Live every week like it’s shark week.
Those are some wise words, Tracy Jordan. We have become 30 Rock fans lately, and if you haven’t seen the show, give it a shot. It almost always makes us laugh, and I can only think of one episode that we did not like.
Going with the spirit of “Tracy Jordan’s” statement, I decided to have soup week a couple weeks ago. It was a great idea as the weather was just starting to change and I was also frustrated with menu planning. It seemed like every week we were eating roughly the same thing. Soup week allowed me to get out of that rut, and I’m liking these themed weekly menus. It makes it a little easier to come up with new ideas for dinner. Also, I have a goal of cooking at least one new dish per month. I would love to cook a new dish every week to ten days, but I knew that was too ambitious of a goal for me. Cooking something new each month, however, will be fun and a great way to hopefully introduce some new dishes to our repertoire.
By the way, soup week ended up lasting nearly two weeks. I planned for chicken noodle and creamy potato soup, chili and homemade vegetable and chicken tortilla soup. The first three lasted one day each, and I will never make chili from a can again. It upset my stomach and was not tasty at all. The homemade veggie soup, however, was delicious! It made enough for 14 servings, which means we got to freeze 10 (we had it two nights in a row and froze the rest). I bought 10 Ziplock serving-size bowls to store the soup in, and whenever we want soup, we just vent the container and toss it in the microwave for about 5 minutes. It’s a healthy dinner of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, celery, corn, peas and a little beef. The homemade tortilla soup is always a hit at our house. It’s incredibly easy, and guess what? I got the recipe from the back of a can of beans. The recipe lasts us 3 days. All in all, we had soup servings for 13 days.
Soup week inspired what was supposed to be our blog theme this week: video week. However, I spent the weekend doing nearly nothing and did not edit any videos for the blog. Thus, next week will be video week. I’m excited about it!
PS It was 45 degrees this morning. The high is 54. Brr! I want my new Kenneth Cole jacket to come in the mail soon!
I really like the idea of having themed weeks. You’re right, that would make it much easier to come up with ideas.
Don’t you love freezing food?? Makes me happy!
Yes, freezing food is awesome. Next on the freezing menu: lasagna. I’m taking other suggestions for the future, though!
I have an AWESOME lasagna recipe if you want me to send it to you. And it freezes really well. It makes 12 big portions, so even if i have a dinner party, I always have plenty left over.
Sure! Thanks, Lilly. I’d love to try it.
I love chicken noodle soup so much, I want to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant -Tracy
I learned fried chicken at the school of hard knocks.
What is the tortilla soup recipe? That sounds yummy!