Everything in the fridge dinner

We had this tasty meal last week and though I don’t fully recall the situation that lead to it becoming dinner it seems likely we were out of our staples of eggs and sweet potatoes or just sick of having omelettes for dinner again. Anyway, i peeked at what did remain in the fridge and sheet pan roasted mushrooms, carrots, and broccoli, cabbage slaw, shredded chicken, and a side salad with lemon chive dressing randomly came together to make a pretty satisfying dinner.

The roasted veggies were dosed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt and then put in the oven at 375f and checked on at 15-20 minute intervals (a semi educated guess is that they took around 40 mins also the broccoli should go in after the first 15-20 mins passes.)

The cabbage I thinly sliced, placed in a bowl, salted, and scrunched between my hands for about a minute to soften.

The salad is farmer’s market lettuce chopped and topped with a dressing made from squeezing all the juice from 1 large lemon, adding a bit of zest from the lemon, chopping some mini chives from my garden, olive oil in about a 1:1 ratio to the lemon juice, and salt to taste. I mean taste and add more olive oil or lemon juice to hit your level of tart pungency.

Shredded chicken (which had already been prepared! woohoo!) I make this using a big sauce pan that has a lid. Heat the pan over medium and once hot put in chicken breast and push the chicken to the pan and leave for five minutes to create a nice sear. Flip after 5 mins and sear the other side for 5 mins–if things get uncomfortably smokey move on before the 5 minute mark to the next step. Pour in about 1 cup of water, add salt to the pan if desired and cover. Turn the heat down to low and let cook for 20 mins. Remove from liquid and shred using two forks.

Add a favorite sauce–or don’t. Anyway a bunch of random veggies and a protein really just work to make a great meal!

Bear Salmon

Last week I was on the road. Well not really, I was on a visit to my hometown, Seattle. It’s always a bit of a trick to figure out how to feed myself while moving around another city without my kitchen with all my tools that have never come in contact with gluten. I had a cute little airbnb with a can-do kitchen and the bounty of Seattle summer. Pictured above is one of my favorite foods, sockeye salmon. What a treat! I love sockeye so much I typically cook it totally naked and then consider a squeeze of lemon. When berry season allows another favorite way to prepare the fish is to eat it like a bear! Well at least like a bear’s diet of salmon and berries. Once I even made this with berries I forage from a hike! That was super traditional bear cuisine and super delicious!

I slow baked the salmon with the rinsed berries in tinfoil on a temp around 275F-300F, probably around 20 mins (this will depend on thickness and oven.) The idea of a low temp oven is you don’t cook out that delicious fat. You can tell from the photo I wasn’t quite successful at this as it is dabble in white fatty bits. Anyway, the slow, longer cook makes a more succulent salmon. And bears are really onto something, berry topped salmon is a bear-ry good time 😋

Cheese-its

A long long time ago I worked on a small charter boat where chef Martha would make parmesan tuilles. I was fascinated. You can take cheese and bake it, shape it, and create these delightful, elegant crunchy treats. I honestly don’t remember what we used the tuilles for, probably a topper to a fancy salad. Fast forward to a few years ago when I thought i’d try my hand and making them with my favorite trusty goat gouda. Oh boy what a treat! they taste like chez-its but only the good flavorful parts! Only cheese!

I haven’t perfected the exact slice size, temperature, and time. I mean I don’t really keep track so that might be the issue. I think slightly thicker slices than this round pictured makes a more satisfying “cracker” texture. No matter it is hard to do wrong by these as long as you manage to remember they are baking and remove from the oven before burning. Something along the lines of 350F for 10-20 mins. I’ll keep better track next time and update this post 😉 Thinnish slices (or you can grate piles of cheese) next time I’m going to go fro just shy of 1/4 in. Place them with a good amount of space between (they will spread out!) on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake. Check at the 10 min mark. You’ll won’t to see them “tanned” if they do not brown enough they won’t have that satisfying crunchy texture.

Perfect BBQ Fruit Bowl

Happy Fourth of July USA!

I made this fruit bowl over the weekend thinking it was a cute idea to use the watermelon rind as the bowl. And isn’t it cute! With the fourth coming up I must have had BBQs on the mind and thought what an ideal way to bring something to a party and not burden the host with one more task of finding you a serving dish! This might just be a small peeve of mine having lived mostly in small spaces without excessive serving-wares but also the host wants to enjoy the party too don’t bring them more chores to do–if it can be helped!

Anyway, here i have used a melon baller on the watermelon to remove the the flesh. Using a knife around the edge and then a spoon to wiggle it out at the bottom and cubing would also work and likely be faster. I chopped up a nectarine, a donut peach and mixed in raspberries and blueberries! Was tasty! Next time (and more on the red white and blue theme) I’d use peeled apple in place of of the stone fruit

Steak and eggs combo plate

Towards the end of last week we were falling behind on the chores that keep things like food stocked in the house. Out of sweet potatoes is a harsh reality over here! Luckily we had a few eggs, a small piece of flank steak, some broccoflower, and lettuce. Steak and eggs was the only possibility for dinner and quite a nice dinner it made!

I began by getting the steak out of the fridge onto the counter to warm up a bit. Next oven roasting the broccoflower on a sheet pan at 360F, wash and chop the lettuce, sear the steak about 5 mins on both sides (if it is getting too smokey I put my frypan in the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking, this can be a trick to not over cook the steak especially a cut like flank!) While the steak rests scramble some eggs in a fresh frying pan and check on the broccoflower (this is forgiving anywhere from 20 mins to 45 mins should be okay you just want to avoid burning the whole pan.) I had an avocado to round out this what-is-left-in-the-fridge-right-now-dinner and hot sauce to top it all off.

Sometimes constraints make the best things. We enjoyed this meal and we were happy to skip the sweet potatoes for once 😉

chicken drumsticks

Ah, it is so satisfying to find a simple, low effort food that tastes great. Chicken drumstick, you are so easy breezy good. Pop those pieces on a parchment lined sheet pan in a 400F oven for 40 minutes and done! To get a little fancy after 40 minutes brush the juices from the pan onto the drumsticks and broil til golden. I just snacked on some cold leftovers I had in the fridge and they’re good cold too!

In the photo I chopped up some red cabbage and scrunched (that’s a cooking term, right) with salt in my hands til it softened some. To get a bit fancier an old favorite of mine (when i could find sesame paste that didn’t give me a gluten reaction) was to mix cabbage with tahini to make a “coleslaw” that doesn’t require yucky mayonnaise. Chicken drumstick with a side of tahini cabbage slaw, now that sounds Summer bbq ready!

Pork Ribs with nomato bbq sauce

Last week I made these ribs that had been hiding out in my freezer for a few months–it was time to get them cooked. I followed these directions for cook temp and time and ended up with delicious fall off the bone pork. Yay! As for the sauce I made some nomato sauce and mixed in Siete foods botana sauce which made a delicious spicy bbq sauce! Which wow! I had been missing their hot sauce that sold out/disappeared from all the grocery shelves so was happy when I saw this new Botana sauce at Whole foods.

I sometimes hop on the lectin free, anti-inflammatory diet and this red nomato sauce was something I added early to my food repertoire. I prefer it to tomato sauce! Mixing in the botana sauce definitely adds back in the lectins, so if you’re avoiding those watch out! I use it to make pizza, eggs in hell, sauce for spaghetti squash, and bbq sauce! It can be made with red beets plus whatever veggies you have. My preferred version involves beets, onion, carrot, fennel, sometimes oregano. Sautée those veggies in a sauce pan with a little oil, cover let steam, add a bit of water if needed, once veggies soften toss them in a high speed blender with a bit of salt a purée until smooth.

GoAt Gouda CApresse

A quick-n-easy, summery treat! Goat gouda is my go to cheese because cheese is satisfying and delicious! I do love mozzarella, the traditional cheese for this salad, but the cow stuff leaves me feeling yucky. A simple sub using goat cheese allows me to enjoy this treat! Well, as long as I am splurging on lectins 😉

A simple and straightforward recipe: slice a tomato, slice some cheese, pluck and wash some basil, arrange, and shower with olive oil and salt. Perfection!

Plantain Waffles with the Dash Mini

This waffle batter is so basic and yet the results are so great! If you want to keep it really simple use 2 unripe plantains and 5 eggs, a pinch of salt if you feel inclined. Pulverize it into a smooth batter in a high speed blender and voila! you have batter! I like the outcome a bit more using 4 eggs, a glug of two of oil, and 2 unripe plantains, and a dash 😉 of salt. Depending on the size of the plantains and eggs the batter is going to be varying degrees of thickness but that doesn’t seem to matter too much. If the batter is too thick, thin it with another egg or more oil. This batter also makes great pancakes.

I came across the dash mini waffle craze one day watching youtube and ran out to Target to pick one up. This is probably the best $10 purchase ever! It makes one Eggo sized waffle at a time, taking 3-5 minutes each to cook. So, it does take some time to get through all the batter–I use those extra minutes of kitchen time to do other food prep or kitchen chores. I remove each cooked waffle and let rest on a wire rack. I keep the wire rack in the oven on warm or on the counter and when it’s time to eat waffles, I stick them back in the dash mini to toast up. Eat plain or top with your favs! I sometimes use these waffles for egg sandwiches, avocado toast, and even grilled cheese 😋

And if you are up for more treats… when there isn’t enough batter to make another waffle, you can scrape down the sides and add 5 more eggs to your blender pitcher, zap that together and now you have crepe batter!