With this being the first full work week back since the holidays, I thought the week was going to go by so slowly. Can’t speak for anyone else, but it went by pretty quickly for me.

Quick confession, Brian primarily handles dinners in our house. I mean, why would I do it when he can whip up anything rather quickly and with little effort (or at least that’s how I see it from my vantage point). Another confession, because of this, I tend to “check out” or even think of “what’s for dinner”.

Because I “check out” I struggle every single day when Brian asks me, “what do you want for dinner?” Whenever he asks me, I swear it feels like the hardest question ever. I never seem to have an idea or a taste for anything. Can anyone else relate? Prior to Brian entering my life over 10 years ago, as a single gal, “what’s for dinner” would consist of whatever I could find in my cupboards. Chips and salsa? Sure. Leftover takeout lunch from earlier in the day? Ok. A salad? Alright. I didn’t put much thought into dinner.

With that being said, I generally leave the meal planning, grocery shopping and dinner preparation up to Brian to handle. And, before anyone thinks that its a bit unfair, I handle all clean up…and let me tell you, there is a lot of clean up when you live with a chef. Also, if he still had to cook on a daily basis for work, I would probably pitch in more often.

All that to say, I managed to make a couple of meals this week to give Brian a break. While my meals weren’t nearly close to his caliber, I at least did my best. On Monday I made a cowboy stew and on Tuesday I made a stuffed pepper soup. Both were made in the slow cooker. They were both delicious, but I think I would like to tweak a few things and make them both again before sharing.

I did also manage to make a batch of pickled red onions. We use pickled red onions for a lot of things. As a taco topping, a salad topping, you name it. We tend to keep a jar of these in our fridge, similar to like the usual condiments.

Here’s how I do it…and it’s super easy. Thinly slice one whole red onion. The key is to cut them evenly and consistently. I love onions, but what I don’t like it taking a bite into a thick slice of onion. You can pickle them thin or thick, what is your preference. Once sliced, I then cram them into a mason jar.

I then take 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup of water, just under 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, and 1 tablespoon of salt into a saucepan over medium heat. Stir under the sugar and salt are dissolved. I sometimes add in some whole peppercorns, which I did this time as you can see from the photo.

I let the mixture cool to room temperature before I pour it over the onions.

Place the covered mason jar with the pickled red onions in the fridge. The onions will be pickled and ready to eat once they are bright pink and tender, which is about an hour for very thinly sliced onions, or overnight for thicker sliced onions. Most recipes I’ve seen say that they can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. We generally eat them all within that timeframe.

Let me know if you make these and what you use them for.