Weekly Eats: You Win Some, You Lose Some

Planning our menu is one of my favorite things to do. I love looking at the grocery store ad to see what's on sale, and then scouring my "What's for Dinner" Pinterest board to see what recipes I want to try. I try to do a combination of old favorites and new recipes, but any time there's something new involved there's always a risk of it turning out disastrously. Most of the time I know our tastes well enough to know what we'll like, but on occasion I try something that's a big fat fail. That was the case this week.

Clockwise from top right:
1. Cornmeal-fried pork chops with smashed potatoes from Smitten Kitchen. Smitten Kitchen is one of the first food blogs I started reading, and her recipes always sound impeccable. I try not to make too many fried dinners, but this one looked too good not to try. The cornmeal crust was nice and crispy (mine got a little too crispy, whoops) but the inside was tender and juicy. The potatoes called for goat cheese, but I had some feta I needed to use so I threw that in there instead. Yum. I tried to balance it out a little by serving some roasted broccoli along side.
2. Sausage and Pesto Stuffed Baked Shells. I was in the mood for stuffed shells and was trying to find a recipe, then I remembered that I had made a version I really liked a few years ago. Thank goodness for archives--I never could find the written-down version of this recipe! The stuffing is a combination of Italian sausage, ricotta cheese, and pesto. The shells are covered in marinara sauce and cheese and then baked in the oven. Mmmm.
3. Lemon Pepper Chicken and Quinoa Rice with Lemony Green Beans with Breadcrumbs. Okay, this one was so pretty, and so easy, but you know what, it was terrible. I think the culprit was the lemon pepper. It's anyone's guess how long that lemon pepper had been in our spice cabinet, so I think that was the reason why this one just tasted, well, bad. Or, maybe I just don't love lemon pepper. However, I think if I tried another spice I would really like this, and the concept is fantastic--layer rice, quinoa (just a little), chicken, chicken broth, and seasoning in a pan, then bake in the oven. That's it! What other spice would be good, do you think? All wasn't lost, at least the green beans were good!
Have you had any kitchen fails lately?

From the archives:

• 3 years ago: making chicken kebabs on the grill.