the shrimp!
Steak-Frites
This was a really great meal for me because everything was so French I was in heaven! Trent picked up these great steaks from the store and to tell you the truth, I'm a little afraid of pieces of red meat. I'm not great at grilling and the first time I cooked in my kitchen here I started a fire in the broiler (not sure if I'm going to be using that much anymore). This recipe was so easy and worked out perfectly though that I don't think I'll ever be cooking steak any other way. Instead of the pepper, I just rubbed some steak seasoning I had on hand. The pea recipe was really good too and simple.
Browned Butter Broccoli with Almonds
I think this could be done with a lot of different vegetables, but it was so perfect with the broccoli. Who knew that browned butter could be that good? I just did the garlic salt, pepper, butter, and chicken stock in place of the wine.
Whole/Course Grain Mustard (or Ancienne as they call it in France)and little French pickles called cornichons - two of my absolute favorite things.
I don't want to be bossy, but you pretty much need to go and make these recipes because you will absolutely not be sorry. They are heavenly.
Hey, this is the bees knees! You have practically nailed the weekly meal plan (can't stand getting my head around that thing). Hearty thanks!
Hi Stephanie - That looks like a lot of nice cooking you've been up to. The broccoli in browned butter, etc. sounds particularly tempting to me. You might enjoy having a look at my website sometime - I try to keep all the recipes simple and of course they're French. I think it's great you got hold of some andouille sausage and enjoyed it. Happy cooking and knitting!
this looks amazing.