Tuna and white bean salad

Tonight's dinner involves no cooking, but simply putting canned beans and tuna together. This recipe was adapted from the "Eating Well" magazine that I subscribed to years ago. Instead of putting this filling into pitas, I used Indian naan bread, which available these days from the grocery store. In Canada, the Superstore stocks it's own brand (President's Choice) of very delicious naan bread. They come in three different varieties - original, garlic naan , and whole wheat naan. I've used them for making sandwiches (yummy with their sliced tandoori chicken from the deli) and of course, eating with curries. I have to say that this dish seems to taste better in the summer than now when the weather is cooling off. I heated it up for my little boy who thought it was too cold to eat for this time of the year. I did serve this with cream of chicken soup, but I guess it's not the same as having a completely warm meal.

For the tuna salad:

2 cans of chunk tuna

1 can of navy beans

3 plum tomatoes, cut up

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tbsp of lemon juice

2 tbsp of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Romaine lettuce or other salad greens

Warmed naan bread.

Mix all the above ingredients together except for the lettuce. Cut the warmed naan in half and split them. Fill with salad greens or romaine lettuce, then sandwich the filling between the naan and lettuce. Serve with your favourite soup.  

Broccoli, potato and mushroom frittata

With the leftover broccoli from last week, I proceeded to make a frittata for dinner one night this week. Frittata is basically a crustless quiche. I followed the ingredients used in this month's Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, but used fresh broccoli and roasted it in the oven instead of the frozen variety.

Ingredients:

2 medium potatoes, diced

1-2 heads of broccoli, cut into pieces. Stems peeled and diced.

5-8 white mushrooms, quatered

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 cup of 1% milk

8 whole eggs

1 cup grated marble cheese

Method:

Place cut up vegetables in a 9" deep dish pie pan and toss lightly with olive oil.  Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a 375 C oven until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with milk and Dijon mustard. Add half the grated cheese to the egg mixture. When potatoes are tender, add the other half of the cheese to the top of the roasted vegetables. Pour the egg mixture on top of this and return to oven. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until firm.

Serve with salad greens and your favourite salad dressing.

Pseudo-Greek salad with Orzo

We had an end-of-the summer street party today at my neighbours. It was a BBQ and I opted to bring a side dish- psuedo Greek salad with orzo. I called it pseudo - Greek because although it has most of the elements of a Greek salad it lacks some key ingredients such as Kalamata olives, oregano and green peppers, and has orzo. Orzo is a rice shape pasta that takes very little time to cook and lends a nice texture to a salad.

There are many similar recipes of pasta salads, but this is my favourite combination. Of course you could add olives and green peppers as well. I don't have the exact measurements and go only by taste and the quantity that I'm making. The dressing contains:

1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

Extra virgin olive oil

Fresh lemon juice (about half a lemon or less depending on quantity)

Salt and pepper to taste. I usually only add salt to the final dish since it has feta cheese which will contribute to the saltiness of the dish as well.

For the pasta, I usually cook 1 cup of orzo in well salted, boiling water. Cook until al-dente, drain and toss in some olive oil to prevent clumping.

My favourite vegetable combo for this is simply English cucumbers, tomatoes (I use grape or cherry tomoatoes for special ocassions - cut in half), red onions and freshly chopped parsley. Crumble some feta cheese on top and mix it all up. Add salt to taste. Leftovers make great lunches.

Corn chowder with broccoli and bacon

The biggest challenge in getting weekday dinners together is not really so much in making the dinner itself, but actually knowing what to cook. I have for years now diligently planned my entire week's menu every Saturday before heading out to the stores. It's just easier to tackle dinner preparations when you know what you have to do when you get home from work to feed a ravenous family.  Of course, we don't follow strictly to the menu and have abandon some less exciting ones for a less stressful evening at a restaurant or take-out once in a while. The abandoned meals often get carried over to the next week, and if I find that after two weeks it still hasn't been made, it gets dropped and likely will never get put on again until I am desperate for ideas. Planning your meals every week not only saves you time, it also saves money. If there's a special ingredient that doesn't get used up for a particular recipe this week, I will make sure it gets used up next week for a different dish so there's less waste. In an event it is an ingredient I don't have or want to buy, then I simply substitute with something else. In addition, it allows you to see at a glance whether your meal plans are healthful and balanced. Lastly, meal planning also reduces the daily stress of wondering what you are going to eat for dinner every day - I only do it once a week! 

Oh, I do ask the other family members for input when making the list. I like to accomodate everyone's favourite or cravings. Plus, it makes my job all the easier. It's not a job really as I do enjoy looking through recipe books, serve the web and check out other people's food blogs for ideas.

Corn chowder is a family favourite. My child eats potatoes and corn! He did ask me if I could pick out the onion, to which I said no and he ate it all anyway. I guess you can win sometimes :). Today's featured recipe is taken from the current issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. I made it as per instructions, but will definitely omit the thyme the next time. I took out a serving before adding the broccoli and thyme so I didn't have to pick them out later for a certain someone. We had freshly baked garlic loaves with it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

4 slices of bacon, cut up

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup of flour

2 cans of reduced sodium chicken broth

1 large russet potato, diced

2 heads of broccoli (about 1 lb) cut into bite size florets, stems peeled and diced

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen corn

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 cup whole milk

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cook bacon over medium-low heat until crisp. Remove with slotted spoon and save.  Increase heat to medium and saute onions until soften. Add flour; cook, stirring constantly for 30 sec. Add broth and potato; bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender (about 10 min). Add broccoli, thyme, corn and milk. Cook until broccoli is crisp tender (8-10 min). Season with salt and peper. Serve topped with bacon.

PS: The title of the recipe was actually Broccoli chowder with corn and bacon. I think corn was the bigger star in the dish.

Braised chicken in soy sauce (Ayam Kicap)

My sister and I used to live together during our university days, and one of our most enjoyed dish is "Ayam kicap" or soy sauce chicken. I'm not quite sure the origins of this dish - I think it's a Malay dish, but there are several versions of soy sauce used with chicken in Chinese cooking as well. My recent phone conversation with my sister on my child's picky eating habits lead us to this dish. One of the few meals that he enjoys is fried rice with scrambled eggs and soy sauce. Another no fail favourite is sunny-side up eggs seasoned with a dash of soy sauce - great for dipping his buttered toast in. So with soy sauce in mind, I decided to make this dish and it got the thumbs up! This is a simple dish best served over steamed rice. I also stir-fried some baby bak choy with garlic alongside for the adults.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can use bone-in if you like or for a lower fat option, you can use skinless chicken breast)

1 onion, sliced

1/2 cup water

1 can of button mushroom

4 medium sized potatoes, cut in wedges

1 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tbsp of canola oil


Method:

Heat oil in pan. Add onions and fry until soften. Add the chicken pieces (I leave the thighs whole) and stir-fry till no longer pink, about 5-8 min or so. Add the potatoes and do a quick stir-fry. Add the water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let the "stew" simmer until the potatoes are just done, about 7-10 minutes. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, mushrooms and pepper. Stir to mix well and let simmer for an additional 10 mins. Serve with steamed rice.

Enjoy!