Wine down Wednesday

While I was out earlier, I overheard someone say that Wednesdays are the new Mondays. If that’s the case, the work week would be only three days! Sign me up! (I know that’s a long shot especially since this was said in a doctor’s office where every day is busy and feels like a Monday-kind of why I enjoy having it off!) Although it is nice to have a little break in the middle of the week, I’ll stick to my Mondays at home.

As for last week’s recipes, I’ll give a synopsis of how they turned out. The copycat blueberry RX bars are not as good as the real ones, unfortunately. They aren’t as chewy which is nice, but they don’t have that great blueberry flavor I fell in love with. I’m still trying to finish them all. The 15 bean soup had good flavor but it was a little too thick and more stew-like than soupy. I made it ahead of time and let it cook down too much on the stove. Live and learn.

For dinner one night I made turkey burgers and zucchini fries. Yummy! I just cut them up into “fries,” then breaded them with flour, eggs and bread crumbs. I placed them on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet to oven fry them. I cooked them for about 20 minutes, turning them halfway through.

A few days later after we returned from having lunch with family on Sunday, I headed straight to the kitchen to start on my sweet potato empanadas and to make a turkey meatloaf for dinner. I’ve used a recipe from Skinny Taste before and we love it! It’s easy and tasty!

The reason I had to work on Monday was because we had a potluck and I was asked to make sweet potato empanadas. I’ve made them twice before and the staff (mostly Lori, my counterpart) loves them! I use a basic empanada dough recipe and boil sweet potatoes with cinnamon then add sugar once they’re cooked.

I rolled the dough into small balls and pressed them, courtesy of my sweet tortilla press from Paul’s mom. I placed a spoonful of SP into each circle, brushed them with an egg wash and then sprinkled them with more sugar. I baked them for about 30 minutes until they’re golden brown.

I haven’t “baked” since those boxed brownies last week, unless you count the SP empanadas, and didn’t plan to today since I had errands to run earlier. I also got sucked into that new show, Manifest. A friend at work said it was really good so I binge-watched the episodes all afternoon. Once I finally decided to get up and disturb King B, I started on my chowdahhh I had planned for dinner. I got an idea from Paul a few weeks ago and decided on a Crab Corn Chowder from Little Broken. I cut the serving size in half, left out the onion since leek was already in it, didn’t use celery or the full amount of half-and-half. It was pretty good!

This Monday I want to bake something so I’m considering a coffee cake to bring into work. I’m also going to try a new recipe for M.M., minestrone soup. Since it is “fall,” all I want to do is make soup, but I’ll have to crank down the AC to pretend it’s actually not 100 degrees outside. Weatherman did say some cooler weather is heading our way next week. Fingers crossed!

I’ve got some dinner recipes I want to try over the next few weeks and wish I had more time during the week to make them with extra love! All I want to do is stay home and cook. Is that too much to ask? 🙂

Cheers!

Melody