Cooking Our Way Out of a Food Rut

The menu at Casa de Mayo has been pretty pathetic the past few months.  Toward the end of my pregnancy I certainly didn't feel like cooking a big dinner or doing loads of dishes.  So, we pretty much had the same tried and true quick recipes or picked up sandwiches or take out for dinner.

Last week I was working on a grocery list and preparing to go to the store (not kidding - it had seriously been over a MONTH since I had gone to the store.  I just sent Guy, so you can imagine what random "treats" he came home with).  When I asked Guy what sounded good he claimed that he would refuse to eat anything that wasn't something different.  In fact, he said it with a definite tone of sass... ha!  He claimed that his refined palate deserved more than what I had been offering.  But, truthfully I kinda agreed - one can only eat some version of chicken casserole a certain number of times.

So, we decided to each find two brand new recipes to try....


Guy found his in about 2.5 seconds from the Grilling Bible.  He chose Chicken Fajita Wraps and Stuffed  Chicken Rolls.  The Chicken Rolls were good, but we decided they weren't good enough to make again.  The Chicken Fajita Wraps were excellent and easy!  The best part was the salsa - you combine tomatoes, green chilies, onion, cilantro and Lawry's Garlic and Herb Marinade .  Easy, yummy, and a little different than just the usual grilled onions and peppers for fajitas.

After perusing a dozen cookbooks, carefully analyzing the ingredients/prep time/level of diificulty, and basically wasting two hours of my life, I finally found my two recipes - Weeknight Bolognese from the Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That? cookbook and Two-Corn Polenta with Tomatoes, Basil and Cheese from Cooking Light.  I made tweaks to both, but they were so delicious and will definitely be on our dinner rotation.





Since then I have made several other new recipes - Shrimp Tacos with Mango Avacado Salsa and Cinnamon Chip Scones.  Both will be made again, but especially those scones!  I can't stop eating them!

So, tried and true is good but it's good to "spice" it up a bit :).