I'm officially returning to Seattle to finish up a Master's in nursing and leaving a sad fiance behind in San Francisco. He will have a long adjustment period where he realizes he doesn't know where the cutting boards are (in the far drawer near the mudroom), how to get the door buzzer to stop ringing (hit it with a spatula), or that the house doesn't have a "self-cleaning" function (call Rent-a-Wife Cleaning Services, NOT the "concierge" service). The worst of all he will be without his personal dinner chef. And I will miss Saturday morning Dan Scrambles.
For the next few posts I will be teaching Dan, and those of you less inclined to pick up a saute pan, how to cook five basic meals to get you through the long cold winter.
Starting with my favorite go-to meal quinoa with red peppers, onions and your choice of protein. I was almost sure I already posted this recipe, but I don't see it on here, so excuse the re-post if you've seen it already. It's a recipe for four serving, but re-heats perfectly! A little secret: this one is on the box of the Trader Joe's brand white quinoa, thanks TJ's!
Recipe One: Quinoa with veggies and protein
1 cup Trader Joe's Organic Quinoa prepared with chicken stock according to package directions (see below)
2 cups Trader Joe's Chicken Broth
1 1/2 pounds Trader Joe's Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Tenders OR Shrimp OR Tofu OR other protein of choice
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
20 leaves fresh sweet basil, julienne
Grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Quinoa prep: Place 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups chicken broth in a pot with a lid. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to
simmer it for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let it sit with the lid
on, when ready to mix with the rest of the ingredients, fluff it with a fork and then mix.
Cut chicken (or protein of choice) into one inch pieces. Heat large nonstick skillet over high
heat and add the oil. Add chicken and saute for 5 minutes or until
golden brown. Add onions, peppers, and saute for one or two more
minutes. Add garlic and saute until peppers become slightly limp, but
still bright, about one to two minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the pan from heat. (At this point I usually use a big silver bowl and just dump all the ingredients in to make it easier to stir) Add basil and quinoa. Toss until basil wilts
and garnish with parmesan cheese.
I also like to add other seasonal veggies such as, my favorite, zucchini. But, I'm sure Dan is so zucchini'd out he'll probably opt out.
Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned for four more easy-to-make recipes for one or more eaters!
Showing posts with label shrimp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shrimp. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
The table arrived…and hundreds of other boxes too!
Just a mere 83 days ago, the move to San Francisco was but a sparkle in our eyes and here we are unpacking boxes, hanging art, and cleaning floors, all to make a San Francisco walk-up into a home…together.
You know how you walk through an empty apartment thinking, I’ll put my mirror there, oh and my gigantic toaster-for-two would be perfect on that end of the counter. Well, let the negotiating begin because moving in together is a much more complicated ball of wax full of you-can-put-that-there-if-I-get-to-keep-this bargaining.
Our pile of much-missed items arrived on Friday in a full-day fiasco of begging people not to park in front of our house. The moving truck was hours late after one of the movers conveniently sprained his ankle just in time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, we wish him a rapid 3-day weekend recovery. The next three days were spent tearing into boxes, finding our long lost treasures, not finding others (like the elusive piece of glass for the bar top), and creating a dining-room-sized pile of paper and packing products – we’re accepting a $5 admission to play in it (all proceeds will go toward getting rid of it!).
Together we spent countless hours arranging furniture, measuring twice and hammering in nails once (Dan’s #1 rule), organizing the kitchen and attempting to fit our 12 appliances into cabinets (that’s right, we can make toast for six all while baking bread, blending a margarita, stewing meat in the Crockpot, mixing a cake, grinding coffee AND brewing it three ways!), and we’ve only come up with two points of contention: the angle of the knife block on the kitchen counter (which mysteriously keeps changing throughout the day), and the “girl” sheets on the bed must go. That’s all we’ve got. And, really, we’ve come to a consensus on the second one, so, one, one point of contention. WE WIN!
Second order of business, after unpacking, is always eating, so for our first meal in our apartment we made quesadillas, and our second meal was a famous Dan egg scramble, but the third meal in our very own jointly moved- into-together apartment was Sesame Shrimp and Couscous Salad from Cooking Light online.
It was fun having my sous chef back, and fun cooking in our kitchen. Not his kitchen or my kitchen, but our kitchen. A couple notes: the salad was a little dry, so we mixed up a little extra olive oil, sesame oil and, rice vinegar and poured it over the top. We substituted a couple items, in parentheses below.
Sesame Shrimp-and-Couscous Salad
YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups water, divided
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup uncooked couscous (we used whole wheat)
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (we used olive oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed (we used edamame)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts
Preparation:
Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add shrimp; cook 3 minutes or until done. Drain and rinse with cold water; cut shrimp in half. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork; cool.
Combine vinegar, vegetable oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add shrimp, couscous, lettuce, bell pepper, peas, and cilantro; toss well. Sprinkle with peanuts.
You know how you walk through an empty apartment thinking, I’ll put my mirror there, oh and my gigantic toaster-for-two would be perfect on that end of the counter. Well, let the negotiating begin because moving in together is a much more complicated ball of wax full of you-can-put-that-there-if-I-get-to-keep-this bargaining.
Our pile of much-missed items arrived on Friday in a full-day fiasco of begging people not to park in front of our house. The moving truck was hours late after one of the movers conveniently sprained his ankle just in time for the 4th of July holiday weekend, we wish him a rapid 3-day weekend recovery. The next three days were spent tearing into boxes, finding our long lost treasures, not finding others (like the elusive piece of glass for the bar top), and creating a dining-room-sized pile of paper and packing products – we’re accepting a $5 admission to play in it (all proceeds will go toward getting rid of it!).
Together we spent countless hours arranging furniture, measuring twice and hammering in nails once (Dan’s #1 rule), organizing the kitchen and attempting to fit our 12 appliances into cabinets (that’s right, we can make toast for six all while baking bread, blending a margarita, stewing meat in the Crockpot, mixing a cake, grinding coffee AND brewing it three ways!), and we’ve only come up with two points of contention: the angle of the knife block on the kitchen counter (which mysteriously keeps changing throughout the day), and the “girl” sheets on the bed must go. That’s all we’ve got. And, really, we’ve come to a consensus on the second one, so, one, one point of contention. WE WIN!
Second order of business, after unpacking, is always eating, so for our first meal in our apartment we made quesadillas, and our second meal was a famous Dan egg scramble, but the third meal in our very own jointly moved- into-together apartment was Sesame Shrimp and Couscous Salad from Cooking Light online.
It was fun having my sous chef back, and fun cooking in our kitchen. Not his kitchen or my kitchen, but our kitchen. A couple notes: the salad was a little dry, so we mixed up a little extra olive oil, sesame oil and, rice vinegar and poured it over the top. We substituted a couple items, in parentheses below.
Sesame Shrimp-and-Couscous Salad
YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)
Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups water, divided
1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup uncooked couscous (we used whole wheat)
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (we used olive oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed (we used edamame)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts
Preparation:
Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add shrimp; cook 3 minutes or until done. Drain and rinse with cold water; cut shrimp in half. Bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork; cool.
Combine vinegar, vegetable oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add shrimp, couscous, lettuce, bell pepper, peas, and cilantro; toss well. Sprinkle with peanuts.
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