Tuna melts, tomato mac 'n' cheese, mini bbq cheddar meatloaves with asiago mashed cauliflower, leftover tomato mac 'n' cheese soup and pickled grape salad.
On the menu - February 3 - 9, 2019:
Sunday Tuna Melts with veggies and dip
Some nights you just want something simple and fast and tonight was one of those nights. I make our Tuna Melts open-faced and leave out the dried onions. Diced green onions are a nice addition if your family likes them. I also sometimes like to chop up dill pickles instead of using green pickle relish. I bake our melts in the oven rather than frying them - they take about 15 minutes at 350 F or you can broil them (watch carefully so they don't burn!) if you're in a hurry.
Monday Tomato Mac 'n' Cheese with Italian Sausage and green salad
This is a great vegetarian dish if you skip the side of sausage. This recipe comes from Chef Michael Smith's "Real Food, Real Good" cookbook and totally satisifed my son's neverending love of pasta, at least for tonight! I had some cooked Italian sausage in the freezer so I added it along with the sauce and cherry tomatoes and baked it all in the oven. This was delicious, but be warned - it makes a heaping 9x13 pan full so be prepared to serve a crowd or have a lot of leftovers.
Tuesday leftovers / takeout / eatout
Wednesday leftovers / takeout / eatout
I wasn't kidding when I said that Monday's Tomato Mac 'n' Cheese made a LOT. I need to add some family members so we can use it all up!
Thursday Mini BBQ Cheddar Meatloaves with baked potatoes and Asiago Mashed Cauliflower
I totally love that these little meatloaves cook so quickly and have such great flavour. I used white cheddar since that's what I had in the fridge, and it was delicious. Honestly, it doesn't get much more comforting than meatloaf with potatoes. I decide to bake the potatoes tonight since I was mashing the cauliflower. When I asked my son if he wanted steamed cauliflower with cheese sauce or something new, he opted for new. Once he tasted the mashed cauliflower, he told me he was so glad he had. It was so good and a great substitute for mashed potatoes, if that's your thing. Note: it definitely did not have a mashed potato consistency but the flavour was fantastic and really cheesy, and bonus - less work than making a cheese sauce.
Friday Leftover Tomato Mac 'n' Cheese Soup
Remember I said the Tomato Mac 'n' Cheese made a LOT? Darn right, it did! It's now Friday, and there is still a pile of leftovers. The weather hasn't cooperated for us to have any company this week, so it's just been our little family of 3 eating all week.
I decided to try something I've seen different people write about - turning their leftovers into soup. I started by heating up some olive oil and then sweating some onion, celery and carrot, all finely diced. Once the vegetables were soft, I added about a teaspoon of minced garlic. Next I added 4-6 cups of chicken stock and cooked the vegetables and garlic for about 15 minutes. After they were done, I added some leftover pasta and turkey sausage as well as a 14 ounce can of fire-roasted tomatoes. I didn't think that the breadcrumb and cheesy topping would go too well in this soup, so I scraped off as much of it as I could. I know, that seems a bit wasteful, but soggy breadcrumbs are gross! We topped this with Parmesan shreds. Alternatively, I think you could attempt to fry the topping in some butter to warm it up and top the soup with it afterwards. This was good and quite different from the original Tomato Mac 'n' Cheese recipe - a great way to "disguise" leftovers.
I was actually out for dinner tonight, and had a wonderful salad with shredded beets and of all things, pickled grapes. I really wish I had take a photo of it. It was pretty and delicious. I have never eaten pickled grapes before, but they were very good. This recipe is close, although the salad I had didn't have any cheese in it. I think some goat cheese would have gone nicely in it, or maybe some Brie. This would be yummy topped with some chicken for a nice, light meal.
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