A Loaded Question

Now that I'm doing this menu planning thing, I have a whiteboard magnetized onto the fridge with a list of dishes we'll have in the upcoming week, assuming no one gets raptured up. You never know.

I came across this recipe while perusing the Eating Well website. Healthy this, tasty that, quick, etc. Having a total of 5 nieces & nephews, I took a look at the kids' section and jeez, what do people pack in lunch boxes these days??? Broccoli, ham, and pasta salad? Well, color me surprised if it doesn't end up in the trash can.

The kids' dinner recipes looked much more realistic, and I HAD to try to Loaded Baked Potatoes. I made them with sweet potatoes and they were fab. If I were making this on a weeknight I'd probably skip the ground meat and just throw in some diced sandwich ham.

Loaded Twice-Baked (Sweet) Potatoes
Eating Well

4 medium russet (baking, or "Idaho") potatoes - or sweet potatoes
8 ounces 90% lean ground beef (I used ground turkey breast)
1 cup broccoli florets, finely chopped
1 cup water (I used maybe 1/4 cup)
1 cup reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, divided
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3 scallions (green onions), sliced

Pierce potatoes all over with a fork. Cook in microwave on Medium for about 20 minutes (I was baking anyway and just wrapped my potatoes in foil and threw them in the oven). Or use the "potato" setting on your microwave and follow the manufacturer's direction.

Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often. Transfer cooked meat to a small bowl and set heat on high. Add broccoli florets and water, then put the lid on the skillet - broccoli should steam in 4 minutes or so. Drain the broccoli and add to the meat.

Cut off the top 1/3 of the potatoes and reserve for another use. Scoop out the insides into a medium bowl, and put the potato shells in a baking dish. Add 1/2 cup of cheddar, sour cream, salt, and pepper to potato innards and mash. Add scallions and potato mixture to the broccoli and meat; stir to combine.

Fill potato shells with tasty mixture and top with cheese. Heat in microwave until the cheese melts.

This Army Runs On Her Stomach

This is my busy time of year professionally - well, one of them, anyway. Gotta bring the A-game every day. Gotta not get sick. Gotta think on my feet. Gotta not yell. Gotta gotta.

So what's a girl to do? The magic wand is always "out of stock", Superwoman capes don't match ANY of my suits (some fashionista get on that, please. Call me.), and I have yet to find a way to get professional credit for being a good doggie-mama. Oh, the challenges of the modern woman!

For a few months our better dinners will be on the weekends [actually, that's always true, but the disparity between Weeknight and Weekend is a little more pronounced]. I was cruising through some recipes I wanted to try and came across a sassy little Ellie Krieger number for Jerk Chicken with Cool Pineapple Salsa.

Never content to cook off the rack, I applied my own tailoring. Specifically I substituted tilapia for chicken and bottled jerk sauce for homemade. I had been an unsuspecting victim of a nap attack and, well, time and energy weren't my thing just then.

YAY for me, I had made the pineapple salsa the day before. That actually worked out better for the recipe, since it gave the flavors time to meld and the mint mellowed nicely. I had my doubts about the salsa initially, but the cooling off period worked great and we were able to have a healthy relationship. In fact, we may meet again (leftovers) with salmon tomorrow.

The pineapple salsa recipe is Ellie Krieger's; the rest of it is my daring improv.

JERK TILAPIA
3 or 4 tilapia filets (I used the frozen pack from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup jerk sauce (Atlantans, mine was from DeKalb Farmer's Market)
2 TBSP oil, plus oil for the broiling rack

1. Move oven rack to the center of the oven. Neither fish nor sweetened sauces like to be too close to the heat.

2. Wipe down your broiler pan or rack with an oiled paper towel. This works better than cooking spray.

3. In a small bowl stir together oil and jerk sauce. Olive oil is going to give you an off flavor - vegetable, safflower, or canola oil is a better bet.

4. Place fish on broiler pan/rack and brush with oil and sauce mixture.

5. Broil for 4 minutes on each side.

COOL PINEAPPLE SALSA
1 TBSP honey
1 TBSP lime juice
1 cup finely diced pineapple
1/3 cup finely diced, seeded English cucumber (I used regular cucumber and seeds are fine with me)
1 TBSP chopped fresh mint leaves (yes, fresh - you can also add them to ice water for a terrific refresher)

Combine all. Store refrigerated.

New Year Halo Effect

Let's see.... linen closet organized, healthful snacks, regular workouts. Yup, it's the New Year Halo Effect. And at 41, I'm too cynical to think I can bring this do-goodery and do-wellery back to life at regular intervals throughout the year. I'm totally going to try to keep my kick-ass linen closet in shape, though.

Atlanta had apocalyptic ice this past week. I suspect that our city's snow removal plan includes the phrase "...then the next day, it melts and life goes on." Which is true 95% of the time. HOWEVER. My neighborhood was unpassable - by car - for several days and I finally busted out on foot without busting anything. Yay, yoga balance drills! As my friends on Facebook know, I really did walk 2 1/2 miles in the snow and ice, uphill both ways. [pssst - totally overrated]

But before "cozy" became "claustrophobic" we had this simple, tasty entree one evening. It's not often that Sweetie gives an emphatic "YUM" on the first bite, but this one rated it. I grabbed some "fish in a bag" flounder at the local supermarket for just about $5. Obviously I'll be getting more.

This is SO easy to throw together on a weeknight and any vegetable(s) will make a good side dish.

Deceptively Easy Fish
2 TBSP lemon zest
1 TBSP olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
6 pieces flounder, tilapia, or similar (the FIB flounder pieces were small, so plan on 2 or 3 for each adult)

Combine lemon rind, olive oil, salt & pepper, and crushed garlic. Allow to sit for 15 minutes or longer for the oil to absorb the flavor.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spray baking sheet with cooking spray (I just used baking parchment, it was fine). Put fish on sheet and brush with oil. Bake for 8 minutes or until fish flakes. Serve immediately.

Dressing Up

Tech Girl joined us for Christmas dinner a few weeks ago; we used the Emeril's Caribbean Chicken recipe for turkey and OH MY GOD. It was amazing, and the resulting turkey stock even more so.

Since we've been roasting chicken lately, I needed to dress up the side dishes a little. Plain roast chicken and plain steamed veggies - even if a nice glass of wine is also part of the deal - is just a little austere. Enter Clean Eating (Eating Clean?) magazine - not my usual purchase, because of their use of more ingredients (e.g. "teff flour") than I care to inventory in my kitchen. But they had this keeper of a veggie dish.

Sauteed Green Beans & Carrots with Dill and Horseradish

1 tsp olive oil
1 medium shallot, finely diced
3/4 lb green beans, trimmed (cut in half, if very long)
2 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
1 large orange, zested and juiced, divided
6 - 8 sprigs fresh dill, chopped - about 2 tbsp (I skipped this part)
1- to 2-inch piece horseradish root, peeled and freshly grated (nope - it was way pricey), or 2 TBSP all-natural prepared horseradish (that's more like it)
Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add shallot, beans, and carrots and saute, stirring often, until tender (3 - 4 minutes).

Add orange juice to pan and stir once. Cover pan with lid and steam for about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add orange zest, dill, and horseradish. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Nothing Short of a Snacktime Revolution, I Tell You

So it's Thanksgiving Day (have a Happy!), you've read 18 different turkey recipes and seen one too many perky skinny person talk about how they actually lose weight over the holidays. Dinnertime isn't when it usually is. You may be at the home of "that aunt" - the one with the feral cat collection and the off-limits basement. Or, you may be having a perfectly lovely holiday with good friends and loved ones and tasty treats - good for you.

In any event, one of this year's losses was my favorite not-very-salty, fancy-foofy microwave popcorn from the International Organic Artisinal Free-Range Yummy Store. It has been counterbalanced by one of this year's successes.

And by that I mean "popcorn in a paper bag." My new blogcrush, Cheaphealthygood, has a terrific post on making regular, plain ol' cheap popcorn in a regular, plain ol' cheap paper lunch bag.

One quarter-cup popcorn kernels.
Place in paper lunch bag and fold over top.
Put in microwave for 4 minutes. Stop microwave when rapid popping stops.

That sound you hear is the money climbing back into my wallet since it's not going to Yummy HQ in exchange for popcorn. For that, I'm thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Finally! Rutbuster!

It was bad, y'all. New recipes, none of them fantastic. Then not even any new recipes that I wanted to try.

Oddly enough, life went on. And by "went on" I mean that Mr. Stinkycheese has been working his !@#$ off and I started re-caulking the windows and - wait - this scraper is not supposed to go straight through wood. Nor is wood supposed to splinter and crumble like foam.

This can't be good.

For some reason I expected Mr. Stinkycheese to know what to do, even though he's a first-time homeowner as well. "Your dad has rehabbed a lot of old houses. Should we call him?" I said. "I know what he'd do" replied Sweetie. "He'd have someone who knows what they're doing come out and fix it."

What a GREAT idea! Ever mindful of the time, I quickly changed clothes, consulted the computer, and high-tailed it to Chef Nancy's baby shower. Whew, that was a close one!

The window frame is being fixed (and caulked, might I add) and I even found a recipe to celebrate with. It would never have occurred to me to serve tuna with cannellini, but it rocked. Asparagus was the perfect side dish.

If you're also looking for new ideas - and not at the expense of your Nostinkycheese perusal - I highly recommend cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com. Tell them Stephanie sent you.

Pan-Seared Orange Tuna with White Beans

2 tablespoons grated orange zest (I didn't have any, it was fine)
2 tablespoons firmly-packed brown sugar (too much! I'm going with 1 TBSP next time)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons ground mustard
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground pepper

4 (4 to 6-ounce) 1-inch thick sushi quality tuna steaks
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (I didn't have oranges, so Tropicana it was)
1 tablespoon Champagne or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups cooked white beans (right out of the can and rinsed, as far as I'm concerned)
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil leaves

In a small bowl, combine the orange zest, brown sugar, garlic, mustard, cumin, basil, salt and pepper. Reserve 1 tablespoon of this mixture for seasoning the white beans. Rub the remaining mix on the tuna steaks, coating them well.

In a heavy bottomed sauté pan warm the olive oil. Increase the heat to high and place the tuna in the pan. Sear for 1 minute, then turn over carefully, reducing the heat to medium. Sear the other side for 1 more minute until medium rare. Remove from heat.

In a large saucepan whisk the orange juice, vinegar, and reserved spices. Bring to a simmer. Add the white beans and basil, tossing well until hot.

Place the beans on a large platter or individual serving plates; drizzle with olive oil. Place tuna steak over the beans and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Take More - Here, Take It All.

Years ago, when I was traveling non-stop for a Large Corporation, I would land back in Atlanta on Friday nights and leave again that Sunday. So really, I had 36 hours to wash clothes, pay bills, and call my mother before I left town again.

Since there was no point in grocery shopping - how weird it feels to write that! - I used to call my favorite Chinese restaurant when I was driving home from the airport. It got to the point that I could call to place my order and say "Hi! It's me. The usual. Twenty minutes."

There's a lot to be said for getting to know the owner of a great restaurant. She has told us about her childhood in China, her loser son who seemed to think he needed to move to New York, her son's girlfriend That Girl, etc.

One night Sweetie met some friends there - I was sick and whiny and snarfle-y and stayed home - and the owner pounced immediately, demanding to know why Sweetie was in female company (said female's husband was also at the table, but whatever. I appreciate the assist from the sisterhood.).

When she found out I was sick she packaged up a giant container of my beloved hot & sour soup, the panacea for whatever could possibly be wrong.

This is a good approximation that's terrific for fighting a cold, or just enjoying as a first course.

Hot & Sour Soup
3 oz. boneless pork, cut in strips (or use cooked chicken, or skip the meat entirely)
2 oz. bean thread noodle (replace with rice for a more filling meal)
2 small eggs
1 quart chicken stock
A few twists of the pepper grinder - this is where the "hot" comes in
2 TBSP scallions, chopped
3/4 oz. dried black mushrooms (I use fresh shiitake or oyster and saute them a minute)
8 oz. tofu, cut small (optional)
2 tsp. sesame oil
3 TBSP rice wine vinegar - this is the "sour" of the soup
2 TBSP soy sauce (low-sodium is fine)

Blanch pork in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. Soak mushrooms in warm water (different warm water) for 20 minutes, drain, remove stems, and cut caps into thin strips. Soak bean thread noodles in warm water (yet a different batch of warm water) 4 - 5 minutes.

Whisk egg with 1 tsp sesame oil in a small dish.

Bring chicken stock to a boil. Add pork, mushrooms, bean thread, tofu, vinegar, pepper, and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

SLOWLY pour egg mixture into soup, through a fork, to get strands. Add scallions and 1 tsp sesame oil. Stir and serve.

It Really Works

It almost never fails to amaze me when common knowledge turns out to be true. Like "eat less and exercise more and you'll lose weight", or "save your money and you'll have more of it." It's part of my charm.

When I yet again found God-knows-what in the back of the vegetable crisper, I decided that we've been wasting too much food and something had to be done. I am legendarily deficient at estimating volume/amount needed, so we usually have way too much or way too little of whatever produce we need.

That said, my wingin' it plan for dinners was a big part of the problem. Forgetting what was in the fridge, trying to come up with something reasonably healthful after a long day at work, shopping without a plan - pretty much ensured that this "making dinner" thing was a lot pricier and more stressful than it really had to be.

So it's time for a menu plan. It seemed daunting and constraining but hell, we set up a budget (thank you, Dave Ramsey) and what could be harder than that?

My friend Google showed me that some folks take this process WAY more seriously than I do. Relational databases with expiration dates and coupon notations? Auto-trigger shopping lists? SERIOUSLY????

More power to you.

Granted, I'm in the early stages on this, but it's working well so far. Here's what I've picked up along the way:

1. How many nights are we eating at home this week? Sweetie and I both have evening commitments a few nights a week and we just plan on eating separately those nights. Therefore, no need to plan for those as far as I'm concerned. I aim for planning 4 dinner menus per week.

2. What did I buy last week that I need to use up? I desperately want to believe that we have a salad-based diet. We don't. As a result there are usually some greens and cucumbers that I need to work into the first few dinners of the week (carrots keep much longer).

3. What do we have time for? If we thaw some frozen homemade soups, so be it. I'm not going to plan to make a 2-hour roast and several side dishes if I'm not getting home until 6:30 pm.

4. Assigning days - your mileage may vary. It works better for us to just make a list of entrees and side dishes, and not assign them to a specific day.

I also try to mix it up a little so that we're not eating chicken & green beans 3 nights out of 7. This week's list:

Sweet & Sour Salmon, brown rice, sugar peas

Sloppy Cubanos filling in hollowed-out baked potato, salad

Spaghetti, marinara, and Italian turkey sausage with broccoli

Lemon Lager Chicken, green beans

Pork Barbeque (currently frozen), corn

Tips? I'd love to hear them!

And again!

The beating sun. Sweat. Running. Yelling. Uniforms and shin guards. The blur of the ball and the cheering (and jeering! WTF?) from the sidelines.

The threat of vuvuzelas.

Yes, it was 9- and 10-year-old soccer this afternoon. A brutal confrontation between our niece, Cutie, and her across-the-street neighbor ("Oh, hey, mind if I take this ball?" "Well, I guess it's your turn.").

It was unusual to spend a Saturday afternoon with my husband. Being a two-career couple Sweetie (Mr. Nostinkycheese) and I spend most Saturdays separately, catching up on Life Chores. Our Saturday night dinners are a great time to sit down to a hot meal, relax, chow down on whatever I picked up at the Farmer's Market, and pretend we're adults with real jobs.

We liked the Asparagus Chicken Roulade so much that we had it two weekends in a row. Of course, having all the ingredients on hand had nothing to do with it ("Can we please use up this prosciutto???"). Last weekend I had rice as a side dish, which was fine but just fine. This weekend I sliced a carrot and yellow squash, sauteed with garlic, and topped with parsley. Fab either way. For anyone who can't have dairy, just double the prosciutto and leave out the goat cheese.

Asparagus Chicken Roulade
Ladies' Home Journal (seriously?), Sept. 2010

4 (1 3/4 lbs total) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and black pepper
4 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
8 asparagus stems, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces

1. Heat broiler to high with rack 4 inches from heat (Steph note: you know your oven, and in mine the chicken will be burned on the outside before it's cooked on the inside if I put it that close to the heating element. Adjust accordingly). Line a baking sheet with foil; set aside.

2. Slice chicken breasts horizontally into 2 thin pieces, using the sharpest knife you have. If necessary, layer between sheets of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Lay chicken, smooth side down, on work surface. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Spread each with 1/2 tsp of Dijon. Layer with prosciutto, goat cheese and asparagus. Roll up, starting at the wide end of each breast. Place on the baking sheet, seam side down.

4. Coat lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with pepper. Broil until chicken is cooked through and tops are golden, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through.

Like Sunday Morning...

Easy. Actually, FOR Sunday evening.

I served this with roasted fingerling potatoes and spinach salad. To give the dry rub time to seep in I wrapped the roast tightly in Saran wrap and refrigerated the roast for a few hours before cooking.

Maybe not the usual summer fare? True, true. But I'm too tired to be creative in this heat.

Chili-Glazed Pork Roast
Fitness magazine, sometime in 2007

1 TBSP packed brown sugar
1 TBSP snipped fresh thyme OR 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon snipped fresh rosemary OR 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I didn't have any so I used the dried red pepper that my dad used to shake on pizza)
1 2- to 2-1/2-pound boneless pork top loin roast (single loin)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl combine all seasonings. Sprinkle evenly over roast; rub in with your fingers. [Note - I used the back of a large spoon, since the spices tend to stick to my fingers and I want all of them on the roast]

2. Place roast on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Roast 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until thermometer registers 155 degrees. The temperature of the meat after standing should be 160 degrees. If desired, garnish with rosemary sprigs.