Sweet-ish Broccoli Salad

I'm eating this for breakfast, although I realize that most people would eat it for lunch or dinner. Fortunately for me, it's great any time of the day!

This makes one serving--Steve prefers "regular" breakfast food! Ha! You can double or triple the vegetables for more servings. The dressing will need to be added and stirred, adding more if it's needed, to maintain a crunchy consistency.

And finally, I used my mini-chop for the broccoli and carrots. Bless the inventor of this gadget!

4 large broccoli florets, chopped

4 baby carrots, chopped

2 Tbs. thinly sliced green onion

6 grape tomatoes

small handful of raisins (I would use cranberries here for Chelsea; she hates raisins.)

6 walnut halves, broken up into 3 or 4 pieces each--small chunks

1/2 c. olive oil

1 Tbs. dijon mustard

1 1/2 tsp. agave nectar (you could also try pure maple syrup, and this can be doubled for a sweeter dressing.)

2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

Combine broccoli, carrots, green onions, tomatoes, raisins, and walnuts in a small bowl.

Whisk together the olive oil, dijon mustard, agave nectar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour about 2 Tbs. on salad. Taste and add more, if you'd like.

I thought this tasted great--and I'm not a big sweet-eater!! Ha! I hope you enjoy it!

Better Citrus Salad (and Roasted Asparagus Spears)

Tonight, I roasted asparagus--

2 lb. fresh asparagus, break ends off and put spears into a plastic bag,

squeeze 1/2 a lemon into bag and add

3-ish Tbs. olive oil,

1/4 tsp. salt

Close bag and twirl the top, so it's tight. Holding it tight with one hand, squish the spears so the oil and juice coat all the spears.

Put spears into a 9 x 13 sprayed baking dish, and drizzle oil/lemon juice from the bag over them. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Crisp tender spears. Sprinkle with the lemon zest, if you like. It's really good!

Anyway, back to the salad! I published another citrus salad with herbs and stuff, but this one is much better!

1 pomelo, halved and scoop out the sections, like a grapefruit. (Chelsea looked this up. It's a Chinese grapefruit, ancestor to our ruby grapefruit. Chelsea did this, because Marste and I were on the phone, speculating about which fruits were combined to make this one! Ha!)

1 5-oz. bag fresh spinach

1 ripe avocado, diced

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

Equal-ish amount of olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

A very small pinch of stevia powder. One of those tiny spoons that come in the jar of stevia, filled scantly, is about the right measured amount.

Dice the pomelo sections, so the pieces are about 1/2 inch "square." (I realize "square" is a reach, shape-wise!) Add the spinach, avocado, and green onions.

Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and stevia--add the stevia a bit at a time and taste in-between. The dressing needs to be not-quite-tart, as opposed to sweet! The pomelo is sweet and in those bites, sweet dressing would be bad! Ha!

Toss the salad with the dressing, and enjoy! Obviously, I served this with the asparagus. It looked like a lot of food, but I didn't have any leftovers! Ha!

Citrus, Spinach, Avocado, and Herb Salad

Okay, I'm having you chop the herbs before the avocado! The title sounded better with "avocado" first! Ha!

I've had some kind of flu for 5 weeks! I still have no stamina, so this is easier than it looks to fix! Ha!

1 navel orange and juice

1 red grapefruit and juice

Peel these with a paring knife, and section them by cutting alongside each membrane. Put the sections into a large bowl, so you have tossing room for more than just this! Add enough plastic wrap to press down across the sections and still reach the top of the bowl and fall over the sides.

About 1/2 5-oz. bag fresh baby spinach. (I used between 2 and 3 ozs. for the two of us.)

Place it on top of the plastic wrap.

2 green onions, thinly sliced

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 large leaves of basil, rolled together and thinly sliced

1/4 tsp. salt

Add these to the spinach.

1 small to medium avocado, peeled and diced

Add this to the spinach and herbs. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate it.

A tablespoon, or 2, of olive oil

Have a lemon wedge standing by, just in case!

To serve: slide the plastic wrap from between the layers. Add the olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, if there's not much juice from the fruit. Toss to mix.

Serves 2 as a side dish, or it serves one for a meal! Either way, it's good!

Berry Spinach Salad

I had a version of this in a Vail, CO, restaurant. I tried to find it on the internet just now, but I failed. It was a diner, rather than the usual upscale places you find there. We were tired and didn't want to deal with the energy of an upscale place! We were ready for a simple dinner and some sleep! Ha! I didn't expect more than the usual iceberg, tomato wedges, and some onion rings in a salad, and at that point, I didn't care. (That tells you just exactly how tired I was!) To my surprise, there was the salad I expected, in all it's variations, AND there was a spinach salad with raspberry dressing. And THAT'S what I ordered.

As I ate the salad, I (of course) kept tasting the dressing, trying to figure out the ingredients. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out more than raspberry. I finally asked, and the server said it was raspberries. I said, yeah, I know, but what else? She laughed and said, nothing, just raspberries. It opened up a whole new world. I would never have thought of using just a fruit and nothing else!

I've used that jumping-off point many times. I've varied the salad ingredients, but never, never the dressing! I have tried other fruits for dressing, with varied degrees of success. Obviously, summer is the best time for berry anything, since they're in season now--and affordable! I made this salad for my daughter, who was visiting me, and it was January. I bought, for a ridiculous price, a pint of raspberries for this dressing and fed her the salad. She took her first bite, her eyes widened, and she said, "This is the best salad I've ever had!" She ate with a look of rapture on her face. And this was Jenna, who eats what's handy and does as little cooking as possible! Ha!

So, enjoy this salad with its amazing dressing!

4 servings

Salad:

10 oz. baby spinach leaves, washed and drained (Costco's organic baby spinach is great)

1 red onion, sliced into rings and separated

1/2-1 cup walnut halves (I don't use candied ones!)

2 pints strawberries, most halved and 12 left whole (If the berries are all large, you might want to halve them all!)

OPT: 1 pint blueberries

Dressing:

2 pints raspberries

On 4 plates, layer the spinach, red onion rings (you don't have to use all of them--especially if it's a large red onion! Ha!), walnuts--the amount varies depending on your taste, strawberries, and the optional blueberries.

Rinse and drain the raspberries. Toss them into a blender, and buzz until they're smooth. The seeds will still be in there, unless you have a high speed blender (like Vita Mix). The texture of the seeds is good!

Pour equal amounts of dressing over each plate.

Your other option is to pile everything into a salad bowl, pour the dressing over it, and toss. Serve in 4 equal portions. (I usually do this, as it's a lot easier! Ha!)

Either way: enjoy!

Spinach Grapefruit Salad with Citrus Dressing

I love salads. I even eat them in the winter, when tradition dictates warm stuff. So, we have sort of warm salads; I roast vegetables and put them on lettuce of some sort! Ha! After 35 years of this, my husband, Steve, doesn't even blink anymore! His was a meat-and-potato household, as was mine, but I think my mom was more adventurous than his was. Of course, my mom fed the four of us: 2 kids and 2 parents, while his mom fed 12: 10 kids and 2 parents! Under those circumstances, I'm not sure how adventurous I'd feel in the evenings, either! Ha! She amazes me still!

This is one of my favorites, and it's the dressing that pops it. The ingredients for the basic salad are spinach, grapefruit, and onion rings, and, like fashion, if you coordinate the colors, it's pretty enough for a party salad. Pink grapefruit sections with white onion, or white grapefruit with red onion. Either way, it goes great, color-wise, with the deep green of the spinach!

Per serving:

2 cups spinach leaves, washed and chilled

1 thin slice of onion, off a medium-sized one

1/2 grapefruit, peeled (To cut the grapefruit sections away from the membrane, run your knife from the outer edge to the inner core along the membrane walls. Remember, there are 2 sides to each section, so you're running your knife twice between each section! It's quicker the more you do it; "practice makes perfect," to be sickening about it! Ha!)

OPTIONAL: 1/2 an avocado adds creamy texture (and a yellow color, if you're using pink grapefruit and white onion). You can also add walnuts to this. (The brown color provides an "earthy" note!) These two ingredients are just filler, though; the real taste is the combination of spinach, onion, and grapefruit. Obviously, you can add other stuff, too! I wouldn't add really strong-tasting stuff, like olives, for instance!

For the dressing, also per serving:

1 Tbl. lemon juice (1 small, ripe lemon gives about 2 Tbl. juice)

2 Tbl. canola oil

1/2-1 tsp. (or a bit more) honey, agave nectar, xylitol, or sugar--sweetener amount depends on how tart your grapefruit is, so tasting--of both grapefruit and dressing--is involved here!

a few grains of salt to punch the sweetener--not enough to actually taste! 2-4 at the most! So, a tiny pinch of salt!

Stir, or whisk, to dissolve the sweetener and salt and to mix the dressing.

To serve:

Put the spinach on a plate. Separate the onion into rings and arrange on the spinach bed. Arrange the grapefruit over the onions. Pour the dressing over, and eat! MMMMM!

What I ate for Dinner - Spinach and Protein - Your Choice! - in Garlic and Butter

I love spinach with garlic and butter. LOVE. Add a little pepper, and I’m an even happier camper. Add a protein source, and EVEN BETTER.

You can use any protein source in this, or none at all. I used turkey Polish-style sausage because I had some in my fridge that I needed to use, and I was jonesing for a little comfort food. But you could use chicken, shrimp, beef, tofu, whatever. Garlic and butter go with pretty much anything. (Which is part of the reason I love them. I’d have garlic’s and butter’s babies if I could. It’d give a whole new meaning to the term butterball! Ok, ok, I’ll stop now.)


The Recipe
Serves 4

Nonstick spray
1 lb (approx) protein, your choice, cut into bite-size pieces (In the pic below, I used Jennie-O Turkey Polish-Style Sausage. Yes, it’s been that kind of a day.)
2 Tbs butter
2 cloves minced garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp dried minced onion
2 pounds fresh spinach (I used prepackaged salad spinach that was nearing the end of its freshness.)
Butter spray (or more butter) (I used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray)
salt and pepper to taste

Spray a large pan with nonstick cooking spray, and add the protein. Saute over medium-high heat until cooked through, then remove it from the pan and put it on a plate. (We’ll come back to it.)

Turn the heat to low and add the butter, garlic and dried onion. When the butter is melted and the garlic is golden, add a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach. Use a pair of tongs to turn it until it’s wilted, then add a few more handfuls, spray on a little butter spray, and turn that batch. When it’s wilted, repeat. Keep adding spinach and butter spray until you’ve used up all the spinach and it’s all wilted down. Add a little salt and pepper, and toss the protein back into the pot. Heat through, and serve.

(As an FYI, the calorie content of the spinach alone works out to about 370 for the whole thing. So figure just over 90 calories per serving for the spinach part. And then whatever protein you add.)

(Note: The picture below would serve about 3. I was REALLY low on spinach – I had about a pound and a third – so there isn’t QUITE enough to serve 4. If you use 2 pounds of spinach, you’ll be fine.)

Spinach and Mushrooms on a Zucchini "Crust"

Have I mentioned lately how MUCH I love my food processor?!

My dad's been in and out of the hospital for the last 6 weeks--right now, he's in and about to come out!--so I haven't had much time to cook!  My diet has consisted of restaurant food, for the most part.  Last night, I couldn't face this again, and I had these bits in my fridge, leftovers from things I'd hoped to make!  Ha!  The rest of my ingredients got tossed, and these remained.  

It was pretty great, if I do say so myself!  Ha!

1 large onion, sliced (I halved it and used my food processor!)

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 Tbs. fresh rosemary leaves, or 1 tsp. dried

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

4 medium-large zucchini, sliced (again, I used my food processor!)

About 1 lb. sliced mushrooms (you guessed it:  f p!)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

10-12 oz. fresh spinach leaves

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 oz. basil leaves, shredded (If you put the leaves on top of each other and roll them together, it makes the fine slicing easier.  The leaves stay put!)

4 green onions, thinly sliced

OPTIONAL:  12-16 roasted tomatoes

In a sprayed, large skillet, cook the onions until they're soft.  Add the garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper, and cook until the garlic is soft, about a minute or two.  Add the zucchini and stir.  Turn the heat up to medium-high.  Cook the zucchini, stirring it often enough so that it doesn't burn, and cook until the water has evaporated out of it, perhaps 30 minutes or more, depending on your heat level.  Pour into a sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish, and set aside.

In the same skillet, pour the mushrooms.  Cook them until the water has evaporated--this won't take nearly as long as the zucchini!  Season with salt and pepper, stir, and add the spinach leaves.  Cook just long enough to wilt the spinach.  Spoon this over the zucchini mixture.  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top, and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes, or until the top is light brown.

To serve, place a square on a plate, and top with basil shreds and green onions.  If you're using roasted tomatoes, add them to the toppings.  The picture shows sundried tomatoes--an experiment--but I wouldn't recommend them!  Ha!  I didn't have tomatoes to roast!  Remember, this is from leftover ingredients!  Ha!

Also, you could add artichoke hearts to the mushroom part and delete the tomatoes all together!  Add them before the spinach and heat them through, and then proceed with the rest!

Zucchini-wrapped Spinach and Carrots with Parmesan Asparagus Spears

I apologize for no picture--Chelsea's not here to help me!  Ha!  I do have a picture, and I'll try to add it later tonight!

This is for Emily, who had several guidelines for us.  She wanted to know if we could come up with dishes that were low in fat and carbs, more vegetables than meat, didn't include a lot of processed soy products, would appeal to her son who "lives on carbs," and also would appeal to her 2-year-old son!  Last, but not least, both sons are becoming pickier eaters.  A CHALLENGE!

My three adult daughters were each 2 at one time!  Ha!  One loved pasta, one loved granola, and one loved broccoli and mushrooms!  And whatever ONE loved, the other two hated!  So, I spent some time thinking about this stuff.  On days when I was fried, we ate cheese or pepperoni pizza, which they all seemed to think was okay.  We ate a lot of pizza in some phases of life!  Ha!

I was a meat-eater then, but I remember some of the criteria:  color, fun, simple tastes.  Interestingly, I found this easier to accomplish with vegetables!

Baby carrots that number the same as the zucchini slices--next item!  (I'm assuming the carrots are the fatter version, like Costco's or a grocery store's.  If you're using thinner ones, like the ones from Trader Joe's in the snack-sized bags, 2 or 3 per zucchini slice would be better.)

2 medium zucchinis, sliced with a potato peeler into about 30-35 slices  (It has to be thin enough to roll!)

Garlic salt

Pepper

Onion powder

1 bunch spinach, rinsed and stems removed (or 1 bag of baby spinach, with plans to use the rest for salad--which is what I did!)

30-35 toothpicks

1 can vegetable broth

Veggie Dressing (See below, or look at March 24's post!)

1 lb. asparagus spears

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Pasta for Simon!  (Maybe tossed in a little oil and garlic salt?)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Steam, or microwave (about 2-4 minutes--depends on thickness), the carrots until they're crisp/tender.  Set aside.

Lay zucchini slices on a cutting board.  Sprinkle with a little of each:  garlic salt, pepper, and onion powder.  (If my own kids saw onion pieces or bits, they wouldn't eat this!  So, I used powder, which became "invisible" but imparted the taste, so Steve and I could eat it, too!)  Top with a few spinach leaves, just enough to cover the zucchini slice.  Place the carrot at one end, and roll the zucchini slice with the spinach leaves around the carrot.  Secure with a toothpick, and set it in a pre-sprayed 7 x 12 baking dish.  Continue until all the zucchini slices with spinach leaves and carrots have been wrapped.  (This sounds like a horrific time-consumer, but it was surprisingly fast!)

Pour the broth around the edges of the baking dish.  (I used a smaller baking dish, because I wanted the rolls touching, so they wouldn't dry out in the oven.)  Do not cover!  (If you cover it, the rolls will fall apart when you remove the toothpicks!  This way, they dry a bit and stick together better.)  Set aside, and fix the asparagus. 

ASPARAGUS SPEARS

Wash and break ends off asparagus spears.  In a plastic bag or container that seals tightly, put asparagus spears, vegetable oil, salt, and pepper.  Toss to coat.  Lay asparagus spears in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Do not cover!

Put both dishes in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Heat water and boil pasta.  To serve:  remove the toothpicks, and put the rolls and a few asparagus spears on a plate.  Drizzle a little Veggie Dressing over the top of the rolls.  Add a spoonful of pasta (or rice or?).  Enjoy!

NOTE:  This is something you can make in bits during the day.  For example, the zucchinis can be quickly sliced while you're waiting for toast to pop up, and then tossed into a bag and into the refrigerator.  The carrots can be zapped any time.  Same for tossing the asparagus.

Also, I added wild rice pilaf (as the picture shows), because I was experimenting with a recipe.

Veggie Dressing:

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. thyme leaves, crushed

2 Tbs. water

1 cup olive, or vegetable, oil

Put everything but the oil into a container that pours--I use a squeeze bottle that used to contain honey.  Shake to dissolve powders and salt.  Add oil, shake, and pour--or squeeze!

I keep this on hand in my refrigerator door.  My whole family LOVES this stuff!  Even my brother and father will eat vegetables with this!  If you decide to double the recipe, as in the March 24th entry, DON'T double the herbs and spices!  Just double the oil!

What I Ate for Dinner: Chinese-Style Soup – AKA Marste’s Soul Food

When I have a stomachache or cramps, or when I’m tired and weepy, or when I’m just emotionally exhausted and need to feel taken care of, this is what I eat. The ingredients vary – the recipe below is LITERALLY what I ate for dinner Thursday night – but it almost always includes garlic, ginger, onions, beef broth and soy sauce. (Sometimes that’s ALL it contains.)

The rest of the ingredients change depending on what I have in the fridge at the moment. I’ve used bok choy (fantastic), crab (well, imitation crab, anyway), beef, ground turkey (the consistency was weird on that one, though), carrots, green beans, lettuce (yes, really – it was good, too!), chopped celery (also good!), tomatoes, mushrooms – whatever is in the fridge.

What you see below is what I had in the fridge last night, so it’s what I had for dinner. As written, it won’t serve many, but you can just double it to feed a family. The whole thing, start to finish, took me about 15 minutes. Yes, really.

The Recipe:
Serves 2

½ Tbs canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced OR ½ tsp garlic powder
¼ cup frozen, pre-chopped onion
¼ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp 5-spice powder
1 Tbs low- sodium soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
2 cups beef broth
1 handful frozen broccoli
1 or 2 pre-cooked chicken breasts, chopped (I use Trader Joe’s grilled chicken strips)
2 handfuls raw spinach (prepared)
½ package Chinese rice noodles (optional)

On the side:
chili paste
vinegar
sesame oil

If you’re using noodles, prepare those first. Boil them according to the package directions, and drain them. (Don’t worry about them getting cold; we’re going to pour boiling soup over them in a minute.)

In a pan, heat the canola oil. Add the garlic, onion, ginger and 5-spice powder, and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and beef broth and bring just to a boil. Add the frozen broccoli and the chicken and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer about 3-5 minutes, until the chicken is hot in the middle. Add the raw spinach and stir just until it wilts, about 15 seconds.

If you’re using noodles, portion the noodles out into bowls and pour the broth over the top. Otherwise just dish yourself up some soup!

Serve with vinegar, chili paste and sesame oil on the side, and let each person doctor their soup to taste.


Yeah. I know it looks a lot like this one. I had a lot of the same (visible) ingredients on hand. The spices are different though, so it doesn't TASTE the same. Really. ;)

Balsamic-Roasted Tomatoes with Mushrooms and Spinach

Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup olive or canola oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

2 cups grape tomatoes

1 Tbl. olive or canola oil

3 cloves garlic, minced (or 3 cubes, 3 tsp. jarred, or 3/8 tsp. garlic powder)

16 large mushrooms, wiped and sliced

1/4 cup water

1/2 lb. fresh baby spinach

2 Tbl. chopped fresh basil

Spread tomatoes on cookie sheet, and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.  Roast at 450 degrees for 15-17 minutes, or until they pop.  Remove from oven, and set aside.

In a large pan, heat oil.  Sauté garlic until soft.  Add mushrooms and water, and cook until "crisp-tender," about 10 minutes, or so.  Add spinach and stir into mushrooms.  Cook, stirring frequently, until spinach is wilted.  Add basil, and mix it into the mushrooms and spinach.  Using a spatula or slotted spoon, move the tomatoes from the cookie sheet to the pan.  Stir just a bit to mix things.  Spoon either into a serving bowl or onto plates.  Drizzle with a little balsamic vinaigrette, and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Stir-Fry (Inspired by PF Chang's)

Mom and I spent the last week at a film convention in Las Vegas. It was fun for the first day and a half, but then I started to feel like if I had to visit another buffet full of steak and pasta, someone was going to get hurt. I needed some vegetables BADLY. Fortunately, we found a PF Chang's at the hotel next door, where it turned out Mom and I could order sides of vegetables - and they even LOOKED like vegetables! None of that warmed-over, brownish-green, overcooked crap. So this is my not-so-faithful-but-still-damn-tasty merging of a couple of their vegetable dishes. ;)

You can use this recipe with pretty much any vegetable you have on hand. Broccoli would be really good, as would edamame. Bell peppers and onions would work, along with baby corn, water chestnuts, green beans, cabbage, chopped carrots . . . pretty much any vegetable you can think of. AND it’s a great way to use up raw leafy greens that haven’t quite gone bad, but that are a little old to use in a salad.

If you serve this with rice, you can stretch this to 6 good-sized servings, or 8 smaller ones. Without rice, figure 4 large servings or 6 smaller ones.

The Recipe:
2 tsp canola oil
1 tbs butter
2 cloves minced garlic
1 inch fresh ginger, grated*
1 10-oz package sliced mushrooms (crimini)
1 lb pre-cooked chicken strips
12-16 oz fresh spinach
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Melt the butter and canola oil in a pan. Add the garlic and ginger and sauté until garlic is golden. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium-low heat until mushrooms are soft, and release their juices.

(If you’re making the sauce below, now is the time: while the mushrooms soften.)

Add the chicken and red pepper flakes (if using) and heat through.

Add the spinach, a couple of handfuls at a time, stirring as you go. As soon as the spinach cooks down, add more. The idea is for it to be wilted, but not soggy.

You can leave it this way, or if you like, you can add the sauce (below). If you’re serving this over rice, put the rice on the plate, then the chicken mixture, then pour some sauce over the whole thing. If you’re not serving rice, just pour all the sauce into the chicken pan and give it a good stir. :)

*Note: Ginger can be a real pain in the ass. The easy way to grate fresh ginger? Go to the store and buy a ginger root. Cut it into pieces roughly 1 to 1.5 inches each, then toss them all in a sandwich bag and put the bag in the freezer. When you need some fresh ginger, grab a grater with teeny little holes (I use this Microplane grater) and grate the frozen ginger, peel and all, right over the pan/pot. Works like a charm, and it's dead easy. None of that mucking around, trying to peel the freakin' ginger. FanTAStic.


Stir-fry Sauce:
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup water
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
Chili paste (optional)
Chinese hot mustard (optional)

Combine soy sauce, water, sugar and vinegar in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, just enough to heat lightly. Mix ingredients together until sugar is melted.

Taste. Little by little, tasting as you go, add chili paste and hot mustard to taste. (Did I mention that you should taste as you go? ;D) If by chance you get too much spice in the sauce, just add a splash of white vinegar to calm it down.


Since I'm not a big rice person, I just poured the sauce into the pan, and then the whole mixture into a bowl. Like this:



YUM. That is all.

Green Sauce Enchilada Casserole

I use La Victoria green enchilada sauce, because I can get it in all the places I travel in the U.S.  It has a sour taste, so I add "sweet" vegetables--onion, carrots, and corn--to offset this.  I usually top another enchilada casserole I make with tomatoes, green onions, and sour cream, but the tomatoes and onions don't taste great with this!  I didn't think that was possible!  Ha!

1 Tbl. canola or olive oil

1 medium-large onion, chopped

1 large garlic clove, minced (or 1 tsp. jarred, 1 frozen cube, or 1/8 tsp. garlic powder)

2 medium carrots, thinly sliced into "coins"

1 lb. package frozen, chopped spinach, thawed

1 14.5 oz. can whole kernel corn, drained (or 1 cup frozen, thawed)

1 29 oz. can La Victoria's green enchilada sauce

6 corn tortillas

*Grated cheddar cheese

Sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-low.  Add the chopped onion, garlic, and carrots.  Sauté until onion is tender.  Add the spinach.  Continue cooking about 15 minutes, then add the corn.  Pour about 1 cup of the enchilada sauce into the spinach mix, stir, and heat until bubbling.

Break the corn tortillas in half.  In a 9x13 baking dish, place 3 tortillas, each whole tortilla with its halves slanted and offset.  (The 6 halves should cover most of the bottom of the pan.)  *See possible alteration below.  Pour the spinach mix evenly over the tortillas.  *See possible alteration below.  Place the 3 remaining tortillas, arranged as above, across the top of the spinach.  Pour the enchilada sauce evenly over the tortillas.  Add enough grated cheese to make an opaque cover over the sauce.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through.

Let it sit for 10 minutes before you cut into it.  Serve it with a dollop of sour cream on the side.

MMMMM!

*Another option, if you'd like a cheesier casserole, is to sprinkle cheese over the 1st layer of tortillas, again over the spinach and before the last tortilla layer, and finally, on top of the final sauce layer.

Steakhouse at home: Steak with Bacon-Shallot Sauce and Creamed Spinach

I love steak. Love, love, LOVE. My diet generally hews more toward Atkins than Pritikin, although the late Dr. Atkins would not approve of my carb intake. (It’s on the low side, but I don’t shy away from the occasional piece of – gasp! – toast.) Anyway, I found filet mignon on sale over Valentine’s Day (specifically, I found “Tenderloin Butt,” which is a larger cut that includes the filet – I butchered it myself), and stashed some in the freezer to experiment.

Lucky, lucky me. I mean YOU! You, I meant you. Ahem.

The Steak Recipe:
3 strips bacon, chopped
1 Tbs butter
4 small steaks (I used filet mignon) or 2 large, about 1 inch thick
Salt and pepper
1 large shallot, diced
10 oz mushrooms, sliced (1 grocery store package)
1 ½ cups red wine

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon in the butter over medium-high heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, get the bacon out of the pan, but leave the drippings in. Add the steaks, using tongs (TONGS, people – don’t pierce the meat with a fork or you’ll lose all the juice!), salt and pepper them, and cook: about 2 minutes per side for medium-rare. (Add a minute for each gradation of doneness: 3 minutes for medium, 4 for medium-well, etc.)

[While the steak cooks, microwave the spinach in the recipe below.]

Remove the steaks from the pan (again with the tongs, people), and put them on a plate. Cover them with foil to keep them warm.

Add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan, and cook until the mushrooms start to soften, 5-10 minutes. Add the red wine, and the bacon bits, scraping the pan to get all the good bacony-steaky bits off the bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and allow it to simmer until the liquid is about half gone, about 10-15 minutes.

[If you’re making the spinach, now’s the time to finish it.]

Place the steaks on plates, and pour the bacon-shallot sauce over them.


Too-Easy-and-Good-to-Believe Creamed Spinach
2 packages frozen chopped spinach – 16 oz
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup sour cream (I use Daisy brand because I can pronounce all the ingredients, and I usually use Light – mostly because I like the consistency better for this)
½ cup mayonnaise
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup Parmesan cheese

*Note: I like garlic – I like to be able to taste it – but if you don’t, use 1 clove of garlic instead of 2.

Microwave the frozen spinach in a large bowl until hot. Add all remaining ingredients and stir to combine. (You might have to toss it back in the microwave for a minute or so – sometimes the other ingredients cool off the spinach too much.)

I KNOW, RIGHT?! How easy is THAT?!

I don’t eat a lot of bread, but if you do, this would be FANTASTIC rounded out with a baked potato or some garlic bread. YUM. Can’t beat a steakhouse meal at home-cooked prices, you know? ;)


(And no, that's not blood. That's the red wine. ;D)