We had some leftovers from Sunday’s graduation party and decided to use them in tonight’s dinner. The tacos are filled with pan-fried tilapia, shredded cabbage, diced onions, salsa, and Greek yogurt crema. The beans are a mix of pinto, black beans, spicy tomatoes, and cumin. The salad is a packaged Taylor Farms southwestern salad.
Normally I would never eat a crispy tortilla but we had these “stand-up” shells left over and they were surprisingly good. The calorie count was only 130 for two shells. Plus you heat them up for only a few seconds in the microwave which keeps them crispy but also pliable—no shattering taco when you take a bite!
Starting off with another hot day Monday but then cooling off for the rest of the week. It looks like we can go back to our regular cooking regime. This week features 3 vegan/vegetarian meals, 2 seafood, 1 chicken, and 1 beef.
The temperature outside got to 105 F today. Our house stays pretty cool since it’s built on a slab but we finally turned the a/c on around 6 PM. It was definitely not a day to be cooking anything so I made a couple of salads and served them with hummus and pita.
One thing with salads, though, they are really time consuming to make! Cooking some fish or a burger and steaming broccoli is way easier and quicker. John was my helper today squeezing lemons, picking mint leaves, and being generally helpful by reaching things that are on high shelves and doing a lot of clean-up.
The tabbouleh I make is very parsley intensive. I used three bunches along with quite a bit of mint, scallions, and a little garlic and tomatoes. There is only a quarter cup of bulgur wheat which is first soaked for 20 minutes. The dressing is basically just lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. I make it a few hours before dinner so that the bulgur wheat can soak up the dressing.
There are lots of recipes online for Israeli salad. Most of them have the vegetables finely chopped. I made my cucumber, tomato, and onion chunky. It is quicker to do. I seed the cucumber and get some excess water out of it by salting it and letting it sit for an hour in a colander. I also added some mint to the salad and dressed it with lemon juice and olive oil. A sprinkle of sumac as a garnish is nice.
So for the last two nights we have had two really tasty dinners without heating up the kitchen. When I mentioned that they both had been vegan the family seemed surprised. So delicious, filling, and good for us!
Too hot for cooking tonight! I made the gazpacho in the blender and the corn in the microwave. It was the first time this season for corn on the cob so it tasted especially good.
I have added my recipe for quick and easy gazpacho. I like to add a little fresh tomato but I would probably make it with just the canned if I did not have any on hand. And I whiz the entire tomatoes up seeds and skin included. I do take the seeds out of the cucumber but I leave the skin on. Salt is a personal thing. Just remember that the chilled gazpacho needs more salt than a soup served warm.
For corn on the cob in the microwave I husked three ears and then rinsed them off so there would be some steam when the cooked. I put them in a ziploc bag not entirely closed and microwaved on high for 6 minutes. I figured 2 minutes an ear.
The incredible heat that has been gripping the country has made its way to California so we are changing our lineup. Quick outdoor grilled burgers with a bagged salad and some chips for Thursday night and gazpacho and corn on the cob is on for Friday night. I haven’t figured out Saturday when it should be around 100F but maybe hummus and tabbouleh and something else Middle Eastern. All of us need to have a go-to list of dinners for the unusually hot weather this summer.
This is a new recipe for us. We started out with a standard tagine type recipe and then adapted to use less fat, rotisserie chicken, and fewer sweet elements. We also added half a preserved lemon because we a jar in the refrigerator. We served ours without the couscous and it was plenty filling. I think this could be easily made with boneless chicken breasts that were cut into chunks and cooked in the sauce at the end.
This is a great hot weather meal. It is mostly just chop and assemble. The dressing and the marinade for the tofu are basically the same thing, a soy-ginger-rice wine vinegar vinaigrette. The other components are shredded cabbage, avocado pieces, sliced cucumber, edamame, thinly sliced green onions, cilantro, and thinly sliced jalapeño or Fresno chiles. Add the dressing/marinade at the end and drizzle on some oil. We usually serve this over rice and on a hot night I would recommend using microwave-able rice.
We went to Costco today and of course bought a rotisserie chicken. When I got to home I disassembled it and made stock out of the bones. I am saving the legs and thighs for a tagine we are making later in the week. I shredded one of the breasts for the enchiladas and the other breast I will slice for lunch meat. What an amazing buy at $4.99 per chicken.
I used jarred salsa verde in the bottom of a baking dish and fit in 12 enchiladas constructed of a corn tortilla, shredded chicken, Mexican blend cheese, shredded cabbage, chopped onion, and a little of the salsa verde. I covered the top of the enchiladas with the rest of the salsa verde and cheese then baked it for 40 minutes at 350F. At the end we broiled the enchiladas briefly to singe the cheese.
For the three of us I heated up 2 cans of black beans, rinsed, and a can of Rotel. I seasoned the beans with cumin, salt, and chipotle powder.
This dinner is always a big hit at our house. And we have 4 enchiladas left over for lunch!
On Sundays we almost always have some sort of eggs for dinner. In fact we call it Breakfast for Dinner. This Sunday I made sort of Lunch for Dinner but still incorporated eggs. My dinner salad was a lot like a Niçoise salad except without the tuna and edamame standing in for green beans.
I am pretty happy with this salad although I made it so big that I had to give John at least a third of it. The components of it are green leaf lettuce, kale, boiled new potatoes, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, edamame, and mushrooms. I dressed it with olive oil and vinegar and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
We are starting off our healthy eating regime this week with three vegan/vegetarian meals, two chicken meals, one fish meal, and a party meat meal. (Steak tacos because that is what our grandson requested!) The tagine, roasted butternut squash with lentils, and the cumin roasted salmon are all dishes we have never made before so that will be exciting!
Omnivore 