When I first started this blog, a friend commented that she didn’t see many desserts. Bingo! I don’t do many of those. I bake only once in a blue moon and generally find that a piece of fruit or dark chocolate satisfies the occasional sweet tooth. How about combining both for a special after dinner treat? Strawberries anyone?
Everyone loves strawberries dipped in melted chocolate. Here’s another idea that is very simple and elegant: Serve sour cream or Greek yogurt with brown sugar for dipping. Does sour cream sound odd to you? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Some of the best ideas sound unusual at first. Dip strawberries first in sour cream and then into brown sugar. A marriage made in heaven.
What about liqueur for a special after dinner treat? A friend sent me these cognac filled chocolates. What a thoughtful gift combining two indulgences!
What’s the best indulgence of all? Someone making breakfast especially for me! Pancakes are my favorite. Even Michael has made them successfully from scratch. Yes, you can too!
What unexpected touch might you give to spaghetti with shrimp?
Before I had decided how to prepare the shrimp I had defrosted in the refrigerator, my husband suggested scampi with spaghetti. If there’s an opportunity for him to eat some pasta, he’s all for it. LOL. I love pasta too, but I try to limit the frequency to a couple times a week in favor of more nutrient dense foods. So if I’m going to make pasta as a main dish, I’m also thinking about how many vegetables I can add to it. Tomatoes are a no-brainer, right? How about roasted red bell pepper? I had already roasted and peeled a few the day before, so that was easy too. I don’t plan a weekly menu, but preparing some ingredients ahead of time that could be used in different ways often helps me get dinner on the table quickly while cooking without a recipe.
A salad of some kind is always welcome. Chopped cucumber, tomato and red onion dressed with garlic/lemon/olive oil is a delightful combination.
While I boiled the shrimp shells in water to make stock, I looked around for some more inspiration to make this dish a little more special. I had received as a gift a jar of tomato preserves with vanilla beans. Having no idea what I would use it for, I decided to add some to this dish. After sautéing the shrimp in a skillet with butter and a few cloves of minced garlic, I plopped a few tablespoons of tomato preserves in. Half a dozen Kalamata olives would balance its sweetness with some briny saltiness. Chopped tomatoes and sliced roasted pepper finished it off.
After reading The Apprentice, Chef Jacques Pepin’s amazing and entertaining memoir, I feel both inspired and humbled as I continue my quest to provide you with ideas for simple meals.
I began this food blog to help those not used to stocking a pantry or cooking because a pandemic brought the dining habits of many to a screeching halt. I learned that there was a need for basic, common sense food education. There is already so much information out there. I wasn’t sure who specifically needed help or exactly with what. But I knew I had practical experience that could fill a need.
When I naively began, I didn’t even imagine posting pictures of food. I was responding to an emergency with survival instructions. That’s how I viewed it. My original blog posts contained no pictures. I quickly began to add some as I realized what a visual society we have become that expects them. Friends then told me to begin using social media and start posting videos there as well. Wow! This is not what I had in mind at all. But I heeded their suggestions and started to avail myself of other professional resources to further this cause. Am I reaching my target audience?
I have been told that my pictures can’t compete with other food bloggers. This is true. I didn’t set out to compete with anyone or to shoot beautiful pictures. Although I am continuing to educate myself on topics that might make my blog more appealing, I wonder if it matters.
My aim is to ask you, my readers, to reconsider the way you approach food. There has been a huge transformation in this field over the past 50 years or so. Americans used to view food purely as sustenance. There was no such term as “foodie”. In more recent years, the pendulum has swung so far the other way that “foodie” has gained snob appeal and no one feels equipped to cook without a recipe, list of ingredients and a step by step video tutorial. Now it seems that either you are the person who cooks or the person who eats what other people cook because preparing enjoyable meals has been glamorized by the media and overpriced by restaurants.
Jacques Pepin, a living legend who can cook anything he pleases with the finest ingredients and techniques, recently demonstrated how to create a satisfying meal for a family of 6 using a few inexpensive pantry items in response to food insecurity in America. Is it haute cuisine? Do “foodies” marvel? Is the dish worthy of a photo shoot? Probably not, but it’s relevant to our times and it makes me want to give tuna casserole a chance.
A good salad is one your family will eat, so toss it with healthy homemade salad dressing.
Want to know about the first fight Michael and I had after returning from our honeymoon? It must have been something really important to disrupt early romance, right? Well, I thought it was very important at the time…
We argued about how to cut tomatoes for a salad. Yup. Growing up, I was instructed to only cut tomatoes into wedges for salad. That was the only “proper” way that was allowed. Michael requested that I cut them into small pieces so that he could have a little bit in every bite. “Out of the question!” I insisted. So silly, right?
Imagine how my friends’ parents looked at me when I was a guest in their home as a child and told them not to cut lettuce for a salad…”Lettuce must only be torn…”
Changing My Ways
Guess what. I acquiesced to Michael’s request to chop tomatoes smaller and I often cut lettuce these days! The sky has not fallen and everyone is happy. Woo-hoo!
That’s a good thing because we eat a lot of salads and there are so many ways to do them. I used to think I needed an array of vegetables to make a good one, but Michael is just as happy with 3 ingredients. So play around and have some fun. There are no rules. Make it the way you and your family like it!
Lettuces, arugula, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, mozzarella cheese, pepperoncini, Kalamata olives, capers and roasted chicken await being dressed with herb vinaigrette
A composed salad makes a beautiful presentation, but tossing with dressing before serving tastes the best. I often put the dressing in the bottom of a bowl along with anything juicy or needing acid to retain its color, such as tomatoes and avocado. Lettuce or anything else that would wilt goes on top until you’re ready to toss and serve.
Dressing is so simple to make. Pictured above, I crushed a clove of garlic with salt using my mortar and pestle. Using a fork, I whisked in some red wine vinegar, dried basil, thyme and olive oil. Please read Undressing the Dressing for more ideas.
Instead of letting produce go to waste, make a big pot of vegetable soup.
Apparently I have developed a reputation for zero waste cooking. So when a friend dropped off a bag full of broccoli that needed to be eaten yesterday, what could I do? Clean it, trim it and make soup, I decided. My anchor ingredient had been provided.
My Process
I figured onions and garlic would be a good start, so I chopped some up and got them cooking in a large stockpot with some olive oil. I was considering adding some carrots for more flavor, but then I decided they would muddle the color and I didn’t want brown broccoli soup, so I skipped them. On the other hand, I had an abundance of potatoes and they could add some body to the soup without harming it aesthetically. So I peeled and cubed a few potatoes and put them into the pot with the broccoli and enough water to cover them. I would have used some stock if I had something handy, so a parmesan rind from my treasure chest of freezer flavor gems joined the party for more flavor.
I planned to puree the soup after the vegetables were tender and add a touch of cream at the end. While it cooked, I looked in my spice cabinet and mused what else might enhance the flavor. Something verdant, but what? Mint? Why not? I have a big container of it, so I poured a generous amount into my palm and put that into the soup along with some salt. Simmered until the vegetables were soft enough to puree in the food processor, which required ladling many batches into the work bowl. If I had an immersion blender, this would have been the time to use it!
Finishing Up
I had a little cream that I whisked into the pureed soup at the end. After cooling and refrigerating in containers, I will put some in the freezer for later. I may dress it up with fresh herbs when serving or melt some cheese into it. Maybe I’ll spoon some yogurt on top. What ideas might you come up with?
Once again, my objective is not to provide a precise recipe to follow. My hope is that you continue to develop your intuition in the kitchen and create something delicious with whatever you have on hand and practice zero waste cooking. Below are the ingredients I used.
Ingredients:
broccoli
potatoes
onions
garlic
parmesan rind
salt
mint
cream
water, vegetable stock or chicken stock
In the mood for broccoli now, but looking for something more filling? Try my suggestion for Broccoli Beef.
Try this meaty bean for delicious, plant based simple meals.
How do you feel about lima beans? Growing up, my only experience with them was from a frozen package of assorted vegetables. I didn’t care for them very much because they were hard. So I was shocked when I enjoyed eating them at a friend’s house. She began with the dried variety and served them as part of a delicious Mediterranean meal. I then decided I liked lima beans after all. “Be sure to cook them long enough,” was her only advice. Since then I have enjoyed using them in simple meals.
Don’t be intimidated by cooking something new. Beans are about the most budget friendly whole food you can buy and they couldn’t be simpler to prepare.
The size of limas alone make them something special as far as legumes are concerned. Think of them as “meaty” beans while enjoying the health benefits of a plant based meal. Soak them in water overnight and plan to cook them for about 2 hours. Make a big batch to serve for a few meals and freeze some for future simple meals.
Simmer and Then Bake
First I made some chicken/vegetable stock to cook the beans in. It’s fine to use something from a carton. Canned tomatoes joined the party too. Which dried herbs would you like to use from your spice cabinet? I decided on:
bay leaves
sage
rosemary
thyme
Simmer for a couple of hours. Pictured above, I put some of the beans into a casserole dish, topped with feta and panko crumbs and baked in the oven for the final half hour. I served them on top of braised kale and with a dollop of cilantro pesto. Something fresh is always refreshing on top of a slow cooked dish like this. Cilantro is what I had, but any number of herbs would have been delicious.
Lunch the following day consisted of lima bean soup and cabbage salad.
The baked lima beans made one more appearance on a green salad and I put the soup in the freezer. You will be so happy to find the foundation of a prepared meal there in the future.
I am not vegan, but I enjoy eating a wide variety of plants. I recently read that eating 30 different plants per week increases the variety of healthy bacteria in your gut, resulting in improved immune function. Nuts and legumes count. How many different plants are you eating per week?
Curiously experimenting with fresh produce leads to delicious results while cooking without a recipe.
Here’s a mystery green. Can anyone tell me what it is? I’m still not sure, but it doesn’t matter if you practice intuitive cooking without a recipe.
Left over from the farmers market, several bunches of these were gifted to me by a friend. Neither of us recognized it, but I thought I had seen something similar in the Chinese vegetables section before. After doing some internet research, I thought it might be water spinach, but when I cut the ends, the stems weren’t hollow as described online. Hmm…smelling them didn’t yield a clue, so I tasted a raw leaf. It suggested to me something between a radish sprout and watercress. They would have worked well in a salad, but I decided to cook them. Cooking without a recipe, what do you think they would pair well with?
I had defrosted some sea scallops along with some shrimp stock for dinner. Imagining these greens would complement them, I put a pot of water on to boil for some pasta while I chopped some tomato, onion and garlic.
Tips On Cooking Scallops
After blotting my scallops with a paper towel, I coated them in grapeseed oil and sprinkled with salt before placing them one by one into a hot skillet. Turn them over one by one with tongs after a minute or so and cook on the other side for another minute. They should release easily from the pan if you have seared them properly. Don’t overcook or they will get tough. Put finished scallops on a preheated plate while you prepare the sauce.
A Simple Sauce
Splashing a little of the shrimp stock into the skillet to deglaze the pan, I incorporated the brown goodness left from the scallops before proceeding. Then I added some butter because such a low-fat meal deserves it, don’t you think?
Follow up with the onions and garlic. Yes, you can cook them at the same time. Why do recipes often tell you to cook the onion first? Because the pieces are bigger than minced garlic and if you want to cook the onions long enough to get some color on them, you risk scorching the garlic if you add it too early. In this case, I wasn’t looking for the onions to become golden. I just wanted to give them a head start before adding the rest of the stock to the skillet to simmer with some chopped tomatoes. Greens went in at the end to wilt. A little more fresh tomato on top to serve.
What did I do with the rest of those greens? Sautéed them with mushrooms and served with salmon and mahi mahi the next evening. The sauce is Greek yogurt and mayonnaise flavored with garlic, ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. I love leafy greens. All kinds…even if I don’t know their names. Thank you, Mystery Green.
What are your favorite greens? Which ones haven’t you tried?
Break the routine and think poutine with fries and a couple basic ingredients for an easy dinner you can make tonight.
One afternoon when I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired about making dinner, I stumbled upon a picture of poutine (rhymes with routine) on social media. I have never tasted it, but it looked delicious: French fries topped with gravy and cheese curds, whatever those are. The only curds I am familiar with are cottage cheese, but I don’t think that’s what they use in Canada, the home of this dish.
In any case, I had found my inspiration for the question of what to make for dinner tonight…easy! I had some ground beef and some lamb/chicken stock that I had prepared previously. So, I decided to make what would be a hybrid of chili cheese fries and poutine. Just call it delicious.
I didn’t have a lot of fresh stuff in the house, but I had in the freezer: frozen french fries and green beans. I decided to plate the browned ground beef underneath the baked fries and serve the gravy on the side for dipping because I don’t like soggy fries.
In some olive oil, I sauteed some chopped garlic and then added the frozen green beans and chopped tomato.
Thickened up my stock by simmering with a little cornstarch. Melted some cheese on top of my oven baked french fries and called it a day. Comfort food with very little cooking involved.
You can make a satisfying, simple meal in under 30 minutes.
Pondering what to do with some leftover roasted chicken, I decided that I wanted to use some mushrooms and a red bell pepper. What could I make with those anchor ingredients? I decided on cacciatore, an Italian hunter’s stew. It’s one of my favorite simple meals.
I really like the flavor that can be developed by simmering this dish long and slow. But I didn’t have hours and I was using chicken that was already cooked. So what could I add to deepen the flavor? An organic chicken liver that I had in the freezer was just the thing. Don’t worry. No one will know if you don’t tell them. Why? Because once thawed, I put it in the food processor to puree it.
After cooking some chopped onions and garlic in some olive oil, I added the pureed chicken liver to the pot to boost the umami quotient. Then the rest of the ingredients one at a time: mushrooms, red bell pepper, canned tomatoes. Seasoned with rosemary and thyme. A little wine never hurts. Simmer until vegetables are tender and the flavors start to come together. Taste with a clean spoon and adjust seasoning. Add cooked chicken to heat through.
In under 30 minutes you can have a satisfying meal with everyone asking for seconds. You could serve this with all kinds of things from polenta to rice, but pasta is my favorite. What’s yours? Buon appetito!
Ingredients:
chicken pieces
chicken liver
olive oil
onion
garlic
mushrooms
red bell pepper
canned tomatoes
wine
rosemary
thyme
Ready for more simple meals using a roasted chicken? Try a Jambalaya.
Look to the pantry and freezer for a simple and satisfying meal.
Are you a fan of split pea soup? I never was until I started making my own. I think it requires a heavy dose of an herbal quality. My favorite blend is Herbs de Provence. Rosemary and thyme will do if you don’t have the former, but nothing beats Herbs de Provence, which you will always find in my treasure chest of flavor gems to season simple meals.
Keep split peas in the pantry and whip up a big batch anytime. They don’t require soaking, but they need a few hours to cook. Leftovers taste even better and also keep well in the freezer for later.
I start with chopping up an inch of bacon from my collection of freezer flavor gems. It’s totally fine to make it completely vegetarian, but I enjoy it with a little bacon if I have it on hand. After browning that in a large pot, I add a large diced onion and a few chopped carrots and minced garlic. After cooking for a few minutes, I add chicken or vegetable broth and a couple of cups of peas along with the Herbs de Provence. A cup of peas to a quart of liquid seems about right to me. You can start with less liquid and add more if you see fit as it cooks down. Simmer covered, stirring occasionally for about 3 hours or until the soup has reached your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
Is this soup a meal? Served with a hunk of bread, my husband thinks so. Serve a salad on the side to round it out. It doesn’t get much easier than this, folks! Simple meals are the best!
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