My expertise in meal planning became very apparent yesterday, as I had planned to make a veggie-loaded Ministrone Soup and Margherita Flatbread on the hottest, most humid day of the year. As A pointed out, just what you want on the hottest, humidest day--the oven cranked up as high as it will go with a pizza stone in it while a huge pot of boiling liquid simmers away on the stove.
Reluctantly, I agreed it was best to change plans. But what to do with the three large bunches of greens in the fridge? For a while I've been wanting to try a version of the Italian classic side dish of escarole & white beans. Since substitution and messing around doesn't really phase me at all (a trait I get from my kitchen wizard father, whose concoctions range from amazingly delicious to downright strange...) I figured I could make some substantial concoction wiht kale, chard and pinto beans (i was out of cannellis).
I softened some onion and garlic in a large pot, then added leftover sweet italian chicken sausage to brown. Deglazed the pan with white wine, then stirred in about 6 cups (or more) of roughly chopped greens and maybe 3/4 cup chicken stock to braise.
Verdict? Delicious! Greens are oh-so-healthy, but can be very bitter, tough and too earthy for to enjoy. The braising makes them really tender, and the simple flavors extruded from the meat gives them a richness that tempers the earthiness. I honestly wasn't expecting to like this that much--I expected it to be a more dutiful way to eat a healthy vegetable and lean protein (beans). But we both really enjoyed it! We used it as a side for pita sandwiches, but I bet this could be a main course pretty easily, or served over rice/noodles as well. Recipe after the jump.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Because I'm awesome
Or cheap, but let's go with awesome....I saw my leftover chicken breast as not just a reheatable, but a puzzle piece just waiting to be fit into a whole new meal. And also because I'm awesome/cheap, I decided that one small chicken breast (minus 3 bites, due to a late night fridge forage by A) could easily make two sandwiches. And, decidedly because I'm awesome, I left one of said sandwhiches for A to eat today, because he is a growing boy and all (although the CSA radishes I put on it got a nose-up-turn in disgust, but I can't be blamed for helping him to eat his veggies!)
I sliced the chicken breast horizontally, on a slight diagonal, to make 4 oblong pieces that would fit on a sub-like bun (or leftover trader joe's whole wheat hotdog buns, whichever you had on hand...guess which I used for my sandwiches?). I spread both sides of the bread with ripe avocado (i read a tip to use it in place of mayo for healthier fats and veggie creaminess). Except A's, who got low-fat mayo instead (avocados make his mouth itch!). Layered on lettuce, radishes, and some of the poblano strips out of the chorizo potato cake (if some chorizo stuck to the strips, nobody had to know...), then the chicken, then smashed the roll halves together!
It was a rather impressive lunch-time sandwich, if I do say so myself--and I don't have to, because a coworker commented on it herself! Flanked by the rest of the leftover chipotle potatoes and some corn salad (recipe after the jump), it was one heck of a southwestern fiesta on my sad little dixie plate.
I sliced the chicken breast horizontally, on a slight diagonal, to make 4 oblong pieces that would fit on a sub-like bun (or leftover trader joe's whole wheat hotdog buns, whichever you had on hand...guess which I used for my sandwiches?). I spread both sides of the bread with ripe avocado (i read a tip to use it in place of mayo for healthier fats and veggie creaminess). Except A's, who got low-fat mayo instead (avocados make his mouth itch!). Layered on lettuce, radishes, and some of the poblano strips out of the chorizo potato cake (if some chorizo stuck to the strips, nobody had to know...), then the chicken, then smashed the roll halves together!It was a rather impressive lunch-time sandwich, if I do say so myself--and I don't have to, because a coworker commented on it herself! Flanked by the rest of the leftover chipotle potatoes and some corn salad (recipe after the jump), it was one heck of a southwestern fiesta on my sad little dixie plate.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Zocalo Restaurant and Tequila Bar
Met good friend/bridesmaid/fellow wino C for dinner at Zocalo last night. It's a mexican restaurant and tequila bar---both descriptors of which I'm very fond of, tequila being the only liquor i can actually drink straight.
Yet I managed to resist the 100+ list of reposados, anejos, and blancos---and even the flights and infused tequilas--and instead focus on the food elements of the menu (stage 2 wedding diet prohibits extra alcohol...keep reading to see how well my resistance played out...)
The menu is mexican, but not "americanized" mexican (no burrito in sight) and not entirely authentic either. I think they are going for slightly upscale versions of mostly familiar mexican items, but with an interesting twist. Dishes are much more creative than your typical mexican restaurant, and devotees of wet burritos might find the menu to be a bit unfamiliar or unapproachable. Most entrees fell between $12 and $20, making it very affordable, for the city, anyway.
We skipped an appetizer and decided to get drinks instead. C spent about 10 minutes grilling the waitress on the drink menu--which drink was stronger, which size glass they came in. It was funny to watch. I got a cactus pear martini--pear and coconut liquor with pear juice and a lime slice. Delicious, but more more coconutty than peary. C liked her margarita--but who doesn't? However, at least they seem to make them from scratch, not from the overly sweet & sour mix.
C went with the "Tacos N Tequila," three simple tacos (they have several varieties, including lamb barbacoa, pibil pork and ancho-mayo-rubbed halibut) accompanied by red jalepeno salsa and a shot of infused tequila (in her case, it definitely had vanilla and something floral in it). I got the "Tinga Poblano," two grilled, chipotle-marinated chicken breast halves (boneless and skinless, not my favorite) over a poblano-potato-chorizo cake with avocado crema and queso fresco, accompanied by their homemade corn tortialls. WOW it was good, even if I could only get through 1 chicken breast and 3 small tortillas. C liked her tacos, though the heat factor of the salsa was a bit much.
Their homemade tortillas were the star for me--I grew up on flour tortialls and am a newcomer to more authentic corn, thanks to the 1/2 breed A's influence =) Using them to scoop up the avocado crema and errant bits of chorizo...man, was that fun. The chicken was an afterthought--but I put leftovers to good use....as you shall see soon.
Verdict? GO, especially if, like me, you like tequila.
Yet I managed to resist the 100+ list of reposados, anejos, and blancos---and even the flights and infused tequilas--and instead focus on the food elements of the menu (stage 2 wedding diet prohibits extra alcohol...keep reading to see how well my resistance played out...)
The menu is mexican, but not "americanized" mexican (no burrito in sight) and not entirely authentic either. I think they are going for slightly upscale versions of mostly familiar mexican items, but with an interesting twist. Dishes are much more creative than your typical mexican restaurant, and devotees of wet burritos might find the menu to be a bit unfamiliar or unapproachable. Most entrees fell between $12 and $20, making it very affordable, for the city, anyway.
We skipped an appetizer and decided to get drinks instead. C spent about 10 minutes grilling the waitress on the drink menu--which drink was stronger, which size glass they came in. It was funny to watch. I got a cactus pear martini--pear and coconut liquor with pear juice and a lime slice. Delicious, but more more coconutty than peary. C liked her margarita--but who doesn't? However, at least they seem to make them from scratch, not from the overly sweet & sour mix.
C went with the "Tacos N Tequila," three simple tacos (they have several varieties, including lamb barbacoa, pibil pork and ancho-mayo-rubbed halibut) accompanied by red jalepeno salsa and a shot of infused tequila (in her case, it definitely had vanilla and something floral in it). I got the "Tinga Poblano," two grilled, chipotle-marinated chicken breast halves (boneless and skinless, not my favorite) over a poblano-potato-chorizo cake with avocado crema and queso fresco, accompanied by their homemade corn tortialls. WOW it was good, even if I could only get through 1 chicken breast and 3 small tortillas. C liked her tacos, though the heat factor of the salsa was a bit much.
Their homemade tortillas were the star for me--I grew up on flour tortialls and am a newcomer to more authentic corn, thanks to the 1/2 breed A's influence =) Using them to scoop up the avocado crema and errant bits of chorizo...man, was that fun. The chicken was an afterthought--but I put leftovers to good use....as you shall see soon.
Verdict? GO, especially if, like me, you like tequila.
i has the sads
well, something in my brain isn't working correctly this week. seasonal? hormonal? who knows what-al? yeah, i feel a bit like my moorings have come unstuck, and i'm just floating around in limbo. like i alternate between feeling apathy and stress, nothingness and sadness, until one day my brain just snaps itself back into place, or something. Until then, i'll start crying at insurance commercials, snap at my coworkers for no reason, and just be a zombie to everyone else. don't you wish you lived with me?
so to start the "snapping my crazy butt out of it" phase, i woke up at 6 (after a tossy, turny, no sleepy night, mind you) and hauled myself off to the gym...but forgot to eat a banana, granola bar, ANYTHING before my boxing boot camp workout...leading to light-headedness, nausea, and an almost-faint about 40 minutes in. It so messed me up that I didn't feel much like eating anything except 1/2 a roll of tums until about noon--believe me, not feeling like eating is a foreign feeling for this inner fat kid.
Forced myself to eat a couple of english muffin halves (side note: wow, self. a couple of halves? could that, perhaps, equate to a WHOLE? so you ate an english muffin, actually), one with a little butter and jelly, the other with peanut butter. MMmmmmm....
My mom loves english muffins, usually the cinnamon raisin ones in the red canister or the plain ones in the orange and white box (you see the detail orientation of my childhood mind in this recitation). Except when I got to the store on sunday to buy them there were TWO brands in the orange boxes--one on the shelf, the other in the refrigerated section. WHICH ONE ARE THEY!!!!?????!!!!! because buying the wrong brand of english muffin would clearly be a catastrophe of epic proportions, ruining (or slightly altering, depending on your sense of the dramatic) countless (or six) breakfasts to come.
I went with the refrigerated ones, cause mama always kept hers in the fridge. Score one for puzzle solving! Or hunger.
so to start the "snapping my crazy butt out of it" phase, i woke up at 6 (after a tossy, turny, no sleepy night, mind you) and hauled myself off to the gym...but forgot to eat a banana, granola bar, ANYTHING before my boxing boot camp workout...leading to light-headedness, nausea, and an almost-faint about 40 minutes in. It so messed me up that I didn't feel much like eating anything except 1/2 a roll of tums until about noon--believe me, not feeling like eating is a foreign feeling for this inner fat kid.
Forced myself to eat a couple of english muffin halves (side note: wow, self. a couple of halves? could that, perhaps, equate to a WHOLE? so you ate an english muffin, actually), one with a little butter and jelly, the other with peanut butter. MMmmmmm....My mom loves english muffins, usually the cinnamon raisin ones in the red canister or the plain ones in the orange and white box (you see the detail orientation of my childhood mind in this recitation). Except when I got to the store on sunday to buy them there were TWO brands in the orange boxes--one on the shelf, the other in the refrigerated section. WHICH ONE ARE THEY!!!!?????!!!!! because buying the wrong brand of english muffin would clearly be a catastrophe of epic proportions, ruining (or slightly altering, depending on your sense of the dramatic) countless (or six) breakfasts to come.
I went with the refrigerated ones, cause mama always kept hers in the fridge. Score one for puzzle solving! Or hunger.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Finally, a vegetable...
Yes, I did it! After a weekend where 90% of my diet consisted of encased meat products or alcohol, I finally did it--ate a vegetable! Several, in fact. Made a salad out of my CSA red leaf lettuce (though I forgot the purslane...dang it!), the last of last week's CSA spring onions, sliced cucumbers, and a tiny bit of feta cheese and balsamic dressing. Some CSA carrots on the side, along with 3 crackers with dijon mustard and baby bell cheese and some little slices of chicken sausage.
So I was congratulating myself on being healthy and realized while typing this that I typed the word "cheese" twice. Two kinds of cheese in one supposedly healthy lunch.
Well, you see, it wasn't much cheese--much under an ounce total, I think/hope. I guess my definition of healthy is just a little different.
In the meantime, I have a boatload of greens--kale and chard, mostly--that I need to use and soon. Any ideas? It's hard to be really creative with cooking greens. I'm thinking maybe a minestrone soup with a bunch of chard in it...we'll see what happens.....hoepfully a recipe to share tomorrow!
So I was congratulating myself on being healthy and realized while typing this that I typed the word "cheese" twice. Two kinds of cheese in one supposedly healthy lunch. Well, you see, it wasn't much cheese--much under an ounce total, I think/hope. I guess my definition of healthy is just a little different.
In the meantime, I have a boatload of greens--kale and chard, mostly--that I need to use and soon. Any ideas? It's hard to be really creative with cooking greens. I'm thinking maybe a minestrone soup with a bunch of chard in it...we'll see what happens.....hoepfully a recipe to share tomorrow!
Food Confessional
What didn't we eat this weekend?
Started the Fourth of July party on Thursday, hosting an old friend and sissypants for a bbq. Some Great Lakes witbier and Brooklyn Brewery lager did well to keep us cool on a hot summer evening while the grill worked on smoked chicken sausages, sweet italian sausages, a packet of spicy chipotle potatoes, and shucked sweet corn. All of which was less than necessary, seeing how we had all commenced to gorge ourselves on chili-cheese dip supplied by sissy and her BF (hormel chili and velveeta: the highest form of dining possible).
Friday we did the gorging at A's parents' house out in the suburbs--hummus, guacamole, cheese, salami, chicago dogs and some incredible spinach/garlic chicken sausages from Caputo's...followed by GIGANTIC strawberry floats in blue glasses, a nice red-white-n-blue way to start the weekend.
Saturday, friends from the burbs came into the city for palomas, a bocce game, and then a bar food feast...Sunday's eating was less epic. I bet you could say we ate a normal amount of food that day (although we likely consumed an abnormal amount of beer...) Wait. I take that back. We went to Piece and split a medium red pie with sausage, spinach and mushrooms. We did manage to take 4 slices home, so I suppose that could be labeled as restraint. The people around us seemed to be as much in favor of bingeing as we were--we saw two tables of two normal-sized people order two larges--and a large pizza at piece is roughly the size of a car tire. It actually made me feel a bit lighter.
Monday, monday....beached it up, welcoming teh day with an ice cream cone before heading to a new diner for breakfasty lunch. Continued chowing on leftovers all day, some leftover pizza, and watermelon (we've eaten 1/2 a watermelon in 3 days). It has become disgusting how much food and beer is no longer here because of us.
Moving on....tried to start the day off a little better today. Got up early, went for a run with pups, then packed a big salad for lunch. After exercise (or, more honestly, anytime) I must have carbs at breakfast, so I breakfasted on the last hard-boiled egg and some leftover potatoes. Sorta healthy (not a bagel!) but not the whole-grain english muffins I bought, either. At least I was using up some leftovers....
Started the Fourth of July party on Thursday, hosting an old friend and sissypants for a bbq. Some Great Lakes witbier and Brooklyn Brewery lager did well to keep us cool on a hot summer evening while the grill worked on smoked chicken sausages, sweet italian sausages, a packet of spicy chipotle potatoes, and shucked sweet corn. All of which was less than necessary, seeing how we had all commenced to gorge ourselves on chili-cheese dip supplied by sissy and her BF (hormel chili and velveeta: the highest form of dining possible).
Friday we did the gorging at A's parents' house out in the suburbs--hummus, guacamole, cheese, salami, chicago dogs and some incredible spinach/garlic chicken sausages from Caputo's...followed by GIGANTIC strawberry floats in blue glasses, a nice red-white-n-blue way to start the weekend.
Saturday, friends from the burbs came into the city for palomas, a bocce game, and then a bar food feast...Sunday's eating was less epic. I bet you could say we ate a normal amount of food that day (although we likely consumed an abnormal amount of beer...) Wait. I take that back. We went to Piece and split a medium red pie with sausage, spinach and mushrooms. We did manage to take 4 slices home, so I suppose that could be labeled as restraint. The people around us seemed to be as much in favor of bingeing as we were--we saw two tables of two normal-sized people order two larges--and a large pizza at piece is roughly the size of a car tire. It actually made me feel a bit lighter.
Monday, monday....beached it up, welcoming teh day with an ice cream cone before heading to a new diner for breakfasty lunch. Continued chowing on leftovers all day, some leftover pizza, and watermelon (we've eaten 1/2 a watermelon in 3 days). It has become disgusting how much food and beer is no longer here because of us.
Moving on....tried to start the day off a little better today. Got up early, went for a run with pups, then packed a big salad for lunch. After exercise (or, more honestly, anytime) I must have carbs at breakfast, so I breakfasted on the last hard-boiled egg and some leftover potatoes. Sorta healthy (not a bagel!) but not the whole-grain english muffins I bought, either. At least I was using up some leftovers....
This week's haul
1 bunch sweet orange carrots
1 large head red leaf lettuce
1 small bunch purslane
1 large bunch red russian kale
1 bunch rainbow chard
1 small bunch french breakfast radishes
1 small bunch basil
Another new veggie! I'd never heard of purslane, but Farmer Julia informed me that it is one of the only vegetables that contains omega-3 fatty acids. See what Wikipedia says about it. It's a bit tart and even salty, and she advised me to throw it into a salad along with other greens. SO I made a salad for lunch today...and totally forgot to throw it in. Oh, well. After a raucus and food-filled 4th of July weekend, I'm much needing to refocus myself on healthy eating and restrained drinking...so all those greens will come in handy!
1 large head red leaf lettuce
1 small bunch purslane
1 large bunch red russian kale
1 bunch rainbow chard
1 small bunch french breakfast radishes
1 small bunch basil
Another new veggie! I'd never heard of purslane, but Farmer Julia informed me that it is one of the only vegetables that contains omega-3 fatty acids. See what Wikipedia says about it. It's a bit tart and even salty, and she advised me to throw it into a salad along with other greens. SO I made a salad for lunch today...and totally forgot to throw it in. Oh, well. After a raucus and food-filled 4th of July weekend, I'm much needing to refocus myself on healthy eating and restrained drinking...so all those greens will come in handy!
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