Too tired to hear any stupid jokes about food? You’re in luck, because I’m too tired to make any. Here is some factual information about seven meals we ate. Carb counts at the end of the post.
SATURDAY
Chicken salad with berries, nuts, and cheese
Oh, what a pretty meal!
I doused the chicken breasts with olive oil, then sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and oregano, and slid them in a pan under a hot broiler, turning once. Cook, cool, slice, then serve over greens with diced red onions, blueberries, sliced strawberries, crumbled feta, and toasted hazelnuts.
I don’t think I’ve ever even seen hazelnuts for sale before, but there they were, on sale. I spread them in a shallow pan and put them in a 350 oven for about six minutes.
Good with balsamic vinegar or a sweet dressing.
SUNDAY
Pork carnitas, chili lime corn, pineapple
Yuhm. I took a 4-5 pound pork loin and put it in the Instant Pot with a can of beer, salt and pepper, and about a cup of jalapeno peppers and juice, then set it to cook on high pressure for an hour. I wish I had given it another 15 minutes. Not all of it fell apart as tenderly as it should. Still tasty and spicy, though.
I oiled a shallow pan and spread the shredded meat and jalapenos in it, with a sprinkle of chili powder and cumin, then put it under a hot broiler until it was a little crisp. Then I served it on tortillas with salsa and sour cream. I forgot to put out the cilantro.
We also had chili lime corn on the cob. This is really much better if you grill the corn, but I just boiled it. When it’s cooked, squeeze some fresh lime juice over it and sprinkle it with chili powder. It’s exciting!
I did the same thing, lime and chili, with fresh pineapple. The roof of my mouth was swollen to twice its normal size by the end of the meal, but it was worth it.
MONDAY
BLTs and garlic bread
That’s what the birthday boy wanted. I bought six pounds of bacon, and there was bacon left over. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.
TUESDAY
Chicken shawarma with pita, yogurt sauce, and veggies; frozen grapes
One college girl home, one to go! I wanted to make something nice, and shawarma is nice as can be.
I started the chicken marinating the night before. Here’s the marinade (simplified from this NYT recipe) for about eight pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and 4-5 quartered red onions. Note: this is a ridiculously delicious meal, so buy more chicken than you think you will need.
1.5 cups lemon juice
2 c olive oil
4 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbs, 2 tsp pepper
2 Tbs, 2 tsp cumin
1 Tbs red pepper flakes
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs minced garlic
When you’re ready to cook, oil a rimmed pan and lay the chicken and onions on with a little of the marinade. Cook at 425 for about forty minutes, until the edges of the chicken are crisp. Let it cool a little and then slice or break it up. It should be ridiculously tender.
We served it with triangles of pita bread, black and kalamata olives, wedges of tomato and cucumbers, feta, and plenty of yogurt sauce. Here’s the yogurt sauce recipe:
32-oz tub of full fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 Tbs. minced garlic
You really should have fresh parsley, but I forgot.
A splendid meal. Frozen grapes are also very nice and refreshing. You can use them to cool your drink, too, if you don’t want it watered down.
WEDNESDAY
Spaghetti with sausages
A much-requested meal. Okay by me.
THURSDAY
Grilled ham and cheese on sourdough bread, spinach salad
Another longed-for treat. I did put salad out, but nobody ate it, not even me.
Check out that cheese lace in the evening sun.
FRIDAY
Tuna boats, salt and vinegar chips, mangos
I’m including a picture in case you don’t know what tuna looks like..
Do people know how to peel mangoes? It’s easy. You locate the pit and cut away the two “cheeks” as close to the pit as possible. Then take each one and, using the rim of a drinking glass or metal cup, gently scoop away the fruit from the peel. So much easier than trying to get the peel off the fruit.
Then you’re left with the pit surrounded by some salvageable fruit, and you have to whittle that away, or just gnaw on it like an animal, and then floss a lot like an animal.
Okay, here’s the carbs we done carbed this week:
Chicken salad:
chicken with olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano: negligible
Carnitas
tortilla: medium soft taco size: 24
***
garlic bread and BLTs
1/4 baguette: 27
butter: 0
***
Shawarma
1.5 cups lemon juice:
2 c olive oil
4 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbs, 2 tsp pepper
” cumin
1 Tbs red pepper flakes
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs minced garlic
onion slices: 1
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper)
70 total meal
***
Spaghetti
sausage: .7 per link
***
Ham and cheese
??
I guess I didn’t write this down.
***
Tuna
potato bun: 25
Your salads always look so good and I’m always afraid to try serving anything even close because I’m afraid none of the kids would pick any combination that could conceivably count as “dinner.” Maybe someday I’ll be brave. So far I just keep trying all the recipes you post that are full of garlic as that has always gone over well. Tried that Cuban pork-mojo stuff this week and everyone loved that.
I love the Italian work for cheese lace—frico. It also sounds like a swear word.
Smitten Kitchen has a recipe for grilled cheese that makes frico on the outside of the sandwich on purpose. I made it once and one of my kids just loves frico now, and uses the word an awful lot when he’s making a grilled cheese.
A long time ago I ate baloney fried in a pan.
I cut mangos that way, but then I score the flesh with a knife, trying not to cut my hand underneath, and scoop it out with a spoon, great method if you want smaller bits. DH turns it inside out and eats the cubes straight from the skin.
I do that for my son with mangos (your husband’s way, that is) and we call them “mango hedgehogs” – having a name makes kid snacks more fun. They could also very fittingly be called “mango grenades” because they looks like that.
But for my own use, I just peel them with a paring knife, and I’m kind of mystified about why I’m always seeing these how-to-peel-a-mango tips. It’s no harder than peeling any other fruit, and easier than many. And if you just use a knife, the pieces end up looking nice and clean and appetizing. I find the drinking-glass way you get gross-looking raggedy edges that are rather off-putting, and it’s not like it’s actually easier, anyway.