Week 12 is pure comfort food from several different cultures. Everything you need is in the Week 12 shopping list.
- Quesadillas are essentially the grilled cheese sandwich of TexMex cooking; serve them up with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. 15 minutes to prepare
- Tortellini soup is our Italian comfort food this week. 20 minutes to prepare
- Mutter Paneer, chutney and naan (with grilled chicken for carnivores) is our family’s favorite Indian comfort food. 1 hour to prepare
- British comfort food features bangers (individual sausages) and mash (mashed potatoes), but we reduced the traditional meal’s fats and carbs by substituting steamed broccoli and roasted root vegetables for mashed potatoes and fried onion (carmelized onion) gravy so we can still have our trifle. Oh and if there was any leftover cilantro chutney, it’s terrific with the roasted veggies. 3 hours to prepare, but you can cut it to one hour on the day of the meal by slicing the roasted root vegetables the day before and soaking them overnight.
- Soul food basics may be our family’s favorite comfort food of all: grilled pork chops, greens, black eyed peas, baked sweet potatoes, and cornbread. Top if off with Granny’s super rich Butterole is a depression-era dessert made from basic staples: butter, flour, sugar, milk. 45 minutes to prepare, including 15-20 minutes to bake cornbread and peas cooking all day in the crockpot
Don’t forget Macaroni and Cheese, from week 7, if that is your go-to comfort food.
- Quesadillas
- Tortellini Soup
- Mutter Paneer (Peas and Cheese) – used as an entree this week
- Grilled Chicken Breasts for carnivores who want more than Mutter Paneer
- Coriander Chutney – great with Dahl in week 14, and with Roasted Root Vegetables this week
- Naan (buy frozen and heat with ghee or regular butter)
- Pork Chops – for Soul Food meal, but make a double recipe if you can’t find bangers and want to substitute chops
- Black-eyed peas
- Cornbread
- Granny’s Butterole (goes great with the Soul Food, even if it started out as a German recipe before arriving in Galveston)
- Bangers (can substitute Polsa Kielbasa or left over pork chops)
- Roasted Root Vegetables – serve with Coriander Chutney and left over grilled chicken or pork chops
- Steamed Broccoli
- Trifle – to top off your British meal of chops and root vegetables with chutney