This week I wanted to post
about what Devin and I had for dinner, last week. I felt like we ate
pretty decent and thought, why not! Last week, a couple of our meals
were: Gallo pinto, pork chops, steak and sausage/potato soup.
Devin and I eat a lot better
during the summer months. I’m not saying that we eat terrible in
the winter either. I just think that in the summertime, you get a lot
more fresh foods that I feel like are easier to work with. I feel like in
the winter, our side dishes for every meal are either some kind of a potato…or
rice.
In the summer, we eat a lot of
“summertime” salads. Apple salad, broccoli salad, pink salad, green salad
etc. We eat A LOT of vegetables too. Whether we grow them in our
own garden, or get them at the grocery store – I just feel like the months of
May-September is easier for me to cook dinner.
I’ve been trying so hard to eat
healthy. But unfortunately for me, I am a carb lover. I love all
things carbs! Bread, potatoes, chips, crackers…all things bad for you.
I’m trying my best to eat healthier. I know that carbs aren’t very
good for you, because they turn into sugars. But I don’t think that
there’s anything wrong with eating potatoes or rice every now and then.
With that being said, any of your favorite side dishes, would be
appreciated!
Gallo Pinto: Devin served
his two year mission in Nicaragua. One of his absolute favorite meals
from there is gallo pinto. Translation: Rice and beans. We’ve made
this a couple of times, and each time we make it we get a little bit closer to
having the authentic, Nicaraguan taste that he dreams about. He tells me
about when they would fry up the rice and beans, scramble an egg sunny side up,
and then slice an avocado with it. I love seeing his face when he
describes things like that from his mission, so I always try my best to
replicate it to my best ability. Ever since coming home from his mission,
he can’t eat some fresh fruits. A lot of fresh fruits upset his stomach. Fruits
like raspberries, fresh peaches and avocados really hurt his stomach. (Yes!
Avocado is a fruit!) So for dinner last week, we settled with just
gallo pinto and a fried egg.
Pork Chops: There are a
couple of different ways that I usually make pork chops. I will either
pan fry them, or bake/crockpot them in apple juice. Apple goes SO good
with pork in my opinion. This week I decided I’d fry them up. I put
one of the McCormick seasonings as a rub on the outside of them. Smoky
Applewood Marinade is what I used as my rub. I rubbed them lightly with
the powder, and pan fried them on the stove! They were pretty good!
Not my absolute favorite, I’d definitely pan fry them again, but maybe
not with that specific rub. I’ve been on a green bean kick lately too.
They seem like “wintery” food to me. We ate the pork chops with
mashed potatoes and green beans.
Steak: As I mentioned above,
most of our side dishes lately have been mashed potatoes or rice. Lucky D
got to eat mashed potatoes AND green beans, twice last week. Poor guy!
The only difference between these two meals, was literally the meats.
Since Devin’s dad has the cows, he butchers a steer every year. He
has been very gracious in sharing the meat with us. That being said, we
get steaks! We decided to grill some tenderloins that we had from the
last steer we killed. Since it's a little bit too cold to be outside
grilling, we decided to pan fry these tenderloins in butter and with some
rosemary sprigs. Oh my delicious. Devin has become the steak pro!
I am not even kidding. When ever I’d go out to a fancier restaurant
and get steak, I was just in heaven. Restaurant steaks now, just do not
even compare! There is only one other place that can cook steaks decently
close to Devin’s. Devin’s are better, but Texas Roadhouse’s are pretty
close.
Sausage potato soup: We decided
to try and make a new soup. As posted before, Devin and I are very much
soup people. Devin found this one soup on Taste of Home’s website.
It is a sausage potato soup. It has sausage, potatoes, carrots, and
celery in it. It was different than any other kind of soup I’ve made.
There was no roux to be made. (That means no flour!) You can find the link to that recipe, here.
I have told D multiple
times, that if I could be anything in the world, I would be chef. I love
food! I watch all the food network shows. (Beat Bobby Flay, Guys Grocery
Games, Chopped, Worst Cooks in America, you name it, I’ve probably seen it)
Now I’m not the best cook in the world, but I’m definitely not the worst!
I’m grateful for Devin and his patience when I see some fancy recipe on food
network, or the internet, and want to try and do something similar. I
know this isn’t the best written blog and maybe the food isn’t that impressive,
but it is definitely a work in process and I look forward to trying to cook a
little bit better every day.
