So, I’m a little bit of a cookbook junkie. Or, at least, I used to be. I used to regularly buy cookbooks for pleasure reading. I’d lie in bed at night reading cookbooks, cover-to-cover, as if they were engrossing works of literature, while Braydon would lie next to me actually reading engrossing works of (non-cookbook-genre) literature. I still love cookbooks and still do buy one here and there, and read them in that same way from time-to-time, but not nearly as much as before we had kids. Over the years I’ve been pretty good about getting rid of coookbooks that I don’t actually use, and keeping only the ones that I genuinely love, but still I have quite a few cookbooks. My favorite cookbooks –by far—have always been, and still remain, Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. For this week’s swap I decided to pull one of the Barefoot Contessas from the shelf – Barefoot Contessa At Home – and choose recipes I hadn’t tried before. Although I doubt I’ll ever use the recipes again (the meal was decent, but they weren’t outstanding “keepers”), I had a lot of fun getting the chance to really use one of my tried-and-true-oldie-but-goodie cookbooks. And here’s the funny thing… while sitting down with Barefoot Contessa At Home in planning for the swap, I was inspired to try an additional recipe for our dinner on Monday night (outside of the swap). It turned out to be absolutely fabulous and an instant favorite for all five of us – a definite outstanding “keeper.” So, ironically, I’m not posting the recipes for my swap dinner here this week. But instead I am posting the new favorite recipe. Note: The only reason I didn’t use it for the swap in the first place was because it involves pine nuts and Alex is allergic to them. I am sure that Dave and Shalinee would love this recipe!!!
Swap meal:
- Roasted Chicken with Herbed Goat Cheese & Basil
- Orange-Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots
- Wild Rice with Dried Fruit and Fresh Apple
The J-M’s New Favorite Salad:
This is the Pesto Pea Salad from Barefoot Contessa At Home. Here I’ve just slightly modified the ingredient list to make it easy to throw together on a moment’s notice. I served this with blackened tilapia and rice. Super easy and super, duper delicious! Owen had three huge servings of it and Kyle and Meera weren’t too far behind him. Braydon and I would have eaten more of it but there was none left by halfway through dinner. Next time I’ll probably double the recipe—no joke!—it is that good!
1 bag of fresh baby spinach 1/2 bag of frozen baby sweet peas, defrosted (I just rinsed them in a colander under lukewarm water to thaw them) 1/2 cup prepared pesto 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1 tsp kosher salt 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts (just place raw pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat and toss until browned and toasted evenly)Toss first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt to taste, add pine nuts, and toss again. Yum!!!
O.k., now, about Shalinee’s “Naanwiches”….
All I’ve gotta say is WOW! WOW! WOW! My first thought was, “oh my gosh! naanwiches!!?! this is the next big thing! I can see naanwich shops springing up in every major city, suburb, and college town! we must patent this ASAP!!!!!!!!!!” Upon trying them, my reaction: “AWESOME!” This is a great, great idea. So fun, so tasty, so simply great. We all really liked this dinner. Owen and Meera went a little berserk for the mushrooms in the veggie mix. They started picking them out and eating them up like little crazy people. This bothered me because the mushrooms were my favorite part, too, and my children stole them all before I could eat them all. Kyle, on the other hand, was not thrilled with the veggie mix but went crazy for the chicken instead. Braydon and I just loved the whole entire “naanwich” package. And the pea sauce?! In my opinion, that’s what really pushed it over the edge to give it that wow factor!! So good! A very fun fun fun meal for our family. It made for a great J-M Tuesday dinner time. The swap… weeknight dinners around here are not like they used to be! In more ways than one! 
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!