It’s February 25th, and as a consolation for my lack of Trader Joe’s Food Finds for this month, let’s take a look at some of the latest Peiffer Plates! Per usual, these are not staged photos for recipes. They are merely the quick (often dirty) photos that I took to remember some drool worthy meals.
Let’s start with the very beginning of the year. On January 1st, Gary and I made an absurd amount of chicken chow mein from scratch. For those of you that don’t know, I could eat chicken chow mein for days. And that’s exactly what we did…purely out of necessity though! Pro tip — authentic chow mein noodles look small before they’re cooked. When in doubt, do the opposite of what we did and DON’T double your recipe š
Alright, I’m going to rave about a cookbook (of all things) for a minute here. A friend of mine gifted me the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple cookbook and I am OBSESSED! The images are gorgeous, the recipes are easy to make, the ingredients aren’t too wild or difficult to find, and the food is delicious!!
We’ve already made the following recipes: Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese Bake, Cacio e Pepe Brussels Sprouts, Butter Pecan Bars, Penne Alla Vodka, and Sesame Orange Chicken. They were all hits!! My absolute favorite has been the Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese Bake, and Gary’s favorite recipe we’ve tried so far is is the Penne Alla Vodka. I guess we’re pasta people!
Switching gears a bit, Gary has become quite the grill master! We didn’t have a grill at our apartment, but we do now and we are loving it! We aren’t usually huge red meat eaters, but Gary made his first tri-tip on the grill and it was to. die. for. Don’t mind my terrible image quality…just admire how perfectly medium rare those slices look!
Then, we moved on to chicken thighs and they were equally as delicious. I marinated them in some olive oil, lime juice, paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper, and then once they were grilled, we made chicken and rice bowls with some fresh oven roasted veggies and a creamy chimichurri sauce. I don’t have a photo of the finished product because everything looked too good for me to wait one second longer to eat it, but just take a look at this drool worthy chicken!
Since tri-tip and chicken apparently weren’t enough, and because we were overdue for a fancy Valentine’s Day dinner, Gary grilled us some steaks! I made a delicious herby garlic butter to put on the top of them when they came off the grill, and it was fantastic! Again, Gary knocked medium rare out of the park, and we felt like we were living it up with a steak dinner.
Let’s back track for a hot second. Why were we overdue for a fancy Valentine’s Day dinner? Well, when Super Bowl Sunday falls on February 13th, you obviously eat leftover buffalo wings and game day snacks for dinner on Valentine’s Day. This year, we made some of our favorite Game Day Grub – wings, pretzel bites, and cheese dip. On top of that, Gary made some last minute deviled eggs, I made a quick dill dip, and of course, I had to bake some festive Valentine’s Day cookies. Worlds were colliding over here!
Alright, it’s time for the last stop on this Peiffer Plates tour! A beautiful February day (we’re talking 70 and sunny) meant that we ate some yummy breakfast burritos outside on our patio! They were pretty basic with eggs, ham, mushrooms, cheese, salsa, and cilantro, but they totally hit the spot. The sun shining on us made them taste even better š
I know I’m overdue with typing up a bunch of these recipes. From marinades to meals, trust me…I have a list! For now, I’ll leave you with one last photo that proves I don’t always cook delicious food. Sometimes someone else does it for me š
xoxo
Jennifer
Loving the food porn!
It all looks so delicious! Bobby is jealous because I don’t cook anywhere near as good as you do! ā¤