Monday Night Family Dinner

My roommates and I decided we should have "Family Dinners" on Monday nights so we can sit down at the table and spend a little time together. All of our schedules are pretty different and we're all busy so it's nice to have a time where we can relax and just spend some down time together. It's a little cheesy but I look forward to it every week. To make things fair, we decided to take turns with the cooking responsibilities so we rotate who prepares the meal each week. Last Monday, Michelle made some amazing chicken and broccoli for us. Karina has yet to have a turn but she's already warned us that her contribution is going to look and taste a lot like Domino's pizza ;)

Anyway, yesterday was my turn so I decided to make a roasted vegetable dish that my mom makes, as well as some mushroom risotto. It was really simple and really good (although the risotto wasn't as creamy as I had imagined it being). Here's the breakdown:

Roasted Veggies and Sausage
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
6 baby red skin potatoes
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 small head of broccoli
1/2 large yellow onion (and when I say large, I mean huge. That onion was monstrous!)
3 Italian style sausages
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper (to taste; the sausage is super flavorful so you really don't need it)

Basically, just chop everything up and throw it on a baking sheet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Here's what mine looked like before it went into the oven:

Moving on to the risotto:
1 cup Arborio rice (good thing I had plenty because I gracefully spilled the ENTIRE first cup all over my kitchen floor!)
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 chicken broth
1/4 cup yellow onion, minced
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
10 oz sliced cremini mushrooms (I say ounces because I used the presliced ones that came out of a bag. Yes, I was too lazy to chop my own.)

1. Heat the chicken stock in a medium sauce pot over medium heat
2. In a separate pot, add your olive oil and your minced onion and sautee until the onions are translucent (it won't take long)
3. Add in your rice and the 1/4 cup of broth
4. One ladle at a time, add the chicken stock making sure that each ladle full is absorbed before adding another
5. Once the stock is combined with the rice, add the butter and mushrooms to the stock pot and sautee for about 5 minutes.
6. Combine the rice and the mushrooms and serve!

The final combo:

Delish! I'm off to the gym. Hope you're all having a good night! :)