Oh my gosh, ya’ll. This one was on the BEST meals I have ever made. And the best part was, it was pretty much on accident. In the busyness of the holiday weekend, I didn’t do any meal planning. This entire week I’ve been throwing together meals from our freezer, eeking out every last bit of creativity I have. (I don’t recommend this as a regular strategy.) Yesterday I discovered a few packs of grits in our pantry, and with a bag of frozen shrimp, a bag of frozen corn and some goat cheese…. DINNER!
It was incredible.
To make: make grits per package directions and add in 1-2 oz goat cheese per person. (I used about 4 oz for the 2 of us, and it definitely give it enough flavor.) Add in the frozen corn while it’s cooking.
I cooked the shrimp with about 1/4 cup of light beer (3 “glugs” is literally how I measure) and salt, pepper and chili flakes. Right before they’re ready to serve, I added another 1/4 cup (3 more glugs) of barbeque sauce. The one I used is Sweet Baby Ray’s.
That’s it – it’s literally just heat and eat. And prepare to sit back and receive the compliments!
As soon as it gets somewhat cold outside, I just start getting this compulsive urge to roast every single vegetable I come across. I’d never thought of roasting onions as a stand-alone (just mixed in with some other root veggies), but there was a recipe in October’s issue of Everyday Food that made them look so scrump I couldn’t resist. I was cooking steaks and homemade potato fries to celebrate the end of internal medicine month for Matt, and I thought roasted onions would be a great complement.
I started with 2 6 oz spuds and used my brand stinkin’ new KitchenAid multi slicer to make the tater slices. So much easier than doing them by hand! I never got them evenly sliced, so I was always having a few burnt or a few mushy ones on the cooking sheet. (Thank you, Mom! We found this lovely device on sale at HomeGoods and my mom was kind enough to no-reason gift it to me.)
Once sliced, I throw the taters in a ziploc baggy with about 2 tsp of olive oil and give ‘em a really vigorous shake. Then I pour ‘em on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with either kosher salt or a little bit of seasoning salt, depending on what kind of mood we’re in. (Tonight was a seasoning salt kind of night.)
Those go in the oven at 450 for 15-ish minutes. I really don’t know exactly how long they take, I am frequently opening up the oven to test them. I apologize for my lack of exactness.
On to the onions!
Start with a gorgeous red onion.
Chop, chop, chop. Into wedges. Throw in a bowl and add in some peeled garlic cloves. Drizzle one tablespoon of olive oil over everything and then sprinkle liberally with rosemary.
Before you put it all in the oven, lean in a get a big sniff. Onions, garlic and rosemary OH MY! Your house is going to start smell delicioso in about 2 minutes. These also go in your 450 oven (convienent!) and they’ll take 15 minutes to roast. If you remember, sneak over and give ‘em a flip about half way through. I was busy manning the grill and forget to do this – turned out fine.
When they’re done, you MUST must must drizzle them with a little bit of white wine vinegar. This was the yummy clincher. The combination of the savory oil and the hint of vinegar worked really well.
As I’ve confessed, I like to rip off restaurant favorites and try to healthy them up a bit. One of my favorite meals here in town is a salad with fried goat cheese patties in it. Two places here serve it: 6th & Vine in downtown Winston and Riverburch Lodge. It’s a toss-up as to which one I like better. 6th and Vine might win solely because I usually eat it on their gorgeous back porch, and for better or worse, ambience is half my taste buds!
Anyways, I figured “Fried” + “Cheese” were probably two things I shouldn’t go too crazy with BUT on the other hand, goat cheese is one of the lowest in calories and fats. A few months ago, my Everyday Food magazine featured a recipe on how to make them using panko and it was way easier than I imagined.
I went to work and was so delighted with the results I had to share it. The key is to start with REALLY cold goat cheese, so it slices into nice disks. Then, you just drop each disc into a little bit of egg WHITE. After the egg white bath, they flip over to a bath of either panko crumbs or grind up a slice of WHOLE WHEAT bread.
After that they can go into a pan with just some spray olive oil and abt 1 tsp of oil oil per little disc. They don’t take long to crisp up before you need to flip them. The stats will depend on how much olive oil you use, and how many discs you put on your salad per person. Here’s a quick way to tally it all up.
I put three goat cheese discs on a salad with blueberries, a few chopped almonds, 1 T of olive oil and fresh ground pepper. It was words-fail-me delicious.
This was Monday’s recipe in my meal plan for the week, and I gotta tell ya’ll, it is one of my faves.
Pork with Peanut Sauce
Unfortunately, I rarely follow a recipe exactly, so I forgot to tell you about a few tweaks I made. If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s a few pointers.
- If you bought pork tenderloin, broil it. It takes about ~8-10 minutes on each side, and it’ll have this delicious, crispy outside and perfectly tender inside. Plus, it’s way faster than the grill / oven.
Broiled Pork Tenderloin
- I use about half the peanut butter called for in the sauce, and gently bump up the soy sauce / rice vinegar to taste. I’ve made this the original way, and it’s a little too peanut butter-y of a texture and taste. I like it to be more runny, with just a hint of the PB taste. This is also key for cutting some of the calories. I forgot I had actually made this and posted it about 2 months ago, and you can see here the thicker texture as well as thinner pork chops. This week’s was much better… what can I say, my cooking is a work in progress!
Tuesday I made the Chicken Marsala. I listed the recipe here. Again, tweaks. (I’d be a terrible chemist and/or engineer.)
Chicken Marsala
I love the sauce on this… it tastes even better the second day when the chicken has hung out in that sauce and just soaked it all up. This recipe originally came from WW “Simply the Best” cookbook, and they list the stats at 390, including the brown rice (which I did not list on the recipe). Sure beats Olive Garden’s 770 calorie version!
After I made it, I decided the grapes really didn’t add much. I think I would leave them out in the future, and put mushrooms back in. What’s chicken marsala without mushrooms?
I usually note in my cookbooks when I made a dish, what the reactions were, and any changes I’ve made. The last time I made this dish was actually November 26th, 2006. This is when I first start taking pictures of my food. I think I’ve come a long way in photography, as well as cooking. Here’s the original picture from nearly 3 years ago. I have no idea what setting I was using that made the dish look so…gray.
Original Chicken Marsala, Early Photography Days
Tonight, Chef Salad is still on the menu and I’m looking forward to a lighter dinner. Okay, sort of light, this salad does involve bacon and cheese. Everything in moderation, right?
You ready to eat? Me too. Eliminate the “what’s for dinner” dilemma with some simple meal planning. Or, cheat and use mine.
Diner beware, this meal plan was based on what was on sale at my Harris Teeter (North Carolina) and what was in my freezer. I also rely on a lot of pantry staples that I keep on hand. I’ll include links to all the recipes, so double check to make sure you have all the ingredients you’ll need.
Pantry Staples: Spices, Vinegars, Soy Sauce
I really love when a lot of my recipes overlap on an ingredient or two. This week’s overlap, for some reason, seemed to be scallions and sour cream. Which is delightful, since both those objectives almost always seem to turn into science experiments in my fridge!
Get Hungry! I’ll give you the quick run-down, then details to follow.
Mon: Pork Tenderloin with peanut sauce, sauteed broccoli and a green salad
Tues: Chicken Marsala with whole wheat linguine, asparagus
Wed: Chef’s Salad
Thurs: Black Bean Tostadas with Spicy Chicken Sausage
Details here:
Monday: Pork tenderloin (half-price @ Teeter), with peanut sauce, sauteed broccoli and a green salad. I’ll be making the sauce and broccoli from this recipe, but subbing pork instead. You can, of course, stick with the flank steak si vous plait.
Peanut Sauce
Tuesday: Chicken Marsala with roasted asparagus (on sale @ Teeter). This recipe originated from the Weight Watcher’s Simply the Best cookbook, and it’s wonderful. And EASY. (Yay easy.) You can eat it solo, or serve it over brown rice or whole wheat linguine. Matt will be having it over linguine, because we have some in the pantry. I’ll be eating it solo, because we don’t have that much in the pantry. To roast the asparagus, after you snap off the ends and wash them, throw in a ziploc baggie with 1 T of Olive Oil. Shake, shake, shake, and lay out on cookie sheet. Add a pinch of kosher salt, and roast in the oven at 400 for 10-ish minutes.
Wednesday: Chef’s Salad. I like this one because it’s a little bit decadent with the bacon (Oscar Meyer – on sale @ Teeter) but it uses a really light homemade dressing. I’ll actually sub half of the sour cream it calls for and put in Stonyfield Plain Lowfat yogurt. (Also on sale at Teeter. I know, isn’t this amazing???) You can order the meat from the deli and just ask them to slice it very thick, 1 inch, and chop it into pieces yourself.)
My Favorite Swap Ingredient
Thursday: Black Bean Tostada with Spicy Chicken Sausage. Brace yourself, I’ve got another Everyday Food recipe. (That’s my #1 source of recipes, so expect many to come from there.) I’ll use this recipe, and I’ll add in al fresco au natural chicken sausage to my hubby’s, so his isn’t a vegetarian option. For the chicken sausage, just tear open the casing, and brown in a nonstick skillet and mix in with the black beans. The spicy jalapeno one is the best for this.
By Friday, we like to kick our feet up and let someone else do the cooking. No, unfortunately, not our personal chef, just restaurant eating. Or, one of our willing friends or neighbors. So, I rarely plan through Friday. Hope this is enough to get you started on meal planning, using your pantry staples and grocery store sales. Get cooking!
*If you want to calculate the calorie counts for any of these meals, just plug your ingredients and servings into this here website and let them do their calculating magic.
My husband voted this “best dinner in our new house”… so you’re receiving this recipe with very high marks from the dinner critic! (We’ve been in our new house since May, so that’s about 4 months of dinners!)
If you’re nervous about cooking fish, I understand. It’s taken me almost 4 years of cooking to really feel comfortable with recognizing when it’s done, and it turns out fish cooks a lot faster than I ever realized. But the health benefits and taste make it worthwhile, so start practicing! Harris Teeter had wild-caught Alaskan salmon sale last week, so I couldn’t resist these beautiful guys.
Salmon Fillets
I seasoned the salmon with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper and then roasted it at 450 degrees (pre-heated oven) for about 10 minutes. You can tell it’s done when you stick the figure in, give it a slight twist and it starts to flake.
While the salmon is cooking, I whisked together 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard, 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard*, 2 tsp of brown sugar and a small chopped up green onion. When the salmon was done, I just poured the mixture over the top of it.
I served it with a green salad, as well as roasted squash and steamed green beans. The whole meal took about fifteen minutes from fridge to table. I’m not sure whether to be delighted or depressed that all these time-consuming recipes I’ve done in the past were beat out by this fifteen minute, five ingredient all-star. But I definitely know it will be a staple in the future.
Salmon with Simple Sauce
If you’re not a fish eater, the sauce would be delicious poured over pork chops or turkey breast as well.
*I only had dijonnaise, which worked just fine and gave it a slightly creamier texture.
On our first date, Matt took me to Village Tavern, a favorite restaurant to many here in Winston-Salem. VT became our favorite date night place, and we’ve been there for every important celebration meal since we lived in Winston. After Matt proposed to me in a nearby garden, we walked over to Village Tavern where I found both of our families waiting there as a surprise to celebrate with us. A few weeks ago when we went to VT we were asked to fill out a survey of our experience. One of the questions was “How many times have you visited the Tavern?” We did some quick math and figured out that after 9 years in Winston, we had probably been close to fifty times.
All that is to introduce my at-home VT chips. VT is known for their delicious homemade potato chips – they are so perfectly sliced, and there always seems to be a mixture of some soft chips and some crispy chips. We don’t get the chips every time, as we know they’re not exactly the healthiest choice but they are one of our favorite treats.
So I decided to see if I could master the VT chips at home, and try to health-ify them a little bit. I use 4 oz of potatoes per person (FYI, each 1 oz of raw potato is abt 20 cals) and slice them reeeeeally thin. Laid them out on a cookie sheet, sprayed them down with Pam Olive Oil and baked at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. A quick sprinkle of Kosher salt and paprika and onion powder and they were done. SO. GOOD.
VT Chips
Don’t worry, VT, we’ll still be back but I’ll definitely be making these chips at home! My next step is to purchase a mandolin so I can make the slices a little more even – that was the only challenge with cooking these because mine were slightly uneven, and some of the slices were still a little undercooked as other ones were getting crispy.
(As you can see, we really went for pretend restaurant at home. These chix soy patties from Morningstar make me feel just like we’re eating another Southern favorite, Chik-Fil-A patties!)
Every summer I start to get a craving for my favorite sandwich: roasted zucchini and summer squash with basil and cheese. When I was in high school, working in a little coffee shop-cafe on the Erie Canal, this was my all time favorite sandwich. Our version was heavy on the pesto and mozzarella. My version preserves the delicious fragrant taste of basil with the savory roasted veggies for a much healthier, but just as delicious summer time treat. Enjoy!
When we were growing up, my mom would pull everything out the fridge every 2-3 weeks, pile it up on the counter and hand us a plate. We called it “Smorgasbord” and as a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. As the cook, now I get why my mom did that. There’s nothing more annoying than whipping up yet another meal when there’s at least 2-3 days worth of leftovers taking up real estate in your fridge. After hosting both sets of our parents, one sibling and two out of town friends over the course of one weekend, we had some serious leftovers hanging out in our fridge. So Sunday afternoon, I pulled everything out, piled it up on the counter and handed out the plates.
Anything You Want, We Got It.
This is one of the most delicious meals I think I’ve had in awhile! Toasted whole wheat bread and snow peas with hummus, and a salad with lunchmeat turkey, strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Sometimes the most simple meals taste the most delicious!
Eating healthy usually means eating a lot of chicken – so to change it up, I try to include at least one pork recipe each week. Pork tenderloin is a super lean choice: 3 oz of lean pork tenderloin is 140 calories. Exactly the same as 3 oz of boneless, skinless chicken breast! The key to yummy pork is pairing it with some super savory flavors.
One of my favorite dishes are Thai-inspired dishes that feature peanut sauce. Yum, yum, yum. However, as you can imagine, a sauce that basically stars peanut butter can be prettttty caloric. You know of course, if I’m telling you about it, that I’ve messed with some recipe out there to tweak the calories. This recipe started out as the recipe from Everyday Food (a favorite of mine), before I started playing with it.
The fixins'
Gather the ingredients: creamy peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and chili powder.
Into the blender or food processor: 1/4 cup smooth pb, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 2 t brown sugar, 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1 clove of garlic and a few shakes of ginger.
Blended Peanut Sauce
This makes about 6 2-Tablespoon servings, which is plenty to drizzle on top of your meat. Each serving of the sauce is 80 calories – not bad for a peanut sauce, at all! You don’t have to heat it, and it’ll stay in the fridge if you’ve got leftovers.
Once that’s all blended, put the pork on a grill pan or in a fry pan with some cooking spray and get some stir-fry veggies sizzling in another pan with a little bit of olive oil or sesame oil. Once the hot stuff is ready to go, just load up on a plate and drizzle 2-T of the peanutty sauce on top and gobble it up! Yum!
