Day 361: Best Deal of the Blog

As this blog comes to a close, I find myself reminiscing about the great things I cooked, ate, and discovered over the course of the past year.  One of my best discoveries by far, is Costco's $4.99 rotisserie chicken.  This bird is juicy, succulent, savory, and cheap!!  And, perfect for a night when you can't/don't want to cook.

Tonight was one of those nights.  I had planned ahead that I would go to the gym after work, which means that the earliest I would get home is 7 or 7:30.  So, my husband and I agreed that he would stop off at Costco on his way home.

When we take the easy way out on one piece of the meal, I like to cook another.  Tonight, I sauteed up some sugar snap peas that we had purchased at the farmer's market over the weekend.  I used a non-stick pan so that I didn't need much oil.  After heating up some olive oil, I sauteed the peas with S&P and a little bit of cayenne - I love the combination of sweet and spicy.  I let them cook over medium-high heat for a good 10 minutes, stirring them often.  This allowed them to soften up but still maintain a little bit of crunch.  Yum.

I find that this kind of dinner is a terrific compromise of easy, cheap, but with a homemade touch.  And for $4.99, you just cannot go wrong! 

Day 353: Some Assembly Required

To be honest, tonight's dinner was more assembled than cooked.  I purchased some fresh pasta (cooks in 2 minutes!), a package of Aidell's chicken/turkey meatballs, and some shaved parmesan cheese.  All I needed to do was make some quick sauce and prepare the pasta & balls as suggested on their packages and presto - dinner is ready!

To make the sauce, I threw a package of cherry tomatoes and two pressed garlic cloves into the food processor and pulsed it until the tomatoes were crushed.  Then I threw all of that into a pot with a couple of splashes of white wine, a few pinches of dried oregano, and S&P.  I brought all of it to a boil and then allowed it to simmer with the meatballs for about 15 minutes.

Then came the assembly.  I mixed the cooked pasta with the sauce and meatballs in the pot I had used to cook the pasta.  I then sprinkled in a generous dose of the parm and gently mixed it all together.  Once plated, I sprinkled some more cheese over the top.

So - very little of tonight's dinner was made from scratch - but it was tasty, easy, and healthful.  On busy work nights, sometimes that's the best you can do but I think you should be proud about making dinner at home no matter what you make.

Day 349: Fig F-Up

I had designed tonight's menu around some fresh figs I purchased a couple of days ago.  I thought it would be tasty to make a fig and goat cheese salad, served alongside lamb chops.

When I got to the store, however, there were no lamb chops!  I didn't see anything else that really appealed to me in terms of a cooking from scratch so I went with some store made turkey meatloaf that just needed to be cooked up.

Then I got home and realized that somehow, the figs I purchased had been thrown away!  They were in a brown paper bag, which I think was mistaken for a compost bag.  BUMMER!!  Fortunately, we had a package of vacuum sealed baby beets, purchased at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago.  Beets and goat cheese are a beautiful combination, so I simply swapped out the invisible figs for the beets and the salad was still tasty.

Rule #1:  always have a back-up plan (or at least have a well stocked pantry and be quick on your feet!).

Day 345: Proof That I'm Kind of Over It

I'm just 20 days away from wrapping up 365daysofdinner.com and it shows.  For the second time in a week, I forgot to take a picture of my dinner tonight.  Fortunately, we had leftovers that I could capture to help tell the story of this meal.

We had a couple of houseguests leaving late tonight and new ones arrived early in the day so we had a big dinner together.  To satisfy everyone, we grilled up a bunch of different things:  chicken breast, pork tenderloin, and spicy turkey sausage.  I also made a big salad with baby greens, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, and blanched zucchini that was leftover from the tart I made on Friday. 

Everyone enjoyed the meal, which was of course accompanied by lots of wine and a delicious local SF treat, It's-It ice cream sandwiches.  Friends, good wine, and tasty food.  What more do you need in life??

Day 334: Fab Fruit Salsa

Dinner tonight was grilled chicken breast with pear & jalapeno salsa with rice.  The rice was a Near East mix - the toasted almond rice pilaf to which I added a cup of defrosted peas for color and added nutrition.  I prepared the mix as suggested on the box, substituting chicken broth for the water, and the stirred the peas in after it was finished cooking.

The chicken was prepared simply.  I hammered it relatively thin and seasoned it on both sides with S&P.  After drizzled olive oil over it, my husband grilled it.

The chicken wasn't marinated because I wanted to serve it with some pear salsa on top.  I love making fruit salsas - the possibilities and combinations are endless.  The recipe for tonight's was:

1/2 bosc pear, finely diced

1/2 anjou pear, finely diced

1 small jalapeno pepper, minced (kept 1/2 the seeds to maintain some heat)

1/4 large shallot, minced

Juice from one lime

S&P to taste

It's great if you can allow the salsa to sit and come together for at least an hour before eating.

This whole meal took only about 1/2 hour to pull together and it was healthy and delicious!

Day 324: Italian Feast

During our weekly visit to Trader Joe's today, I found some beautiful basil and decided that dinner tonight would involve homemade pesto.  Pesto is so easy to make.  The following recipe makes enough to stuff four chicken breasts, but if you want to make it as a pasta sauce, you should probably double it.

Pesto:

1 packed cup of basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1.5 T pine nuts

1/2 + 1T freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 T butter

S&P to taste

Place basil, oil, garlic, and nuts in a food processor and mix until smoothly, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time.  Add cheese and butter and mix again until all ingredients are blended.  Add S&P to taste.

Pre-heat your oven at 375 degrees.  Slice the chicken lengthwise through the middle, being careful not to cut all the way through.  You want to be able to fold the chicken back like a book.  Once folded back, coat the inside of each chicken breast with about 1T pesto.  If you'd like, lay some roasted peppers over the pesto and fold the chicken back up again.  Place the breasts in a greased baking dish and smooth about a teaspoon of pesto over the top of each breast.

Bake the chicken for 25 minutes and then sprinkle some shredded mozzarella cheese over the top of each breast.  Bake for another 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Add another sprinkling of cheese and place the dish under the broiler until the top is browned.

Our side dish was sauteed baby broccoli (known as broccolini at Trader Joe's).  I first cooked 3 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes.  Once they were softened, I added the broccoli, a few splashes of white wine, and cranked the heat up to medium-high.  I added more wine every couple of minutes when the pan got dry to ensure that the garlic didn't burn.

The best part of tonight's dinner?  It's Sunday but there's not work tomorrow!  Enjoy your Memorial Day, everyone!

Day 321: Leftovers Supreme

With lots of tasty things in the house, there was no need to buy anything for dinner tonight.  Instead, I made a warm quinoa salad with the following items that we had on hand:

- vinaigrette made from juice of 1.5 lemons, 2 T olive oil, and S&P

- leftover rotisserie chicken

- corn scraped off a leftover cob

- half a bag of frozen spinach, defrosted (this is easy to do by running it under lukewarm water)

- some chopped up roasted tomatoes

- a handful of sliced almonds

Lots of tasty things could have gone into this dish:  frozen peas, crumbled goat cheese, chopped avocado.  Whatever!!  It felt good to use up some stuff we had on hand and to create such a tasty and healthful dinner.  Leftovers rule!

Day 320: Sometimes Edible is Good Enough

I stayed later than usual at the office so a quick and easy dinner solution was in order for tonight.  Luckily, my hubby was making a stop at Costco on the way home, so he picked up one of their delicious (savory!  juicy!) and cheap ($4.99!!) rotisserie chickens.

Our sides were 3 day old slaw that I made on Sunday and some supposedly spicy frozen Thai string beans from Trader Joe's.  The slaw wasn't super flavorful but it was edible.  The beans were technically edible, but neither my husband nor I actually ate them.  It's rare that we are disappointed with a Trader Joe's product.  In fact, the only other one I can think of that we didn't like was their sea salt, which was too finely ground and therefore difficult to shake out of the canister.

If you are the kind of person who eats to live, this was a great meal for you.  It took next to no time at all to pull together, was relatively well rounded, and was edible.  If you live to eat, like I do, this meal barely cut it.  It wasn't particularly satisfying, but at least I won't die of starvation tonight.  :-)

Day 314: Where is the Undo Button?

I purchased the most beautiful brussels sprouts at the farmers' market today.  Too bad I kind of ruined them!

Everyone knows that brussels sprouts and bacon are a match made in heaven.  I chopped up four strips of applewood smoked bacon and fried it up in a hot pan.  Once they were crisped up, I removed them and set them aside in some paper towel to remove the excess grease.  

After deglazing the pan with some white wine, I tossed in a finely chopped shallot and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and sauteed them for a few minutes.  After throwing in my sprouts, which I had trimmed and sliced in half lengthwise, I made my big mistake.  I shook in some red pepper flakes which wound up providing too much heat, overwhelming the whole dish.  If there was an "undo" button, I would surely have clicked on it!

Just prior to serving, I pulled out the thyme sprigs, added the bacon bits back in, and squeezed the juice of half a lemon over the whole mixture.  Had it not been for the red pepper flakes, this would have been a great side dish.

Our main course was chicken breasts, hammered thin and marinated in the juice of a lemon, olive oil, 3 smashed garlic cloves, fresh thyme, and S&P.  After about 1/2 hour, my hubby took care of grilling them up.

Not a bad meal, but it would have been great had it not been for my hot pepper mistake.  I feel horrible for screwing up such beautiful and fresh brussels sprouts but at least I learned my lesson.  Next time, perfect sprouts!!

Day 305: Super Soup

Dinner tonight was homemade chicken barley soup and some raw veggies dipped in Trader Joe's white bean hummus.

This is an easy soup but it does take awhile to make, so try it next time you're stuck at home due to weather, sick kids, or a seemingly endless wait for the cable guy.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut up into 8 parts

5 quarts (20 cups!!) of water

4 carrots, peeled and cut in half (or thirds if they are large)

4 stalks of celery, cut in half (or thirds if they are large)

3 onions, peeled and quartered

4 large cloves of garlic, peeled

6 sprigs each of dill and parsley

1 cup barley

S&P

Bring water to a boil and add chicken, continuing to boil the soup for 10 minutes.  Add carrots through garlic plus 1 heaping T of salt and reduce heat to low.  Partially cover the pot and simmer for 1.5 hours.  

Remove chicken from pot and set aside.  Remove vegetables and discard.  Continue to simmer the broth for another hour to reduce it and further concentrate the flavor.  

Taste the broth and decide whether it needs more salt (it probably will) and add to meet your desired saltiness.  Add the barley, dill, and parsley and cook the soup uncovered for another 45 minutes or until the barley is tender.  Discard the herbs.

Like most soups, this doesn't need to be made the day of consumption.  In fact, you can make it over the weekend and enjoy it throughout the week, making it well worth the time and effort!

Day 304: Rivers of Cheese

Is there such a thing as too much cheese.  I think not!  

Tonight I made enchiladas using leftover chicken from a soup I made over the weekend.  I shredded the meat and mixed it with 1/2 of a finely minced and sauteed onion and a can of black beans (rinsed).

I heated a can of enchilada sauce over low flame and added a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper to up the spiciness.  Once it was warm, I dipped a corn tortilla in the sauce and then placed some of the chicken mixture across the middle of it.  I sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese on top of the filling and rolled the tortilla as tightly as I could without tearing it.  I then laid the enchilada, flap side down, into a baking dish that I had coated with some of the enchilada sauce.

After repeating this exercise with five more tortillas, my dish was packed full.  I sprinkled some more cheese over the top, then poured the remaining enchilada sauce over everything, and then sprinkled what was left of the cheese on top of that.

The dish was baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and when I pulled it out of the oven, beautiful rivers of cheese flowed between each enchilada, the tortillas were softened, and the filling was warm.  Perfecto!

One of my favorite things about this dish is that it can be made with any filling and cheese you like.  You can also adjust the spice level by buying milder or hotter sauces or by adding cayenne pepper.  It's a great way to use leftovers you have on hand and it's easy to make and comes together quickly.  And...there are the rivers of cheese to consider!!

Day 298: Wrapping Up a Highly Caloric Week

I cannot recall a time in my life, other than possibly during college, when I would have consumed pizza, nachos, a cheeseburger, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, french fries, Doritos, beer, pie, and ice cream all in one week. Well, add tonight's fried chicken to that list and you now have a complete list of the junk that went into my face this week while visiting friends and family back east. It's horrifying really.

Tomorrow I return to California, thankfully known as the healthy food capital of the USA. It may cause me to go into shock, but I plan to cram as many veggies as I can into the system over the coming week or two. I know I can't undo what I already did but I sure can try to make up for it (and then some!). I hope the farmer's market is ready for me!

Day 297: Pub Grub

Tonight I met up with a bunch of friends at McGee's in NYC. I suppose that I'd say that my main course was beer, with some bits and bites of pub grub including chicken fingers, nachos, mozzarella sticks and thankfully, a veggie plate.

This has been a disaster of a week calorie-wise, but an extraordinary week of catching up with old friends. I'll take that trade off anytime!

Day 288: Zuni Cafe's Famous Chicken

After two and a half years of living in SF, we finally made it to the famous Zuni Cafe.  Zuni Cafe opened 30 years ago and is cheffed by Chez Panisse alum Judy Rogers.  It is a legendary place and it's hard to believe that it took us so long to check it out for ourselves!!

Any time I've heard someone talk about Zuni, it is usually coupled with mention of their chicken for two.  It is a whole chicken (cut into pieces), roasted to order with a bread stuffing with currants and pine nuts.  Mustard greens are tossed over the top.

You know when things are talked up so much that you automatically assume that there's no way that they can live up to the hype?  Well, this was one of those times, only it TOTALLY lived up to the hype.  Perfectly seasoned.  Crispy skin.  Delicious accompaniments.  When can I have it again?

Of course we had a couple of starters before the miracle chicken:  fried cauliflower, onions, and capers (fair), breasola with grilled fava beans (I did not care for this), and polenta with marscapone & parmesan cheese (um, YUM!).

Believe it or not, after all of this, we also had dessert.  I was very intrigued by the caramel and balsamic vinegar ice cream, which was most sweet but also a bit sour-tangy.  

What a meal!  And excellent service, too.  Our waiter was a recently relocated New Yorker, like us, and we enjoyed reminiscing about all the great food offered there.  When we go back to Zuni, we will definitely request Jeff as our server.

Day 286: Buh-Bye, Passover!!

For me, the worst part of Passover is not that I can't eat bread or cereal or pasta.  I don't eat much of any of that stuff.  But no legumes?  No rice?  That was tough.  So, to celebrate the first night in a week without such restrictions, I made an Indian dish tonight.

This was an easy dinner because I used some jarred sauce and only had to saute my chicken and veggies and make some rice.  I cubed two chicken breasts, browned the pieces in olive oil, and set them aside.

I deglazed the pan with some white wine and then tossed in a head of broccoli, a yellow bell pepper, and a couple of handfuls of sugar snap peas.  After a few minutes, I added a can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed).  

After a few more minutes, I added the sauce.  The one I chose tonight was a korma sauce, tomato based and spicy.  There are others I like as well - a spinach one and a tangy lemony cilantro one.  

A few minutes before serving, I added the chicken back into the pan and cooked until it was heated through.  Covering the pan speeds that process.  I served the mixture over brown rice and gobbled it up.  Oh, rice and beans, how I have missed you!

Day 283: Chicken x 2

I cooked up some delicious chicken soup and matzoh balls over the weekend and used the leftovers to make a delicious dinner tonight.

The remaining chicken that I hadn't returned to the broth went into a salad with arugula, yellow bell pepper, sliced beets, chopped carrots and celery, and sliced almonds.  My very favorite bottled dressing, Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette brought it all together.

And of course, my yummy matzoh ball soup made a great pairing with the salad.  Sadly, the soup is now finished.  My hubby has requested that we have matzoh balls again soon but I'm torn.  Keep it as a special annual holiday treat or make them more often throughout the year?  Thoughts?

Day 282: Brownie Points from (Someone Else's) Mom

We have a couple of goy friends who really love when I cook up a Jewish feast for them.  So, in celebration of Passover, I invited ourselves to their house with a feast in tow:  matzoh ball soup, brisket, and roasted butternut squash.  One friend's parents were in town so it was a downright Passover party of six.

This was actually my first time making matzoh balls, so I cheated and relied on a mix.  Considering how delicious they turned out, I may cheat every time!

My soup took awhile to come together but once it was done, it was SO good.  I followed a recipe from Epicurious.com but found that once it was complete, the broth was thin and rather tasteless.  To solve that problem, I simmered the broth (minus the chicken which I reserved to serve with the soup and the veggies which I threw away) for about 2 additional hours, allowing it to reduce, bringing out much more flavor.  Adding more salt helped as well.

My brisket recipe was also from Epicurious.com.  I prepared this dish for others on Hanukkah to rave reviews and it didn't disappoint this time either.

I roasted the butternut squash simply.  After peeling it and removing the seeds, I cut it up into uniform 1 inch pieces and mixed them with olive oil, about 2 T fresh thyme leaves, and a good dose of S&P.  I lay the pieces out in a single layer on a baking sheet and roasted it at 400 degrees for about 22 minutes, or until very tender.

My friends loved the meal, as did my husband and the visiting parents.  They didn't just clear their plates, they gobbled it all up and handed out lots of compliments.  I'm always happy to earn some Mom love, even from someone who isn't my own mom!

Day 275: Shepherd's Pie Purists Should Not Read This

The inspiration for tonight's dinner was a head of cauliflower that had been in my fridge for a little over week.  I decided to use that cauliflower to make a healthier version of one of my favorite comfort foods - shepherd's pie.

I love traditional shepherd's pie made with ground lamb and mashed potatoes.  And to be honest, that version is much tastier than the one I created tonight although mine was quite a bit more nutritious.

After cutting the cauliflower up into halved florets, I tossed the pieces with olive oil, S&P, an roasted them at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes (until golden brown along the edges).  Then, I placed them in a food processor with 1T butter and 1/4 cup skim milk and blended until smooth.  I used this mixture as a replacement for the mashed potatoes that are normally smoothed along the top of shepherd's pie.

For the meat layer of the dish, I used an Allrecipes.com recipe as the base with the following changes to further lighten up the dish:

- 1.5 lb ground turkey instead of 1 lb ground beef 

- low sodium chicken broth instead of beef broth

- Red Dragon mustard seed cheddar instead of plain cheddar

I also added 2T worcestershire sauce, 1.5 tsp dried oregano, and replaced the ketchup with tomato paste for more flavor.  In retrospect, a couple of cloves of garlic would have done a lot of good as well.

This dish was okay and there wasn't the usual guilt I feel after eating "real" shepherd's pie.  I'd probably try several other recipes before making this one again.  It simply wasn't all that tasty - and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the replacements that made it so.  It was more likely the lack of spice and seasoning.

Our side dish, asparagus fresh from the farmer's market, was delicious though.  I'm glad we bought two bunches so we enjoy more later in the week!

Day 271: Can You Spot My Secret Ingredient?

The goal tonight was to use up a bunch of items that we had on hand:  cherry tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, spinach, and a fennel bulb.  I decided to make some whole grain pasta and toss in those items and some others that we also had:  garlic, parmesan cheese, and my favorite secret ingredient - white wine!  The only thing I actually had to purchase was some spicy turkey sausage.

I mixed the tomatoes with two large cloves of pressed garlic, about 1.5T of olive oil, and S&P and poured everything into a square glass baking dish.  The dish went into a 375 degree oven.

Next, I set the pasta water to boil (with salt & olive oil, of course) and cooked the pasta until al dente.  While that was happening, I prepared the rest of the dish.

I chopped up two links of spicy turkey sausage and thinly sliced the fennel.  These ingredients went into a large saute pan that had been pre-heated with a light coating of olive oil.  I also added about 2-3T of white wine and stirred frequently, cooking the mixture until the fennel was softened up (about 10 minutes).  

Then, I rough chopped four large handfuls of bagged baby spinach and added them to the pan.  The tomatoes had burst in the oven by the time the spinach was wilted, so I dumped them into the pan with everything else and cooked the mixture for another couple of minutes.  Then the cooked and drained pasta went into the pan and I cooked everything until the pasta was heated through (the noodles had finished before my sausage and veggie mixture, so I had drained them and rinsed them in cold water to stop the cooking process).

Finally, I tossed in about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese and mixed everything together again.  Once the pasta was plated, I sprinkled another healthy dose of cheese over the top and some chopped fresh basil leaves over that.

This was a decent recipe - not one of my favorites, but a tasty and well-rounded meal with whole grain, protein, vegetables, and calcium.  The best part was, it enabled me to use up a bunch of stuff we had on hand just in time for the weekend.  Because you know I don't "do cooking" on Friday or Saturday nights.  Speaking of that, any restaurant recommendations to share?

Day 263: Hi, Jeanne's Mom!!

We were very fortunate to have a wonderful house guest tonight, my college friend Jeanne.  Like me, she likes to eat healthy.  Lucky for us, we had a nice sunny day today and with the time change, we can use our grill in the daylight!  Woohoo!  And since Jeanne's mom is a loyal follower of this blog, I am dedicating tonight's entry to her!  Hi, Jeanne's mom!

I pounded three boneless chicken breasts so they would cook more quickly.  I placed them in a Ziploc bag with the following marinade:  1/4 cup orange juice, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 5 smashed cloves of garlic, 2 T olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 onion cut into large chunks.

The chicken marinated for about an hour - certainly, it could have stayed longer, but by then it was after 7pm and we were hungry!  As usual, my husband took care of the grilling, cooking the chicken for 18 or 20 minutes.

I made a quinoa salad as a side dish.  See entry #247 for tips on how to steam quinoa.  I mixed the quinoa into the juice and zest of a large lemon, 1 tsp sugar, and 2 T olive oil.  I also added half a bag of frozen spinach (defrosted with all liquid squeezed out), half a diced yellow bell pepper, and about 1/4  cup of toasted pine nuts.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  If it needs a little more bit or saltiness, try sprinkling in some rice vinegar.

A midweek house guest is a joy, especially one that we love so dearly.  The good food was just icing on the cake tonight!