1/13/07
Thursday: Carne Asada (using Williams-Sonoma's marinade), Spanish brown rice, black beans and a corn tortilla:
It was a delicious marinade!
Friday: Well, so much for the whole slowcooker/Tom cooks/we go out thing for Friday. I did not really prepare for Friday's dinner, and since we unexpectedly went out to dinner on Wednesday I didn't really want to spend money eating out on Friday. I had no meat thawed, so I basically threw together an empty-out-the-fridge minestrone type soup and some fancy grilled cheeses (using fontina, mozzarella and prosciutto).
For the soup, I started with my basic soup miripoix (carrots/celery/onion) sauteing for a bit before adding a clove of garlic. Then I added 3 cups of water, about 2 cups of tomato sauce, and 2 chicken bouillon cubes. I added Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. Then I dumped in some black beans (leftover from Thursday's dinner), baby spinach (also leftover), frozen corn and green beans (about 1/4 cup each) and let that simmer about 30 minutes.
In the meantime I cooked some whole wheat orzo (about 1/2 cup dry), separately. When it was done, I put some of it into a bowl, topped it with the soup, and topped that with some parmesan.
It's better to cook the noodles separately so they don't drink up all the liquid and don't get too mushy in the pot, or in the fridge when there is leftover soup.
If I make this again, I would probably use beef broth in place of the chicken and maybe toss in a bay leaf. This makes 4 pretty generous portions.
