FF Cooking Club….What’s On The Menu This Week!

Hi everyone! If you are new to this blog, and haven’t read what FF Cooking Club is all about, please refer back to my prior post, FF Cooking Club.

This week I picked 4 dishes that are healthy, tasty, quick and easy to make.  If you are just starting off learning how to cook and the thought of making 4 weeknight meals is overwhelming or not feasible for your busy family, try picking 1 or 2 meals or spread the meals out over 2 weeks. Happy Cooking 🙂

A Few Tips Before You Begin:

• If you decide you do not want to cook all 4 meals, when you print the shopping list, just cross out the row associated with the meal you do not want to cook. I organized the shopping list so you can easily cross off meals and the associated ingredients listed.
• When I get home from the grocery store, I place the meat for the Wednesday and Thursday meals in the freezer.  The night before I make the meal, I will take it out of the freezer and place it in the refrigerator to defrost.
• Everything highlighted in yellow on the shopping list are “Pantry Essentials”.  Over time, you won’t have to purchase these items every week because you will have them stocked in your kitchen.  That’s when your weekly grocery shopping becomes easier and cheaper!
• Read the entire recipe ahead of time before you begin cooking so you know what you need to do.
• I recommend doing all the prep work before starting to cook the meal (chop, peel, and get all ingredients ready).
• For all you new chefs, read my tips and watch the various YouTube videos for each recipe before you begin cooking.  Before you know it, you may just not need my tips anymore!
• Clean as you go and leave the last set of dishes for your significant other to clean (we have a rule in our family- if one cooks, the other cleans).
• Have a glass of wine, get your kids involved, and enjoy the process 🙂

What’s On The Menu This Week?

Meal 1

Pan Seared Salmon with Summer Succotash

• Love this one as it is rare that I find a homemade fish dish that I like.  This one is healthy and delicious.
• Get the oil hot on the pan before placing the salmon skin side down (wait about 5 minutes after turning on the stove).
• Take the frozen edamame and corn out the night before and place in the refrigerator to defrost or place out on the counter a couple hours before you start the meal.
• This is a great easy video on how to chop basil in a chiffonade (you can also just tear basil into small pieces on top of the recipe).
• So many recipes call for fruit zest! It’s all over the food network! Watch this quick video on how to zest fruit.
• For this recipe I like to substitute the kale for baby arugula. I like the taste better.

Meal 2

Baked Chicken with Dijon and Lime

• This recipe is SO SIMPLE and the flavors make a simple chicken recipe totally delicious.
• I use boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs instead of the chicken drums the recipe calls for just based on preference.  Feel free to change it up a little from time to time to fit your tastes!
• In the recipe it instructs  you to remove the skin from the chicken (JUST DON’T…it is too annoying and not necessary….either buy skinless chicken or keep the skin on because we all know its the best part anyway).
• When I first started cooking, it took me forever to get the skin off of garlic until I learned this easy technique-  peel and chop garlic.
• I serve this meal with side of rice, a vegetable or a salad 🙂 Yummy!

Meal 3

Turkey Stuffed Zucchini

• One of my faves but a bit more technical (it is not hard but just not as simple as other recipes). If you are new at cooking, and only want to try a meal or 2, go with meal #2 above, but I hope to encourage you to test your limits, what is the worst that can happen?!
• When scooping out the zucchini, be careful and make your scoops shallow. It is easy to break through the skin and you want to keep the shell of the zucchini in tact.
• Chopping onions became so much easier, and actually fun, once I learned this technique- chop onions.
• Watch this quick video on how to chop shallot.
• Watch this quick video on how to separate the yolk from the egg white.
• Maybe I’ll serve a salad with this but normally I just serve this as the entire meal (it’s got the meat, veggies, and bread crumbs all in one).

Meal 4

Chicken and Asparagus Lemon Stir Fry

• Any recipes that have lemon are always amazing in my book!
• Did you know there are 2 parts of the asparagus- the woody part and the tender part?  Who knew?!  Do not use the woody end of asparagus.  Watch this quick video on how to chop asparagus.
• Peeling and chopping ginger always confused me when I first started cooking. Here’s a quick video on how to peel ginger.
• I serve this on top of white rice (or if you are being super healthy you can use brown rice, gluten free rice, carb free rice, no rice…whatever you like)!

Click here to get your SHOPPING LIST FOR THE WEEK!

I hope this makes your journey with cooking easier.  Please check back for my bi-monthly FF Cooking Club weekday meals.  And don’t forget, I would love to hear your comments and feedback!  Hope everyone has a great week and happy cooking!!!