A Weeknight Meal and New Finds at B&N

Weeknight Meal: Brussels Sprouts Gratin alongside 

Sticky Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers 

My boys ready to say our blessing before dinner.

Meal planning is a huge part of staying on budget. I spend my weekends searching Pinterest for new dishes or reviewing pins that I've saved for later to add to our weekly menu. Thursday night we enjoyed two new dishes for dinner. The main dish was Sticky Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Thighs from Melaine Makes and Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Gratin  from LoveFoodies as one of the side dishes. Plain old white rice was our second side dish.

The sticky chicken was a hit with my family, but it involved me spending a little time in the kitchen and making a roasted red pepper and onion finishing sauce from scratch. The original recipe called for a finishing sauce by the same name from Robert Rothschild and nowhere locally sold the sauce. *Side note- We've recently moved 4,000 miles and are currently living in Alaska.* So, I looked on the website for the ingredients and made my own sauce. A jar of red peppers, garlic, red onion, a few pickled jalapeno slices, sugar, to taste and a jar of fire roasted tomatoes made its way into a saucepot and simmered into what I assumed that Rothschild's sauce might taste like. I even had enough sauce leftover to freeze for another time. 

Bacon and Brussels sprouts are a combo for life and this side dish was super simple to put together. Sharp cheddar cheese, heavy cream and crushed pistachios gave lots of flavor. The gratin originally called for breadcrumbs on top, but after reading several reviews on the recipe, I added pistachios and didn't regret one bite.  I eyeballed the amount of heavy cream in the dish and then poured the rest into my stand mixer to make some butter to go on the table that evening. Just add the whisk attachment and let her rip. The fresh butter is stored in my butter bell and we are currently enjoying it on fresh English Muffins.

 New Finds at Barnes & Noble 

Yesterday, I spent almost two hours in Barnes and Noble just looking. The majority of my time there,  I was in the cookbook section and came across lots of interesting cookbooks. There were several on Alaskan cuisine that caught my eye, but these 3 books in the vegetarian section had me mesmerized. Check out the website: The Forest Feast by Erin Glesson. The photography and layout alone were enough for me to add to my want list of books.  Right now it looks like I'm headed to the library to check out one and try some new vegetarian dishes in the future. In the meantime, I'm planning my vegetable garden for my our first summer in Alaska and catching up on past episodes of The Chew on ABC. Until next time......

~Nikki