Sunday, February 23, 2014

dinner makes me happy



There is something so grounding and so comforting about making dinner.  I've come to feel this way--supported and nourished by the process, rather than inconvenienced or annoyed--over the last year or so.  Perhaps just because I'm getting older.  And eating a home cooked meal is so bolstering to the spirits.

Here are three meals I've made lately.  The top photo is the beef-barley-mushroom-kale soup from an old issue of  3191 quarterly.  This is my favorite quick weeknight soup lately and I'm crazy about it with cornbread.  By the way, I'm loving making a less-sweet cornbread lately (maybe only a tablespoon or two of sugar in the batch).  I love the way the pure corn flavor shines through when you cut the sugar.  And it tastes fantastic with salted butter.  Yum!

The second recipe is Sweet Soy Chicken & Rice from a new cookbook, The Family Flavor.  Do you get excited about new cookbooks as I do?  I love this one for its beautiful photography and the ease of its recipes.  All the ingredients are ordinary, which I love.  And the dishes are  family friendly.  I loved this soy chicken--next time I'm going to double it.

The last recipe is from Weight Watchers--a very light lemony chicken.  I've made this twice already and have stocked the freezer with chicken breasts so I can have this any time (I love how easy it is to find organic chicken at Trader Joe's, but I have to plan ahead a little).

Up tonight:  I'm making this maple-mustard chicken from Summer Harms.  Can't wait!  It looks so yummy.  By the way, do you read Summer's blog?  She is so inspiring and positive.  I love her (and she just had a new baby, which has been fun to follow).  (Another fave recipe from Summer:  this chili).

What have you been making for dinner lately?

PS--Someone posted the recipe for "sweet soy chicken" here.
The lemon chicken recipe can be found here.
The beef-barley soup recipe isn't posted online, but here's a fun post from Stephanie about how she uses grains.

PPS--I've been doing Weight Watcher's since January and I lost 8 lbs.  So glad about that!  Now to maintain it!!

4 comments:

Gabi said...

Thank you for reminding me to post about my latest cookbook-love! I am the kind of person who reads cookbooks like other people might read a novel... I just love cokbooks.
Dinner has been non-fuss tried-and-true recipes, like pizza, chili or stir-fries. Things I know everyone loves and I can add lots of veggies.
Congrats to your weight loss! I have gained some extra-pounds since the Holidays, can't get the off. Seems to get harder to loose weight the older I get. Sad but true. Weight Watchers is big here inGermany, too...

summer said...

thank you so much for this sweet shout out, mary beth! you're awesome!!

Madame Melville said...

Hi Mary Beth! I'm so happy you are back to blogging as I have really missed your inspiring posts. In fact, I made corn bread this week (: It was a big hit and a great pairing with soup. I'm into soups lately as it is still very much winter here...and they are so easy to freeze for a quick convenience meal. Hope you had a great week. Happy Friday. I'd love to see your dreamy/practical list for the weekend

Mary Beth said...

Thanks for commenting everyone.
The Wool Fairy--just posted my list!

Gabi B--I agree. So much harder to lose weight now. But we can still do it!