I’ve been experimenting with making smoothies lately. I bought a frozen Yoplait berry smoothie pack from the supermarket, but was offended to learn that I still had to add my own milk and use my own blender. That doesn’t count as convenience food in my mind. All they’re giving you is frozen yogurt and fruit. And, as it turns out, sugar, which I discovered when I tried to make my own smoothies over the next few days. I experimented, and finally figured that if I froze my yogurt in little gobs, and then froze chopped up berries, they’d blend nicely in my blender and yet be nice and slushy and cold, as a smoothie should be. And sweet, when I added sugar.
Anyway, I’ve decided that it’s time for a little experimentation with food in general because I’m getting bored with the usual menu. We don’t really plan meals around here. We have hamburgers and hot dogs on Sunday nights. Friday is often frozen pizza and salad. Some other night is usually pasta. Other nights? Who knows.
But apparently I was more ambitious three years ago, as I discovered by reading through the blog archives in pursuit of posts for my vacation week. In 2009, I suggested several simple suppers with a few ingredients that, I imagine, I was making myself. Otherwise, why would I be writing about it? Here they are:
- Teriyaki pork tenderloin with asparagus and mushroom risotto. Ingredients: pre-marinated frozen pork tenderloin, asparagus, box of flavored risotto, can of mushrooms.
- Salmon with soy-maple glaze, green beans and brown rice. Ingredients: frozen salmon topped with soy sauce and maple syrup, green beans and boil-in-the-bag brown rice.
- BBQ pork chops with peaches and toasted pine nut couscous. Ingredients: frozen pork chops topped with BBQ sauce and cooked with cut up peaches, box of flavored couscous.
- Angel hair pasta with mushroom-marinara sauce and salad. Ingredients: pasta (cooks in 3 minutes!), jar of sauce, extra mushrooms cut up and thrown in, plus salad-in-a-bag.
- Red-pepper pizza with salad. Ingredients: frozen pizza, red pepper cut up and baked on top, salad-in-a-bag.
- Baked chicken with apples and leeks. Ingredients: chicken, apples, leeks. Shocking! Bonus points for soup starter of lobster bisque. Ingredients: can of lobster bisque soup.
So there you go — new menu ideas for me, courtesy of my own blog. Now I just need to make it to the grocery store. What’s on the menu for you this week?
Photo of someone else’s smoothie courtesy flickr user jocelynsart