May 1: Grilled Chicken with Pesto-Yogurt Potato Salad and Beet Green Salad

We had our friends Kyla, Alex and Roxy over for dinner, and decided to make some grilled chicken, with a beet green salad and pesto-yogurt potato salad as our sides. I wanted to highlight this potato salad because 1) it tastes good 2) it's easy to make and 3) it has no mayonnaise, so it's a good recipe to bring to an outdoor barbeque.

You begin by quartering red potatoes. I cut up a 3 pound bag of potatoes to make this batch, which was more than enough for dinner for four (and a half), as well as two nights of leftovers for us two.

Lots of mysterious shadows in this photo.

Boil the potatoes until they are fork-tender. Strain them out of the boiling water, and then put them into a large bowl.

While the potatoes were cooking, I made the pesto. You can certainly use the jarred/pre-made stuff if that is easier. I made our pesto from what we had in the house -- leaves and stems from our basil plant, some pine nuts, minced garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese.

Once your pesto is ready, combine it with the warm red potatoes and 1 1/2 cups of Greek yogurt.

Here is the final product...

You can serve this room-temperature, cold or hot. It's good regardless.

Here is the salad alongside the beet green salad and the grilled chicken.

And here it is the next evening alongside grilled salmon and zucchini halves. 

This time around, I think we could have added more pesto, but to be honest -- I am not sure if we added as much as the 1/2 cup as suggested by the recipe. The Greek yogurt is nice and tart and really adds a different dimension to the potato salad. Depending on the Greek yogurt you buy (or it could be all Greek yogurt -- I am not completely sure), this is a gluten-free recipe as well for all our friends with celiac.

May 17: Greek-inspired Quinoa with Feta and Avocado

So, I (once) thought it would be a good idea to rip recipes that I found delicious out of my magazines. Fast-forward four years and two moves later, and I have a random pile of magazine clippings that I'm not sure what to do with. I ended up buying a binder and trying to sort through everything so I can actually utilize these recipes when I'm looking for something new to cook. Hence this new-found (and much loved) quick dinner recipe.

First, you cook 1/2 cup of quinoa in water (I just followed the directions on the package for the timing and ratio of quinoa to water).

We were originally concerned about the amount of quinoa this recipe called for, but it ended up being plenty.

While that cooked, I mixed a dressing of 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a little bit of kosher salt. 
 

The base of the quinoa salad is a handful of chopped spinach leaves, 2 chopped and seeded Roma tomatoes and finely diced red onion (maybe about 1/3 of a cup? I usually eyeball it).

I tried to dice the onion as small as possible. I love red onion, but make these pieces too big and you'll have some kickin' onion breath.

Once the quinoa is done, you mix it in with the vegetables. The warm quinoa softens up the spinach leaves. You then mix in the lemon/oil/salt dressing and stir everything together.
 

You prepare a bed of larger spinach leaves on the plate.  

You add the quinoa on top of the spinach leaves, and top with crumbled feta and some avocado.

You don't need to use as much avocado as I did. I definitely used an entire one just for myself, which is plain ridiculous.

Both Paul and I really enjoyed this dish. It was simple and quick to make. We're also trying to eat meatless at least twice a week, so this is something to add to our stock of meat-free recipes (which currently consist of veggie tacos, pasta, and stir fry with tofu.)

It's really only the feta that makes this "Greek-inspired," so I imagine if you changed up the ingredients, you could make it a couple different ways:

• Blue cheese crumbles with the same ingredients -- would be similar to world's best salad
• Manchego cheese shavings and pepitas for more of a Spanish flavor
• Queso fresco or Chihuahua cheese and black beans for a Mexican dish

I'm excited to try this a few different ways! 

April 29: Asparagus Risotto

Paul has been working hard at perfecting risotto, and decided to make a new version based on Mario Batali's recipe for Risotto with Mushrooms and Vin Santo. Since yours truly is now living a non-mushroom lifestyle, we decided to make the same basic recipe but add in asparagus instead of mushrooms.

Paul chopped and cooked the onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Instead of adding the mushrooms as in the recipe, we just moved forward with cooking the rice.

So now that I'm re-reading the recipe, I think we used yellow onion instead of red onion. These look suspiciously like non-red onions. I will confirm with the source. Editor's Note: Yes, it was a white onion.

Here is the rice about midway through the process. You introduce the warm chicken/vegetable stock one ladle at a time, and continuously stir to incorporate which takes a while. This is where wine comes in to play. 

You only need 1 cup to add to the recipe at the end (we replaced the Vin Santo/sherry with white wine), so there's a little left over for you to enjoy in the meantime.

This looks like it's about...the start of glass two.

We decided in order to keep the asparagus crunchy and not mushy, that we should blanch it. We added the chopped asparagus (we used 1 bunch) to boiling water and cooked it for about 3 minutes. I pulled it out right when it started to turn bright green. You put it right into cold water to stop the cooking process. They retained that nice bright green color, which looked quite tasty.

Making good use of the skimmer.

Finally, the risotto was finished. We didn't end up using all the chicken stock -- Paul tastes the risotto periodically as we get close to the end to see how "done" it is. When it's still a little al dente, we consider it finished. 

At this point, we added the cup of white wine, and cooked it down until you could no longer smell the alcohol (about 2 minutes). We incorporated the asparagus, cheese and butter at the very end. 

Yum! Creamy risotto goodness.

And then of course, topped it with a little more freshly grated Parmesan. 

Served alongside a green salad, it's pretty good. Boys got hungry late-night, so you may either need a larger serving or perhaps the inclusion of some meats.

I really liked this version. While I am truly sad about my mushroom boycott, I think a nice flavorful vegetable like asparagus also works great in this instance. Paul is very excited to try other ingredients, now that he has figured out risotto. I definitely don't mind being the guinea pig.

May 1: Swiss Chard, Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche

I decided to throw together a quiche on a Sunday morning, as we had one last pre-made crust in our freezer. I made this version based on this recipe and the ingredients we had in the house. 

I sadly, have come to realize that me and mushrooms don't mix.  I cooked just a handful of sliced mushrooms for Paul's half of the quiche. The recipe suggest roasting them in the oven, which also could work, but I was starting to get dangerously hungry, so I went for immediacy.

It has been a painful separation. *sniff*

We had some swiss chard from the previous week's produce box, so I washed and chopped that to add into the mix. I cooked it down in a frying pan as well, just until it was wilted. Behind it, you can see the freshly grated Gruyere. 

Swiss Chard is a nice alternative to spinach here.

While all of the vegetables were cooking, I mixed together the egg/cream/milk/salt/pepper all together in a bowl. I added in some fresh rosemary as well. 
 

You layer the vegetables and half of the cheese in first, then add the egg mixture on top. The last half of cheese goes on the very top. The pan is very full, so you have to be careful transporting it into the oven.

I forgot to take a photo of it before it went in the oven, but hopefully this gives you a sense of what it looked like going in.

We ended up cooking the quiche for longer than the suggested 30-35 minutes because the middle was not set. I realized that I had set the oven to 350 degrees, not 375 as suggested, which slowed the cooking time. It was in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Browned cheesy goodness.

Both Paul and I thought the swiss chard made a great substitution for asparagus (in the original recipe). I think we probably could have cooked the quiche even a little longer to have the eggs become a little more firm. They were definitely just set in the middle, and a little soft for me (for what I like in a quiche).  Paul and I were starting to get hangry (hungry/angry), so I yanked it out at the 45 minute mark. We nuked the leftovers in the microwave later that week, and they were totally fine (not dried out).

Thoughts for next time: 

• preheat the oven to the right temperature
• try spinach instead of swiss chard
• maybe use Parmesan instead of Gruyere
• diced tomato instead of mushrooms

May 3: Taco Night!

As many of you know, I am a huge veggie taco fan. Excessive veggie taco fan. Would eat them three nights a week if I could (and I used to when I lived alone). More often than not, we have the bulk of these ingredients in our house for a quick, easy meal.

We had an avocado left over, so I made a quick guacamole with the ingredients we had in the house. I chopped up two smaller tomatoes and diced a bit of red onion (maybe about a 1/3 of a large red onion).

Only two days ahead of Cinco de Mayo. Oh well.

Into this mixture, I added juice from a freshly squeezed lime and some salt.

Red pepper, it is not your turn yet. Back off the cutting board!

I added a medium sized avocado. I cube the avocado before scooping it out into the bowl. While holding the halved avocado in my hand, I (very) carefully use the knife to cut diagonally across the avocado in both directions (see below), so it comes out cubed. I find it's much easier to mash it this way.

I am not sure how I took this photo, now that I'm looking at it. I do not have a third arm, so maybe the spoon is wedged in the avocado, and is not being held by my right hand. How mysterious.

Here is everything all mixed together...were we to have fresh cilantro, I would have added that as well.

I taste the guacamole periodically to be sure it has enough salt and lime, and balance it out as needed. And because I am usually starving and staring at guacamole without eating it takes tremendous willpower that I do not have.

For the taco filling, I slice about half of a red onion and a pepper (green, red, whatever we have) into strips and pan fry it with a little olive oil.

We also include some rinsed canned black beans. You can pop them in the microwave for about 2 minutes, and they come out completely cooked.

After the veggies are done cooking, I wipe out the pan to get rid of the excess olive oil, and warm the tortillas. They get nice and soft after about 2 minutes on each side. My favorites are the El Milagro corn tortillas.

We pile everything into the taco shell. These tacos included the black beans, the cooked pepper and red onion, a scoop of jarred salsa, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, the guacamole and some diced radishes on top.  

Yum! I love how colorful these tacos are.

Start to finish, with making a mini guacamole probably takes about 15 minutes. They are super easy and a quick dinner option if you are short on time, especially if you use the canned black beans. If you're looking for meat options, we've made them with seasoned chicken breasts, leftover steak, pan-fried fish, etc. with minor modifications in the ingredients (for example, adding cabbage, taking out cheese and making quick lime zest/sour cream concoction for fish tacos) based on what we have and what will go well with the protein being used. Chicken breasts marinated in taco seasoning or other spices also goes well.

In my opinion, the avocado is good simply diced and put on top of the taco, if you don't have the time/energy/ingredients to create a makeshift guacamole.

April 28: Grilled Chicken, Rosemary Polenta and Salad with Ginger-Shallot Dressing

For a quick Thursday dinner, Paul and I decided to grill some chicken (marinated in an Asian-peanut type dressing), alongside the final pieces of the rosemary polenta (I know, from like 2 weeks ago. I do not like to throw things out -- especially yummy things!). We had ingredients to make a salad, and to pair with the chicken -- we decided to make it "Asian-inspired" as well. How very Top Chef of me...just kidding.

I chopped up some shallots and ginger.

The shallots, ginger and minced garlic all went into the food processor to be blended. I added olive oil and some rice wine vinegar. I also added a tablespoon of water, based on the suggestion from one of our cookbooks. That was a great idea -- I would normally just dump in more olive oil to thin the dressing out, which may end up making it more oily than it needs to be.

About 3/4 of the way there -- I ran it through a few more times to get it smooth.

It took a few minutes to get it to the right consistency -- I had to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl in order to get everything blended together and not lumpy.

Crunchy! Just realizing now that the radishes may have contributed to the bitterness of the salad as well.

We added some thinly sliced radishes and carrots to the lettuce. I did think the shallot flavor came through too strongly in the dressing. You put them in raw, which is what the book suggested, but I think I will pan fried them to soften the flavor up a little bit next time. There was some nice onion breath happening in our apartment. Glad you guys couldn't smell us through the blog.

We had the salad with the grilled chicken and the leftover polenta. The gingery dressing did help compliment the Asian flavors of the chicken, though they were very mild. 

'Til next time... :) 

April 24: Tofu Stir Fry with Ginger-Scallion Sauce

On Easter night, we cooked up a tofu stir fry with some leftover veggies and a ginger-scallion sauce taken from "How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian." We typically cube the tofu, but Paul tried a new technique. Meet "domino-sized" tofu.

The "dominoes" are a lot easier to move around without burning the heck out of yourself.

The cubes can be tough to cook, especially if you're concerned with cooking them on all six sides evenly. The "dominoes" are a welcome change for my slightly anxious (but happily, not burned) self.
 

I'm so relaxed right now only cooking two sides.  

We pan fried the tofu in some olive oil until they were crisped up. We had a bunch of vegetables to use from the produce box. In the bowl below are snap peas, broccoli, carrots and some dandelion.*

I am not so good with the estimating. Need a bigger bowl.

Based on the notes in the cookbook for the sauce, we decided to make the stir fry with some egg noodles rather than rice.

While the egg noodles were cooking, we stirred up all the vegetables in our rarely-used wok.

It's a nice wok, but really heavy. I have tiny chick muscles and have a hard time getting it all the way out of the back of the cabinet, OKAY?

I prepped the ingredients for the sauce -- chopped some scallions and ginger. I have used our peeler in the past to get the skin off the ginger root -- but Naveen from our Indian cooking class just used a knife to scrape it off, so I tried that. It actually works well, especially if you use a small paring knife, because you can get into the little crevices and not waste the smaller pieces of ginger. 

It's chopped scallion and ginger, in case you can't tell by the poor lighting.

We added the sauce to the vegetables and tofu, and mixed everything together -- then added the mixture to bowls of the egg noodles. 

In the wok...



...and in the bowl. Yum.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty good. We thought between the oil used to stir fry the vegetables (not that much) and then the oil used to make the sauce (a LOT), it ended up being a little oily. The ginger-scallion sauce was tasty though - you definitely tasted both ingredients with every bite. Both Paul and I ended up adding a dash of Sriracha sauce, which helped spice it up a little. The Sriracha was thinned out and coated the noodles because of the extra oil.

We also struggled with what constitutes a "heat proof bowl." We ended up putting the other ingredients right into the hot oil, which sort of backfired creating a hot boiling oil mix that we weren't sure how to manage. I was also afraid everything would become deep fried, which thankfully -- it didn't.

*DISCLAIMER: I have determined that I just don't like dandelion. I have tried it three times, and have yet to make it work in a way where I don't think it's bitter. We are getting it again this week. I'll have to figure out something else to do with it. I did read a recipe where you mix it with a bacon vinaigrette. Since bacon makes pretty much everything awesome, I think that may be the only option I have left besides putting it directly in the trash.