First, on yesterday’s Fauxtisserie Chicken – meh. I was initially excited because the chicken basically de-boned itself when I pulled it out of the slow cooker – but I think ultimately that was because it was OVERcooked. The wings, thighs and drumsticks were in good shape, but the breast meat is almost mushy. If I do it again, I’m going to cut an hour off the cook time.
On to tonight: for once, I wanted to have dinner ready when G walked through the door. Unfortunately, I realized I didn’t have one of the ingredients (ricotta isn’t something we normally have around). So Charlie and I ran to the store, and food was ready VERY shortly after G came home. We had baked ziti, which I didn’t tell G was a weight watchers recipe (and I added a little extra mozz on top, so maybe it wasn’t exactly a WW recipe in my kitchen…), and which uses jarred sauce – two things he’s not generally a fan of. But he actually really liked it – the tomato and basil sauce from Trader Joe’s is very nice, and the combo of red pepper flakes (I used more than it called for, which was a good decision), ricotta, freshly grated parmesan reggiano, and sauce was very good. It was quick and made a lot (good thing G liked it, since we’ll probably have it for dinner again tomorrow night, and probably at least another night after that!).
On the side, I tried this apple and gorgonzola salad. I really liked the combination of the maple and the gorgonzola – it had that salty sweetness that I enjoy. And the crunch of a good apple is hard to beat. I made half of the dressing and only used 1/2 an apple for the two of us, and we had hearty salads with dressing left over.
All in all, tonight’s meal was a hit!