Weekly Meal Planning, Week of 12.20.10

Not only am I posting my meal plan one day late, I also haven't even gone grocery shopping yet this week. I spent the entire weekend doing this:

I'll be sharing the recipes with you...next year. Is that mean? I just don't want to overload the blog with tons of recipes the actual week of Christmas.

Anyway, this is a light week for us. A couple of meals are carrying over from last week (since I was baking all weekend, I just didn't get around to actually making dinner for us), and the second half of the week is all Christmas, all the time.

Monday: Chinese food

Tuesday: Chicken lasagna

Wednesday: Pasta and meatballs meatloaf

Thursday: Gnocchi and tomato bake. This is the second time we’ve had this. We love it; it just doesn’t photograph well. I’ll try to get a better picture this time so I can share it with you!

Friday: Christmas Eve dinner (two of ‘em)

Saturday: Christmas breakfast casserole; Christmas Day dinner

Sunday: Yet another family Christmas dinner!

Pork Loin Chops with Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

This is another recipe I’ve wanted to try for at least a year. After Thanksgiving, when I found myself with half a bag of cranberries left over in the fridge, I knew this was how I was going to use them up.

We all absolutely loved the cranberry-pomegranate (cranegranate?) sauce on top of the pork chops. The sauce would be delicious on its own, in fact, as an alternative to a more traditional cranberry sauce. It also would have been delicious on top of mashed potatoes, which I’d intended to make with this meal and would have had I remembered to buy potatoes (d’oh!). The sauce is tart and tangy and sweet and just has tons of flavor.

The original recipe calls for pork tenderloin that is baked in the oven. I decided to fry mine up in olive oil instead, but I think either method would be absolutely delicious. This is a flavorful, relatively healthy meal with very few ingredients, and it couldn’t be easier to prepare!

Pork Loin Chops with Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce
adapted from About.com

1 pound pork loin chops
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

1. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook until pork chops are caramelized.

2. Meanwhile, heat pomegranate juice, sugar and cranberries in a small saucepan on medium high until boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium low and cook until sauce thickens and reduces.

3. Drizzle sauce on top of pork before serving.

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Sorry I’ve been absent this week, but the truth is, my mind has been consumed with other things lately. Thankfully those other things have been happily resolved, so hopefully I’ll have a little bit more time to focus on blogging.

With Christmas only a week and a half away (can you believe it?!), I’ve been thinking a lot about baking. I’m doing my major cookie baking this weekend, but I made these muffins a couple of weeks ago as the official kick-off of my holiday baking. They were on my baking list last year, but I didn’t get around to making them because I was hugely, uncomfortably pregnant. I didn’t forget about them all year, though, and I was so excited to try them this Christmas. Thankfully, they lived up to my high expectations. I would have been really disappointed if they hadn’t.

In these muffins, salty pistachios are combined with chunks of semi-sweet chocolate and sweet strawberry jam to create the perfect balance of flavors and textures. It’s such a pleasant surprise to bite into a muffin and get the melty chocolate, crunchy nuts, and gooey jam all in one bite.

(It fell apart, but you get the idea.)

The flavors work so well together, and to top it off, with the green pistachios and red strawberry jam, these are quite a festive treat! They’ll be a yearly baking staple for me from now on. Yum!

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Muffins
adapted from Pillsbury Christmas 2007

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chunks, divided
1/2 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped and divided
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup strawberry jam

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin cups with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Set aside 1/3 cup chocolate and 2 tablespoons chopped pistachios and add the remaining into the dry ingredients.

3. In a small bowl combine milk, butter, lemon peel, vanilla, and egg; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

4. Fill each paper-lined muffin cup with 1 heaping tablespoon of batter. Spoon half a teaspoon of jam into each cup. Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of batter on top of the jam. Top with reserved chocolate and pistachios.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Weekly Meal Planning, Week of 12.13.10

I almost forgot to post this today! I've been running around doing laundry and wrapping Christmas gifts and cleaning and and and...Well, you know how it is. Better late than never, right?

Monday: Creamy butternut squash soup, rolls

Tuesday: Marsala burgers, roasted asparagus

Wednesday: Ranch chicken tenders, roasted potatoes, brown sugar-glazed carrots

Thursday: Cheesy chicken tortilla soup

Friday: No cooking

Saturday: Pasta and meatballs meatloaf, salad

Sunday: Creamy chicken lasagna

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week got away from me in a major way. Between work stuff and both of my boys being sick, I’ve barely had time to make dinner, let alone write about dinner.

One good thing about the week flying by is that it’s already Friday, and the weekend is now only a few hours away. Does anyone have any fun plans? I’m sure a lot of you are doing your Christmas cookie baking. I’m doing mine next weekend (nothing like leaving it until the last minute, right?), but if you’re doing yours this weekend, man, have I got a cookie for you to add to the list.

These cookies are absolutely amazing. I mean, they feature Nutella prominently, so that automatically means they’re going to be good, right? They have the perfect texture -- crispy on the outside, nice and chewy in the middle -- and such a rich flavor. You can really taste the Nutella in every bite. They’re a great alternative to a traditional chocolate chip cookie, and would be a welcome addition to any holiday cookie tray!

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup Nutella

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Add flour, baking soda and salt to a large bowl and whisk together; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed, mix together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until fully incorporated. Change the mixer to low and add the flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.

4. Stir in Nutella and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill dough for 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out dough balls and place on baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet about 2 minutes until set and then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.