John’s Green Beans with Sesame Sauce

John made a really good dinner last night of chicken katsu and green beans. He sort of improvised the katsu, so I don’t have a great recipe to share (beyond making a panko-crusted chicken cutlet and using this sauce recipe as a guide). But he used this recipe for the green beans, which were a big hit.

Homemade Noodles for Chicken Soup

Homemade noodles do really bring homemade soup to the next level. I deviated from my meal plan to make this for dinner on Wednesday when I saw the recipe on Twitter (especially because John was feeling under the weather). I stuck with my own soup recipe, but made the noodles featured here on Cook In Dine Out.

Note: I wasn’t very precise when cutting these, so they almost ended up more like dumplings. Had I sliced them thinner I think I would have gotten it just right. As is, we still enjoyed this for days.

Two New Green Smoothies

I’ve been experimenting beyond my go-to green smoothie this week, and am two for two for good combos. These aren’t super sweet and aren’t too grassy (my husband might disagree) or caloric. I’m finding light coconut milk is a great addition. Both of these (with a handful of almonds on the side) kept me satisfied until lunch. FYI- the kale is definitely more of a pronounced taste than the spinach.

Spinach and coconut smoothie: 1/4 cup light coconut milk, 1 cup green grapes, 1 cup spinach, 5 ice cubes

Kale and mango smoothie: 1/4 cup light coconut milk, 1/2 cup green grapes, 1/2 cup mango, 1 cup baby kale, 5 ice cubes.

Chicken, Salsa, Peppers

This is barely a meal, but it was surprisingly tasty, so figured I’d note it. I’m wrapping up a friendly weight loss bet so for the next 2.5 days, I’m in “bro diet mode,” as my husband likes to call it. That means protien shakes, steamed veggies, chicken breast, almonds, etc. and not much of any of them. Related: I am currently hungry.

This was a super simple meal. In a nutshell: chicken + salsa + peppers + spices = success.

Salted Dulce de Leche Brownies

Man, these were really good. I always am pleasantly surprised when I manage to make a halfway decent dessert, too.

Note: I used the cook-in-the-can method for dulce de leche that the recipe recommends. It turned out fine. If I did it again, I’d cook it for three hours rather than two to get a deeper color.

Blender Hollandaise

This wasn’t perfect, but given the fact I made about three different cooking mistakes while making it, it still turned out reasonably well (and I can’t blame the recipe for that). In general I’ll take a blender Hollandaise any day because it’s such a fussy sauce. Served over asparagus.

Horseradish Butter

I made steaks for Valentine’s Day (not an unusual move for us). I decided to dress up the porterhouse we shared with some horseradish butter. Super simple, and added a nice zing.