Category Archives: Main Courses

Make Mom Happy – Eat Your Brussels Sprouts

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses, side dishes and tagged with , , ,

done brussels

I have a few poignant food memories going back to my childhood.  One involved liver and onions and requesting it as my birthday dinner just because I knew my sisters hated it and would HAVE to eat it because it was my birthday request.  Another involved my grandmother ALWAYS giving me a snack to eat in the car on my way home from her house.  After one particular visit, she had nothing to offer in the snack arena except for a couple of cold brussels sprouts.  Rather than break tradition, I opted to take her up on the brussels sprouts offer and proceeded to nibble on them all the way home.

Admittedly, brussels sprouts have a certain, shall we say, reputation. But I assure you that any childhood traumas caused by this poor veggie can be obliterated with one simple recipe – Maple Bacon Braised Brussels Sprouts. We discovered these one year around Thanksgiving time, and haven’t looked at brussels sprouts in the same light since.

But before we get to the sprouts recipe, let’s talk quinoa again.  Because quinoa burgers were the main course to which the brussels sprouts served as a side.  Super simple burgers.  Tasty. Moist and yet hold together well.

Start by cooking 1 cup of dry quinoa as directed on the package.  After cooked and somewhat cooled, add cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, grated zucchini, eggs, flour, green onions, sugar, pepper, cumin, salt and garlic powder.  Your mixture will look something like this.

I actually made this ahead of time and left it chilling in the fridge all afternoon until dinner time.

Heat olive oil in large skillet.  Once oil is hot, reduce heat to medium or medium-low and drop the quinoa mixture by 1/4 cupfuls into oil.  Cooking longer on a lower temp will give them longer to have a good consistency without getting too brown.  I fry these about 4 minutes per side until they are golden brown.  It’s kind of the “pancake concept”  where your first batch won’t be as good as later ones until you get your frying temp just right.  For this reason, you may want to start out with just one patty and then when you have your heat regulated, you can do 4 – 5 at a time.

So now for the brussels sprouts . . . rinse your sprouts well and trim them.

raw brussels

Chop 8 – 10 slices of thick cut bacon into pieces and cook bacon until crisped and brown.  Remove your bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Put your brussels sprouts into your bacon drippings and cook, stirring frequently until they begin to brown.  Continue cooking until tender.  Add bacon back into skillet and add maple syrup.  Heat until syrup coats the sprout and they appear caramelized.

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I love serving this great quinoa burger and brussels sprouts combo with sweet potato fries.  You can ues a chipotle mayo to accent the burger AND dip your fries.

quinoa burgers

For the Quinoa Burger Recipe, click here.

For the Brussels Sprouts Recipe, click here.

Dinner for Friends – Parmesan Honey Chicken

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , , ,

You’ve volunteered to take dinner to a friend, and now what?  If you’re like me, this is a common occurrence. Maybe you’ve heard of the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. Well, in my opinion, food should really be added as the long overlooked 6th love language.  I really enjoy blessing other people with food.  But like everyone, I’m busy and sometimes when the day arrives and I get that little reminder e-mail that says, “New baby parents are excited about the dinner you will be bringing them TOMORROW NIGHT”, I flinch, panic, and think, “What am I going to take?”

Over time I have developed somewhat of a go-to meal for taking to other people.  I like it because it is simple, pretty general tasting (not spicy, no “weird” ingredients, etc.), and it transports well.  The meal consists of:

  • Crock Pot Parmesan Honey Chicken
  • Roasted Sweet Potato and Red Potato Mix
  • Sautéed Peas with Shallots and Lemon
  • Homemade Steakhouse Wheat Bread
  • Dessert

I first discovered this chicken recipe at a crock pot party. Is that a fabulous party idea, or what? My girlfriend invited a bunch of us over and we all brought a favorite crock pot dish and the recipe to share.  The recipe was originally for a pork roast, but I adapted it to chicken . . . that was back when we were still eating chicken.

I also take paper plates and plastic cutlery when I’m gifting a family with a meal.  If you are getting out of cooking, isn’t it an extra bonus to not have to do dishes as well?

Here was last night’s delivery.  It also included a half gallon of ice cream (Denali Extreme Moosetracks, our family favorite) which the receiving 4 year old of the family seemed pretty excited about.

For the Parmesan Honey Chicken Recipe, click here.

Winner, Winner Salmon Dinner – A Conversion Experience

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , , ,

So after a few years away, my step-daughter (who is 19) returned to live with us this past summer.  We all had some adapting to do.  Overall it went well, except for one minor detail . . . she didn’t like salmon and politely refused to eat it. Salmon was a pretty regular player in our monthly meal lineup, so this posed a bit of a problem.

I secretly set out to make her a salmon convert.  I tried planking (cedar, that is), roasting, different marinades, and more.  Fiinally I hit on the winner.  The big ol’ golden salmon in the sky that makes this girl say, “Hey we haven’t had salmon in a while.” It’s an easy one to make too since it has a lot that can be done ahead of time, or in steps.

I recently had someone ask how long it takes me to put together the dinners that I’m posting.  It honestly doesn’t take that long, and as I explained to the person asking, I do a lot to pre-prep my meals when I have little moments of downtime in my day.  So as I walk you through this one, I’ll also point out the pre-prepping I did to minimize the “last-minute-get-it-on-the-table-crunch”.

So here’s the low down on CARIBBEAN SPICE RUBBED SALMON with MANGO SALSA.

The mango salsa is quick to put together and waits well in the fridge.  That sitting time also always the flavors to meld better.  I threw the salsa together in a 5 minute window I had early afternoon when no one was calling my name.  Simply put, you peel and chop 2 mangoes, (insert confession here – I can’t stand the feel of a mango.  Don’t know what it is, but it’s the only food whose feel creeps me out.  As such, I buy them already peeled and packaged at Costco.  This makes the chopping go super fast), finely dice 1/2 of a red onion, chop a bunch of cilantro, mix together and add one squeeze of lime juice.

The spice rub for this salmon isn’t complicated, so during another 5 minute moment of sanity in my day, I threw together the spices required.  That way they were ready for the rubbing when dinner time rolled around.

I serve this salmon over a bed of rice and black beans. While the kiddos were entertaining themselves at another moment in the afternoon, I opened, drained, and  rinsed my black beans, cooked my rice and mixed the two together.  This I could also just set aside until dinner time.

When actual dinner arrived, I was poised and ready to put it all into action and the preceding prep had literally only taken me 15 minutes earlier in the day doled out in 5 minute increments.

I went ahead and rubbed down my salmon with the spices.

I then heated a bit of oil in the skillet and added the salmon.  I cooked it for about 5 minutes on each side until the spice rub made a nice crust.  At this point you can pull the salmon fillets apart  to assure it is well cooked through, or you can do a sneak test and leave the fillets in tact.  The latter is my preference.  Just remember that salmon can go from succulent to dry in a heart beat, so make sure you don’t overcook.

To serve, put the black bean and rice on the plate, layer with the salmon, and top with the mango salsa.  Not only is this one healthy and easy to put together, but it’s beautiful on the plate.  Oh, and I like to serve it with a bit of avocado on the side too, not to mention the pre-mixed margarita that it pairs wonderfully with (wink).

So there you have it . . . the story of how my oldest daughter came to know and love salmon and how this unassuming fish restored dinner table harmony to our family.  As I mentioned, my oldest is 19, but you should also know that at our house if you don’t like what’s served, there are no other options.  Hence the reason my 20 month old ate seconds and thirds last night when this was served.  But talking about how I got my kids to be good eaters and budding foodies is fodder for a whole other post.

Winging It With What You’ve Got – Stuffed Peppers

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , ,

Let me first start with a little tip of my hat to one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks – Vegetarian Suppers by Deborah Madison.  I love this book and I think I’m pretty close to having made every recipe in the book.  So recipes are great, but sometimes you just need to let your cupboards and refrigerator do the talking. In other words, interpret your recipe LOOSELY.

Last night I had planned to make this great recipe that Madison has for Yellow Peppers Stuffed with Quinoa, Corn, and Feta Cheese.  I decided to go that route because I had 4 lovely orange peppers sitting in the fridge.  I hadn’t really inventoried the other ingredients I would need, but let’s just say that the substitution of orange peppers for yellow ones wasn’t the only recipe tweak I ended up performing.

  • red onions got replaced by half red and half yellow, just because that’s what I had
  • the pan got deglazed with a little sherry because we had killed our only bottle of white wine the night before
  • quinoa seemed like a hassle so I opted for the precooked tub of organic brown rice that I always keep on hand for moments of laziness just like these
  • the jalapeno just got ditched and not really replaced by anything
  • frozen corn gave way to a good old can of corn
  • kale beat the spinach to the skillet because there wasn’t a leaf of spinachto be found in the house
  • and finally, the feta cheese got replaced with some good old Mexican blend because I didn’t want to listen to kid #2 whine about not liking feta cheese

Believe me when I say that people who review recipes and then proceed to tell you that they changed every living detail about the recipe really annoy me.  But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do just to get dinner on the table (side note to those recipe reviewers – – – it’s simple, improvise however you need to, but just skip the whole reviewing thing as a favor to us all).

So here’s the recap of how this meal came together.  I’ll give you the real recipe at the close of the post.

Start by cutting the peppers in half, removing stems and seeds, and then putting them in a pot of simmering salt water.  Let them cook 5 – 8 minutes until they are tender to the touch of a knife, but not too soft.

Slice the onions into thin rounds. In a skillet, warm 1 Tbsp. of olive oil.   Add the onions and saute until they start to brown. Deglaze the pan with wine (or sherry as I did) and stir the onions as you do. Season with salt and pepper, and then spread the onions in the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish.

Place the peppers on top of the onions.

In another skillet, warm 1 1/2 Tbsp. of olive oil.  Add the scallions and Jalapeno (if you have it).  Cook for about 2 min. and then add garlic, cumin, corn, and spinach (or kale), and 2 Tbsp. water.  When the greens are wilted (kale will take longer than spinach), add cilantro, quinoa (or rice), and cheese.  Toss everything until well blended, and season with salt and pepper.

Fill the peppers with the mixture. Drizzle 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil over them.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes until they are heated through.  Switch to broil for the last couple of minutes to brown the tops.

And here’s a picture from another meal, when I actually followed the recipe as written.

My personal preference includes the feta cheese, just because I am such a fan, but I have to admit that the absence of whining was a definite upside to last night’s version.

So now here are the actual quantities and ingredients as given by Deborah Madison:

sea salt & freshly ground pepper

1 cup cooked quinoa

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced into rounds

2 jalapenos, seeded & finely diced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp. cumin

2 c. frozen corn kernels

1 bunch spinach

1/2 c. chopped cilantro

1/4 lb. feta cheese

2 red onions, thinly sliced into rounds

1/2 c. white wine

4 yellow bell peppers

Wondering about the nutritional value of bell peppers?  Definitely a winner for vitamin c and vitamin A.

Nutrient%Daily Value in 1 c. Raw Bell Pepper

vitamin C 195.8

vitamin A 57.6%

vitamin B6 13.5%

folate 10.5%

fiber 7.4%

vitamin E 7.2%

molybdenum 6.1%

vitamin K 5.6%

potassium 5.5%

manganese 5%

vitamin B2 4.7%

vitamin B3 4.5%

vitamin B1 3.3%

tryptophan 3.1%

vitamin B5 2.8%

magnesium 2.7%

Fish Tacos – A nod to Cinco de Mayo

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , , ,

Growing up in Ohio, the 5th of May just came and went like any other day.  When I first moved to California, this day came and there was much ado about it everywhere. Cinco de what-o? was my initial reaction. But now that I’ve lived here 20 years (wow, just did the math on that one, and I surprised myself), a little Mexican fare is almost obligatory on this much-feted day.

This year though, we had been doing kid stuff all weekend down in San Diego and returned home late Sunday afternoon. Cinco had just snuck up on me.  What to make? I decided to pull out a quick and easy one, and a definite crowd pleaser in our house – fish tacos!

A while back we discovered a winning sauce combination and THAT is what makes these such a favorite in the house.  The 3 year old was once heard proclaiming at the table on fish taco night, “I could eat fish tacos every single night, Mom.”

So here’s the dish on the secret sauce – equal parts mayo and sour cream (we usually do 1/2 cup of each) mixed with the juice of 1 lime and about a Tbsp. of fresh grated lime zest. Try it and you won’t regret it.

The second thing that makes these a fav among the kids, is that they get the joy of assembling their own taco – think culinary Legos. So I serve up lots of options when I serve fish tacos – fresh cabbage (my personal favorite), grated cheese, salsa, corn and beans, cilantro, avocado, rice, and lime wedges to name a few.

While I am prepping all of my accompaniments for the tacos, I have the fish cooking in the oven.  I prefer using Trader Joe’s Breaded Cod Fillets, but really any fish choice will work. After the fish is

crispy, I just cut it into shred-like pieces.

The kids plates look a little different than mine as they create their own taco concoctions, but at least they’re getting a healthy Cinco dinner no matter how it ends up on the plate.

Happy Cinco de Mayo . . . or any other day that “assembling” seems more appealing than “cooking” to you!

Cheesy Quinoa Bake

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with ,

I have to admit, I wasn’t a quinoa fan at first sight. I found it bland and a bit texture odd, and I’m all about the texture of food.  But I had heard about and read about (http://www.livestrong.com/article/346908-what-are-the-benefits-of-eating-quinoa/) its great health benefits and so I didn’t give up on my quest for a palatable version of this great protein source.  Well, I think we finally found it when I happened upon this inspiration recipe for a Crispy Quinoa Bake.

To start with, you take the quinoa and rinse it thoroughly for 2 minutes. I’m not sure exactly how the rinsing ordeal affects the final texture outcome, but I’m convinced that it does have some impact on giving this dish a better texture.

After rinsing it, you heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and then add the quinoa, stir a couple of minutes until it begins to dry and pop, and then add the veggie broth. Cover it and simmer until all of the liquid is absorbed – about 20 minutes.

While the quinoa is cooking, sautée one chopped onion and half of a chopped red pepper for about ten minutes.  Then add in a clove of garlic chopped and a couple of medium zucchinis diced. Sautée for another couple of minutes.

Fluff the quinoa with a fork and then combine the quinoa and onion mixture.  To this, add black beans, diced tomatoes, frozen corn, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, and lime juice.

Once everything is well blended, place in a 9×13 casserole dish sprayed with oil.  Bake the whole deal at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Then sprinkle the top with grated Mexican blend cheese and bake for another 10 minutes until the top is golden brown.

I think it’s great served with a little sour cream and accompanied by some corn bread and a simple green salad.

This dish is also great because you can basically clear out the fridge with odds and ends and put them in the bake.  I have added shredded carrots, kale, chard, brussel sprouts, and scallions to name a few.

For those who like precision, here are the actual quantities:1 cup quinoa, uncooked
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups veggie broth

1 cup onion, diced (about 1 medium)
1//2 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup zucchini, cubed (about 2 small)
1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 4 ounce can diced green chiles
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup canned corn, drained
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 lime, juiced
Salt
2 cups shredded mexican cheese blend

Spinach Patties

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , ,

The thing about spinach is that when I buy it from our local Persian market, the bags are just huge! I steam and sautée it here and there and add to other entrees, but I usually end up wasting some. So my objective in this endeavor was to really make spinach the mainstay of the meal and not just an accompaniment. I found this recipe for Sephardic Spinach Patties on Epicurious and decided to give it a go.

First I cooked the spinach and squeezed it dry. Then I sautéed up the onions and garlic. I added the onion mixture to the spinach and mixed in the matza meal and spices (salt, pepper & nutmeg). I mixed in the egg along with 1/4 c. of freshly grated parmesan and made sure it was the right consistency for patty making. When the consistency seemed right, I heated the oil in a large skillet and dropped the spinach by 1/4 cupfuls into the oil.

I fried the patties for about 4 minutes per side.  They really held together well and browned quite nicely. This can be a problem sometimes with vegetable patties of other sorts, and in my opinion, consistency is king when it comes to any kind of patty making.

I served them up with some sweet potato fries which I love to accompany with a chipotle mayo sauce. I just buy the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and transfer the whole can to a Tupperware. Then, whenever I want chipotle sauce as an accompaniment, I chop up one pepper with a little of its sauce and add it to the mayo just until I get the desired color and spice level.  I also served some cherry tomatoes and vinaigrette along with this meal.  The colors were delightful and it was tasty and well-balanced too.

Sorry I don’t have a full plate photo to share with you, but I think I had a 20 month old hanging on my pant leg when we sat down together to eat.

This recipe adapted from http://www.epicurious.com/

Leek, Red Pepper & Gruyere Tart

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , ,

So what do you do when you open the fridge and see two leeks staring back at you? Make a tart, of course.  I usually have at least some basis that I work from as far as recipes are concerned, but this time sous chef number 2 and I flew completely solo.  She got pretty excited about that. She even wondered if it turned out good, if we could “sell” the recipe to the Internet. How about we just post it?

1 pre-made pie shell (I usually get the whole wheat, good stuff ones at Sprouts

4 Tbsp. butter

2 leeks, chopped in rounds up to light green part

1 onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

Chopped fresh basil

1/2 c. Milk

1/2 c. Half and Half

1c. Grated gruyere

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

If the pie shell is frozen, let it defrost about 15 minutes or until the bottom is soft enough to pierce with a fork. Pierce the bottom 3-4 times with said fork.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large skillet.  Toss in the leeks and sautée until they are soft, about 20 minutes over medium heat. Transfer leeks to large bowl.

Melt the remaining 2 Tbsp. better in same skillet and sautée onion and red pepper until soft.  Add onion mixture to leeks in bowl.

Add in milk, half and half, eggs, and gruyere and mix well. Add in basil and salt and mix to blend.

Transfer mixture to pie shell. Bake 30-35 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown.

I served this with roasted butternut squash and thee whole fam agreed that it was a keeper!

Cauliflower Hash with Poached Eggs

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , , ,

Amazing, but true, this has become kind of a “go to” for us.  The kids love it, especially dipping pieces of a crusty baguette into the poached eggs.  The veggies are plentiful, and the chopping can be a tad of a pain, but I usually get one or two small people to sous-chef for me.  They hate when I call them Sue when that’s their job.

So we start with the beautiful cauliflower.

We start by sautéing a little onion and celery and then we add the cauliflower.  Adding a bit of water and covering assures that the cauliflower gets soft, but not too mushy. We also throw in some spices around this time.

After the cauliflower starts to soften it’s time for some red potatoes (wouldn’t be hash without those, now would it?)

And then we finish it off with some baby spinach leaves, just until they are wilted, of course. Once that whole conglomeration is basically done, we poach the eggs and then I plate everything.  Plating, you say? With this one, yes.  I plate and my sous chefs pass them out.  I actually love serving dinner this way because it cuts down on serving dishes which means fewer things to rinse and load in the dishwasher.

This recipe adapted from http://www.thecurvycarrot.com

Kale & Cannellini Ragout

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with , , , , ,

So they say, that among the best veggies to eat are “leaves”. (http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/ for a good read on this and lots of other thought provoking food points) This can be tricky if you don’t venture  beyond your standard salad fare. Two of our favorite leaves are chard and kale. We make kale chips from time to time and love putting together different salads with it, but this little ragout changed things up a bit and EVERYONE liked it – including somewhat persnickety three year old.

Start by sautéeing a little onion and garlic.  Then add a can of diced tomatoes.  Add a little veggie broth and your chopped up kale and simmer until the greens are soft. At the very end, add a can of drained and rinsed Cannellini beans. Top the whole deal with some freshly grated Parmesan and you’ve got a healthy and delish dish. Sorry about the lack of step by step photos on this one – sometimes it’s all I can do to just get the FOOD on the table and take a pic of the final product. And yes, this photo does include Mama’s well deserved glass of Sauvignon blanc.

I served this one accompanied by roasted green beans (notice the bacon mixed in with those little beans- thus the “using meat for flavor and accent” stance we have taken – plus, bacon makes anything  so much tastier) and a grated carrot salad with raisins and a fig walnut vinaigrette.

Adapted from http://www.epicurious.com/