Tonight’s dinner was a big success. The combination of guacamole and tomato/mango salsa went really well with the shrimp. In addition the slaw made of chopped cabbage and broccoli (same family) with some sweetness from carrots and the zing of pickled onions (leftover from Monday) plus some of their juice and mayonnaise was a real winner.
Because it has been hot lately we have not eaten this lentil dish in ages. The weather has been pleasant the last few days so I thought it would not seem overly heavy and since it cooks quickly the kitchen would not get too hot.
Basically you just start with some coriander seeds in a little oil and when they smell fragrant add in minced onion, ginger, and garlic. I use my mini-prep food processor which does a great job with the mincing. When the onions are soft stir in turmeric, cumin, and a dash of cayenne. After a minute add the vegetable stock or chicken stock and lentils.
Red lentils are quick cooking so the dish is ready in about 15 minutes. We serve ours with kale in the bottom of the bowl, then rice or in my case a rice and riced cauliflower mix, and then the lentils. Garnish with a squeeze of lemon and if you like a squirt of sriracha and some sprigs of cilantro.
The original plan for dinner tonight was the tilapia with polenta and broccoli. However, for the second time in three days the power went out at about 5:45 pm. The text I received said it should be back on by 10:30 pm. Although we talked about going to get some sort of take-out, I was hoping that it might come back on in an hour or so since that is what happened two days ago. Luckily power was restored by 7 pm but at that point we didn’t want to start cooking polenta with all its stirring.
We settled on cooking the already defrosted fish, making a salad kit, and heating a cup of microwaveable rice with red quinoa. It was not quite what I had anticipated but tasty nonetheless and ready in about 20 minutes.
We saw this recipe, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024375-poc-chuc-citrus-marinated-grilled-pork?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share, on the NYTimes cooking site and decided to try it with pork tenderloin. Pork tenderloin is notorious for cooking up tasteless and dry. To counteract that John took the pork and cut it into 1 1/2 inch pieces and then pounded them out to about 1/2 inch. He then marinated the pieces overnight.
When it came time to grill, he put the pieces down in a pre-heated grill and cooked the first side for 3 minutes and the other side for 1 minute. The pork came out tender and delicious!
We ate the pork with corn tortillas. John ate his like a taco and I ate mine with a knife and fork. It takes me longer to eat when I do not go the hand-held route. For condiments we had a chunky up avocado, fresh tomato salsa, shredded cabbage, and quick pickled red onion. (There are lots of recipes for the onions on the internet.)
I made the black beans by draining a can of Rotel and adding the tomatoes and half of the liquid to a drained and rinsed can of black beans. The other half of the liquid went into the salsa where I used some tomatoes from our daughter’s garden and a Serrano chile.
We were really pleased with the outcome of this dinner. At last we have found a good recipe for pork tenderloin!
We have been having a spell of pretty hot weather the last few days, in the 90s. Complicating the hot weather was a power outage mid-day so no AC or fans. Thus our house was warmer than usual at dinner time even though the electricity was back on. A tofu bowl with almost no cooking was the right meal for the day.
John marinated the cubed, extra-firm tofu in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. I cut up the veggies and made a vinaigrette of soy sauce, a splash of water, vinegar, ginger, and garlic. No oil at this point. I serve the oil separately so each person can use the amount and type of oils, olive and/or sesame, that they want. I also heated up the riced cauliflower for me and a container of microwave basmati rice for John. This is always a family-pleasing dinner at our house.
Tomorrow it is cooling off and we are trying a new dish featuring pork tenderloin. Hopefully we can make it taste flavorful and not dried out!
This week’s Breakfast for Dinner is similar to last week’s. I merely changed the form factor of the egg. Last week I topped the Taylor Farms Southwest Salad with a scrambled egg and this week I made an omelette and cut it into strips. I added some crumbled tortilla chips on top for a little extra crunch.
We were supposed to be having tofu bowls tonight but our avocado did not ripen fast enough. So I cast about the kitchen trying to devise a new dinner plan when John suggested turkey sausage. I had bought a couple of cans of sauerkraut and we always have beans on hand so it seemed like a plan.
Since it was getting hot in the house we cooked the sauerkraut and the sausage in the microwave. I cooked the beans in a small pot on the stovetop and mixed in a can of Rotel for some spice and cumin for that Southwest kind of flavor.
I dolled up my can of sauerkraut with onion and garlic powder, some chicken stock, a dash of sugar, and half of an apple cut into small chunks.
This might not have been the most glamorous dinner but it was quick and easy and tasted good besides.
The tofu bowl will make an appearance on Monday.
Pretty straightforward dinner tonight. John cooked the 4.5 ounce portion of tilapia (frozen from Costco) for 3-4 minutes per side in a little olive oil. I sautéed the broccoli in a tablespoon of water and a teaspoon of butter. My rice mix is half riced cauliflower and half brown rice with quinoa. (The brown rice with quinoa is a microwaveable convenience product that cooks in one minute!)
What really made this dinner very good was the mustard sauce. I used a recipe for sauce grabiche but left out the egg, added some whole grain mustard, a little water, and cut down the olive oil by more than 2/3. The sauce is good on most things, asparagus, steamed new potatoes, turkey sausage, fish et al.
Here’s a super easy and very tasty chicken chili that John and I invented as we cooked last night. We still had some of our rotisserie chicken from Costco left over so I chopped up a breast and a thigh into bite sized pieces. John started off by sautéing half an onion and a poblano chile in a little oil and salt. Then he added in chopped garlic and cumin powder and stirred that around for a minute. I added in the cut up chicken, a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans, and a 24 oz. jar of Walmart’s medium salsa verde. We cooked it all at a low simmer for about 15 minutes.
I put 2 ladlesful of the chili on one side of my bowl and added a combination of brown rice, quinoa, and riced cauliflower on the other. My dinner was garnished with cilantro, avocado, and a lime wedge. It was so good and filling that I forgot to make the salad that I was planning on! Plus, we have leftovers for lunch!!
Omnivore 