Tag Archives: dinner ideas

lettuce leaf tacos!

Posted on April 7, 2010 | 1 comment

mmm tacos. Who doesn’t love a good taco every now and then? The beauty of the taco is that you can make it exactly how you like it and it’s still a taco (ie: hard shell, soft shell, choco taco 🙂 ). Although I do love me some of those pre-made corn taco shells or a soft flour tortilla to support my beef and cheese, we decided to go the healthier route for our taco night this time and use these large, beautiful romaine lettuce leaves.  We made some fresh guacamole to complement the earthy lettuce shells and topped the tacos with cilantro and lime for a tasty version of the classic beef and cheese taco.

First, the guac. I like to make guacamole with just a few ingredients ’cause I love avocados so much.

All I use are avocados, red onion, fresh cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper.

Chop, chop, chop…

…then mash, mash, mash…

…and you have one of the most easy, yet most delicious condiments on the planet.

From here all we did was brown some ground beef, mix in a little taco seasonings, and served it atop a large lettuce leaf with some cheese, chopped tomato, guacamole, fresh cilantro and lime. Nothing fancy, but downright delicious.

Nothing processed or refined in this spin on a Mexican? American? traditional dinner food. Whole foods and tons of flavor. YUM!

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Posted in Beef

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Corned Beef and Cabbage 2 Ways

Posted on March 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

Without an Irish bone in our bodies but a profound love for corned beef we made our own version of corned beef and cabbage for dinner the other night. We made (bread-less) reubens with coleslaw 😉 . Greg used the rotisserie oven to make the corned beef and I made a delicious, sugar free, cole slaw. I started making this coleslaw last summer and I have it down to a science now. It’s really easy to make and you can add whatever veggies or toppings you like. Plus, it makes me think of summer since it is a great condiment to anything grilled. (Grilling season is quickly approaching! 🙂 )

Once the corned beef was ready, Greg sliced it up. We topped it with some sauerkraut and sliced swiss cheese and let the cheese melt until it was nice and gooey.

We had the coleslaw on the side and served it with some Russian dressing on the side to dip.

It was a great meal and we did not spend much time making it at all!

Recipe for Coleslaw

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Posted in Beef, Sides

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Rosemary Lemon Chicken Thighs with Roasted Cauliflower

Posted on March 15, 2010 | 1 comment

In certain circles, dark meat gets a bad reputation. I don’t really get it. Dark meat is much more juicy and flavorful than it’s white meat counterpart. A boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 4 ounces) has about 2.5 grams of fat and 110 calories. A 4 ounce thigh, with the bone and skin removed, has 4 grams of fat and  also 110 calories. (Nutritional info courtesy of a great website). So why not live on the wild side and make chicken thighs for dinner? Ok. done. Oh, and chicken thighs are also a LOT cheaper than breasts.

We bought a nice big tray of chicken thighs from Giant. These did have bones and skin on them, both which keep in a lot of flavor and natural juices. We started off by making a braising liquid, using the shallots, jalapenos, lemon and wine (unfortunately we only had red wine, which is why the chicken is purple/red hue).

we seasoned the thighs and sprinkled them with some ground rosemary (I used the bullet for this).

and in they went

just a few minutes on each side and into a baking dish

Now on to the roasted cauliflower. We first discovered roasted cauliflower from our friend Candace and it was love at first bite! We’ve made it several times now and usually marinate it in something different each time.

The marinade this time consisted of oil, hot sauce, lots of seasonings and some mustard.

The cauliflower roasted in the oven along with the chicken.

I like it really roasted, on the border between cooked and almost burned! It’s amazingly flavorful.

Recipe for Rosemary Lemon Chicken Thighs

Recipe for Roasted Cauliflower

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Posted in Chicken, Sides

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Pistachio crusted flounder with creamed veggies

Posted on March 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

We bought some fresh flounder at Giant the other day and decided to try it with a bread crumb-less pistachio coating. I perused the internet and found that most pistachio crusted protein recipes included bread crumbs in the breading (go figure!). I didn’t want to use them though, so I just left them out. I also did not dredge the fillets in flour prior to dipping them in egg either, aiming to keep this recipe as low carb as possible. I started off with about 6 flounder fillets.

I crushed the raw pistachio nuts in a food processor, but left them sort of “chunky”. I think next time around, I will just pulverize them into crumbs completely to try a different “breaded” texture than what I got this time. Really, it’s up to you how chunky you’d like it!  A dip in the egg and then they were covered on both sides with the pistachio “breading”.

Into the baking dish they went.

They cooked for about 12 minutes or so. I knew they were ready when I could break the meat apart with a fork.

Interestingly, Greg and I cooked in a rather unusual fashion for us for this meal. I was responsible for one thing and he the other. I had a vision for the fish that didn’t match his so I took over on that. He focused on the veggie side dish, which was pretty amazing! He started off by sauteing some carrots, onions, and broccoli and then made a decadent cream sauce to pour over top.

The flavors of this meal were very rich and decadent. A little went a long way here and it was very filling for being a fish and veggies dinner. The pistachio crust still needs a little perfecting, but I was intrigued by the prospects. I may incorporate some almond flour to make it more breaded than coated next time. We’ll see…

Recipe for pistachio crusted flounder

Recipe for creamed veggies

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Steak Chili

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 1 comment

I love making chili in the winter time and there are so many different styles to try. I asked Greg to make chili for us one weekend and he decided to make chili with steak (beef chuck roast) instead of traditional ground meat.  He began by trimming the meat and cutting down the 3 1/2 pound roast into cubes. Coincidentally, this occurred during Maryland’s nail biter against Virgina Tech and provided him with a good outlet for all that anxious energy. Maryland won by the way!

We used the dutch oven again for the chili, like we did with the Cincinnati Style Chili we made several weeks ago. For this chili version,  start off by browning the meat on the stove top and drain the excess liquid.

It does not have to be cooked all the way through at this point, because it will go in the oven for another 3+ hours.  However, once you get a nice brown coating, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

At this point it is pretty chunky, but it will cook down over the next few hours and each part will be rather indistinguishable.

Before three plus hours in the oven (above) and after (below).

It thickened up quite a bit and all of the bug chunks of meat cooked down and became much smaller with an almost shredded like consistency.Similarly, most of the other ingredients (tomatoes, onions, peppers) also cooked down and created a thick sauce like texture.

We topped it with some shredded cheddar cheese, raw yellow onion, and avocado. YUM!

Chili is so good for leftovers too! Hope you like it!

Recipe for Steak Chili

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Spaghetti (Squash) and meatballs!

Posted on March 4, 2010 | 1 comment

I have heard a lot about spaghetti squash throughout the winter on the many food blogs I read and I finally tried it a few weeks ago. I REALLY liked it and I found it to be a great alternative to pasta or rice, or really any starch you need to soak up some sauce. It’s almost like tofu in the sense that it has very little flavor of it’s own and conforms to whatever you want it to be. It is relatively easy to make and did I mention there are like 50 calories in the entire squash and very few carbs!

I decided to pair it with on of my favorite things to make and eat, meatballs!

First the making of the “spaghetti”.

Conveniently, the directions for how to cook the squash are on the sticker. I microwaved it for about 12 minutes and then baked it for an hour in the oven.

Now doesn’t this look scrumptous! Yeah, it’s pretty gross looking but forge ahead and it will be worth it!

Scrape out all the parts that remind you of a pumpkin, ie: the seeds and orange clumps. After that you basically just use a fork to pull out the strands.

Looks like pasta right?

It produces quite a bit of  “spaghetti”. I would say at least six servings, if not more.

On to the meatballs!

It’s all pretty self explanatory from here on out.

Yeah, enough meatballs to feed a small army. Leftovers!

Recipe for Meatballs

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Peanut Chicken and Broccoli

Posted on March 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

I have become slightly obsessed with peanut butter lately! So when we were wondering what to do with some leftover chicken the other night it only made sense to have it with said new obsession. We stir fried some broccoli and chicken in an Asian inspired peanut sauce. We topped it over some jasmine rice and garnished it with some (more!) chopped peanuts and green onion, mmm. We made it rather spicy by adding a diced jalapeno, but the spice level you desire is completely up to you.

Unfortunately, we did not take many pictures of the cooking process. Here is a shot of the peanut sauce, which is comprised of 2 types of oil, vinegar, soy sauce, peanut butter, and some chicken broth.

We added broccoli- actually cooking it in the sauce and some already cooked chicken.

This was an easy recipe that took very little time. It was a great way to utilize the leftover chicken to make an awesome new dish. I highly recommend this one!

Recipe for Peanut Chicken and Broccoli

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Balti Beef

Posted on February 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

We have a recipe book that is all about curry and one night this week we decided to make a recipe we have made once before called Balti Beef. In following this recipe you primarily make a sauce using onion and tomato and serve it over beef and red bell pepper (along with some more onions!) and Indian spices. It is very delicious and full of flavor and it was a good excuse to give the new blender a test drive.

Lots and lots of onions in this dish! It was a little tough to get through all the chopping without shedding a few tears.

Along with the onions, we sauteed garlic and ginger. The recipe called for garlic paste and ginger paste, but since we couldn’t find those at Giant we just used fresh chopped garlic and ginger. Along with that, we added a can of chopped tomatoes and 8 different seasonings.

After simmering on low for about twenty minutes and cooling for another 10 or so, it was time for the blender. Check it out!

You can get a general idea of the thickness of the sauce here and look at that beautiful red orange color!

Once the sauce was finished  it was time to make the rest of the dish.

More onions and garlic!

Some fresh red bell pepper added to the mix.

Next, we added the beef and sauteed for two minutes, followed by the Balti sauce. We let it summer for another 5 minutes.

We served it over some jasmine rice with some fresh cilantro for garnish. If you want to go without the rice it is equally as good on it’s own (I just had it for lunch this way 🙂 ).

Anyway, it was good mush! Foods of the Indian/Paki persuasion often look like mush to me- tasty mush though!

Hope you enjoy this one!

Recipe for Balti Beef

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Crab and Corn Chowder

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

One weeknight, we decided to use the extra crab meat we had to make a crab soup. This recipe is semi-homemade in the sense that we used some canned soups to create our soup and not all of the ingredients were homemade. This recipe was the result of melding several different crab bisque and chowder recipes. I was quite pleased with the end result though and it was also great re-heated for lunch the next day.

Like many things we eat, this dish started off with a good saute of some onions and garlic in butter.

After the onions sweated out, it was time to add the remaining ingredients, which mostly consisted of the canned soups (cream of celery and cream of mushroom) and the dairy- milk and half and half.

Also not to be forgotten are the veggies- corn and asparagus and of course, the holy grail of spices in our house, Old Bay, among others.

You can see how nicely the soup thickened up after simmering for a little while. At the very end, we added the crab meat and some fresh parsley. Since the crab meat is already cooked it only needs to heat up in the soup, not cook. It’s best to add it at the end so it maintains it’s firmness within the soup.

This was a relatively quick and easy dinner and perfect for the winter-ness that was going on outside!

Recipe for Crab and Corn Chowder

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Posted in Seafood, Soups

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Valentines Day Surf and Turf

Posted on February 21, 2010 | 1 comment

For valentine’s day dinner we decided to make something we don’t eat often and make something that would be a special treat for us. We went with surf and turf, lobster and lamb.

We got two beautiful lobster tails from Harris Teeter.

We did not want to alter the natural flavor of the lobster and decided to steam them and serve them with melted butter for dipping. Greg put a little Old Bay on his, but my lobster tail went au naturale. Both were steamed in water that was infused with Old Bay and vinegar.

Talk about simplicity! Simple food, done well. The “surf” was a great way to kick things off.

Now on to the turf portion of the meal. We bought two racks of lamb from Whole Foods, that were conveniently frenched already. We have made lamb before, but never rack of lamb. We’ve learned that when making lamb at home it’s important to spend a little extra money and buy a nice cut. The cheaper cuts are grizzly and much more gamey in flavor, not good things. We tried two different recipes, so each rack had a different preparation, set of ingredients, and taste. Both sets were first seasoned with salt and pepper before going on their unique paths.

For the first rack we decided to tap into some Greek flavors, involving mint, lemon, and rosemary.

Greg combineded these ingredients with some olive oil to create a marinade.

Before actually baking this rack, we heated a glass dish in the oven for about half an hour. The rack was placed in the hot dish to sear it. Greg brushed on the marinade and baked it for about 15 minutes or so.

We made the second rack in a more traditional French way, using dijon mustard and bread crumbs.

We began by searing the rack in a pan with a little hot oil.

Once it was seared, we coated it with dijon mustard.

The next step was to cover the rack with bread crumbs (which had been mixed with oil).

Once it was well coated, it went back into the pan for the final leg of cooking. We covered the tips with tin foil so they did not burn.

It cooked for a few more minutes in the pan and then it was ready.

We tried both versions and they were both SO good. Very different from one another and it’s hard to say which one was better!

The bread crumb version is in the back, the lemon/rosemary/mint variety in the front.

This was a delicious meal and I love when we make two (or more) versions of things to try them out and then we also to get to eat a nice variety within the same meal. I really loved them both!

Recipe for Mediterranean Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

Recipe for Bread Crumb Rolled Rack of Lamb

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