Sunday, July 23, 2006

recipes: week of 7.23 - 7.29

chicken picadillo
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup bottled salsa
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)

Place chicken in a food processor; pulse until ground.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken, cumin, salt, cinnamon, and garlic, and cook for 3 minutes or until chicken is done, stirring frequently. Stir in salsa and raisins. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in almonds and cilantro. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

tempeh-mushroom fricassee with garlic confit
1 tablespoon olive oil
16 garlic cloves, crushed
cooking spray (or olive oil)
16 oz organic tempeh cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 cups thinly sliced leek
1 lb. mushrooms of your choice, sliced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (or dried)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon (or more) fresh parseley

1. Combine oil and garlic in a large Dutch oven over low heat. Cook 10 minutes or until garlic is golden and fragrant, stirring often. Lightly coat Dutch oven and garclic mixture with cooking spray. Increase heat to medium-high, add tempeh, and saute 8 minutes or until brown. Stir in wine, cook until liquid is almost evaporated (about 30 seconds). Transfer mixture to a bowl.

2. Return pan to medium-high heat. Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add leek & mushrooms, saute until vegetables begin to brown and liquid is almost evaporated. Add 1 cup broth, cook 1 minute, scraping pan to loosen brown bits. Combine remaining 2 cups broth and flour in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add broth mixture to pan. Reduce heat and stir in tempeh mixture. Cover, simmer 30 minutes. Stir in thyme, salt, pepper. Remove from heat; stir in parseley.

Yield: 5-6 servings.

it's been too long

but i'm bringing back this blog. in a slightly different incarnation (reincarnation?): instead of only boasting about my successes, i'm going to share my failures too. and the process that goes on behind-the-scenes in feeding 2 hungry medical professionals. okay, fine, one professional and one scut-monkey. right.

so let me just say i have been FANTASTIC lately (if i do say so myself) about cutting out recipes, planning each week's dinners in advance, and making cooking on various nights a relaxing affair. i would say that it is all about discipline, but i would be lying. it is actually relatively painless. all this takes is:

- the inspiration to cut out recipes out of cooking magazines as soon as they come and put them in a queue for future dinners

- a few hours each sunday spent leafing through these recipes, devising a weekly shopping list (i try to make just one trip per week: saves time AND money)

- a to-be-eaten-while-cooking snack (hey, i usually run after work and THEN cook . . .waiting until the 9pm dinner hour would be bad). excellent choices: carrots & hummus. pita chips. bread & olive oil.

- a glass of wine or a beer (optional)

- the mindset that it doesn't really matter when we eat as long as the time period spent cooking is one of relaxation and not of stress to 'get something on the table!'

- an enthusiastic willingness to eat leftovers

this week, josh and i are on call both monday and friday. therefore, i planned that sunday & tuesday we would eat one thing, and that wednesday & thursday would be another. saturday (post-call) will be heating up a frozen pizza -- what, like i'm going to cook after being up all night the night before? try again. anyway.

the week's shopping list:
garlic
bottle of white wine
a leek
1 lb mushrooms
quart of vegetable broth
parseley
egg noodles
broccoli
bread
salsa
raisins
milk, soy milk
box of optimum power cereal (it was on sale)
tomatoes
sour cream (low-fat)
hummus
1 lb ground chicken breast
granola bars
frozen blueberries
various frozen lunches & dinners for on call (burritos, sandwich pockets, others)
baby carrots
peaches, plums, bananas
frozen waffles
a frozen spinach & tomato pizza

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sunday & tuesday nights:
tempeh-mushroom fricassee with garlic confit (recipe following)
egg noodles
steamed broccoli

wednesday & thursday nights:
chicken picadillo (recipe following)
rice, tomatoes, sour cream

saturday night:
frozen pizza, or if we have the energy, out somewhere.