dinner – Fervent Foodie

Spaghetti with roasted sprouts and cherry tomatoes {recipe}

June 5, 2013 3 Comments

I’ve realized lately that the kind of food I enjoy most is food that is uncomplicated. Sure, it’s awesome to tackle a difficult recipe, but there’s something to be said for the simple satisfaction of grabbing fresh ingredients from the fridge and transforming them into a great tasting meal without consulting a recipe every five seconds.

One night, while wandering up and down grocery store aisles, searching for something that might satiate me, I became increasingly agitated. It was mega-mart overload. I set my basket on the ground and considered abandoning the whole thing and ordering a nice hot pizza. After a short silent debate (during which time I’m sure I got a couple woah-crazy-lady looks), I took one final lap of the produce aisle and grabbed the things that looked best: cherry tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, a hunk of fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano (which the uptown grocery store conveniently keeps in the middle of the veggies), and a bottle of red wine. I had no recipe, just a bunch of things I eat often and love.

These days, we are inundated with recipes. They are everywhere. And if you’re like me, you’re constantly clipping and pinning and bookmarking things to try. The recipe pool is big and bottomless, and while these are great qualities for a mimosa, I often find myself completely flummoxed when I try to decide which one to make for dinner. I call this recipe paralysis. We’ve all become so reliant on recipes, we’ve forgotten how simple cooking can be.

When I got home from the grocery store, I poured a glass of wine and cranked the oven and some tunes (and by tunes, I mean NPR, of course). I put the halved Brussels sprouts and cherry tomatoes on a sheet pan along with a few cloves of thinly sliced garlic, drizzled on some extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned with salt. I roasted the veggies in a 425 degree oven for twenty minutes, during which time I cooked some whole wheat spaghetti (or was it linguine?) on the stove top. Saving a mugful of the starchy cooking liquid, I combined the drained noodles with the hot roasted veggies, a drizzle of evoo, red pepper flakes, some salt, a little of the cooking liquid, and a generous grating of the fresh parmesan. Dinner was served without the guidance of a recipe (what?!) and it was delicious.

Recipes

Pork with Sautéed Cider Apples {recipe}

November 7, 2012 3 Comments

When it comes to food, I have an extremely hard time making decisions. I blame it on information overload, or rather, possibilities overload. Between cookbooks, magazines, recipe sites, delicious blogs, and PINTEREST, it’s practically impossible to zero in on “the one.”

This week, like the loving gal I am, I pushed the horrible task of deciding what to make for dinner onto my boyfriend. I handed him the latest issue of Cooking Light and asked him to pick out one recipe that we would then make for dinner. He diligently flipped through the magazine, cover to cover, jotting down notes along the way, and then presented me with a list of not one but TEN recipes he’d like to try.

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but ten?! So much for following instructions…

As inefficient as it sounds, this process was actually much faster than usual. Plus, we hit the trifecta: cheap, fast, and delicious.

I’m not usually a big fan of mixing sweet and savory, but this combination of pork, apples, and onions was fantastic—the perfect fall meal.

Restaurants, What I ate

So simple, so tasty.

August 17, 2011 5 Comments

For as much as I like to go out to eat, and boy do I like to go out to eat, I too enjoy having a simple tasty meal at home. Tonight’s dinner was just that. So simple, so tasty. Since I talked myself out of running this morning (I guess I learned nothing from yesterday’s post), I wanted a quick and light dinner so that I could spend some quality time with my tenner shoes this evening.

After a quick fridge inventory, I decided a turkey wrap was the feature entre of the evening. 1 whole wheat Flat-out wrap, 4 ounces of Boars Head Turkey Breast, 2 tbsp Trader Joes creamy original hummus (MY FAV!!!!), some tomatoes, onions, and cucumber:

P.S. cucumbers are my new favorite vehicles for loading up with hummus. So friggin good… why did I not discover this combo sooner?!

I also had some lazy-gal’s cucumber salad on the side:

Since I go out to eat quite a bit on the weekends, during the week I shoot to eat as healthy as I can. The key for me is that “healthy” still has to equal tasty. If it ain’t tasty, I ain’t eatin!

It’s a wrap: 324 calories, 30g carbs, 9g fat, 39g protein, 13g fiber

As I sat on my balcony devouring this delicious dinner, I started thinking about how varied my meals are throughout any given week. Tonight I was feasting on a simple wrap—and Saturday night I feasted on French cuisine. Is it just me, or is it kind of crazy how much food there is to taste and experience in the world? It just kind of astounds me! I have problems. I know.

Speaking of that French Cuisine, Saturday night after Jamie, Vanessa, and I saw Harry Potter, we took a stroll over to Café Monte to get our grub on. I wonder how you say “grub” in French…? Grubeaux?

We had a bit of time to spare before our reservation, so we used a bit of it to oogle over the dessert case.

And then their expansive breakfast menu (must come back for breakfast soon).

Then headed to the bar for some cocktails because that’s what any self respecting lady does on Ladies Night Out.

Hello orange dress Smile

The restaurant was really cute inside and reminded me of some of the places I visited during the week I spent in Paris in college.

Speaking of that week, the one main thing I remember about Paris was how rude the people were and how much I hated the food. The only French word I’d learned was “poulet” (translates to chicken). So at every restaurant I visited I‘d scan the menu for poulet, then use the point and repeat technique to order my meals. Poulet. Poooooolettttttttt (insert rapid menu tapping here). No wonder the people hated me Winking smile

Luckily, the folks at Café Monte were very hospitable and also very knowledgeable about the menu items. Plus the menu was in English, so I didn’t have to search too hard to find the chicken dishes

Since I had a Living Social deal for the restaurant (Boo.Ya.), we decided to get crazy and order the cheese fondue for our appetizer:

Give me a loaf of bread, and I’m a very happy lady. Give me a loaf of bread AND a tub full of melty cheese and I may kiss you and beg to be your sugar mama. Do not be alarmed.

For our dinners, I went with the Chicken (poulet! pouuuletttttttt!) and Wild Mushroom crepes, Vanessa got some crazy looking fish dish (the Trout Amandine), and Jamie got the Lobster and Crab risotto:

I think we were all pretty happy with our meals. My crepes were really tasty, and I especially enjoyed the juiciness of the pulled chicken breast against the creamy madeira sauce. If the dish would of included sundried tomatoes it would have been a show stopper. That’s probably not very “french” though, huh?

After dinner, we decided it would only be proper to cap our night off with coffee and dessert. After nixing the desserts each of us weren’t feeling, we were left with the winner.

Carrot cake:

I’m not sure what carrot cake has to do with French Cuisine, but it was pretty darn delicious. Especially with the coffee!

On a side note, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter movie! There were some parts that were a bit cheesy and child like–but I had to keep reminding myself that these were SUPPOSED to be kids. Even though Harry had a 5 o’clock shadow and six pack abs and Ron and Hermione we making out every time they had five seconds to get a quick grope in these were the KIDS I’d been following for the past 10+ years… they’d just grown up a bit. *Sigh* … haven’t we all?

Recipes

Lazy girl’s guide to stir fry

June 21, 2011 6 Comments

Lately I’ve had very little motivation to cook anything. Not sure what the deal is—the heat, the sleep deprivation, the lack of time, or perhaps a missing muse—whatever the case my meals sure have been lacking.

A month or so ago (while still in this cooking rut), I made stir fry for the first time. I’m talking FOR REAL stir fry. Wok and all. (courtesy of five well spent dollars at Ikea)

I wasn’t really sure where to start with the stir fry. So I kinda just went with what felt right. Lucky for me what felt right was a super fast, super easy, super tasty lazy girl stir fry Surprised smile

Here’s what you’ll need:

Minced garlic and or green onion (obviously I prefer both)
Pre-packaged stir-fry veggies (I like FRESH not frozen)
Some sort of meat (shrimp, chopped chicken, beef, etc)
Some sort of sauce (something low sugar/low sodium.. teriyaki, Szechuan, or whatever your heart desires)
S&P
Minute Brown Rice

Ok, so first up, you get the water boiling for the rice. I usually go with 1/3 cup of rice and then overdo it on the veggies – but it’s really your call, lazy girl.. Your call.

Cook the rice according to the package instructions (aka, dump rice in boiling water, simmer 5 min, remove from heat 5 min, FLUFF!).

Meanwhile, heat up a wok (or sauté pan) on medium high heat. Get that baby HOT! Coat with nonstick cooking spray, toss in your garlic and/or onions, and then cook up your meat. I like to season the meat with some pepper and garlic salt. When the meat is cooked through, remove it from the wok, and toss in your veggies, and season with S&P. I use half a bag (6 ounces) of the Eat Smart vegetable Stir Fry mix for one serving.

I use a little spatula to toss the veggies about and get them slightly crisp. I’m still working on my wok-toss, so the spatula will have to do for now.

Occasionally add 1 tsp of water to the wok to help the veg get their groove on while simultaneously making you feel like a wok-BAMF. The pan should SIZZLE when you do this. I know you’ve got it in you!

When the rice is just about done, add the meat back to the wok, and add in about 2 tbsp of your sauce of choice. Give it a nice stir (or a few tosses if you’ll feeling crazy), then pour into a bowl along with the rice.

Then eat your face off.

Schezuan Shrimp:

Teriyaki Chicken:

Good wok, lazy girl. Good wok. Smile

Stats on 1 serving (1/3 cup rice, 6 ounces veggie mix, 4 ounces shrimp, 2 tbsp Szechuan sauce): 300 calories, 40g carbs, 5g fat, 27g protein, 5g fiber

Recipes

Chicken Larb

May 23, 2011 6 Comments

Reasons why you should never judge a recipe by its cover.. err title:

Chicken Larb!

Say whaaaaa? What the crap is “larb”? Google tells me “larb” is a type of meat salad. Good to know, Google. Good to know.

Had I known this fun fact, I might not have hesitated to clip the recipe for “Chicken Larb” out of one of my issues of Cooking Light. But lucky for my belly, I looked past the gag-reflex-prompting title and filed this puppy away in my big black book.

I tweaked the recipe slightly and scaled it down to one delicious serving. First up, toss the following in a food processor:

4 ounces chicken breast
2 tsp red curry paste
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp minced garlic
sprinkle of black pepper

Give it a quick buzz in the food processor, and you’ll end up with this crazy orange colored ground chicken:

I’m still amazed that I can make my own ground meat at home. It’s the little things, I guess!

Saute the chicken in a pan coated with nonstick spray over medium heat. I occasionally added a tbsp of water to the pan to help moisten things up.

Meanwhile, combine the following:

1/2 cup diced cucumber
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp minced shallot
The juice of 1/4 of a lime

Thing of beauty:

Once the chicken is cooked through, combine the chicken with the cucumber mixture and then spoon onto romaine lettuce leaves, and juice a quarter lime over top:

Looks crazy good, am I right? I had a big serving of roasted broccoli on the side:

This was super tasty and SUPER healthful. I decided mid-meal to grab a tablespoon or so of fat-free plan Greek Yogurt to dollop on top. It really was the icing on the larb 😉

This was my first time using red curry paste, and the paste along with the cilantro really made for a tasty combo.

There’s a recipe on the back of the paste bottle for Red Curry Shrimp. I need to try that STAT!

Roasted broccoli Smile

A delicious dinner enjoyed on my newly assembled patio furniture:

It’s nice to have a little helper. Or a 6’4” helper… either way Smile

Stats on the Chicken Larb + 1.5 cups broccolee broccolye brocco-lee-hee: 221 calories, 19g carbs, 1g fat, 27g protein, 4g fiber

I can’t believe how outrageously low cal yet still tasty that meal was – next time I may beef it up with some beans or avocado.

Soooooo did you catch the broccoli reference?!?! PLEASE take 4 minutes and watch this. You won’t regret it. And as an added bonus you will now know the song I sing to myself every time I chop up broccoli Laughing out loud

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