Tilapia with mustard sauce, broccoli, and rice mix
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!!
When I first saw this recipe I thought yes, I would like to make clam chowder but no, I cannot use three cups of heavy cream! So I went about trying to lighten it up. First I jettisoned the guanciale, upped the potatoes a bit, and cut out the three cups of heavy cream. Sometimes I make it with 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, sometimes with half and half, and last night I used a cup of lactose-free milk since I am lactose intolerant. John and our daughter had a pint of heavy cream to split between them in their own bowls. You can use however much your own personal taste and requirements allow. Using part of the potatoes as russet potatoes instead of all waxy potatoes gives it a creamier texture as well. In the recipe the soup is served over a big slab of bread. We opted for oyster crackers instead.
Happy August! We are having some beautiful weather this week before it gets dreadfully hot this weekend. It was nice to sit outside while John grilled the burgers and enjoy the evening air redolent with the aroma from the grill.
I merely had to put together a salad and arrange the condiments. I enjoyed having a mostly work-free dinner. And the hamburgers were so delicious that I wished I had two!
John and I made this new recipe for polenta and black beans and it was super yummy! John made his creamy polenta and I was in charge of jazzing up the beans. Between the Serrano chile and the chipotle chili powder the final dish had quite a zing to it. I adapted the recipe to fit our profile of spice level and healthy eating and have included it below. If you want to make it for 4 just add another can of beans. For a vegan version use a sharp vegan cheese.
Sunday is Breakfast For Dinner day which merely means incorporate eggs into your dish. John always, always has a ham, cheese, and mushroom omelet and I have something different every week. Today’s BFD is a southwest salad topped with a scrambled egg.
This is a Taylor Farms salad kit (which was on sale at Lucky this week) with the addition of corn and shredded cheese which I topped with a scrambled egg. Since there was more salad than I could eat on my own I gave some to John. An omelet and a salad?! That is a major deviation for him!
As a rule I am not a big salad eater. I find them tedious to make. With these ones from Taylor Farms, salads are a breeze to make and I can add just a few finishing touches. They are pricey but eliminate a big stumbling block to my eating salad and are a great base for hot weather meals.
In Northern California August and September are the real dog days of summer. Surprisingly the first week of August is bringing us some very pleasant temperatures before it turns beastly hot next weekend. Since we messed up and did not get to make the polenta with beans last week, it is starting off on Monday. The clam chowder that it got too hot to make will make an appearance on Wednesday. Starting Saturday it looks like we will be in for hot weather dinners for the first half of next week.
On Saturday we were supposed to be making cheese-y polenta with saucy beans. However, John defrosted some shrimp thinking our dish was shrimp with polenta and broccoli. So we changed plans and made a packaged salad that I needed to use before it started to turn brown, added chunks of avocado, cherry tomatoes from our daughters garden, and put the sautéed shrimp on top. It was a lovely light meal.
I am moving the cheese-y polenta to Monday. I just have to find an avocado that will be ready in time!
Grilled loin lamb chops, grilled cauliflower, and butternut squash
Today was less hot than previous days so we went with a heartier dinner. When John and I went out to grill the dinner the temperature was in the mid-70s so it was quite pleasant.
We really like these Australian loin lamb chops that Costco has. John cooks them for two minutes on each side and them cooks the three edges for one minute, so a total of 7 minutes. They come out with a nice char on the outside and rosy pink inside.
John getting ready to grill the lamb chops
I did the prep on the vegetables in the morning when it was much cooler. I split the butternut squash lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, sprayed it with olive oil spray, and seasoned it with salt.. It baked in a 400F oven for 30 minutes. Since it was a petty small squash the cooking time was short. I used a spoon to scrape out the flesh and left the skin behind. While the squash was still warm I mashed it with a pat of butter and a bit more salt. Later a trip to the microwave would warm it for dinner.
Immediately afterward I put the cauliflower in the oven for 15 minutes to get it most of the way cooked. Later I tossed it in olive oil and salt and finished it up on the grill.
Cauliflower crisping up on the grill
On Saturday it is supposed to be hot again so we will have to go back to a hot weather dinner. It was nice to be able to slip lamb chops, butternut squash, and cauliflower in on a cooler day!
We are using up the remainder of our Costco rotisserie chicken for our chicken piccata. With this dinner we will have made two dinners, two lunches, and more than a quart of chicken stock from one chicken!
Since the chicken was pre-cooked, John used a packet of chicken gravy and enhanced it with lemon, capers, and parsley. While he had white rice I made a combo rice of brown rice, quinoa and cauliflower rice. The rices were a good pairing with the piccata-esque gravy. I also made a lot of broccoli which we totally ate up!
Omnivore 