Meals of Sales Past

This week I didn't purchase any meat so our meals centered around what I had purchased on sale and kept in the freezer.

One day we had fried tilapia with peas and roasted red potatoes. I combine 1 egg with a tablespoon or so of either lemon juice or rice vinegar and allow the fish to marinate for 10-20 minutes. Then directly from the egg bath, I dredge it in Andy's Fish coating (which is also a good coating for oven fried chicken) and fry in a small amount of oil for a few minutes on each side. We never have leftovers with this meal!

Another very busy day we had tuna salad with mini whole wheat bagels. Inspired by sushi roll, I packed the tuna salad with veggies to make a quick, easy, healthy meal. I mixed 2 envelopes of tuna with mayo, celery, diced onion, diced mango, diced avocado, minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt & pepper. Ok, so it was very different from the inspiration, but there was only a tiny bit leftover.

I like Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce, but saw a recipe I wanted to try. And it was Yum! 1 cup balsamic vinegar, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tblsp dijon mustard, 1 clove of garlic minced, salt & pepper. I didn't measure, but these are the measurements from Giada. She also included Worcestershire, but I didn't have any -- didn't really need it. Stir all ingredients into a saucepan and simmer until reduced by about 1/3. Baste seasoned meat and grill, continue basting every few minutes until done. I used chicken thighs. They are cheaper than breasts, more flavorful and juicier because they have a little more fat and also have more iron. Served with roasted broccoli sprinkled with grated cheese.

Because the package of chicken was so big, and of course I didn't separate it before putting it into my freezer, we had chicken on another night too -- oven fried. Chicken dredged in seasoned flour, egg then panko bread crumbs. I like to use paprika in addition to salt and pepper, but if you prefer, thyme, rosemary, marjarom, oregano...whatever, give it a try. Served with tender, sweet, caramelized roasted cauliflower.

In the mix there was a meatless pasta dish. The original recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/everyday-italian/rigatoni-with-creamy-mushroom-sauce-recipe/index.html. I used Barilla Plus penne instead of rigatoni, stock instead of white wine and sweet onion vs shallots. Mushrooms and onion were on sale, but the mascarpone was a splurge. Tasted wonderful!

There isn't much meat on the shopping list for this week either. Let's see what else we have in the freezer...