Thursday, January 12, 2012

Meal Planning

I'm not one to make new year's resolutions, never have been, but I guess Kyle and I have made one this year-- to eat at home more often. I love to cook and both of us love eating at home, we just needed a little push to cook more often. As most of you know, it takes some pretty diligent planning to cook at home every night (or almost every night--let's not get too crazy now). Plus I'm not a great grocery shopper, I don't mind grocery shopping and I usually do good sticking to a list and finding low prices but I ALWAYS manage to forget an ingredient in the recipe. Kyle is used to getting a call at 5 asking him to stop at Kroger on his way home and pick something up for me. I'm trying to get better about it! haha.

This is our current meal planning device, a calendar we got in a Christmas gift last year. It's worked well, it's a small space to write out a full meal though, and it gets full with the other things going on in our life. So my next craft project is going to be a cute and more detailed meal calendar, I found one on Pinterest that I love (of course, Pinterest has everything). I'll post pictures of my attempt at it when I start.

But for now I thought I'd post my latest favorite recipe, it's from Everyday with Rachel Ray. I really love her recipes, they are easy and delicious. This one was delicious, Kyle loved it and we both ate it for leftovers. Which is more of a shocker about me than him, Kyle would eat the same meal all week, I don't like leftovers haha.
Cheesy Corn Couscous
2 Tbsp butter
1 package of bacon cut into 1-inch pieces
1 box (6.3 oz) pearl couscous
10 oz frozen corn, thawed
4 scallions, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
salt & pepper
3 cups (about 8 oz) grated aged gouda cheese

Cook the bacon in a large skillet (it took me two rounds cause there was so much bacon) over medium-high heat until crisp, transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Drain pan, except for 1 tbsp. of the bacon fat

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the couscous for 5 to 6 minutes (should be just undercooked since it will cook more in a bit); drain

Add the corn and scallions to the reserved skillet over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes. Add the couscous and the chicken stock and simmer until the liquid is absorbed about 2-5 minutes; season with salt and pepper

Stir in 2 tbsp of butter, the cheese and the bacon

Now the fun part-- eat and enjoy!! :)

Here is the picture from the recipe, I didn't get a picture of ours because well we were hungry haha.