Sunday Cooking: An extra-long holiday weekend

Hello, internet! I hope you all had a restful Memorial Day weekend; that extra day off I took on Friday was just what I needed. I am refreshed and ready to tackle the world again!

Hubby and I both did our share of relaxing this weekend, but we managed to get some work done too. Hubby set up our little back porch for the summer (see above) and re-did the "garden patch" on the other side. Now that the re-paving project is complete on our side of the condo complex, he was able to renovate our tiny little patch of grass. One of the bonuses of the re-paving was that they put in cement edging along our back entrance and in fact redid two of the sidewalk sections onto our back patio.

We went from this:



to this:



Much nicer!

We also finally acknowledged that we do not have green thumbs so trying to plant anything is hopeless. Hubby got red rocks instead to fill the space, and planted all the pink flamingos (Christmas gifts from my sister) around the edges. He found the only low-light planter at the home improvement store, and we are taking bets on how long it lasts. I think it came out great.







Meanwhile, I shopped and cooked, and cooked a little more. On Saturday I went to the first farmer's market of the season with my girlfriend J and my babyfriend; it's still so early in the season so there was a limited selection. I picked up asparagus, strawberries, fresh shallots, and a basil plant. I always think I am going to buy a basil plant in the summer, and then I forget and I can never find one and end up paying ridiculous sums of money for bunches of picked basil through the summer. I remembered this year!

It was crazy hot all weekend, so I divided up the cooking between Sunday and Monday, and actually did it in the early morning before it was too miserable to cook. On Sunday, I roasted a batch of carrots and a head of garlic for a pasta salad. I seasoned the carrots with olive oil, kosher salt and Penzey's Northwoods Seasoning, and roasted it at 350 for an hour. Heating up my kitchen like that was worth it; it was by far my most delicious batch yet.



Coleslaw was my next order of business. We were watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives the night before, and were both riveted by a blue-cheese coleslaw that one restaurant had piled on top of a hotdog. I have a low-fat coleslaw recipe from my WW days that I make, so I used that and then tossed a container of blue cheese crumbles into it. A-MAZING. The last few batches of coleslaw I have made have been a spicier mustard flavor, so the cool deep blue of the cheese was a nice change in flavor palate.



Blue Cheese Coleslaw

1 large bag shredded coleslaw
2-3 TBSP fatfree mayo
6-8 oz plain fatfree yogurt (I used Greek, but regular is good too)
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
kosher salt
cracked pepper
celery seed (optional)
Northwoods seasoning (optional, but it was a nice contrast to the blue cheese)
4 oz container blue cheese crumbles

Mix all the ingredients except the coleslaw and blue cheese in a large bowl. Slowly add the coleslaw and mix well so it is all wet. Add more mayo or yogurt as needed. Add in cheese and continue mixing. Season to taste.
(It is better to make this a day ahead to allow the flavors to soak into the cabbage.)

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Next I marinated chicken thighs for grilling, but by the end of Sunday we were both dragging from the heat and in no mood to cook. So we broke down and ordered pizza (my one-month record starts anew!) and finished the cooking in the morning.

I finished prepping the chicken thighs, patting the marinade dry off the chicken and wrapping them in turkey bacon, and Hubby grilled them for us in the early morning. This is also a WW recipe, from their old cookbook Grill It!






Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Thighs
(It was 175 calories and 4 WW points under the old WW points system.)

1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 TBSP red-wine vinegar
2 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce
dried of fresh thyme
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
8 slices turkey bacon

(Note: I had a huge container of chicken thighs, so I tripled the marinade ingredients.)

Combine the shallots, vinegar, soy sauce and thyme in a plastic bag. Add the chicken and let sit in the fridge for 1-24 hours. Rotate the bag occasionally during marinade time.

Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Wrap each piece in two slices of bacon. Place on grill and cover until bacon is crisp and chicken is cooked through, 6-7 minutes on each side.

Hubby always cooks it longer, thus burning the bacon. Which is fine, because the thighs retain all their moisture and are so juicy and flavorful.



For lunch on Monday, I sliced one up and put in a whole-wheat hotdog bun, added some coleslaw and some pineapple that I cut up (won't last the week, that's for sure). Mmmmm. I was full all day.



Yes, I did prep pineapple and strawberries. The strawberries went on top of a nice slice of angel food cake; it's my summer dessert, and I was thrilled to see that Tony's makes one that is small and rectangular like a pound cake. Much easier to eat and portion out than the giant ones shaped like bundt cakes.





The last thing I made was a pasta salad for lunch for the week. I had been dying to try this Roasted Garlic Pasta Salad I saw over on Budget Bytes for a couple of weeks, so I finally went for it. I am not really a tomato fan, so I substituted the roasted carrots instead since I made them when I made the roasted garlic (she had done hers in the microwave but I wanted the slow-cooked version). OMG, this is so, so good. I love ricotta cheese but have very few recipes where I can use it (I used the skim version, of course). This will sate my ricotta-cheese hunger for quite some time. It is also very filling with the whole-wheat pasta, so it pretty much portions itself into reasonable quantities on its own. It's great re-heated or cold.






The seasoned carrots add a great sweet/spicy flavor, and their roasted softness gives them a sweet potato-like texture. So glad I added them instead of the tomatoes. :)

Alas, the weekend is over and it is time to go back to work. At least I will have plenty to eat! :)

How did you spend your holiday weekend? Any grilled recipes you want to share?