Caveman Fajitas

October 10th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

Even though I’m not participating in a 40 Day Paleo Challenge, I’m still cooking for someone who is – so for the time being, I’m making dinner like any good cave woman would.

Namely, low-carb/grain free chicken fajitas.  Just call me Wilma Flintstone.

Paleo Chicken Fajitas

Lettuce as a our tortilla was the only thing I did differently to make these chicken fajitas Paleo friendly.  You could obviously use a regular flour tortilla here in place of lettuce if that’s what floats your boat.  (And if you can float a boat with flour tortillas, you must tell me and we will alert the National Academy of Physics!  Or whoever is in charge of gravity, momentum, centrifugal force, etc, etc.)

Are you sick of zucchini yet? Well hang tight, we’ve still got a few weeks of summer left.

With a frittata on the dinner menu, I gathered up the latest round of CSA zucchini (both yellow and green) for shredding and salting before I made it sit in the corner to think about what it did wrong.

Drained Shredded Zucchini

Oh Zucchini, you didn’t do anything wrong.  You’re just so… so… plenteous!  So abundant!  I’m at my wits end trying to come up with ideas for you.

Meat Ballin’

August 1st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (4 Comments)

A few weeks ago I was out with all three kids (not unusual) and had nothing packed for any of us to eat (quite unusual). Hunger levels were quickly rising, morale was rapidly falling.  Given time and location, our best option was a small pizza place in order to save us (or save myself, really) from a hunger-induced group meltdown.

I'm Sorry for What I Said When I Was Hungry

The girls each got a slice of pizza, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover there were a bunch of decent side dishes on the menu.  I got three meatballs and some sauteed summer vegetables to share with 13 month old Kaz, who does not yet know that the children in this family are supposed to demand pizza and shun vegetables.  (Shhhh!)

This is quinoa and sauteed kale in a sauce made from red peppers, onions and tahini.  I initially made this to stuff into portobello mushroom caps, but this stuff was so stuffin’ good that we’re going to focus more on the stuffing instead of what was stuffed.

Quinoa Kale Stuffing

Stuff this into mushrooms if you like, but you could just as easily choose to eat this as-is and call it lunch.  Or use it as a side at dinner. Or as dinner itself.  Or even for breakfast.  Watch me eat this for breakfast tomorrow.  WATCH ME!

(ok, maybe don’t watch me.  that’s a little creepy.)

Red Hot Cauliflower

March 23rd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (6 Comments)

There was some green on our dinner plates tonight, but more importantly, there was red!

Black Bean Burgers with Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower

Spicy “Buffalo” Cauliflower was tonight’s side dish to homemade black bean burgers.

You’ll need:

1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 c hot sauce
1/3 c apple cider vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 450. In a separate dish, melt butter, stir in hot sauce and apple cider vinegar. With cauliflower in a large mixing bowl, pour sauce over cauliflower and use a large spoon to stir cauliflower and coat well with buffalo sauce. Bake for 25 minutes.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

March 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (3 Comments)

Taco salad for breakfast yesterday, eggs for dinner today.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Dinner for breakfast, breakfast for dinner.  Someone must have set the clocks ahead 12 hours.

Tonight was a crustless quiche with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper and onions.  Crustless quiche means no grains or refined carbohydrates, it saves you on calories too.  I was pretty strict with my grain intake for a while after reading Deep Nutrition at the end of last year (i.e., eating very little grain) but I am eating more grains from time to time now.

Pizza Night

March 15th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

It’s homemade pizza night!

Wait, scratch that.  It’s EASY homemade pizza night.

Nann Pizza Fixing Overview

A couple packages of Naan (Indian flat bread) for some fast, deliciously soft pizza crusts, veggie toppings, tomato sauce, shredded mozzerella cheese, and a glass of Cabernet in the corner up there. (For me, not for the pizza.)

Muir Glen Pasta Sauce

Pasta sauce, pizza sauce. Tomato, tomato. Garlic roasted garlic sauce? That sounds like it belongs on pizza to me.

Diced peppers and mushrooms for a couple of grown up veggie pizzas.

Veggie Prep Sauteed Peppers and Mushrooms

Today’s greens were just the same-old same-old roasted Brussels sprouts (paired with roasted sweet potatoes, my winter vegetable obsession).  What I really want to tell you about is this shredded pork roast we’ve been enjoying.

Crockport Pork  Roast with Brussels sprouts and sweet potato

It’s super easy – but more importantly, it’s super good.

I didn’t really learn to cook until after I was a vegetarian.  In fact, becoming a vegetarian is The Reason I learned how to cook. If we’re not eating meat, WHAT THE HECK ARE WE GONNA EAT?!

Friday Night Veggie Delight

February 1st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (2 Comments)

Tonight’s speedy, kick ass dinner was inspired by the Winter 2013 edition of Menu magazine.

Wegmans Menu Magazine

Namely, Roasted Dashi Eggplant, Dashi Mushrooms and Baby Bok Choy with Garlic Sauce.

Except I went all Three Muskateers on those recipes and tweaked them to make one vegtabulous dinner.

This came together very quickly, which was especially helpful as I was feeling so hungry my stomach was starting to eat itself.

Pulled from the fridge and cupboards:

I’ll begin today by explaining that we’ve been eating a lot of the Same Old, Same Old for dinner around here lately.

From what I can figure, any and all brain power that was formerly used for coming up with something new and creative for dinner (or the blog) seems to have been temporarily diverted to growing a baby. A baby who is getting pretty big I might add, and lately has a fondness for doing what can only be described as extended side angle pose in utero.

Barbie Doing Extended Side Angle Pose

I did Barbie’s hair. You like?