Monthly Meal Wrap Up for August (and some recipes from Dinner: Changing the Game)

This month I picked up Dinner: Changing the Game by New York Times food writer Melissa Clark, and we are definitely adding some recipes to our regular repertoire! The Roasted Sausage and Cauliflower is so simple and yet, unique - especially the yogurt sauce which takes seconds to make. I also loved the easy clean up; we served it with microwave brown rice and just tossed the foil from our sheet pans!

We also enjoyed the Cumin Chicken Meatballs with spicy green sauce. Again, super quick and easy to make with a tasty and unique sauce. This one we also served up with some brown rice and roasted broccoli. It was perfect to eat with the kids, because they really enjoyed the meatballs (they were a little plain on their own) without the jalapeno laden sauce.

This cookbook definitely delivers on it's promise of inventive, UNFUSSY food with great flavor. I hope to try a few more recipes!

As part of the Influenster network, I got a freebie trial of the new Quaker Overnight Oats and, I must say, I was rather impressed.

I've certainly made my own overnight oats, but it seems to take a lot of tinkering to get it juuuuust right with the flavors. These tasted perfectly sweet/but not too sweet and the convenience factor is HUGE. Plus there's no weird preservatives in them - just flavored with straight up sugar and banana flakes! Definitely recommend, especially with coconut milk and strawberries.

August was also a fun month for food and dining out! My husband and I tried a new restaurant for my birthday dinner and it was lovely. Carmines is a new-ish establishment in Bellevue, but opened by the folks behind longtime Seattle favorite Il Terrazzo Carmine. 

The grilled romaine salad with proscuitto and blue cheese dressing was sooooo good, as was my pillowy gnocchi.

My husband's risotto was some of the best I've ever tasted and I don't think I've ever devoured tiramisu so quickly. Highly recommend!

And we did some eating out at Crystal Mountain on our summer road trip. The Summit House was lovely, both the views and the food.

As was the Alpine Inn for dinner, where we learned that neither of us have ever ordered our kids a Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers. We remedied that situation and now they want to order them wherever we go!

I also took them out for their first real sushi experience and they were as adventurous as I expected them to be, which is to say - the most exotic thing consumed was crab. But! I'll take it! Baby steps...

September is all about soccer season and getting back into the swing of things with school. Hopefully we'll have time to experiment with some new recipes...