back in the swing of things

Last week was my first week of school for 2013, so that meant one thing: it was back to a regular cookin' schedule.  The holidays are always crazy in terms of food and eating, so it was nice to get back on track.

I went to the grocery store last Sunday afternoon and bought all of my goodies for the week.  In addition to the stuff for dinners, I also bought things for breakfast (eggs, Chocolate Cheerios, etc.) and lunch (AMY's soups and frozen meals).   

My food going for a ride...

I made a big ol' green salad for dinner on Sunday night.  

I started with a bed of greens (spinach and romaine), and I put some oven roasted chicken on top (top left).  From there, I loaded on the toppings (top right)!  We had tomatoes, avocados, apples, and feta cheese.  The dressing was a simple dijon vinegrette that went really well with all of our ingredients.  

This salad was delicious!  I think next time I make it I will add in some pecans or walnuts.  Yum!  Here is a link to the salad I originally planned on making: shrimp cobb salad.  However, the only things I kept the same were the dressing and the fact that there is lettuce of some sort.  Oops.  That's what I love about salads though...you can just throw in whatever the heck you want, and it (usually) tastes great!

I kept up the healthy theme on Monday night.  I made a simple pasta from one of my favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman.

I didn't make too many changes to this recipe.  I cut down on the butter because Ree goes a little crazy with it sometimes, and I also used multigrain pasta instead of regular.  

This pasta was another hit!  Austin and I both scarfed it down, and we ate on it for lunch too.  If you want to try it for yourself, click here.

After Monday, my week got a little nutzo.  I worked our school's basketball game on Tuesday night until about 9:15 (I was "gym manager"), so it was up to Austin to hold down the kitchen.  I assembled everything for his dinner in my crockpot on Tuesday morning, Austin turned it on during his lunch break, and come 6:00 he had perfect pulled pork!  

(this picture is old because I was not home to take one last Tuesday)

He ate the pork on a sandwich on Tuesday, and we had it on top of baked potatoes the next night (I taught dance on Wednesday night, so Austin was in charge again).  He did a great job making the potatoes.  This pulled pork recipe is good so many different ways!  It's a great thing to make if you need leftovers because it's so versatile.  This is the recipe I use, but you do not necessarily have to use an entire pork shoulder.  This week, I just used a 2 pound pork loin, and it worked very well. 

I taught dance again on Thursday night, so Austin was on his own (poor guy).  He ate Schlotzsky's, and I made myself some noodles when I got home (that is a very weird thing to say, but it's true).  

We usually go out to eat on Friday nights, and this past Friday was no exception.  I found a Groupon for this place called Deep Sushi, so that is where we ventured to!  We met another one of our couple friends there, and we all really enjoyed the meal.  Austin and I got Spring Rolls to start and then shared 3 rolls: California, Caterpillar, and Love at First Sight.  

Saturday was filled with football.  We are officially in playoff season, people.  It was also raining and cold for almost the entire day.  There was only one thing I could think of to make.  Chili.  

This chili comes from one of my favorite bloggers, Jenna at Eat Live Run, and it is always good for a crowd.  We had a couple of our friends over to eat this up and watch the games.  It was the perfect thing for a day like this past Saturday!

Alright, y'all didn't think I could get through a whole post without showing you some dessert, did you?!  I didn't get too fancy with the sweets this week, but what I made turned out great.  If you're on Pinterest, I'm sure you've seen the famous "microwave chocolate brownie in 35 seconds".  I'm here to tell you: that shiz works.  I use my spiffy new ramekins that I got for Christmas to make these (you can also use a coffee mug), and it literally takes me about 5 minutes start to finish.  The original recipe (found here)says to microwave for 40 seconds, but I usually microwave for 40 seconds, let it rest for about a minute, and then microwave for 5-10 seconds longer.  You just have to figure out what works best in your microwave.  Here's how they turn out:

Love in a ramekin.

This week is another busy one for me (I'm a dancing queen Tuesday-Thursday), but we're still cooking some yummy stuff!