When it is too hot to cook the best thing to do is to have an assembled dinner. Since it was around 104F yesterday, we decided on a Southwest chicken salad. We set up the ingredients on the kitchen island and each of made our own salad.
Salad greens ready to be dressed with chicken, olives, black beans, corn, tomatoes, scallions, pepperoncini, and salsa
Since we usually serve this with ranch dressing, I bought some Skinny Girl ranch dressing which only has 10 calories for 2 tablespoons. It’s not as good as the real thing but it was not terrible. So we kept the kitchen as cool as possible and enjoyed a colorful and filling dinner.
My red lentil sundae has rainbow kale on the bottom, then a 50/50 rice/cauliflower rice combo, next red lentils, and finally a dollop of Greek yogurt with a kale garnish
I know it is hardly the sundae you were looking for but this is a delicious vegetarian (or vegan minus the yogurt) dish that is super healthy, tasty, and pretty to look at. I first had this red lentil stew at a restaurant nearby and was blown away with how delicious it was. I was determined to make it for us at home. I found a recipe on an Afghani recipes site and adapted it for our use.
Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the salt, turmeric, cumin, cayenne and let them cook in the pan briefly and then add the lentils and broth, stir and turn the heat up to high. When the liquid boils, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover and cook until the lentils are very tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and adjust salt if needed Serve with a spoonful of plain yogurt (or not) and rice, greens,warm pita or nan bread.
We probably make this once a month because it is so easy and so delicious. I also love it because I do not feel guilty if I go in for seconds. Using a 50/50 rice combo definitely keeps the guilt factor at bay!
We were supposed to be preparing shrimp tonight but we opted to change the menu to a favorite of ours, clam chowder. I have taken a traditional recipe for New England clam chowder and lightened it up so that it fits within my healthy eating plan. It reminds me very much of a clam chowder we once had at the Binnacle, a restaurant (sadly no longer) in Mystic, Connecticut.
Healthy clam chowder
My recipe, which I am including below, only contains 2 tablespoons of cream. Of course you could make it richer by adding more cream, half and half, or even milk. I love that it contains so many pantry ingredients. Only the leeks are a little out of the typical.
Originally John was going to pan sear the cod and I was going to make some sort of vegetation. I don’t know, maybe I was planning on doing a sheet pan veg but I made that veg yesterday and our lackluster fish needed something more exciting. Hmm, I have a mango and a Fresno chile, what can I do with that?
Voila! Vietnamese mango salsa!! It is a combination of corn, scallions, Fresno chile, and mango in a Vietnamese nuoc cham sauce. It was great! There was sweetness from mango and corn, spiciness from chile and scallion and the salty umami bomb from the nuoc cham. Here is my lo-cal recipe for this sauce.
Nuoc cham. (Light version)
1/3 cup water
1 packet Splenda
Juice of one lime (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 small spicy chile, sliced
6 drop sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
Whisk all ingredient together. This recipe is just something I made up so you really need to taste it as you go along. It might need more lime juice depending on the lime, or maybe more sweetener if you like things really sweet (I don’t). Fish sauce is very intense so maybe start out with a tablespoon and work your way up to an acceptable fish sauce level for you. I actually do not know how much sesame oil I put in, once again the sesame oil is up to you. At the end I correct how it tastes with a little soy sauce. Start with a quarter teaspoon.
As it turns out we took a mediocre fish and turned it into a yummy dinner by making an inventive salsa.
We were too busy to go to the grocery store today so I ended up with a sheet pan of vegetables which did not really go with chicken piccata. But since they still tasted really good, the dinner was a success.
John cut a large-ish chicken breast into smaller pieces and pounded them to a uniform thickness. He dusted the pieces with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little Wondra. After sautéing the pieces in a combination of cooking spray and 2 tsp of olive oil he made a sauce with chicken broth, capers, lemon juice, lemon zest, and mushrooms. A little butter (2 tsp.) thickened the sauce.
I gave the little potatoes and cabbage a head start in a 425F oven and after 10 minutes added onion, carrots, and celery to the sheet pan. All the vegetables were sprayed with olive oil and salted before they went in the oven. The vegetables were cooked and browned in about 30 minutes. Roasting vegetables is such an easy and delicious way to prepare them and the clean-up is minimal.
Tonight we started with a salad since we were having pesto rather than vegetables in our pasta. The salad had a mix of greens, mushrooms, scallions, and cherry tomatoes.
I make a very low fat salad dressing using two of the Good Seasons Italian dressing packets. To do this I substitute all the oil in the preparation with water and keep the vinegar content the same. Then I add 2 teaspoons of olive oil and mix it all together with a plunge blender. With the blender still running I add 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum. The xanthan gum stabilizes the emulsion and gives the dressing a salad dressing texture.
Mixed green salad with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and scallions dressed with low fat Italian dressing
The whole grain spaghetti with pesto was made using basil from our back patio. I bought two of the basil plants you see in grocery stores and planted them in pots. Because they were too top heavy with leaves to stand up in the pots, I cut lots of the top leaves off, enough to make pesto. Pesto is a combination of basil, parmesan, pine nuts, and olive oil. It is very yummy and I still have enough left to freeze some for two more dinners.
Whole grain spaghetti with pesto and basil garnish
Open faced bean burger and portobello mushroom burger with tabbouleh
Happy Fourth of July! We took advantage of a beautiful day here in Northern California grilling our dinner and eating al fresco. Because we like to eat volume so we used our one roll to support two different burgers.
John marinated the mushroom in balsamic vinegar, thyme, olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. We used the other half of our roll for the mushroom along with some mayo, grilled onion, tomato, basil, and salad greens. It was so delicious! Juicy and satisfying.
In addition I made tabbouleh which is a lot of work but really yummy. The food processor really helps with all the chopping up of parsley, scallions, mint, and garlic. The bulgur wheat is soaked for 20 minutes which helps to soften it up and I made it a couple of hours ahead so the bulgur wheat could soak up the vinaigrette. I used cherry tomatoes as well but I had to chop those up by hand. This is a delicious, fresh salad.
I decided to make a salad tonight rather than the planned eggs. John opted for a bowl of cereal. I finished up the last of a bag of carrots and stalk of celery as well as making a significant dent in my lettuces. I find salads quite boring so the more I put in one the more interesting it is to me. I dressed my salad with an Asian style dressing which was left over from Monday’s zoodles fiasco.
Tomorrow is Fourth of July! We have our flag out and I will decorate our outdoor table festively even though it is just John and I celebrating. It is a good time to reflect on past celebrations and the state of our country. I hope all my American readers have a happy and patriotic day and my non-American followers have a happy and restful Sunday!
John and I were wondering tonight, why don’t we make this more often? Good question because it is healthy and delicious. I am definitely going to make sure that it appears on the menu at least once a month from now on!
Tonight we served it over rice because we had leftover rice but its usual accompaniment is some whole grain pasta. Two ounces of spaghetti with all this goodness is plenty per person.
There are so many seafood and veg dishes that you can enjoy without any guilt. You could definitely serve this to guests and they would not know that you are on your healthy eating regimen. The shrimp is cooked in 2 teaspoons of oil and I adorned the broccoli with a tablespoon of faux butter and lemon zest.
LIGHT SHRIMP SCAMPI for 2 4 oz. whole grain spaghetti or linguine 2 tsp. olive oil 1 shallot, thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper 12 large shrimp (21-25 count) 1/4 tsp. salt (or to taste) 1/4 cup chicken broth 1/4 cup dry white wine 1 T lemon juice 2 T capers (or chopped olives such as Kalamata) 3 T chopped parsley 1/2 T lemon zest
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
While the pasta is cooking heat up the oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat. Cook until the shallot (or onion) until it is soft and translucent. Add the shrimp and the salt and cook on medium high heat turning over after a minute or so. At that point stir in the broth, wine, lemon juice, and capers. Bring to a boil for one minute then turn heat to medium and add the pasta, the parsley and the lemon zest. Stir. Add some pasta water if it does not seem saucy enough. Top dress with more chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil.
Omnivore 