We started talking earlier this week about healthy eating and how to make it easier. When you live with someone who eats roughly 4,000 calories a day…all clean…you have to do some prep work to make things practical. On the weekend, we sit down together and make a menu for the week for dinner, but that doesn’t always help with breakfast and lunch. I am getting better at planning leftovers in for lunches, but it is much easier to just pack everything at the beginning of the week and be able to grab and go. I start by cooking about egg muffins, 2 cups of brown rice, 6 organic chicken breasts, 4 sweet potatoes and steaming a bunch of veggies. With these staples always in the fridge, you can make a lot of things happen. Sometimes chicken becomes Chicken Tinga, or enchiladas. Often it gets chopped and sent in lunches. By having a bit of an assembly line with the food scale, I can get through things pretty quickly with already cooked foods. Bonus, whatever we don’t get to, I just freeze and use that in meals down the road. Shredded chicken is awesome to have in the freezer…a great time saver! I try to mix in something I haven’t tried before once a week. It doesn’t always happen (read: the lentils I meant to make still in my pantry) but I try for variety. We usually mix in one fish meal and one lean red meat meal each week. I swear all of this is much easier than it sounds! It really does make the rest of the week go much smoother. Here is an example of a dinner I made from our staples in the fridge. You can see our fully stocked fridge is how we make it without take out for every meal! Chicken and Brussels sprouts with brown rice. MMMM. This was great too because it saved well and became the perfect lunch later in the week. Gotta love multitasking!
Chicken with Brussels Sprouts
2 Chicken breasts cooked and cubed
12-15 Brussels Sprouts, shredded
3 T Dried Cranberries
2 T Sliced Almonds
2 T Honey
2 T Butter
Crushed red peppers
Salt and pepper
Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat add Brussels sprouts and sauté about 2 minutes. Add chicken, cranberries, and almonds. Season with salt, pepper, crushed red peppers and drizzle with honey. Cook another 2-3 minutes.
Serve over brown rice.
Cooking is a creative outlet for me and I probably make much fancier at home meals than most people, but not usually this fancy. This dish is special. It all started with me trying to find a way to use up the last bit of champagne in our fridge from a spontaneous celebration. After a night of sitting in the fridge, champagne is not particularly drinkable, but it is perfect for cooking! We still had some Alaskan salmon in the freezer brought home to us straight from the source…the gift that keeps on giving. That with some salad and bread to sop up the wonderful sauce made for the perfect date night in. This is my riff on beurre blanc but certainly not typical. By replacing the vinegar with extra citrus you get a bright sauce. Most of the time you would strain this sauce, but I left the shallots which added some texture. I also cut down the butter by about 75%. You still have a rich sauce, but without 3 sticks of butter. I am sure French cooking purists would not call it beurre blanc, but this is my show! This would be a perfect holiday meal and may be repeated in our house for New Years. Put this sauce on anything and enjoy!
Salmon with Champagne Citrus Beurre Blanc
1 + pounds of salmon (about ½ pound per person)
2 finely chopped shallots
1 clove finely chopped garlic
2 cups dry Champagne or white wine
Juice of 1 lemon, 2 tangerines, and 1 orange
1/2 stick of butter, cut into pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
Kosher salt
Preheat oven to 400°. Season salmon fillet with salt and pepper place in a baking dish. Cook for 12 minutes then turn off the heat and allow to stand in the hot oven for an additional 3 minutes.
Prepare the sauce while the salmon cooks. Add 1 T butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, add the shallots and garlic cook until soft and fragrant.
Add the wine and bring to a boil allow to reduce by half, stirring frequently. See the pretty bubbles from the champagne?? Add the citrus juice and simmer about 10 minutes until reduced by about half and it begins to thicken.
Reduce heat to low; gradually add butter, 1 piece at a time, stirring after each addition, until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place sauce on the plate and top with salmon. Garnish with more sauce. Serves 4.
Fall is in full swing here in Colorado and it has been making me search for ways to incorporate yummy fall flavors. When I came across this recipe I knew it was the perfect way to satisfy my cravings. It comes from SoNo Baking Company, my very favorite bakery of all time. If you like to bake, just buy the book, every recipe is just right. These are even better than I imagined, soft and moist with some texture from the veggies. The cranberries added bursts of tartness and beautiful color. I did make one change right off the bat and replaced half of the oil with natural applesauce. It worked out perfectly! The only thing I would add is some kind of nuts…maybe walnuts on top? Mmm Mmm Mmmmm.
Kelly
Zucchini, Carrot and Cranberry Spice Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ t baking powder
¾ t coarse salt
¾ t ground cinnamon
½ t baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ cup canola oil
½ cup natural applesauce (bonus points if you make your own!)
2 eggs
¾ cup grated carrot (about 2 medium)
¾ cup grated zucchini (about 1 medium)
1 ½ t pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole fresh (or frozen, unthawed) cranberries
Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a muffin pan or insert muffin cups. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, eggs, grated carrot and zucchini, and vanilla. I used a coarser grate to keep some of the color and texture of the vegetables, but you could use a fine grate to hide those healthy veggies. J
Add the dry ingredients and fold until the flour has been absorbed. Fold in the cranberries. Use a 2 inch ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.
Bake, rotating the pan about two-thirds of the way through, about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and a tester comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan. Use a knife to gently lift the muffins and turn them on their sides in the pan. Enjoy!
Do you ever rediscover a former love of a recipe? Last weekend we decided to have a freezer cooking day with each of us picking something we wanted to make. I chose an old favorite from Lidia Bastianich. I am sure I have said before how much I love Lidia. Her recipes are unique and always wonderful. I think they always turn out (though I do tend to modify things as I go). This time we made this to be eaten later and miraculously it actually made it to the freezer! I am looking forward to enjoying it some night we have nothing in the house. It is full of flavor both robust and tangy. Served with veggies and bread or brown rice and you have a great fall meal!
Kelly
Chicken and Sausage Bites in Vinegar Sauce
¼ c Olive Oil
1 lb Sweet Italian Sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
2 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
Salt
4 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
2 T Honey
2 T Butter
¼ c Red Wine Vinegar
½ c Aromatic White Wine
½ c Chicken Stock
Chopped Italian Parsley (for garnish)
In a large skillet heat 2 T olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until lightly brown on all sides. Pour off the fat if necessary. Add remaining 2 T of olive oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and add to the pan. Cook until brown on all sides. When close to done, make a space to brown the garlic. Once golden and aromatic, stir into the chicken and sausage.
Drizzle the honey over the top and cook, stirring often until chicken is a rich mahogany color. Add the butter and stir until melted. Pour in the vinegar and bring to a boil. Boil until the vinegar has almost completely evaporated. Add the wine and bring to a boil, then add the chicken stock. Boil until thick and there is just enough to coat the chicken and sausage.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve. YUMMY!
A Few Notes: This is a recipe where it helps to have all the ingredients laid out and prepped before you start cooking. Everything goes from not ready to done quickly! I like to use sausage out of the casing to save myself some time. I also find that it helps to remove the sausage while you cook the chicken. It helps free up the pan to encourage browning. I almost always use extra honey to get to the right color. Be a little flexible on the liquid amounts. Do what you like!
I got inspired to cook Pho in two ways. The first was from a WSJ article on the subject. The second was Ali and Geff who like this dish at a favorite restaurant for a weeknight dinner.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444180004578018390589710484.html
Another one I liked while researching this was this one below. I liked their opinions and details;
http://www.inspiredtaste.net/4307/vietnamese-soup-pho/
I don’t know of any great places for Pho in Boulder, but I did go to a noodle shop once in LA so I had a bit of a concept. Geff and Uncle Stacy provided a gift of some beef bones to get me started, but I have to say it was a bit overwhelming with my limited knowledge of the end game. So I started with the broth with the intention to freeze…Which I did. I wasn’t crazy though about the weird gray color of the stock. So, I kept that but started again with a more traditional stock with roasted bones. Think a cross between Ad Hock and Jacques Pepin. Anyway, I prefer roasted bones and veg for my beef stock. Still added the crazy roasted ginger and other spices. We did not use fish sauce as it’s not a fav in our house, but use it if you like it.
Yum…even though it was in the heat of summer Pho was great and fun to try. But, be prepared; it’s an adventure and lots of work!
Mary
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