Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon & Bacon

I was sent this recipe and decided to give it a whirl!  And of course I couldn't follow it as-is ;)  I changed it to include... drum roll please... BACON!!... after seeing this recipe.  Oh yum.  Instead of too lemony (like some of the reviews suggested) it had a slightly lemony, slightly smokey flavor combination.  I was in love!  But know that this was not love-at-first-sight.  It took some interesting oven baking, but it ended up being worth it in the end.  And because I was flustered at the end of 3 separate cooking times (for a one pot meal!) I didn't even take a picture of the end result. Boo. It ended up being tasty and I will try the flavor combination again definitely!

Pork Tenderloin with Broccoli and Gorgonzola Polenta

This was one of the first recipes I made in our new home.  It didn't turn out as great as I'd hoped so I was just going to skip posting it.  But, for better or worse, right?!  This meal wasn't bad, it just wasn't the fantastic thing I'd hoped it would have been.  The reason?  The red wine made the pork tenderloin look purple.  Weird color.  Maybe next time I'll try white wine instead, haha!  And let's be honest, I was just having one of 'those days'.  It probably could have been a four-star dinner and I still would have found a way to pick out all its flaws.  Don't you just love that?  Let's be real.  Why are we so hard on ourselves?  Am I the only one who feels the need to be perfect? The quest will drive you crazy. Trust me.  Let's just take a moment to thank the good Lord that we don't have to be perfect. AMEN. I shredded the meat and was able to get past the color.  And once I did, I realized this was a pretty tasty meal!

It was a Monday

Have you ever had one of those days?  I was so excited because on Saturday night last week I sat down and got all my meal planning done for this week.  Sunday I finalized my grocery list and Monday, Little One and I sat out for the grocery store.  I've found that Monday's are generally a good day to go around here - the shelves are restocked and there's typically not a ton of people.  Except for yesterday... when it all started... the grocery store was packed because I went around lunch.  Little One had gotten up from his 2 hour nap an hour early.  So with a fussy baby, I decided to head out since a car ride usually soothes him.  I found a good, up close parking space, took him inside to get a cart and begin the shopping.  I should have known when I almost got run over by a woman snapping up a cart before me.  HELLO woman, I have a child?!  I'm telling you, it was crazy in there.  They're redoing the store - I think this also compounded people's at-ti-tudes.

On my list, plain as day, it said "Pork tenderloin"  I was slated to cook these once and use them for 4 different meals this week.  I made it to the meat section, but since I'd never bought these at this particular grocery store I didn't know specifically where to look.  I found a package that read "Turkey tenderloins".  Thinking to myself "Wow, those are smaller than I remember them being."  I even turned it over to see that they were a little over a pound in weight.  IT NEVER DAWNED on me that I was looking at TURKEY instead of PORK.  Hello.  Wow.

I debated on whether to post about this misadventure, but I wanted to share my adventures in cooking with you.  Good or bad.