Night Two: Chicken With Spinach and Mushrooms

Night two was successful, but with a few small hiccups. Whenever my husband and I cook chicken, we always brine it first since we're not fans of the usual dry, flavorless chicken. (Brining instructions: 4 quarts water, 1 cup salt, 1 cup sugar, stir and then soak chicken for 30-60 minutes.) However, I added too much salt to the brine, and since the chicken was pretty salty we avoided all other salt in the recipe.

Other than that, everything went pretty smoothly. Not including brining time, everything took 35 minutes (the recipe said 25 minutes, but I'm a slow cooker). I took the chicken out and patted dry, then cooked it in a non-stick skillet following the times from the recipe. While the chicken cooked, my sous chef/husband sliced the red pepper and washed the musrooms. We bought those pre-sliced packaged mushrooms so no mushroom prep was required.

When the chicken was finished, I tossed in the veggies for a few minutes, then added wine (I used sauvignon blanc) and garlic. It took longer for the wine to cook down than the recipe said since we skimped on the mushrooms, and they help to soak up with wine. I tossed in the spinach to cook down, and then we were ready to go.

Despite the slightly salty chicken, everything was delicious. It's a healthy, easy meal and we'll make it again. The veggies especially were wonderful, and they'd work great with anything - steak, eggs, pork, or even standalone. Still loving this week of Real Simple cooking!

You can check out the recipe here.

Night One: Salmon With Lemon-Cilantro Vinaigrette

Night one was a success! I bought two six-ounce fillets of farm-raised salmon (skin on), and I used Near East Toasted Pine Nut Couscous (5.6 ounces). The recipe was very easy to cut in half for my husband and I (all recipes serve four).

I didn't strictly time myself, but from start to finish the meal definitely took under 20 minutes to prepare. (The recipe says 15 minutes.) I put water on to boil and heated oil in a skillet, then sliced two scallions for the vinaigrette. I spread the 1/4 teaspoon paprika over the non-skin sides of the salmon, then used salt and pepper on both sides.

The couscous finished first, and while I waited for the salmon to cook (3 minutes per side on a medium-high 4 setting) I finished the vinaigrette.

This meal was delicious and will definitely be a go-to recipe in the future. Even though we didn't have cilantro (Whole Foods was out), the meal was incredibly flavorful. I especially recommend buying farm-raised salmon for its fatty flavor. Wonderful, easy, and relatively healthy dinner!

View the recipe here.

Real Simple: One Week of Dinners

With the arrival of summer, I have more free time and I want to make it somewhat productive. Since I seem to have met my unspoken goal of watching every series rerun ever broadcast on SoapNet, I wanted to direct my energies elsewhere.

Way back in October 2009, I read a Real Simple issue with a month's worth of recipes. They broke recipes up into four weeks, and provided a complete shopping list for each week. You hit the grocery store once, then you have five nights of pre-planned meals.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to dine out, and I'm especially a sucker for an impromptu snacks-and-drinks happy hour. Challenging myself to skipping restaurants to cook up "Week 4" is no small feat. So... here we go!

I'll be checking in with each completed meal: preparation ease/difficulty, flavors, time requirements, and photos. I purchased the "Week 4" shopping list at Whole Foods in Sarasota. My bill came to about $76, although I already had chicken, and I added a few items (Annie's Mac 'n' Cheese, extra avocados).

You can check out the shopping lists and recipes (with nutritional info) here.