What We Made This Week
It seems like we have weeks where all I do is cook and then weeks where all I do is order take-out…. This past week definitely had a lot of cooking! As a family of 4 that includes a 4 year old and a 20 month old — tastes are varied. My goal the past 6 months or so have been to make ONE dinner and possibly heat up leftovers to accommodate the littles.
Another goal I have is sustainability - which also applies to the kitchen! I’m really focused on reducing our food waste and spending, which often results in some creativity in the kitchen. Plus I generally cook better meals when I’m forced to work with what we have!
This week, I roasted the turkey (as mentioned in the previous post!) and have been figuring out how to use the leftovers. You can tell I’ve been craving wintry comfort food from the mix below…
We Made…
Creamy Turkey and Dumpling Soup - CountrySide Cravings
I found this through Pinterest, I will admit! I did add her Blog to my RSS reader because it was DELICIOUS. Enough that Andrew asked for it to be added to our repertoire! This was very nostalgic for me - I used to have dumplings a lot growing up and I think this is the first time I made them myself!
Modifications made: I substituted 1/3 c. applesauce for the egg in the dumplings for our girls’ allergies. I only used 5 c. of stock rather than 10! This made it more stew like and the leftovers were super creamy.
Making the dumplings made me nervous but they turned out great! I didn’t peek :)
Naan - How Sweet Eats
IYKYK. This has been in our weekly menu pretty much all 2020. The 4 year old always requests it and it’s so easy to make! We vary how we eat it, but this week, we made turkey pitas with a greek yogurt/feta sauce and bagged lettuce for the crunch.
Modifications: I do add slightly more milk and greek yogurt than it calls for to get the right consistency otherwise it seems too dry.
Turkey Broth - Local Dirt Cookbook
I typically made broth/stock by throwing the bones in the stockpot with water, and adding whatever veggies I had on hand, and then boiling for an indeterminable amount of time - but no longer! Andrea has a simple recipe in this book that gives much better guidance for how long to cook. It resulted in gorgeous broth that I froze in Mason jars. Easy!
Cookies! I finally made the shortbread cookies I blogged about last week and they hit the sweet spot (my picture above).
Dips! We made two dips (with the girls help!) for playoff football this weekend. I’ll blog more about the other two that were contenders in my weekly link-up, but ultimately these two were chosen by Andrew to make. Winners!
Hot Corn Dip - Ezra Pound Cake (substituted greek yogurt for mayo - this made it a little watery but still tasted great!)
Loaded Potato Dip - Natalie at Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers (my image below)
