Variation on a Brown Rice Theme

I realize I've sung the praises of the easiest Baked Brown Rice recipe in an earlier post, but I feel the need to return to the scene of the crime.  This brown rice recipe continues to be a staple.  It's low-intensity, is super tasty, goes with anything, and really can be dressed up with just about anything.

Tonight, as with my earlier post, I have added chopped button mushrooms.  I continue to be lazy here and buy the pre-cut ones.  I really should get more bang for my buck by buying the whole ones, but the concept of standing over my sink brushing the dirt off of them strikes me a having the potential to reduce my motivation to zero.  What can I say...I know my limits.

And, as before, I am going to add half (if not more) of a regular, normal, everyday, yellow onion.  I have added red onion for a little bit of color once.  With the time in the oven, the taste difference is minimal, and the color sort of loses it's luster. However, instead of red, we're going for the other Christmas color - green.  I'm going to dice up some zucchini and add it into the mix.  I love zucchini raw or cooked, so the way I figure, it will be hard to mess that up from my perspective.

I might have gotten a little carried away with the veggies this time (this is probably the most I've ever put in there), but we'll see how the brown rice reacts.  I've got a half diced medium yellow onion, about 1.5 cups of roughly chopped button mushrooms, and 1.5 roughly chopped medium zucchini. I'm certainly not worried about it tasting good.  I'm worried about the brown rice not getting to soak up as much of the buttery, salty, boiling water as it should while it's in the oven.  But then again, both the onions and zucchini should give off some moisture as well, so maybe it will balance it out?

Normally, I double the recipe when I put it in a 13x9 baking dish, but there have been times that when I add veggies to that recipe, it gets awfully close to the top of the dish.  This time I did just one recipe (not doubling) since I put so much else in the dish.  Before I wrapped it up in foil, it certainly looked promising, even if I've got at least twice as many veggies as I do rice.

Now...to wait for 1hr.    tick tock.

Good news.  It looks delicious.  I will have a bit of it tonight, but then I'll dish it up to be servings

Quick post - Salmon. It's what's for dinner...and lunch

Tonight I did the same thing I did last week - pocket cooking of salmon and zucchini.  Super tasty, super easy, and super healthy.  Honestly, how can you go wrong? 

Amazingly, I managed to keep myself from eating the entire 8 ounce fillet that I had purchased.  Since it had been on the plate with the zucchini I was eating that had herbs de provence on it and the lemon that was on the fish.  I flaked it with some raw zucchini, so the juices from the fish, the lemon, and the herbs de provence were combined with the raw (yet very tender) zucchini. 

I also baked some brown rice tonight - the fool-proof method (see the following post).  So, tomorrow's lunchbox is full.  From the top to the bottom - flaked salmon with zucchini, brown rice with mushrooms and onions, unsweetened applesauce, all-bran crackers with laughing cow cheese, and yellow and orange bell peppers.  I started to pack dried cranberries and crushed pecans for my morning oatmeal, but then I remembered that I am going to a morning event with Leadership Austin, where they will serve breakfast. 

This should give me enough energy to get through the pilates class I'm going to after work....

Quick Post: My Favorite Spices and Another New Recipe

Cumin is almost always the front runner. Something about that smokey and versatile just seems to go with everything I make. Well, almost everything.

But, last week when I did my salmon en papillote recipe, I decided to turn to the old standards of the spice cabinet, dried oregano and dried basil. In that recipe I considered using herbes de provence as I often have on my sauteed zucchini, but a while back I guess I put too much on and did not enjoy it. So I figured, why not try the oregano/basil combo. It worked perfectly.

So today when I was making a healthy meal (trying to modify my calorie intake...wheee) that also tasted good, I thought about those two spices again. I browned about a pound of ground turkey and stirred in vegetable primavera pasta sauce. I then put those two items into a dish, rinsed out my large skillet, and put a touch more olive oil in. I sweated half an onion (in retrospect, a full one would have been more than okay in this recipe) and threw in two diced golden zucchini (the most amazing marigold color you've ever seen) and one diced green zucchini. And what did I season them with? Why dried oregano and basil, of course.

Since I had put salt and pepper on the ground turkey and the pasta sauce already had plenty of salt, I didn't put any more in with the zukes. Once they were cooked through (with a bit of bite left), I mixed them with the turkey and pasta sauce. It was great. I had had a hankering for a pasta dish, but this satisfied that craving without the actual pasta. This recipe ended up making 4 servings of 330 calories each, which fits perfectly into the meal size I'm going for.

Quick and healthy summer dinner

Lately, the concept of slimming down has been at top of mind. I've gained some weight since I started dating my boyfriend. My friends say it's "happy weight" as it comes from indulging in dinners out at restaurants, Saturday morning doughnuts, or Sunday afternoon Coke floats. And, yes, more alcohol has been consumed on those lazy weekends while watching sports.

In our defense, we have also done a lot of active things like going to the golf driving range, having batting practice (with a wooden bat and a tennis ball...sort of a bit odd), pitch and putt, long walks, etc. I have also joined the gym where he goes and have committed to going 3-4 times/week at minimum (having someone to meet there sure does help).

But let's be honest. It's all about the food.

So, in an effort to prepare a pretty healthy dinner the other day, I improvised a salmon en pappilote. (Thankfully, this is not rocket science.)

I didn't have any parchment (though I've lately decided I should at least have some in my pantry, so that needs to be remedied), so foil it was. I wasn't actually sure how that was going to affect cooking time, so I looked up some recipes on epicurious.com (the best recipe site out there bar none...of course I'm biased since my bro-in-law is the technology team lead of the website) just to get a sense of how long it should cook. The resulting information? 25 minutes at 350. (well, sort of...keep reading)

I take out two large pieces of foil and doubled them over. I put about a teaspoon of olive oil on each. Over at my cutting board, I sliced about half of a zucchini in 1/8th inch slices. I then placed half of the sliced zuke on each piece of foil; salt; pepper.

Side note: when I say salt and pepper, I mean fresh ground. I have a sea salt grinder and a black pepper grinder. They are my go to spices. And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

I then put the salmon on top of the zuke slices. When I went to my grocery store's fishmonger, I asked for 3-4oz fillets. Frankly, I wanted more, but I know you're really only supposed to have that sized fillets. As luck would have it, he cut them a bit too large and they were 6oz each. (Sweet!) I really can't imagine only eating half of that portion, so I think 6oz fillets are the way to go in the future. But I digress....I put the salmon fillets on the zukes. I then dusted them lightly with dried oregano, dried basil, and a touch more sea salt. Then I sliced a lemon (because I'm not actually sure if I can eat oven roasted salmon without lemon) and put a couple slices on top of the lemon.

I sealed up the packets by lining up the long sides and folding them over a couple times. Then I folded over each of the shorter sides a couple times. The little presents were ready. I put them on a baking sheet and put them on the lower of my two oven racks (sort of low middle). I set my kitchen timer for 20 minutes, as in my experience, salmon always takes longer to cook than the recipes say. I don't know how it could be such a universal problem, but it is. So my theory was that I would check on it after 20 minutes and, depending on the progress, would mentally prepare myself to not eat for a while.

As suspected at the 20 minute mark, the little packets weren't quite done. The good thing with salmon is that I don't need it to be cooked to a fair-thee-well, but it looked close enough that "properly cooked" seemed within grasp, so I decided to try for a bit more. I turned the oven up to 400, put the packets (re-closed) back in, and reset the clock for 10 minutes. Truth by told, I knew the oven wasn't going to get up to the full 400 by the time the buzzer went off, but I figured it would work all the same.

When the ringing began, I took out the packets. I couldn't hold back and risked a bit of fingertip burning to open it up and check if we were done. We were. They were absolutely perfect. In the next 90 seconds while we waiting for the foil to become a little more manageable, I microwaved some Uncle Ben's Brown & Wild 90 Second rice. Once that was done, I put half of the rice on one plate and the contents of one packet on top of that. I did the same for the other plate. The fish, zucchini, lemon slices and olive oil had made a great sauce that permeated the wild rice.

I thought it was delicious, but perhaps more importantly, the boyfriend thought it was fantastic and requested that I make it again...soon. (He also had the suggestion of adding more zukes some with a thicker cut to add some more veggies and more texture. I think he's got something there.)

dinner party

I am unabashedly overjoyed to be out of the stay out until 4am crowd (well, at least not as a regular weekend occurrence) because it means that I have moved into the dinner party set. Yes, some of us had dinner parties a decade ago, but a decade ago I don't think I really saw cooking for what it is - a therapeutic way to let my creativity flow....not to mention some tasty vittles as a result.

So you can imagine how pleased I was to receive an invitation to a friend's house for a dinner party a few weeks ago. And let me say, this was a proper dinner party. The cocktail of the evening was a basil gimlet (OUTSTANDING drink, I might add, and one that I need to try at home sooner rather than later). The appetizers were figs drizzled in honey, olives, baguette slices with some sort of sun-dried tomato tapenade (maybe I'm not remember that part right, but it was good whatever it was).

Then came the entree. A perfectly cooked beef roast (red and bloody in the middle, but out to just ever so slightly pink towards the ends....something for everyone). Since we were in absolutely no rush and have a wonderful time making conversations in between nibbles of sticky figs, the hostess put the roast in while we were there. The hour flew by (no doubt helped along its way by the gimlets) also because the rest of the meal was a sort of dinner theatre. The way this apartment is set up allows some people to sit at the island's counter, watching what the cook is doing, and someone else could stand over to the side and participate in the island's conversation while talking to the cook. While all of this conversation was taking place, our hostess was deftly grilling bias-cut yellow squash and zucchini, large slices of avocado, and onions. The cheesy polenta that she had made earlier in the day and let set in a baking dish didn't fare quite as well on the grill as the vegetables, but taste-wise it was certainly a star (I'm willing to make that trade off any day - cheesier polenta that doesn't grill well...no problem here).

I feel as if I'm leaving something out, but the red wine we had with the dishes was the perfect accompaniment. It was all perfect. We then retired to the sectional to look over some magazines and continue our wine and conversation when the hostess exclaimed that she had completely forgotten to serve us her chilled melon soup as a starter. Oh well - we'll have it for dessert...and that we did. It was delicious. There was a dollop of what I surmised was greek yogurt on the top and she had added some dried herbs to the soup that I would have never considered - perfection.

The piece de resistance was that she insisted some of us take home leftovers. I've never been one to shy away from the leftover, so I gladly accepted. The first dinner companion said she would only take leftovers if it were in a tin foil swan. The gauntlet was thrown. Ask, and ye shall receive. A tin foil water fowl was created (one can't say for 100% sure if it was a swan, but the point was easily made). So how would our hostess follow up that masterpiece? With a tin foil fish, of course.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but I got to bring home a fish whose shape I can only describe as being shared with that of Flounder from Finding Nemo. It was perfect. However, it could not have been more perfect than the leftovers found inside. My dog, of course, got a tiny nibble of the meat (I'm a sucker for the pooch. What can I say). But the vast majority was left to me. I think I got two meals out of that beef roast and it was even more flavorful each time I bit into it. I'm thinking I'm going to have to try my magic at some point with a beef roast. Yum

Prodigal Daughter

After a fairly long hiatus, I returned to the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market this morning. I love that place. In an effort to be more financially responsible, I have made a conscious decision to not buy a ton of produce that will just go bad in my fridge. So while I spent a nice chunk of money, I did not overbuy in terms of amount.

I limited myself to the following items:

• One cantaloupe
  
• Two Sharlyn melons
  
• Two zucchini
  
• Two yellow squash
  
• Two cucumbers
  
• A skirt steak
  
• 1 lb. Black Bean & Queso Fresco Ravioli in Cilantro Pasta
  
• Some green beans
  
• Four mid-sized tomatoes
  
• A dozen farm-fresh eggs
  

Some explanations...

Sharlyn Melon I found this definition online: "This melon tastes like a cantaloupe and honeydew combined. Sharlyn melons are sweet with netted outer layer, greenish-orange rind, and white flesh. The availability varies, so check your local supermarkets and farmer’s market." It's funny because to me it smelled a bit like a mix of a peach and a cantaloupe.
The first one I ate didn't have nearly as intense a flavor as it did a fragrance. It was good, but a bit of a let down. The flesh was perfectly ripe, though, and I was able to just sit there and carve out bites with my spoon. The second one, however, had a more developed flavor, and it was rather tasty.


Skirt Steak
At about 9:30pm two nights ago, I realized that I had not prepared lunches for the rest of the week (as was my intention). So I figured that since the skirt steak was pretty thin, it wouldn't take too terribly long to cook it. I was right. I didn't put anything but salt and pepper on it and threw it on my grill pan. About 2-3 minutes each side, resting about 10 minutes (while I cooked the zucchini), and it was perfectly pink in the middle. Delicious.


Zucchini I cut a zucchini in half and then in small half moons. I tossed them with a tad of salt, pepper, and some herbs de provence. I then threw them in my grill pan so they could also soak up some of the beef yumminess that was left on the pan. Definitely turned out as well as I could have expected.

The only thing that went wrong at the Farmer's Market this time around was that I brought my pooch with me. He was wonderfully behaved, but there was a lot to smell, say hello to, and so on. He isn't particularly food motivated, so I didn't have to worry about him jumping up after some food or people. It was just hard to maneuver a leash (while trying not to trip people) and trying to remember not to drop the eggs or smoosh the blueberries or the tomatoes.

As of yet I haven't used the tomatoes, yellow squash, cantaloupe, green beans, and cucumbers. But check my next post to see more about the ravioli and the blueberries.