Menu: Week of 10.24

It has been way too long since I have posted. But with school starting back, I haven't had as much free time to write. I have decided to make this a bigger priority in my time, especially because I love sharing recipes so much. So look forward to no more long periods of silence from the Cory kitchen.

Well, fall has arrived, and with it my intense love for anything and everything pumpkin. I have a pumpkin muffin mix in my cabinet, pumpkin butter in the fridge, and a fresh pumpkin on the kitchen table that will be transformed into pumpkin pie this afternoon. What I am most excited to try this week is Rachael Ray's Pumpkin Pasta.

Here is the line-up for this week...

Sunday: Vegetable Lentil Soup (Ina Garten)

Monday: leftovers of the soup with Tiffany Pizza

Tuesday: Chicken Cheese Steaks with sweet potato fries (yours truly)

Wednesday: Pumpkin Pasta (Rachael Ray)

Thursday: Left overs

Friday: something from Busch Gardens for Howl-O-Scream

Click the following links to find the entire recipes:

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Penne-wise Pumpkin Pasta

Tiffany Pizza

Grocery List:

Ingredients for Vegetable Lentil Soup by Ina Garten

• 1 pound French green lentils
• 4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large onions)
• 4 cups chopped leeks, white part only (2 leeks)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus additional for drizzling on top
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 cups medium-diced celery (8 stalks)
• 3 cups medium-diced carrots (4 to 6 carrots)
• 3 quarts chicken stock
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons red wine or red wine vinegar
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Ingredients for Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta by Rachael Ray

• Salt
• 1 pound whole-wheat penne
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup cream (I am going to replace this with Almond Milk...very thick but way fewer calories and much better for you!)
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce, to taste
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• 2 pinches ground cinnamon
• Salt and black pepper
• 7 to 8 leaves fresh sage, thinly sliced plus more, for garnish
• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Ingredients for Chicken Cheese Steaks

* 1 to 2 pounds of chicken breast tenders

* 2 green peppers, sliced thin

* 2 onions, sliced thin

* 2 tbsp olive oil

* Italian hoagie rolls

* Provolone cheese

* 1 tbsp butter

* 1 tbsp flour

* 1/2 cup milk

* salt and pepper

Things you might find in your pantry (and if you don't, you should buy them and keep them around because they make life easier every day):

• hot sauce
• nutmeg
• cinnamon
• thyme
• cumin
• sea salt
• coarse black pepper
• Grated Parmigiano
• Pasta (one box/bag of penne and one box/bag of spaghetti)
• Olive oil
• chicken stock
• garlic
• onions
• working bottles of Reds and Whites to use in cooking

Look forward to pictures later this week and updates to let you know how the meals turned out.