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!
We made this dinner from ingredients we always have on hand—pasta, a can of tuna, mushrooms, broccoli, onion, garlic, and parmesan cheese. John is in charge of making the pasta and I take care of everything else.
I chop all my ingredients up ahead of any cooking. First I sauté the mushrooms in olive oil spray, then I add the onions, and finally the garlic and some oregano. I leave these over a low flame while I check to see where John is at. When the pasta water is boiling I have 8 minutes to finish the vegetables.
When the pasta is down to 4 minutes I turn up the flame under the vegetables and add the broccoli florets with a half cup of the boiling pasta water and cover the pan. John drains the pasta reserving a cup of pasta water. He adds the fusilli to the vegetables and I stir it around adding some of the reserved water and a little olive oil. When everything is well incorporated I turn off the stove and gently add the tuna flakes. I try to keep the tuna in identifiable pieces.
Once the tuna is warm, serve the dish with a sprinkle of Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.
What an easy and tasty meal for any weeknight! We used tilapia and John cooked it simply with some seasoning and spices on our cooktop in a pan with a little olive oil. You could use any fish you enjoy or even shrimp. Keep it simple like we did or maybe use some mayo or mustard and add panko breadcrumbs for some crunch.
John heated the tortillas directly over the flame on our stove but you can also microwave or heat them up in the oven.
For my part I made the spicy beans. I used a can of rinsed black beans and a can of Rotel original spicy tomatoes. I heated these together in a pot with some cumin, chipotle powder, and salt.
All that is left to do is assemble the dish. Our tacos had toppings of green onions, shredded cabbage, salsa verde, and lime. I spooned the beans into a separate container and topped them with sliced green onions as well. A handful of tortilla chips might have been a nice side but we are trying to keep our dinners healthy while we shed the extra pounds from our cruise.
Afghani lentils with white rice and cauliflower rice mixed over raw kale
The red lentils cook in a vegetable broth or water with sautéed ginger, onion, and garlic, plus turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and salt for about 20 minutes. It should be kind of soupy and the lentils will break down somewhat. I use a packaged pre-washed chopped kale as a base. Then I make a layer of 1/3 pre-cooked white rice and 2/3 cauliflower rice which I have mixed together and heated in the microwave. The lentils go on top with a squeeze of lemon and a green onion garnish. I sometimes use a bit of sriracha for extra spiciness.
John and I are so happy to be back in our own kitchen! Not to say that it wasn’t pretty special eating out for a month and not doing dishes but we really like cooking for ourselves and controlling what goes in the food we eat.
John cooks the shrimp perfectly. It only takes a couple of minutes on each side. One half cup polenta cooks with 3 cups of water and two teaspoons of butter. It needs stirring frequently during its 20 minute cook. We take turns with the stirring. I cut up and steam the broccoli when John puts the shrimp to cook in the pan. It only takes about 5 minutes.
This is a delicious, low calorie meal. With the loose polenta almost like a sauce for the shrimp and broccoli it seems almost decadent.
Hello again! John and I are back from a month long celebration of a special anniversary. We took a cruise exploring Norway all the way up to the Arctic Circle, Iceland, a very disappointing deletion of seeing Greenland and Newfoundland due to ice, and finally Nova Scotia and ending up in NYC yesterday and flying home.
Obviously we are both in need of some “Dininglite” and I am happy to be home and more than ready to spend time in the kitchen fixing food my way. We are finishing off this week with some favorites and will get more adventurous next week when we have had time to think about new dishes and do some serious grocery shopping.
Omnivore 