Tag: Main Dish
Barbecue Pork Pizza
Everybody has that weird thing that they enjoy, even though most other people hate it or are indifferent to it. Maybe you get a high out of cleaning toilets, or a satisfaction from balancing your budget, or maybe you’re like my aesthetician friend who gets a perverse pleasure out of popping people’s zits. My own personal strange divertissement comes from……(drum roll)…….(don’t worry, it’s nothing super gross)…..(like wiping dog butts)…..(or chewing someone else’s gum)…….
meal planning!
Whew! See? Nothing too funky. Meal planning is an art I strive to perfect every week. I get a thrill from the challenge: Can I make use of the foods already occupying space in my pantry and fridge and not spend too much on special new ingredients? Can I achieve a balance of cooking trusted standards but also incorporating the new recipes I’m dying to try? Can I somehow make it all work together like a giant puzzle? Well, I try. To some people, that probably sounds miserable, but to me it’s the pleasure of bringing order out of chaos–delicious order, if at all possible. So you probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that the gold standard, the hit-the-jackpot of meal planning for me is that diamond-in-the-rough, one-two punch of…..
the Double Duty Dinner!!
The Double Duty Dinner is the kind that you prepare one night and are then able to use in a different way another night. This is not the same thing as leftovers. It’s a creative reinvention of one or more components of one dinner to create a second dinner. The best is when the second dinner bears little resemblance to the first. Then you really and truly don’t feel you’re having leftovers.
This fantastic Barbeque Pork Pizza is probably my favorite example of such a high-scoring Double Duty Dinner. Well, it’s the second half of it. The first half is another dinner: pork tenderloin slathered in barbeque sauce, slow-cooked in the Crock Pot. Barbeque pulled pork can of course be used in several ways for the first dinner: served on buns as a sandwich, served with corn on the cob and potato salad in summer, roasted sweet potatoes and onions in winter, or any combination of sides you can dream up. The key is to make extra and save it for later in the week, when you’ll make this pizza and kill another day’s meal plan bird with one stone. Because you do not want to miss out on this pizza. Tender barbeque pork, gooey mozzarella, crispy red onions, and some cilantro for a bite that rounds out the whole mix. If my digestive tract would let me, I could eat this entire pizza.
And seriously, I looooove meal planning. So if you’re ever interested, comment or shoot me an email and I’d be happy to send you some sample week meal plans. It would make my day!
Barbeque Pork Pizza
Ingredients:
1 lb. store-bought refrigerated or homemade whole wheat pizza dough (such as Trader Joe’s)
3/4 c. barbeque sauce
1/2 lb. barbeque pulled pork (leftover from your first Double Duty Dinner)
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 of a small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c. loosely packed cilantro leaves
Directions:
1. Remove pizza dough from refrigerator and follow package directions for rising. (Trader Joe’s dough rises for 20 minutes.) If using homemade pizza dough, follow recipe directions for rising.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Grease a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan. Spread pizza dough across pan, overlapping the edges slightly. (It will contract as it bakes.) Bake in preheated oven about 10 minutes.
4. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
5. Spread barbeque sauce over dough, followed by pulled pork. Top with mozzarella, red onion, and cilantro.
6. Bake an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and red onion begins to wrinkle and brown.
Serves 4.
Pesto Pasta and Bean Salad
Today was a pretty chill, laid-back Sunday for our family. The best kind, if you ask me. My mom generously took our kids overnight last night, so my husband and I got to have dinner at the fabulous Wrigley Mansion, a Phoenix landmark since 1932, and sleep in this morning. It was kind of shocking how late we were able to sleep without the kids running around/arguing/informing us about poopy Pullups. (Anybody have a sure-fire solution for nighttime potty training a 3-year-old?) Anyway, the two of us went out for a late breakfast, which we almost never do–partly because we rarely eat out with kids and partly because I have a thing about brunch. I hate it. Seriously, it ruins my whole day. I’m the kind of person who wants to get up and eat something light and drink my coffee pretty much immediately. Brunch basically flies in the face of these desires. You have to do your hair and get dressed, get in your car and drive somewhere, order and wait until they bring out your food. Then you always, ALWAYS eat way more than you normally would and at lunchtime you still feel full and kinda gross but you want to eat. So you eat lunch and you feel even more over-full and gross. See where this is going? Whole day shot. You’re dead to me, brunch.
Still, despite my issue with brunch, our day was a pleasant one. After we picked the kids up from Grandma’s we went on a family outing to Ikea, where we got some fun stuff for the house, then went to Guitar Center, where the kids enjoyed jamming on the 95 keyboards they have stacked in one room. But even after skipping out on the meatballs and lingonberry sauce my family had for lunch at Ikea, those lemon ricotta pancakes I had at brunch still hung like dead weight in my stomach. Thankfully, our plans for dinner were the definition of light: this super-simple pesto pasta and bean salad. Yay!
If there was ever a straightforward, what-you-see-is-what-you-get salad, this is it. I love it for its simplicity, its quick prep time, and its healthful vegetarian ingredients. It would make a great side to tote to a summertime potluck–but for our family, served with a side of crusty bread, this is plenty for a modest dinner!
Pesto Pasta and Bean Salad
(Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens)
Ingredients:
8 oz. whole wheat penne or other small pasta
1 7-oz. container purchased basil pesto (or make your own)
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 15-oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
3 c. arugula
2 oz. Parmesan/Reggiano cheese, shaved
Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water; set aside.
2. Meanwhile, make dressing by combining pesto, red wine vinegar, and salt in a large bowl. Add cooked pasta, beans, and arugula and stir gently to combine. Top with shaved cheese.
Makes about 8 cups.
Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
For a long time, I was skeptical of making, ordering, or in general eating shepherd’s pie. To the best of my knowledge I have never met a person who herds sheep, so it’s not like I have a prejudice against shepherds. And trust me, I love pie. So neither of those things were the problem. Believe it or not, my reservations about this one-dish wonder came from eating it at my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. Like everything else on their menu, it sounded delicious: “Ground Beef, Mushrooms, Carrots, Peas, Zucchini, and Onions in a Delicious Sauce Covered with a Mashed Potato-Parmesan Cheese Crust.” (Yes, I am quoting from their menu. No, I do not have it memorized….not all of it, anyway.) But for whatever reason, at least the one time I ordered it, it was Gross with a capital G. The veggies were hard to the point of being crunchy and something was definitely off in the sauce. I guess since then I figured that if even the wonder-working Cheesecake Factory couldn’t pull off a good shepherd’s pie, I certainly couldn’t expect to. (Then again, it has been a staple of English cuisine since at least the 1790s…though I’m not entirely certain whether that’s a pro or a con.)
Still, I am a big-time sucker for any one-dish meal that packs meat, vegetables, and a starch in one 9 x 13 (or 8 x 8 or 11 x 7) Pyrex dish. Freezable, portable, and compact can all be great qualities in a dinner, especially under certain circumstances, like taking a meal to someone recuperating from surgery, or your next ice cave spelunking trip. So despite my bad meal at Cheesecake Factory, and the fact that my shepherding experience is limited to shooing sheep out of the way so I can exit the petting zoo, at some point I decided to give shepherd’s pie another try. I’m happy to report that I have now made this several times and the vegetables are not crunchy, nor is there anything funky about the sauce. In fact, the combination of juicy turkey and hearty veggies on bottom and creamy mashed potatoes on top is delicious! Great comfort food, made just a little healthier by swapping the traditional ground beef or lamb for turkey. Give it a try and you may decide it’s a good thing this British casserole has endured for over two centuries.
Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
(Inspired by Skinnytaste)
Ingredients:
4 c. prepared mashed potatoes*
1 lb. lean ground turkey
2 tsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
10 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
2 Tbsp. flour
1 c. chicken broth
2 tsp. tomato paste
1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
3/4 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
paprika, salt, and pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large sauté pan, brown the turkey and season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside to drain on paper towels.
3. In the same pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add celery and cook another 3-4 minutes. Add flour and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth, tomato paste, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, frozen vegetables, and cooked turkey, and mix well. Simmer on low 5-10 minutes.
4. Spread the meat mixture evenly on the bottom of an 11 x 7 baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes, then sprinkle with paprika and Cheddar.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let cool at least 5 minutes before serving.
*These can be leftover, made from frozen (like Trader Joe’s excellent version), or made fresh by boiling 1 1/2 lbs of peeled potatoes for 20 minutes and mashing with 1/4 c. butter and several tablespoons of milk (season with salt and pepper to taste).
Soba Salad with Chicken and Cabbage
Can we just raise a collective cheer for weeknight dinners that are fast, easy, tasty, healthy, and relatively inexpensive? My list of meals that fit all those criteria is pretty short. These last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy in my life, so finding healthy dinners I can whip up easily has taken top priority. The beginning of May is always a little extra busy in our family, since two of my kids have early May birthdays, but this year there’s been the added crunch of trying to finish up this semester’s courses toward my nutrition degree and preparing to head to the Nutrition and Health Conference in Dallas this Sunday (which I’m super excited about and plan to blog about soon!). So basically fast and easy are my best friends right now in all areas of life.
Fortunately, I happened to place this soba chicken salad on the roster of dinners for this week. As a perpetual fan of Real Simple‘s cookbooks, I’ve been working my way through this one that I got for Christmas and had been meaning to try this recipe for some time. I’m glad I finally did–it’s one of those one-dish meals that’s perfect for a weeknight when you’re slammed. With chicken for protein, noodles for starch, and cabbage and carrots for vegetables, you’re set. The sweet and sour dressing of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and ginger gives it a mild Asian flavor that even my kids enjoyed.
So sayonara for now–look for a post next week on all the cool stuff I’m expecting to learn at the Nutrition and Health Conference!
Soba Salad with Chicken and Cabbage
(Adapted from Real Simple)
Ingredients:
8 oz. soba noodles
8 small chicken tenderloins
salt and black pepper
6 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil, divided
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
3 c. shredded red cabbage
1 large carrot, shredded
6 scallions, sliced
Directions:
1. Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and run under cold water to cool.
2. Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper to your liking.
3. Heat 3 Tbsp. of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken until golden brown and cooked through. Cut into strips.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 Tbsp. of oil, the vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger. Add the noodles, chicken, cabbage, carrot, and scallions and toss.
Serves 4.
Spinach Lasagna
Doncha just love the Internet? Where else can you find so many useful “true facts” about anything you desire, including your favorite foods? Like this gem about spinach:
Who knew? Little-known facts: spinach also gives you increased resistance to awkward conversations at parties, superior hopping ability at Q-Bert (arcade version only) and temporary bioluminescence. I swear it’s true; I read it on the Internet.
The obsession over connecting individual foods with highly specific health benefits can get a little excessive–especially when the marketing touts a benefit that’s totally obvious and/or off-topic. Milk with a gluten-free sticker affixed. “Apples: a naturally fat-free food!” “Cheerios: may help lower cholesterol.” (Um, since cholesterol only occurs in animal products, doesn’t any non-animal product food lower your cholesterol?) I might as well walk around wearing a sign that reads “Will not give you a skunk as a pet.” I won’t, but that’s sort of irrelevant to who I am as a person.
Incidentally, the typical association most of us have with spinach–that it’s high in iron–actually stems (pun intended) from a recording error German chemist Erich von Wolf made when analyzing the vegetable’s nutrition content. Von Wolf misplaced a decimal point, accidentally recording that spinach contained 35 milligrams of iron per serving, rather than 3.5. The error went unchecked and persisted to such a degree that amidst the creation of the super-strong cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man, studio executives suggested he should have a propensity for spinach. The rest is history: the myth of the elevated iron content of spinach persists to this day.
In reality, of course certain foods benefit particular aspects of health, and it’s not wrong to eat them with this in mind. Spinach, while not the world’s iron panacea, does contain a respectable 21% of your recommended daily iron intake in a 100 gram serving. More impressively, it’s an excellent source of Vitamin A, folate, Vitamin K, and manganese. Still, from my point of view, for most people seeking merely to eat a balanced diet, an overly fussy fixation on which foods supply which nutrients is unnecessary. Eat (healthily), drink (healthily), and be merry (healthily)… And if you happen to want to eat spinach (which you should because it’s good for you in general), why not try this delicious spinach lasagna? I’ve made it numerous times for dinner guests and plates are consistently cleaned. Though, to my knowledge, no one has gone on to breathe underwater.
Spinach Lasagna
(Slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 10-oz. packages frozen chopped spinach
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
32 oz. spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 c. water
2 c. cottage cheese
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. dried parsley
1 scant tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 egg
8 oz. lasagna noodles, uncooked
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, sauté spinach, onion, oregano, basil, and garlic in the olive oil until spinach is completely thawed. Pour in spaghetti sauce and water; simmer 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix cottage cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper, and egg.
3. In a 9 x 13 glass dish, layer as follows from bottom to top:
Sauce (bottom)
Noodles
Sauce
Noodles
Cheese Mixture
Sauce
Noodles
Cheese Mixture
Sauce
Noodles
Sauce (top)
(or some variation thereof that uses all your sauce and cheese mixture)
4. Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
