Dinner Challenge: Days 4-6

Wow! I'm almost through a week of this dinner challenge!?!?

Day 4: Tortelloni with ground italian sausage and prego garden combo pasta sauce with garlic bread.

• This is a great fall back meal for me. As long as I have a bag of frozen tortelloni or ravioli, dinner takes less than 15 minutes which is great on those nights I get home at 6 and have an event at 7. I buy pre-made pasta sauce most of the time but try to spruce it up with more herbs and garlic. Sometimes I make my own arrabiata sauce and freeze it in jars when I'm feeling extra gourmet.

Day 5: This was a tough one. My parents were en route and my plan for tequila lime chicken fell through when I realized there was no chicken in the house. These are the nights the Dominos or Sarpinos orders are most often placed. But I was determined not to fall into the trap. I ran down to the freezer and grabbed some pork chops and quickly thawed them. I seasoned them and browned them and let them simmer for 20 minutes on the stovetop in chicken broth. Meanwhile I made a cheesy rice packet and some roasted broccoli parmesan (thanks to the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network!). 

Day 6: Kraft Mac n Cheese and grilled tenderloin steaks and grilled new york strip steaks. 

• Once again, nothing special, but we got to try out our new gas grill (!!!!) and the steaks, minimally seasoned were great! The tenderloin was thicker and turned out the best, but both were really good. The meat was about as fresh as you can get without being right on the farm and butchering it yourself. My parents, as a gift, gave my dear B and I half of a cow's worth of meat from my uncle's farm. Freshly butchered, barely frozen a couple days. Awesome! I find it funny that I used to be embarrased our meat came in white parchment paper and not fancy packages. Now I welcome the idea of eating meat that I know the farmer of.....

Day 7: Will be a homecooked meal as well at B's parents. 

So there you go... I made it a whole week without eating fast food. .... 

** Note: The Twins game was today I did have a hotdog, but that's tradition so I'm letting myself have that as an exemption! **

I still have many recipes to try out so I really feel that it is not such a foreign/weird/bad idea to aim for 6/7 days a week for a month of eating at home. So my goal is to keep this going for the next 3 weeks!