Weekly Menu

Get out of that same ol’ recipe rut and try one of these delicious and easy recipes this week! This week I highly recommend making the Guinness Crock Pot Corned Beef & Cabbage with a Guinness Reduction Sauce and the Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream Waffle Sandwiches!

Happy Sunday funday TKW Family! What a crazy/odd week it was last week. Like I know I was busy but I honestly can’t recall what I did. Is this the first sign of old age? Can’t remember stuff? I’m thinking it’s probably due to all the stress but who knows. Maybe it is old age with me. It’s a chilly day here in the ‘Burgh where we had a small snow squall on Friday which worried me a bit as we were having company that night AND I made enough food to feed an army.

Do you do that? When you host people do you serve more food than you think you need? I’m way better than how I used to be but I still do it however I can justify it by saying it’s part of my “weekly meal prep”. I mean let’s get real here people. Weekly Meal Prep cooking is nothing more than just putting leftovers in cutesy little containers and labeling them Monday – Friday meals. Hey I bought into the concept as it does work and it helps justify why I cook enough for the neighborhood. Oh speaking of cutesy weekly meal prep containers, I SWEAR by these glass 3-section ones and these 2 section ones!

Oh… wait, now I remember all that happened last week – WHEW! I thought I was losing it! So Monday we had the rest of the custom bedroom furniture delivered. We found this Amish company out in Ohio that does the absolute best wood work I’ve ever seen. We bought 2 full bedroom sets and 1 additional bed about 8 years ago from them. With the remodeling we’re doing we gained back a 4th bedroom so we had to buy all new furniture for that as well as finish the rest of the bedroom set (the room where we only bought a bed for). It’s all cherry and absolutely gorgeous.

The week itself we spent cleaning more, well Mr. Fantabulous did most of the work as I was tied up with my jobs. Yes, jobs – I have 2 full-time and another part-time consulting gig. I don’t sleep a lot plus the more money I can make now, the quicker we can retire. At least that how I look at it. Perhaps it would be different if we had kids but we don’t.

Friday, as I said, we had some friends come over along with the Fantabulous in-laws. Now normally Friday nights in my house are pizza night but it’s hard making multiple large round pizzas for a crowd. It’s like one is cooking while folks are eating and, maybe I’m weird, but I don’t like the whole revolving food table when it’s a small party. I’d rather have it all done at once, set it out and then be able to enjoy eating with my friends. Sure it’s different when you make pan pizzas as you can make 2 at the same time but my round pizza screens are 20″ round and I can only make one at a time. My next house will have a real pizza oven in it. Mr. Fantabulous may not know this but he will. LOL Anyway I decided to make it more of a Street Taco kind of night. However… Papa Fantabulous was rather disappointed when they arrived and he found out I wasn’t making pizza. I love that he loves my pizza and who am I to disappoint him so I quickly whipped up a batch of dough and made an impromptu pan pizza.

The things you discover during a remodel

OMG so get this! So we were in the middle bedroom moving stuff out to paint when Mr. Fantabulous says “Honey I need to take this wall down.” Yeah… my eyes got huge and I thought ‘oh dear God not another project!’ So all of our walls are plaster except this one wall. It’s paneling that they wallpapers. Yeah, don’t ask me why they did it. We thought maybe it was just put on as a face and that all of the wiring the ran is just dangling between the studs. So he starts to tear it all down and get this. *Just shakes her head in disbelieve* There is a plaster wall with studs and cross sections, 6″ of insulation and then the paneling. They just put up a fake wall (we were hoping that’s where they hid a secret stash of money or what not) to add insulation I guess to help reduce the sound between the master bedroom and the one bedroom. We took the boards off, took all 9 million nails and actually found that we gained 9-10″ of extra bedroom floor space! SWEET! Given all the perils we’ve encountered by previously done work this was a win for us. So all we have to do is patch the nail holes, fix where the outlets are and paint. BONUS!

What do you have planned today? I need to get some TKW site work done and work on a few recipes. I made so much beef barbacoa and salsa shredded chicken that I have to do something with it. I’m thinking freezer burritos and smash balls. Smash balls haven’t been posted yet. I want to create a few recipes of them before I start posting. I have one done and will make 2 different ones today. But a smash ball is a type of meatball but is super soft that you tend to put in say a street taco or lettuce cup that you ‘smash’ and eat.

St. Patrick’s Day is next weekend. Do you celebrate? Pittsburgh has one of the largest parades in the world for it which is odd as I wouldn’t think that but it’s true. If you’re looking for one of the best corned beef recipes check out my site. I also have a killer pressure cooker version too!

Let’s take a look at Instagram

During Lent, Latkes (potato pancakes) are a normal thing for me. Growing up Mom always served her with homemade applesauce. These days I tend to like them more with a chive sour cream. Well I was craving one the one morning and didn’t feel like messing around with potatoes so I opted to use some cooked spaghetti squash I had in the fridge. Have to admit, it turned out pretty freaking amazing!

When you have spaghetti squash and you want a latke (potato pancake) you “improvise”! . ❤️❤️❤️ . #irish #spaghettisquash #latke #lunch #hautecuisines #heresmyfood #bareaders #fwx #beautifulfood #healthyfood #fit #thekitchenwhisperer #eatingfortheinsta

A post shared by The Kitchen Whisperer (@thekitchenwhisperer) on Mar 7, 2018 at 8:23am PST

Then there was this quick video, which honestly I thought everyone knew about (plus I created a post about it already), on how I shred my chicken, pork and beef.

I’m having company tonight and serving a variety of street tacos. This seriously is the fastest way to shred chicken, pork, beef. . #chicken #kitchentips #thekitchenwhisperer #tacos

A post shared by The Kitchen Whisperer (@thekitchenwhisperer) on Mar 9, 2018 at 7:38am PST

So there is this new rage that is happening where folks are posting pictures of their fridge contents. Don’t ask me why, maybe it’s one of those “sneak peeks at what a chef eats” type of things but who knows. I only posted this because I spent the morning cleaning out my fridge. As for the containers I use these to hold the big foods (Rubbermaid Brilliance Food Storage Container, 14-Piece Set, 100% Leak-Proof, Plastic, Clear) which are AMAZING and then these for the weekly meal prep containers.

There’s just something comforting about a clean and organized fridge! What’s not shown are the 2 grocery bags of crap discarded – seriously who keeps a bottle where’s there’s a teaspoon of stuff in it?? This girl apparently! #smdh . #springcleaning #saturday

A post shared by The Kitchen Whisperer (@thekitchenwhisperer) on Mar 10, 2018 at 10:17am PST

Then there were these Muffin Cup Street Tacos. Seriously it’s so easy to make muffin cups. I had (still do) a ton of leftover meat so I decided to whip these up. You can do this with pretty much any leftover you have in the fridge and a muffin pan.

So what are your favorite muffin pan recipes that DOESN’T involve making actual muffins? . 💃 . I love making Layered Taco Cups! Just char some soft flour taco shells (I just put them on the burner for 15-20 seconds per side), then coat the pan with non stick spray, press the warm shell into the muffin well. . 🌮 . After that add refried beans, rice, cooked meat (I used salsa shredded chicken and Beef Barbacoa), salsa and cheese. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until the cheese is melted. . 😍 . Top with lettuce/slaw, avocado(optional) and sour cream/lime crema! . #hautecuisines #heresmyfood #taco #salsa #leftovers #pressurecooker #instantpot #thekitchenwhisperer #eatingfortheinsta #eeeeeats #foodfeed #foodblogger #dinner #tasty #tastingtable #seriouseats #buzzfeast

A post shared by The Kitchen Whisperer (@thekitchenwhisperer) on Mar 10, 2018 at 4:10pm PST

And then there is this…. ugh Seriously I can’t wait til the day I move and no longer have to deal with this crap. My body is so out of whack today that’s scary. Seriously losing an hour sleep for a girl who sleeps only a few hours a night already is bad. Those of you that live in Arizona… in my best Napoleon Dynamite voice…”lucky!”

Ugh… as if the weekends weren’t short enough already, tonight we have to set the clocks ahead an hour! . #realworldproblems #daylightsavings #springforward #needcaffeine #pittsburgh #eastcoast

A post shared by The Kitchen Whisperer (@thekitchenwhisperer) on Mar 10, 2018 at 6:11pm PST

So with that guys, have one fantabulously amazing week! Also don’t forget this Wednesday on Facebook is the #TKWShareASmile Day! This week on the blog you’ll see the recap of the previous week’s pictures!