Veggies, grains, fish and nuts

Posted on July 23, 2013 by melsmosaic

I continue to enjoy little-to-no-cook meals, and my next great chance came when my friend gave me some cucumbers from her garden the other day. Can’t let those go to waste. So I debated what to do with them. Normally I like to cover them in hummus but decided I could expand my horizons. I decided to go for a simple quinoa and veggie salad.

Quinoa is just a powerhouse for us, if you hadn’t heard. Need a quick cheat sheet? Check it out here. It’s also great for those who are gluten intolerant. My favorite one is the Tri-Color Quinoa from Trader Joe’s. I cooked that first (the nice 15 minutes, including boiling time). While that was underway, I cut my cucumbers into big chunks and found the other ingredients I wanted to throw into the salad. I opted for grape tomatoes, canned tuna, some walnuts and just a simple oil & vinegar dressing, oh, and S&P.

This was perfect! So refreshing, healthy and very filling. There are so many variations you can make to it, too. Any veggie, any meat, any nut. So, what are you making for dinner tonight?

No-Cook Delicious Meal

Posted on July 22, 2013 by melsmosaic

Well, it’s still nice and hot here in DC. That makes turning on anything in the kitchen unappealing. For the last week I’ve been craving gazpacho and finally got it done today. My favorite recipe is beyond simple. It barely requires a knife. Though it’s not from my favorite chef, I’ll give ’em dibs on the amazing recipe. It’s called Macho Gazpacho.

I add garlic to the recipe because that’s just essential to life and this kind of soup, and I cheat with Tabasco vs. jalapenos. I also didn’t use the entire amount of cayenne and used a regular vs. English cucumber (just cleaned out the middle/seeds).

You just cut some of the ingredients into smaller pieces, throw everything in the food processor, blend, eat. Before the actual eating part, I added some pre-cooked shrimp.

I served this with Stacy’s Pita Chips, olives from the olive bar at Wegman’s (ahhh, bliss…), some hummus and a new wine that the two sommeliers at Wegman’s recommended…a nice, crisp white from Spain, the Valminor Albarino.

Despite the heat, my friend and I sat outside to enjoy the meal and watched a thunderstorm roll in. It was a perfect meal and nice way to wrap up a weekend. Cheers until next time.

Hot Temps Mean Refreshing Dinners

Posted on July 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

Washington, DC (All Summer) — It’s mid-July, I’m in the DC-area. What does that mean? HOT temps. And, it’s only going to get worse. This Thursday is going to be high 90s without factoring in the humidity. So, easy-to-make, refreshing dinners are the best way to go.

My brother told me about an Alton Brown Grilled Mahi Ceviche recipe that was top-notch, and it sounded great. Since it’s grilled you don’t have to remember to throw the fish in the lemon and/or lime juice many, many hours ahead of time. Just two and then you throw it on the grill. Decided to pair that with some easy oil-based coleslaw, chips, salsa and guacamole.

For the Mahi, you just put some basic ingredients together and let them sit for a couple hours. I bought the Mahi chunks from Trader Joe’s because they were half the price of the steaks!

After a couple hours, pat the fish dry and throw it on the grill.

You keep the ‘marinade’ from the fish, heat in on the stove, and eventually use it again on the fish.

For the ‘slaw, I grabbed a great bag of broccoli slaw mix from Trader Joe’s — super easy! No cutting or chopping required for the base. I did chop some cilantro and garlic and for the dressing, just did a quick vinaigrette of:

-lemon juice

-lime juice

-cumin

-coriander

-olive oil

-hint of chili powder

-S&P

Next step was prepping the pre-made guacamole (because the avocado would have required electrical equipment to mash). I always add some spice to the packaged stuff:

Now, it’s dinner time!!!! Mahi, coleslaw, tortilla chips, salsa, guac, red wine. All to wrap up a great weekend.

As I enjoyed this dinner, I kept thinking the guac was off. Well, I was house sitting and used what appeared to be salt for the guac. Yes, I was right when it tasted sweet the first time and added some more of the fine crystals. It finally occurred to me to taste the stuff. Oh, I was adding sugar not salt. Note: Sweet guacamole IS NOT good.

April Supper Club

Posted on April 29, 2013 by melsmosaic

A long time ago I was looking to join a supper club/cooking club and was very fortunate to have someone reply to my post on Cooking Light and she said ‘we have dinner on Sunday, this is the theme, feel free to come.’ Almost a decade has passed since then. It’s been amazing!

In the club I am part of, we try to meet about once a month. The host picks the theme, obviously provides the venue, the drinks (wine, beer, soda, etc), and everyone brings a dish. We try to use Cooking Light recipes but it can vary a bit. I tend to use others because Cooking Light isn’t always the lightest. And since I’m lactose intolerant, I can’t find the best ones there. What I laugh at a lot is our ‘cooking light’ idea — yeah, everybody eats what everybody brings — we eat so light by the time we consider portions. It’s awesome! It’s homemade, it has no calories. Just like birthday cake, right?

I was the host for this month and the theme I chose was April Observances — it is crazy how many things are observed. From the ‘normal’ ones like major holidays, to significant ones like Breast Cancer Awareness Month (yes I know it’s not in April). But, did you know that April is Tomatillo and Asian Pear Month, and it also has International Macaroni Day in the calendar on the 23rd. Where do these come from?

Well, I opted for that tomatillo and pear observance that I mentioned. I found a Charred Tomatillo Guacamole recipe to try, as well as a Crunchy Pear Salsa.

To the kitchen I go…

In the guacamole, I had some decent size tomatillos so roasted them for about 20 minutes, vs. about 12-15. Then when mixing everything together, carefully picked out the tomatillo skin because it just sort of sat in the bowl.

In the pear salsa, I was going to substitute Asian pears for the Bosc, because of the observance, but had no luck finding them. Had to stick to the darn recipe!! I didn’t use too much of the (hot) pepper because it can get supper spicy.

I served both of them with lime tortilla chips and baked tortilla chips.