A Cooking Weekend

Happy Monday! Hope you all had great weekends.

After my crazy weekend in La La land last weekend, all I wanted to do this weekend was to be a homebody. So I decided to clean, blog, catch up on So You Think You Can Dance (I was rooting for Jeanine!) and cook. And boy did I cook. When the BF is not in town, I find it hard to cook just for myself on a daily basis. So I've taken to cooking in big batches on the weekends, saving half of what I make for the week ahead, and freezing the other half so I can have it later on in the month (otherwise I'll be eating my big vat of chili for 5 days straight). The BF also benefits from my cooking marathons as it means he doesn't have to heat up a Lean Cuisine. The BF doesn't really cook (he's a mean BBQer though) so he often relies on the culinary skills of Stouffer's. Not that I'm a Lean Cuisine hater as I've been known to nuke a few for lunch at work. However, it's just not right to have them almost EVERYDAY. Sorry BF - I outed you. The BF says he likes the portion sizes. I can't argue with him there. So for the BF, I now portion out what I make a la Lean Cuisine and freeze them in those handy Glad containers.

So what did I make this weekend?

I've always wanted to try my hand at stew. So I headed over to Suzie Foods to see if she had a recipe. Suzie Foods' motto is "Healthy Eating. Cheap and Easy" - so I often find awesome recipes on this blog. (Plus Suzie is a friend and I've sampled her many yummy dishes.) Lucky for me, Suzie's stew recipe was passed down to her by her Granny, so I knew the end result (if I didn't screw up) would be delice.

Here's a picture of the final product. It's pretty tasty if I say so myself. Check out Granny's Stew recipe here. If you're a fellow novice cook like me, peruse Suzie Foods for some great recipes. If you're not into cooking or don't have the time and happen live in L.A., you might want to check out Suzie Prepared Foods. FYI - Suzie's Mac n Cheese is to DIE for!

Next up, lasagna. When I first started making lasagna, I followed Emeril's Lasagna Recipe. I still use it today but when I'm short on time I use store-bought tomato sauce instead of making it from scratch. This weekend I tried making a 'healthier' version by using ground turkey (instead of pork, beef and veal - all so yummy) and using less cheese than called for. Verdict? Not bad, definitely yummy, but I prefer the original. Can't mess with the BAM!

Finally, I made Chicken Stir-Fry. This is my go-to meal. I started making it in university because it's quick, easy, cheap and tastes great. Over the years, my chicken stir-fry has seen many variations - different veggies, different seasonings but the constant has always been: chicken breast marinated in garlic, soy sauce, and ginger, stir-fried with onions, green peppers, more garlic, more ginger, more soy sauce, some hot sauce, and served on rice. Do you have a go-to meal?
Whew! That was quite a cooking weekend. I don't think my next one will happen for awhile but when it does I already know I'll going to try out recipes from this cookbook that my cousin gave me:

Anyone try this cookbook yet? Or any of Padma Lakshmi's cookbooks?

P.S. Come back later today to see photo candy from one rockin' wedding!

P.P.S Did anyone see Julie & Julia?