Tag: family dinner

Show me your mussels..

Sometimes I crack myself up with the headlines for these posts. But enough random food blogger banter let’s get down to business.  The dish below is a favorite at our house for a couple of reasons. It’s healthy, uses one pot, cooks in 20 minutes and will cost you under $10.00, and uses only 10 ingredients. That alone should be enough to get any weeknight cook excited for what’s coming next. It utilizes frozen precooked mussels in a tomato sauce. We purchase ours at Aldi’s and at less than $3.00 for a 1lb box how can you go wrong.

Bloody Mary Mussels

  1. 1/2 tbs olive oil
  2. 3 ribs of celery finely diced
  3. 1 whole onion finely diced
  4. 1/2 tsp each of sea salt and cracked black pepper
  5. 3 large cloves of garlic minced
  6. 16.9z can of fire-roasted tomatoes with the juice
  7. 1.5 tbs of horseradish
  8. 1 TBS of Worchester sauce
  9. 1.5 tsp cayenne hot sauce
  10. 2lbs of precooked mussels in sauce thawed

In a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the diced celery and onions and cook for 3 minutes or until they start to soften and go a little translucent. Add the minced garlic and the salt and pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes. lower the heat to medium and add the entire can of diced tomatoes with the liquid along with the horseradish, Worcester, and hot sauce and allow the sauce to reduce for at least 5-6 minutes (Depending on your tastebuds feel free to add more or less of the hot sauce and horseradish) Add the mussels with the sauce to the pan and bring the heat back to medium-high, cover with the lid and allow to cook for another 4-5 minutes or until mussels are heated through and the shells have opened up. I usually give the mussels a stir once or twice during the cooking process to make sure everything is cooking evenly.

If your feeling fancy garnish with leaves of celery and scallions and you’re ready to eat. We usually eat this over pasta or with some crusty artisan bread. The sauce is really the star of this dish and you’re going to want to make sure you scoop up every bite.

If you are going to use fresh mussels add about a 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce to the recipe and add it when you put in the other wet ingredients. The key with cooking mussels or any other shellfish like clams and oysters is they are ready once the shells open. If a mussel or clam doesn’t open during the cooking process don’t eat it, it very well could make you sick.

So dinners on the table in under 20 minutes and when you finish up all you have are the plates and probably two pans to clean up, what could be better than that? The only thing I can think of is if someone else does the dishes.

Curry red lentil Soup…

Maybe for once we can get right down to business on one of these recipes.

  • 1 large onion diced
  • 1 TBS olive oil
  • 1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
  • 1 “thumb” sized piece of ginger grated
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic grated.
  • 1 1/2 quarts of vegetable stock.
  • 10z red lentils
  • 1/2 brick of frozen chopped spinach
  • 1 tbs ginger powder
  • 1 1/2 tbs granulated garlic
  • 1 can coconut milk

In a large soup pot or dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium heat and add your diced onion. cook for 4-5 minutes stirring often, we are looking for the onions to turn translucent. Add the whole can of diced tomatoes, be sure to use the juice as well, cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Finely mince or use a micro plane to grate the ginger and garlic into the onion and tomato mixture, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the Vegetable stock and the lentils and cook for 40-45 minutes on a medium simmer or until the lentils are tender and starting to fall apart. You may need to add a little extra stock in the cooking process to keep the soup from getting to thick. You will need to stir the soup every couple of minutes to keep the lentils from sticking. In the last 10 minutes of the cooking process add the frozen spinach and allow it to come up to temperature. Add the granulated garlic and ginger at this stage along with the can of coconut milk. Once you add the coconut milk lower the burner to low and you can serve right away or let it sit at that temperature for 20-20 minutes.

Before service taste the soup and adjust seasoning to preference. I often serve ours with a drizzle of sriracha, a squeeze of fresh lime juice or some minced fresh cilantro.

Veggies!! Its whats for dinner.

It drives me crazy when you’re looking for dinner ideas on the interwebs and you see something that looks good and then it turns into this… It all started one summer day when I was at the farmers market and I saw the most amazing free range, organic heirloom tomato, blah blah blah so on and so forth. Five page later your not sure if you are reading a novel or a recipe.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. To start with I’m not a chef or a dietitian but I am very passionate about cooking and putting a healthy meal on the table for my family. With that being said taste as you go and if you think it needs a little more of one thing and a little less of another feel free to get creative. This dish is well suited to adding and omitting veggies that you have on hand. For instance I had a half bag of frozen cubed butternut squash hanging out in the freezer, so in it went.

Roasted Eggplant and Veggie “Lasagna“

2 large or 4 small eggplants

3 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, 2 medium red onions.

1tbs olive oil

2 cans 16oz tomato pulp, preferably something that is already seasoned with garlic and basil (Crushed tomatoes can also work.)

1 can fire roasted tomatoes, drain off the liquid

5 cloves of garlic minced

2tbs garlic powder

2tbs italian seasoning

1 tbs fennel seeds

1/2 bag of frozen butternut squash

1 brick of frozen spinach

9z* of whole wheat pasta in your favorite shape. * dry measurement, before cooking

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup almonds

optional items

1/2 cup of goat cheese

1/4 fresh shredded Parmesan cheese

step one. With a paring knife prick the skin on the eggplants a few times and place on a baking sheet in the oven at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes depending on size. you are looking for them to have a tight skin but soft and tender on the inside. You can step up your game on this and cook them on your grill, just set them on the grate away from indirect heat. transfer to a large mixing bowl and cover with a plate or film wrap and allow to steam until cool.

step two. dice your yellow squash, zucchini and slice the onions into bite sized pieces. over a medium high heat add the olive oil and the veggies and saute the veggies for 7-10 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, keep the veggies moving pretty consistently. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute. lower the heat to medium low and add the two cans of tomato pulp, 1 can of diced tomatoes, (liquid drained off) frozen spinach and the butternut squash. cook on the stove top for at least ten minutes or until the sauce begins to thicken. Once cooled take the skin off of your eggplants and transfer the “meat” to the sauce. Add the Italian seasoning, garlic powder and fennel seeds and cook for a few more minutes.

While the sauce is cooking bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta to about 75% fully cooked and drain off the liquid. I’ve used penne, cavatapi and rustichine aka mini lasagna noodles in past iterations of this dish and they have all come out great.

assembly. In a 13×9 oven proof casserole add a few spoonfuls of the veggie mixture. top that with half of your cooked pasta. If your cool with dairy this is where I would sprinkle on the goat cheese, vegan cheese is cool here as well if you wish. The next layers are as follows, Tomato veggie mixture, pasta, and then the remaining tomato veggie mixture. From here you can transfer directly to the oven and bake or for better results let it hang out for a couple of hours or overnight to let all the flavors enhance.

Before baking take the 1/2 cup of almonds and crush them, you can use a food processor for this but I prefer the hammer method. Put the almonds in a bag wrap it in a towel and go to town releasing some of the days pent up aggression. Mix the crushed almonds and panko together in a bowl.

Place in the center of a preheated 375 degree oven and bake until bubbling and heated through. cooking time will vary on the initial starting temp of your lasagna but should be anywhere from 20-40 minutes to cook through. Half way through the cooking process sprinkle over the panko and almond mixture. In the last few minutes of baking you can add the shredded Parmesan cheese and give it enough time to melt. For best plate presentation allow to sit out for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Ideally this would be served with some kind of spring mix or kale salad with lots of fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts for added flavor and texture.

Is this veggie lasagna as good as Nona Maria’s classic meat and cheese laden lasagna? I think they are pretty close, but one things for certain you cold eat 2-3 times the potion size and probably still come out ahead when it comes to calories consumed.