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!
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.
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.
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!
Only appliance I needed for this dinner was a blender. For the gazpacho I blended a large can of whole tomatoes, a can of Rotel, half of a cucumber, half an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt to taste. (At our house that means a lot of salt.) This blends up to a slightly thick purée. If you want it more liquid-y you might add some tomato or V-8 juice. I chilled the soup down for a few hours before serving it.
The rest of the dinner was really easy. I used a salad kit, Sabra hummus with red peppers, and Toufayan whole wheat pita. No complaints and everything was eaten!
Here is another good idea for hot nights, southwest salad with chicken. We bought a Costco rotisserie chicken on Monday. I took it apart with the idea of legs and thighs for John’s lunches, one breast for the salad, the other for chicken piccata, and the carcass for stock. I merely chopped the salad meat into bite sized pieces. alternatively you could cook a chicken breast.
Everything else about the salad is assembly. I added cherry tomatoes, sliced jalapeños, corn, shredded cheese, chopped cucumbers, cilantro, sliced red onions, and tortilla chips to my buffet of toppings. As a base I used a Taylor Farms southwest salad kit and a head of Romaine chopped up. The dressing packet was extended with some olive oil and lime juice.
John, our daughter, and I have really been enjoying our hot weather dishes. We have managed to only minimally use air conditioning during these hot spells by keeping the house cool. So it is a win-win situation.
We are back home after our week’s jaunt up the Pacific Coast to Vancouver, BC. Temperatures at the coast were usually in the 50s overnight and would climb to about 68 during the day. Thank you, Pacific Ocean! Our temperatures here in the East Bay are somewhat effected by the ocean but we often have summer temps around 100. Too hot for much cooking!
We have a couple of hot days this week so quick cooking fish fillets and salads are the way to go. John cooked up the fish and I just laid mine on a white corn tortilla piling the taco accoutrements of shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, and guacamole around it. A salad completed the dinner.
I like eating open-faced tacos or sandwiches because it takes longer to eat them. Once you bite into a folded taco it usually stays in your hand until you finish it. It’s also a lot neater!
Omnivore 