brownies | Home Baked

This week’s menu is brought to you by my Number One Husband, who enjoys dreaming up menus in his spare time. As I come from a family that sits down to one meal and ends up discussing what to make for the next meal, you can see why I keep him around. He also did all the grocery shopping on Sunday with Little Four in tow, made dinner, and put a big pot of vegetable broth on to simmer. I will probably cook most of these meals, but it’s a relief not to be responsible for the plan. With so much of my usual Monday routine already complete, I might find the time to dig into a good project this week! (There’s always trim to paint…)

Sunday: Tuscan chicken with grilled fennel and onions, grilled potato wedges, brownies

Monday: Pad Thai

Tuesday: Picnic Supper–Big Sandwich, deviled eggs, watermelon

Wednesday: Quesadillas with leftover chicken, guacamole, salsa, refried beans and rice

Thursday: Grilled salmon, broccoli, rice

Friday: Homemade pizza (toppings: shaved asparagus, leftover roasted fennel/onion/tomato)

Last week on Home Baked

In case you missed them, here’s a round up of Home Baked posts from the last couple of weeks:

Recipes:

Applesauce Bran Muffins

Stone Fruit Pie with Streusel

Projects:

Moving the dishes to kid-height

PVC Bike Rack

Which do like better, planning a meal or cooking it?

I love my microwave. I know, it’s not a necessity in the kitchen–most everything you can make in the microwave can also be made on the stove or in the oven, often with better results. And I promise, I’m not living on Lean Cuisine and microwave popcorn. But the microwave can be a great tool when you’re cooking from scratch. You don’t need those packets of instant oatmeal–you can cook a bowl of old fashioned oats in under two minutes in the microwave. Steamed veggies? Add couple tablespoons of water to the vegetables in a covered microwave- safe dish (your mom’s old Corningware is perfect!), cook, drain and serve with a drizzle of something (vinaigrette, soy sauce, a pat of butter) and a dash of salt and pepper. Our microwave even has settings for “fresh vegetables” and “frozen vegetables,” and they work perfectly 90% of the time. (The other 10% usually just need a couple more minutes of cooking.)

And have you seen those microwave cakes in a cup making the rounds on Pinterest? We tried the microwave brownies (after the kids were tucked in, naturally, or I would have baked an entire pan of brownies), and I keep eyeing this little microwave coffee cake. I’m curious about microwave potato chips, but I don’t crave potato chips often enough to justify the effort.

My favorite microwave tip? Use it to dry fresh herbs! I have not tried it myself, not having grown many fresh herbs lately, but when I saw these instructions, I passed them on to my best gardening friend. She tested it and shared the results with me in the form of a beautiful jar of bright green dried parsley. So if I successfully grow any herbs from all the starts she has given me this year, I’ll be preserving my harvest in the microwave!