My normal way of going grocery shopping has always been make a menu for the week, write down all the ingredients I'll need, go shopping. Lately, though, I've been short on inspiration so I've been showing up at the grocery store sans list. It's a little daunting sometimes walking in there and trying to figure out what we're going to have for the next 6 or 7 days, but I think I've been doing ok. My focus has been figure out what meat is on sale and build our meals from there.
This week I went to Gerrity's and they had chicken breasts (bone and skin), pork tenderloin, and quarter boneless hams on sale. The ham I'll slice and serve with a mac and cheese I've been meaning to try, tonight is the pork with an interesting side dish, and last night I roasted the chicken breasts and created a cranberry apple sauce to top it. What a great choice.
This was definitely a fall type dinner -- the flavors of cranberry and apples, the acorn squash, even the chicken itself was vaguely reminiscent of Thanksgiving. I almost opted for broccoli instead of corn but decided I was pushing my proverbial luck with the kids with the squash and cranberries. Amazingly, everyone ate everything and all was good in the world.
The acorn squash I halved, scooped out the seeds then sliced about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I tried to bake them in the oven but for some reason they were still hard after 45 minutes so I popped them in the microwave for about 5 minutes to soften them. In a skillet, I added a cup of apple cider, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of butter. I reduced that down a bit and then tossed it with the squash once it came out of the microwave.
The chicken was just roasted in a baking dish at 375 for about 50 minutes. I seasoned it with some all purpose seasoning and that was it.
The cranberry apple sauce was a little more complicated, but not much. In a saucepan, I added 1/2 bag frozen cranberries, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup orange juice and 1/3 cup brown sugar (I'm out of white sugar believe it or not), and 2 teaspoons of candied ginger. I let that simmer until all the berries have "popped" and then added in 2 diced, peeled apples. Let that simmer a little more until your chicken is done and then serve over the top.
How do you do your grocery shopping?
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