Keeping this week’s intro short because “The Week of the Marinades” below is a doozy. We’re back from a long weekend in NYC with the kids and to sum up the trip, just like a meme I saw mentioned, I am grateful for the opportunity to vacation with parent my kids in another city. 😅
But really, a week to be grateful for my family, period. The news in Texas has hit me hard and I know I’m not alone. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that grief doesn’t discriminate, our lives can change in an instant, and being present is all we really have. Live it up, my friends. If I wish anything for all of us is that we always find the strength to move forward during hard times and the faith to always hope that good will come (as it always inevitably does). have a wonderful weekend!
a week in photos…
thanks to my loos/rodriguez favorites for being the BEST hosts. we love you guys!
The Week of the Marinades
You know what’s worse than coming back from vacation? Coming back on a Monday night (a weeknight omg) to hit the ground running on Tuesday. I don’t know about you but towards the end of a vacation, i’m itching to get home and stabilize my life again. I know, sue me, I’m boring—a creature of routine and structure. Like I told my friends this past weekend “cozy is my vibe,” as I proceeded to go to bed at 9pm on vacation.
Anywho, because I got home on a Monday night, I didn’t meal plan. And to be clear, in full transparency, life cannot be one big meal plan. It’s truly unrealistic. While this initially gave me some anxiety, I am actively trying to get better at “winging it” in the “what to eat during the week” department because, let’s be honest, we’re all bound to fall off the bandwagon at some point or another. And having a Plan B when your Plan A fails is always a good thing. So my Plan B, and I’ve mentioned this before, was to buy a few proteins, restock on veggies, and go simple.
What is simple you ask?
First and foremost, you should know, if you don’t already, that I am ALWAYS asking cooking questions. You’ve seen me on instagram. I want to know all the things about how people are cooking and why they’re cooking something a certain way, and what they used to marinate the protein, and how long something needs to bake for, and what spice was used, and why something tastes a certain way, and what their favorite recipe is, so on and so forth. I have learned everything I know about cooking through cookbooks, instagram and asking anyone and everyone who cooks in front of me tons of questions. So after I saw my friend Natalie pull steak and veggies in a marinade (in a ziploc bag) out of the fridge this weekend, and proceeded to cook the most delicious meal, a lightbulb went off in my head: OMG, I need to “marinate and cook” more.
So my idea of simple this week was: to marinate, set, and cook all week. I bought proteins I thought would work well, chicken, pork loin, and steak, bought 2 new marinades I wanted to try, and went to town.
And frankly, I was impressed with this entire week and would 100% repeat every single recipe I cooked over again. I didn’t spend more than 10 minutes prepping anything and cooked for max 30 minutes every day. It was glorious. I was able to get my post-vacation sh*t together without spending too much time in the kitchen, and still enjoyed a home-cooked meal at the end of it.
Tuesday—chicken breast marinated in Loisa marinade. i really liked this meal (8/10) but I have to say that as a true cubanita I will forever be partial to Goya sofrito. It tastes more Cuban, more like home. BUT Loisa was a truly great marinade and I would 100% purchase and add to your stock. If you’re a Goya die hard, I would just use both marinades on the chicken instead of just using Loisa.
ingredients: chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, yellow onion, Loisa sofrito marinade.
how to:
in the AM—cut the chicken breast in half and pound them thin; salt pepper seasoning on both sides; stick them into a gallon sized ziploc and top with the loisa marinade.
in the PM—add olive oil and cook the chicken through in a dutch oven. remove from the pan. add sliced onions and halved cherry tomatoes. add more salt and pepper. wait for everything to cook down a bit. add the chicken back and cook for another 3 minutes (until cooked through).
serve with white rice!
Wednesday—pork chops marinated in Cava Lemon Herb Tahini marinade. wow, wow. This marinade was the BEST find. 10/10. I usually use Primal Kitchen marinades for pork chops but i loved this one so much better. It was lemony, and herby, and just the right amount of flavor!
ingredients: pork chops, yellow onion, Cava marinade.
how to:
in the AM—place your loins in a gallon sized ziploc and top with the marinade.
in the PM—slice your onions. cook them in olive oil on a cast iron pan until they’ve caramelized. add in the pork chops and cook through for about 8 minutes. *chef’s kiss!*
on the side: I outdid myself and it was SUCH an easy outdoing that I deserve a pat on the back. This past weekend we went to L’Artusi in NYC (100% recommend) and ate these potatoes seasoned with flash fried rosemary, thyme, parsley, and it was SO delicious, I had to try some version of it at home. Since I had a few veggies and fingerling potatoes at home (some from the week prior), I spread everything out on a pan, drizzled olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, dried thyme, baked at 375 for 30-45 minutes (I took out the broccolini and corn before so it wouldn’t burn) and omg. it was delish!
Thursday—steak stir fry with veggie and olive oil marinade. This was me trying to mimic Natalie’s steak marinade over the weekend and I LOVED how this came out. 10/10. I didn’t use any marinade here except for olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, sliced yellow pepper (but I would opt for green—I used what I had), and sliced yellow onion.
ingredients: flank steak (churrasco) cut into small slivers or even small squares, yellow onion, green pepper, salt, pepper, onion powder, Goya sofrito (LOL guilt creeping in by Thursday), Tom’s Guava BBQ sauce.
how to:
in the AM—cut the churrasco and season with salt and pepper. place inside of a gallon sized ziploc bag, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a little onion powder and add sliced onion and green pepper. place in fridge.
in the PM—add olive oil to a dutch oven and just add the contents of the bag straight into the pan. after about a minute I added about a teaspoon of the sofrito and mixed and then added bbq sauce to our liking (was about the same). done in max 8 minutes.
served over: white rice and next to leftover fingerling potatoes!
Thank you for the reminder to marinate more 🤯