Today's Special: Hope You Like Seafood!

Monday: Portobello "Philly Cheese Steak" Sandwiches with Oven Sweet Potato Fries- I've made the sweet potato fries before (so they were obviously good enough to make again...) but the sandwich recipe was new. I'm always skeptical of recipes that replace meat with veggies, because it usually doesn't taste near as good. I have to admit this was pretty good. It was certainly a lot healthier than the normal version, which was a plus and it had a lot of flavor. I don't think it was any cheaper to make than the meat version because portobellos are pretty pricey. If you'd like to make a healthier version of the philly steak sandwich, prefer vegetarian stuff, or just want to try something new, give this a shot. If you don't care about any of that stuff I just mentioned, I'd stick with the meat version... it's still my favorite!

Tuesday: Puerto Rican Fish Stew (Bacalao)- New Recipe. I thought this sounded a little weird, but the picture looked good and it had good reviews so I gave it a shot. It was really easy and fast to make and tasted great. If you're wary of fish chunks in your soup, don't be. I used tilapia and didn't think this was fishy tasting at all. Seth asked if it was chicken. I added about a cup or so of extra chicken broth because it wasn't "soupy" enough when it was done cooking. I'd make this again.

Wednesday: Seared Salmon on Herbed Mashed Peas - Because mashed cauliflower was such a success, Seth said I should try mashing up more vegetables. I'd seen this recipe on my list of things to try so I thought it'd be a good time to give it a shot. I thought the peas would turn out that yucky "baby poo" green, but I was happy to see that it was more of a fresh looking "Spring" green. Definitely much more appetizing to look at. Anyway, we both thought this tasted great. I used thyme in mine instead of tarragon because I was using it for other recipes this week and I couldn't find fresh tarragon at the store. Fresh herbs are expensive so I always try to use them all up fast so they don't go to waste.

Thursday: Market Street Clam Chowder- This is the only other clam chowder recipe I'll make besides my mom's. I figured it would be a good week to make it because I had to buy leeks for the mashed pea mixture on Wednesday. It's a bit spicey so you may want to tone down the Tabasco for the kids, but it sure is good! Oh! Also if you use cooking Sherry instead of the real stuff, make sure you cut back on the salt by about 3/4 tsp.

Friday: Grilled Chicken with Mustard Tarragon Sauce- New Recipe. To tell you the truth I wasn't all that excited to try this recipe. I'm usually not a big fan of eating a big piece of chicken breast for my main meal... let alone a big chicken breast on salad. BUT. This was awesome. I really liked it a lot and actually went back for seconds. The dressing/sauce went so well with the chicken and mix of salad greens I bought. Also, because I couldn't find fresh tarragon, I used fresh thyme as in the recipes above. Don't substitute dried stuff... the fresh herbs are a major player in this.