What I'm Cooking This Week
A day late! My apologies.
Monday - not cooking!
It’s my dad’s birthday so we are celebrating out on the town. If you see him, wish him a happy birthday. If you have his number, send him a birthday text.
Tuesday - chicken burrito bowls
A recipe-less meal but my plan is as follows: black beans, rice, chicken, cheese, sour cream, maybe some corn.
I’ll marinate my chicken in canola oil, lime juice, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder and a little honey. All eyeballed - no measuring but taste it before you add your chicken.
Canned black beans - rinse ‘em. I honestly don’t have the patience to soak dried beans. Sauté some diced onion and minced garlic and then add the beans. Salt to taste.
To make my rice, I’ll rinse 1.5 cups of white rice until the water runs clear. To my rice cooker, I’ll add the rice, a pinch of salt, a dash of onion powder and garlic powder, 1 tbsp of tomato paste, 1.5 cups of chicken stock and 1.5 cups of water.
Assemble and serve.
Wednesday - turkey burgers
Served on a potato bun, with Swiss cheese and caramelized onions. Don’t forget that caramelizing onions takes time so I would recommend doing so the night or morning before.
Thursday - orecchiette with broccoli and sausage
As mentioned previously, this is a dish traditionally made with broccoli rabe. I prefer broccoli when making it as a weeknight meal - it’s just simply faster.
My steps are as follows:
In a large pan, heat a glug of olive oil and then break up 4 links of Italian sausage - a combo of hot and sweet - into the pan. While the sausage is cooking, boil salted water in a large pot - this is for the broccoli AND the pasta
When the sausage is 75% cooked, add in as much sliced garlic as you like and sauté until fragrant. Meanwhile, add your chopped broccoli to the boiling water. Cook for about 2 minutes before transferring to the sausage pan. (I’ll use a small sieve for the transfer, it’s okay if some water makes its way into the pan. I prefer not to strain the broccoli because I’ll use the same water for the pasta). Add a healthy heap of grated parmesan to the broccoli and sausage.
Now cook your pasta per the box’s al dente instructions. Your water will be green at this point, it doesn’t matter. Once the pasta is done cooking, add the pasta directly to your large pan and stir to combine. Add pasta water as needed (as needed means if the pasta seems too dry), add salt or cheese as needed (to me, the need for more salt means the flavors are a bit dull. Salt sharpens the flavor).