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Bean Week

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So onto day two, and I see a trend developing.  Had the shrimp with herby beans yesterday with enough left to eat as one of my meals later in the week.  I've got a salad on the menu coming up with white beans as part of the recipe.  And today is CHILI DAY!  I know there are many variations of chili, and a competition chili would never have beans, but my version includes the legumes.  So I'm calling this week Bean Week.  Hope my girlfriend can handle it. Chili has always been one of my goto recipes.  I've developed a recipe over the years that is competition worthy.  The reason so - I stole it from a Terilingua International Chili Champion.  The winner was Randy Moore, and he won the prestigious championship in 2001.  I've been cooking his recipe for the past 15 years and it is AWESOME.  I tinker around and make some adjustments (like adding beans), but the basics always remain the same. For those who don't know how to make a...
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Best-Laid Plans...

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So I quickly realized my plan to start this challenge on Christmas Day was a big mistake.  Too much going on.  Plus I had to work later in the day meaning I had to push the start day back one day.  New start day - Tuesday, December 26, 2017. It's not like I didn't start cooking though on the 25th as my first breakfast I had planned was the Overnight Country Sausage and Hash Brown Casserole .  Obviously, this casserole is started the night before. I found this recipe online on the Pillsbury website.  All I had to do in the morning was top the casserole with some cheese and throw it in the oven.  It couldn't have been much easier to prepare.  It's basically eggs, sausage, O'Brien hash browns and cheese.  Boom!  I cut the recipe in half since I'm not feeding eight people.  It turned out great (picture, not so much).  I also had leftovers to eat another morning during the week.  Winner! Since I simply had to put the ...
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Getting Started

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The first thing I realized as I embarked on this journey is that preparation was going to be key.  Menu planning, shopping lists, stocking the pantry would all be essential to a successful #cook90 challenge.  Cooking three meals a day will not be an easy task without proper preparation. With that in mind, I set out to construct my initial first week menu.  That's 21 meals that need to be plotted.  My goal was to start on Christmas Day, and my initial menu planned for that date. Below is what my initial menu looked like: BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER Monday 12/25 Overnight Country Suasage and Hash Brown Casserole Chicken Salad Croissant Tuesday 12/26 Bacon and Eggs Stewed Canelli Beans with Chilis and Thyme Turkey, Bacon, Radicchio and Blue Cheese Sandwich Wednesday 12/27 Breakfast Tacos with Homemade Chorizo, Crispy Potatoes and Egg Randy's Fools Gold Chili Shrimp with Herby White Beans and Tomatoes Thursday 12/28 Fruit Smoothie Oil-Packed Tuna, White Bean and Aru...
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And Away We Go!

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So the rules here are pretty simple - cook three meals a day for an entire month straight, the goal being to turn yourself into a faster, smarter and healthier cook.  No eating out.  No opening cans of soup or frozen dinners.  Cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30-straight days.  That's all. My goal is to become a more well-rounded home cook.  I'm tired of the same meals over-and-over.  I want to experiment.  I want to practice.  I want to improve. So before we get started, here are the rules straight from the Epicurious.com website: 1. Cook every meal you eat the entire month If you've transformed raw ingredients with heat, you've cooked. Likewise, if you've taken two or more raw ingredients and combined them to make something greater than the sum of their parts (a salad, a sandwich, etc), you've also cooked. On the flip side, heating a frozen pizza in the oven, or warming a can of soup on the stovetop—these things are not cooking....
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