Due to intensely inclement weather in Austin, my Valentine’s Day night was spent just like any other Sunday: cooking vast quantities of food at the apartment. This week featured another set of 4 recipes:

1. Chorizo Sweet Potato Skillet (Budget Bytes). This is the third time we’ve made this, and it’s always reliable. Doubling the recipe isn’t too hard, and the time required doesn’t change all that much. It’s not mind-blowing fresh off the stove, but it holds well for a week and is excellent for breakfast purposes. This time we used a mix of 2% and whole milk shredded cheddar - I think next time using all 2% will be better.

2. Roasted Vegetable Salad Meal Prep (Budget Bytes). We quadrupled this recipe and cut out the quinoa. We messed up a bit by baking both the mushrooms from this recipe and another one, but ultimately it just added more flavor to the chicken. I haven’t tried this yet.

3. One Pot Chicken and Mushroom Orzo (Damn Delicious). This is the second recipe from Chungah that we’ve tried, though it wasn’t as much of a hit as her pot roast. It was a bit creamier than I expected, so if we do this again I’d replace the heavy cream with half-and-half. I also should have checked that the chicken was fully cooked through before setting it aside. The recipe could also use some more spinach - a full 5 oz. bag will work fine. We made two batches at once, which was quite the move.

4. Unstuffed Bell Peppers (Budget Bytes). A rare miss from Beth. We cooked this and the end result was a bit too watery (though that’s probably on us for not adjusting the simmering time). The tomato sauce and 4 bell peppers (we doubled the recipe) may have contributed to a bit too much sweetness in the dish, so next time I’d probably look to reduce the amount of tomato sauce used (I don’t think it meaningfully contributed to the dish either). Thick cut mozzarella also wasn’t the move here - it takes too long to melt and is super annoying to distribute into containers.

Overall, I enjoyed cooking this week as much as any other week. I may not enjoy eating this week as much as the one before it though.