recipe reviews: fast bolognese; broccoli, cheddar, and brown rice cakes; and tex-mex pork

i had some dried rigatoni that i needed to do something with, and the thought of just buying a jar of pasta sauce wasn't really appealing to me while i was trying to decide on meals for this week. i love that this bolognese recipe is labeled "fast" even though it simmers for 90 minutes after most of the ingredients have been added. i used 7 carrots instead of 6 since that's how many i wound up buying. me being me, i used 15 cloves of garlic. i couldn't get ground sirloin and used ground beef instead, and i wish i'd skimmed some of the fat off after browning the meat. i have some in the freezer that i'll use for baked potatoes and maybe some other pasta dish whenever the mood strikes. it could probably stand a little more salt, but i've been eating this with the aforementioned rigatoni and sprinkled with cheese and it was fine for me. 

i made these rice cakes so i could have them for breakfast this week. i used full-fat cheese because that's my preference. i'm sure if i had the patience to chop my broccoli and onion into even pieces, the finished product would've been more visually appealing, but the flavor's there and that's all that matters right now. i've been eating them along with some breakfast sausage and i'd make them again, possibly with some sort of chopped and cooked meat (bacon? bacon sausage? pancetta? crumbled sausage?). 

the tex-mex pork was meant as an alternate dinner option if/when i grew tired of the pasta, but i brought the wrong type of salsa and the texture was all wrong. i ate some of it over rice topped with sour cream since i had sour cream in the fridge already, but i wound up using the rest of the pork in my lunch salads. it tastes fine, but i want to try it again with a chunkier salsa. might also try it with salsa negra - the texture probably won't be right, but it's salsa negra and i don't think i'll care as much. 

recipe review: braised collard greens with pepperoncini

recipe: add pepperoncini to greens

me: adds giardiniera to greens

no, really. i absolutely used giardiniera for these greens instead of buying pepperoncini b/c in my opinion, giardiniera can be viewed as a form of pepperoncini. i didn't add any additional minced garlic, but i did add garlic powder and giardiniera seasoning, along with salt and pepper. i was shopping at a different jewel this week and there was no pancetta to be found, so i chopped 3 slices of bacon and used that instead. also used a teaspoon of dried thyme instead of fresh. i think i had more than 2 pounds of collards and they just barely fit into my 4-quart crockpot, but they'd already started cooking down within the 1st hour of cooking time so it worked. make sure you taste and adjust for seasoning after you add the giardiniera or pepperoncini at the end. 

this will be my side dish to go with the ribs i made yesterday. i am the excite, lol.

recipe review: turkey tacos

i'd had a taco craving (like, more than usual) for a while, and when it came time to figure out my meal prep for this week, i decided i should make tacos so i could have them more than once in a week and not feel as guilty. i knew i had ground turkey in the freezer b/c i almost always have ground turkey in the freezer, so i wanted to try something that didn't involve buying a packet of seasonings from the store. i'm not above that, mind you, but i wanted something different. enter these tacos. of course i added more garlic because i'm me and that's how i roll. i was quite happy with my taco tuesday yesterday and am planning on taco thursday tomorrow b/c alliteration. also b/c snow and i'd rather not order delivery.