For instance, this week our fish dish is Blackened Tilapia served with a remoulade (don't worry, that is just fancy talk for a jazzed up tartar sauce...if you are still nervous, think fish sticks dipped in mayo with a little relish in it...there, now you can breathe again). This is a quick meal but I figured I would go ahead and make the remoulade while I was getting Ellie's bath together and Flick was changing her diaper. So I whipped it together and stuck it in the fridge to serve along with the fish later that evening. Needless to say, the remoulade never made it to the table - out of sight out of mind. I had checked it off my mental to-do list and there it sat, in the fridge. The fish was delicious without it so we did not even notice until I went to get the salad and it stared me in the face.
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| Where is your delicious remoulade? |
We chuckled at how much of a time saver it was to make it early - and then went on to have the exact same meal the next day so we could try it with our fancy sauce :) You just have to roll with it and call a mulligan here and there. For those of you who are wondering what we served our fish with - that is good ole' Pasta-Roni - not gonna lie, they make a nice quick side on nights when we either haven't thought about what to do for our starch or don't have anything else on hand. Those are frozen peas and broccoli too. You could easily make a rice or use fresh veggies - this is just what we chose to use.
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| Ahhh, there it is. |
We did a little breakfast for dinner one night with Monte Cristo sandwiches. I love breakfast. The traditional Monte Cristo has both ham and turkey nestled with some melty cheese between two golden pieces of french toast but our version only uses the ham. Real maple syrup for dipping is a must in our house but I am sure Aunt Jamaima works just as well. A nice fruit salad and some cottage cheese would be good sides for this meal.
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| Oooo la la! |
The vegetarian dish was a Fall Veggie Curry. The veggies in this dish work great year-round so don't feel as though you are restricted to when you can enjoy this one. I usually serve this over cashew rice but didn't have any cashews on hand. We did have shredded coconut so I added that to the rice and it was really good! From now on we will serve it over cashew coconut rice as I think the flavors work well together. It is a really mild curry so for those of you who are not to sure about curries, consider this your training wheel recipe. The flavors tend to develop the longer it sits so for those of you who desire a stronger taste - leftovers are delicious!
One more thing to add to the list of foods I love...pizza. What is better than bread, cheese, veggies and/or meats, and a nice sauce all in one bite. YUM! We had Sausage, Pepper, and Mushroom pizza this week. You could easily omit the meat in this or use chicken sausage if you don't do pork. We used a refrigerated hunk of dough from Safeway for the crust and it really came together nicely. We have gone with Boboli crusts in the past and they work just fine, but this crust was a game changer for me. Really inexpensive, tastes great, and only required a few extra minutes to stretch it out to put on the pan. Way worth the effort in my book.
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| Why does pizza have to be so darn good! |
Finally, Chicken Stroganoff. This is a major comfort food dish (but still healthy!) that we really enjoy. It came to be one night when Beef Stroganoff (the traditional version of my made up meal) sounded really good but we were lacking the beef - kind of a major component. I subbed in chicken and tweaked it a bit and we had a winner! I made this last week on the first night that my mom, dad, and grandfather were out visiting and it went over really well. My dad is lactose intolerant so this batch was put together with lactose free sour cream (love that they have options like this out there!) and the taste was just as rich and delicious. Happy cooking!
