The Great Dinner Retrospective - Part 1

Hey there food fanatics! We've been on a massive "not spending" spree lately, which unfortunately means we haven't been making anything in the grand old "man vs. food" tradition. That doesn't mean we haven't been making delicious meals, though! While we are in between massive food projects, and while we wait for our chicken taco videos to be finished, I'll be putting up several new posts in the "Great Dinner Retrospective" series. This series will chronicle the many amazing meals we've had over the past year, as well as a few special occasions with more restaurant style meals.

Let's start off with something truly mouth watering - tomato raviolis stuffed with cheese and lobster. These little gems were waiting for me at Sam's Club one day and I couldn't resist trying them. A pasta that spectacular deserves something special to go on top, so I sauteed all the best veggies I could find the fridge, including red onion and green pepper. I wanted to give it a little more of a twist, so they were sauteed with cut up bacon bits, using the bacon fat as the grease. For another interesting change, I seasoned it all with lemon pepper, which gave it more of a seafood feel. Once it was all cooked, the ravioli was topped with sun dried tomato alfredo, the veggie and bacon mixture, and a handful of grated Parmesan.


This next one is a neat breakfast Megan puts together every now and again when spinach is on sale. The idea is to take the standard omelet but make it a little more healthy, so it uses spinach and cottage cheese instead of cheddar or meat. We sprinkle a little Parmesan on this one as well before flipping it closed and finish off with a side of wheat toast.


For awhile we made an effort to try out some of the more lean meats, like ground turkey. This one is a non-traditional take on the standard burger, mixing in adobo sauce, chillis, onion, and cilantro. You can find small cans of chillis in adobo sauce at just about any market, and the amount you put in determines how much kick the burger gets. We've had these several times now, trying out different levels of heat each time. You definitely can make this one a real spicy motha if you put your mind to it. To offset the scorching adobo sauce, I like to use different condiments like Caesar mustard or a sweet and spicy mustard with mayo.


Up next is a meal we had last week that rolls chicken up with stuffing, instead of cutting open chicken breasts and stuffing the inside. We pound out the chicken flat with a meat mallet for more rolling room, and then season each side with whatever spice strikes your fancy. This is another one that happens when spinach is on sale, and usually the same week as the omelets to ensure we use up all those wonderful greens. The chicken is stuffed with cottage cheese, mozzarella (or monteray jack or pepper jack or whatever fits the bill!), and chopped spinach.


Then it's all baked and served with some delicious sides. In this case we went with a Parmesan risotto and fresh, locally grown green beans.


Hey, that's not food! I couldn't help but sneak in a little picture here of last year's stocking wall. We take that particular holiday very seriously, and ensure we have plenty of delicious items waiting in our stockings for the real present opening!


In keeping with the holiday theme, here's a picture of Jacob and Jayne trying out a cheese fondue we made for New Years. This was seriously among the most delicious things I've ever had, consisting of six different types of cheeses and a white wine. You can also barely make out me in the background with Matt playing Modern Warfare 2.


Here was our full New Years setup, complete with all the different breads and veggies we were using to dip into the fondue.


That's it for the first Dinner Retrospective! We'll be back next week with more adventures in cooking we've experienced over the past year, and hopefully you see something that sets you on your own amazing food journey.