Tag Archives: salad

April 10, 2018 · 6:38 pm

Day 2: Attempting Positivity

After reading my first two Whole 30 entries, Jared furrowed his brow and mused, “You’re going to be like this all month then?”

I can’t imagine to what he could have been referring; I’m an extremely sunny individual. With that said, I’ve decided all on my own to approach Day 2 from a more proactive stance. In pursuit of that goal, I decided to make a proper lunch for myself rather than graze on garbage snacks all day.

Since my go-to treats, cheese plate and trail mix, are verboten, I have employed the most powerful tool available to me: vinegar. If it stands still, I will be pickling it — this week it’s cucumbers, onion and beets. Next week — the world!

Not sure if it’s my new attitude or my heavy hand with the seasoning but this salad was tasty. I’d say I didn’t even miss the bleu cheese, but no one would believe me because it would be total bullshit — I always miss the bleu cheese. It could be ice cream and I’d miss the bleu cheese. Still, a solidly delicious lunch. I’m amazing. But vinegar is the real star here.

Gnocchi with Lamb Bolognese

I was feeling rather bored with all the typical dinner choices this week. Everything seemed meh until my man suggested something he loves that I’ve never really given a chance: gnocchi. I consented, albeit rather hesitantly.

Then, as we were walking through the super-est of the markets in our neighborhood, we happened up some ground lamb. YES! Something new. I was elated.

I made the tomato sauce with garlic, onions, basil, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper

I cooked the lamb with garlic and onions. Drain the fat before adding it to the sauce

Never having cooked lamb before, I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. But it looked like beef so I just did it like beef and guess what? It worked. I kept it a little pink in the pan because I knew it would cook more in the sauce.

Let the sauce and the meat simmer together for 20-30 minutes.

I added the gnocchi just at the very end and then a little romano cheese on top.

This being my first time really eating gnocchi, I didn’t think it best to try my hand at making it, so we bought a package and dropped it in some salty boiling water until it floated to the top, which I’m told indicates it’s finished. It was tasty and potatoey– a very decadent dish.

Served with salad and a nice Chianti... yes I considered fava beans... no my man did not get the joke... did you?

This salad was actually rather intense, it had your basic lettuce, tomato, carrot, onion, cucumber, but I also had some left over avocado, asparagus and feta in the fridge. WINNING.

It was a tasty supper and something we’ll definitely be doing again 🙂

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Tagged as bolognese, chianti, cooking, dinner, food, gnocchi, italian, italian cuisine, lamb, lamb bolognese, lea craft spencer, lea spencer, pasta, recipe, salad, supper, wine

February 20, 2012 · 4:29 pm

Bleu Cheese Buffalo Chicken x 2

Last night I was on my own for dinner so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to cook a two-fer. I think you know where I’m going here… It’s a meal that you can cook for dinner and then eat again the next day for lunch!

Mix the crumbled cheese with the bread crumbs.

Add a little extra sauce and some olive oil or butter.

What I really wanted was chicken wings, but what I had was a chicken breast. I also had buffalo sauce and salad so I decided to pick up some bleu cheese crumbles and do a spin off of this garlic cheddar chicken recipe I saw. The recipe calls for you to dip the breast in oil, and then roll in breadcrumbs and cheddar before baking. Instead, I decided to marinate the chicken in the buffalo sauce and then roll it in bleu cheese and breadcrumbs to bake.

Then bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

I also crumbled up some bleu cheese in my salad and in the dipping sauce for a decadently cheesy dinner! It was tender and spicy and I had the perfect amount left over for a sandwich today. What more could you want?

Served with salad and bleu cheese dipping sauce!

Gazpacho playa!

Picture this: We’re in Spain; we’re dying to try some authentic Spanish food; and we’re broke. We have spent the last four days traveling in the craziest circumstances (you can see the whole trip here) and now all we want is to have a modest picnic lunch. We buy a cheap bottle of red wine (still delicious because we’re in Spain), some manchego cheese and some bread. This meal still doesn’t seem complete. Walking a few more steps we see a sign at a café, “Gazpacho para llevar” (“to go,” cost: 3 euro). Sold!

We spend the next few hours underneath the Arc De Triomf (did you know there was one in Barcelona too? We didn’t.) We enjoyed wine and cheese along with what became our new obsession: gazpacho.

Back in the US I tried (and failed miserably) to recreate the flavors we had so enjoyed in Barcelona. Then one day, while visiting Boston, a Spanish friend of ours picked up a bunch of tomatoes at the farmer’s market and announced he would be making gazpacho tonight and would we like to join him? Heck yes, we would. The taste? The same. The process? Mine at last!

Thanks to a super special holiday gift of a food processor, I decided it was finally time to make it myself! Below is the method I used:

4 tomatoes, 1 red pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 red onion, 1 cucumber, 2 cloves of garlic, the juice of 1 lemon

Chop it all up, then blend it, adding a few tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste

Puree the mixture until it's smoot

Strain carefully and patiently

Yes it must be strained! Don’t pout, it’s worth it. You can even strain in twice if you like it to be super smooth. We like a little texture, so once is plenty for us! Afterward let it chill overnight for maximum flavor!

The next day we decided to turn this gazpacho into our very own walk down the Spanish lane:

I got some Spanish wine down at the local shop.

And we indulged ourselves happily.

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Tagged as barcelona, cheese, cooking, gazpacho, recipe, salad, spain, spanish, strawberries, vegetables

November 30, 2011 · 12:52 pm

Nothing in the house to eat?

Time to get creative!!

Someone decided to go play poker last night and since it was raining, I decided to stay in. There was only one little problem… we hadn’t hardly any food in the house! I was encouraged to look around the house for leftovers and come up with something great, “You can blog about it!” he assured me.

Challenge accepted.

The contents of my refrigerator were looking rather bleak, but I managed to rummage up the following:

I found four slices of turkey bacon, a small hunk of leftover brie, half a tomato and half an avocado. Thank goodness we always have bread.

I also had one russet potato, which I sliced thin, drenched in butter and baked at 475 degrees for 20 minutes (stirring halfway through).

It doesn’t look like much, but I had a vision… a vision of a world in which I would create the most delicious sandwich. I don’t know everything about sandwiches, but I know a thing or two about delicious and it begins with butter.

After frying the bacon, I assembled the sandwich with the sliced brie, tomatoes and avocado. Then I filled the skillet with butter and fried that baby up!

After sprinkling the chips with salt and pepper, adding a little side salad, in this end this was my creation. It was a cheesy, crunchy cool mouthful of yum.

Remember to keep a close eye on the potato chips (they burn super easily!) and nights like this are yet another reason to always have salad in the fridge.

POP POP!

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Tagged as avocado, cooking, food, poker, potato chips, rain, recipe, refrigerator, salad, sandwich, tomato, turkey bacon

November 11, 2011 · 5:19 pm

Who says you can’t cook for one?

Since someone had to work late, I was on my own for dinner last night. Sure, I could have just picked up a slice of pizza (that’s what he would have done). But I thought, “No. What an excellent opportunity to treat myself… to a steak.” So that’s what I did. And since I’m not made of money, I took myself down to the store and picked up a piece of tenderloin and a potato (I had cheese, milk, butter and veggies). And this is what I did…