Cooking For Two Is Better Than One

Greg's been home the last couple nights, and I usually put a lot more effort into dinner when he's around.  The other day I picked up some huge portobello mushrooms at the grocery store, since my man loves mushrooms.  Monday night, I gave Greg the option of stuffed or burger style for dinner, and he wanted them burger style.

First I marinated the mushroom caps in the following for about 15-20 minutes:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Then I heated up the grill pan and tossed them on.  I think my grill pan is probably my most used kitchen thing lately.  I find myself using it about 3 nights a week probably, to grill veggies and other stuff!  Anyway, I cooked them about 4 minutes on each side or so.

I put slices of Havarti cheese on each, and served them on a sandwich thin with tomato and lettuce, with a side of baked sweet potato fries.

It was a hit!  My batch of sweet potato fries was exceptionally good this time too.  Sometimes I have issues with them being mushy.  I used this recipe, and it seemed to help.

Yesterday was kind of a dreary, colder day, and I really wanted to make some soup.  I feel like I always make Mexican/black bean soup, and don't really branch out, so I started looking for an alternate recipe and found this recipe for soup.

I mostly followed it as it was, but added about 1/2 an onion, and omitted the coriander.  I also used whole wheat rotini pasta and veggie stock for my liquid.

Yum!  Look at all those delicious veggies and legumes :)

On the side we had cheesy garlic bread and split a slice of leftover pizza.

This recipe made a pretty huge amount a soup.  I have two more containers of leftovers in the fridge!  I'm glad Greg's been home to motivate me to cook.  It helps a lot to have someone there to cook for, so I don't gravitate towards eating cereal for dinner!

Greg got an I Phone yesterday and spent last night fiddling with it.  I'm extremely jealous since I don't even have internet on my phone!  I'm old school, I know!  

Other than walking Clyde, fiddling with the new phone, and working on some house stuff, it's been a pretty low-key the past couple nights at Casa De Holding Pattern.  How's your week going?