A HEALTHY EASY DINNER

Another day, another dinner. And it's a healthy dinner. Encouraged by my husband's willingness to eat what I serve with no objections, I decided today to go all the way, and serve him a really healthy dinner. First I wanted to grill the remaining beef strips, but we couldn't find them in the kitchen freezer. It seems that my husband had put them in the big freezer downstairs in the basement. So I thought of using whatever I had at hand in the kitchen: two chicken breasts.

First I thought of having chicken Marsala, but I had no mushrooms and was lazy enough to think that opening a bottle of wine was too much work. Chicken with bell peppers was too much, we just had beef with bell peppers the other day.. it was wise not to push it. But since I was going the way of chicken Marsala, let's see what I can do with what I have. Dinner came out just fine and healthy and my husband liked it a lot, even the vegetables.

                                         

CHICKEN IN BROWN SAUCE

Inspired by the original chicken Marsala, I made this dish with what I had in the kitchen. It's easy and quick. Of course I tried to make it with the least fat possible, I used half butter half oil. I thought it would be a nice change to have some butter in the food, once in a while. I thought of thickening the sauce with some sour cream, but then decided not, a piece of butter was enough. I also decided against having any carbohydrates, opting for some mixed veggies. I used what I had at hand: Lima beans, carrots and corn. The beans were frozen, the carrots fresh, and the corn canned. It will work still. You'll need:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp butter

1 and 1/2 tbsp flour

1 tsp dried oregano

1 box frozen Lima beans

1 can corn

A handful of baby carrots cut in small rings, the size of the beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the chicken breasts in the thickest part to obtain a medallion and a larger piece. With a mallet pound the chicken pieces, then cut the larger piece to get 2 other pieces the same size as the medallion. You'll have a total of 6 pieces. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and the oregano on the chicken cutlets, then lightly dust them with flour on both sides. In a large non stick skillet that would hold the chicken pieces in one layer, melt the butter with 1 tbsp oil, and add 1 tbsp of onion/garlic mixture. Cook for a minute, then add the chicken cutlets. Let them cook undisturbed for a couple of minutes until browned on one side, then turn them to the other side. Cook until browned on that side too, then add 1/2 a cup of water. Scrape the skillet to release all the browned bits, and let cook to reduce. If you see that the sauce is not creamy enough, you can add a tbsp of sour cream, or cheat as I did and add 1 tsp of powdered gravy mix. Quickly stir to dissolve, then when the chicken is done, 2 or 3 minutes, remove from the heat and transfer to a serving dish with all the sauce.

                                                          

MIXED SAUTEED VEGETABLES

While the chicken is cooking, cook the carrots in some salted water, just enough to tenderize them. Frozen Lima beans are tender and don't need much time to cook. In a non stick skillet cook the remaining onion/garlic mixture in 1/2 tbsp oil. Add the beans, stir. Drain the carrots then add them to the beans. Sprinkle salt and pepper and stir. You may add some boiling water    (1 or 2 tbsp) to the pan to make sure that the vegetables are cooked until tender. Transfer to a serving dish. In the same skillet, add the remaining oil, drain the corn and cook it in the oil until thoroughly heated. Transfer to the serving dish beside the beans and carrots.

                                           

A CUT ABOVE ALL

A month or so ago, I discovered a new cut of beef I had never seen before. "Beef loin flap meat steak" it's called. It looked good, so I bought it. It came in a package of several strips, the meat was red very slightly marbled, it had very fine white lines which I didn't mind at all. When I opened the package, I was happily surprised to find out that this cut came in several 2 X 8 or 9 inch strips. This, I thought, will give me a wide range of possibilities. 

I first tried it in a minestrone type soup: I cut the strips in cubes, browned them in a drop of oil with some onion/garlic mixture, added water, vegetables I had on hand, a can of chick peas, drained of course, some tomato sauce and small pasta. Mom liked it a lot, ate it all even the meat cubes with no problem whatsoever. It melted in your mouth.

Two days later I grilled the remaining strips on a griddle with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. The little white lines in the meat melted on the grill, and the steaks came out lean, tender and delicious. 

So when I found the same cut yesterday at the store I did not hesitate to bring it home. This time we're going to have something different.

NOT QUITE CHINESE STIR-FRY

                                                    

We don't eat Chinese food. No, let me rephrase that: we rarely eat Chinese food and we have  very limited options to chose from. Why? Oh, where should I begin? My husband likes to have his food whole, not chopped, he likes his meat separate from the veggies, I, on the other hand, think it has a lot of oil, we also don't like spicy food. So the choices are mainly limited to shrimp with broccoli, chicken with eggplant, or maybe orange flavored beef, but very mild. How much of that can you eat in a month? Not much. But today, maybe because the new cut of meat already comes in strips, I thought "can we have something like Chinese, but not exactly Chinese food?", maybe something tweaked to satisfy our taste. I looked around me and found everything I needed: bell peppers, dried mushrooms, different sauces, some Chinese, some not, and a half box of linguini. We'll pretend it's lo main, after all the whole dish is Chinese pretend. You'll need:

                                            

1 and 1/2 lb of beef strips cut in 1/2 x 3 inch smaller strips 

1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow

2 cups dried mushrooms
3 garlic cloves

1/2 box of linguini

1 tsp each: soy sauce, red wine vinegar, cold water

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 and 1/2 tbsp oil (I used canola)

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the bell pepper in strips and finely chop the garlic. Fill a big pot with water to cook the pasta. Today I had to cut the linguini in two for the first time in my life, so that all the strips I am cooking will be the same size. In a glass bowl, place the meat strips, sprinkle with the corn starch, drizzle the soy sauce, the red wine vinegar and the tsp of water. Add half the chopped garlic and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, not too much, we have soy sauce in there. Mix, then add a drop of oil and mix again to evenly coat the meat strips. Heat a large non stick skillet over high heat, add the oil and swirl it around to coat the skillet. Add the beef strips in one layer and let them cook undisturbed until browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Clean the bowl where you marinated the beef strips, and put the dried mushrooms in it and cover them with boiling water. Let stand. Stir-fry the beef strips until well browned on all sides. Remove to a platter. In the same skillet cook the remaining chopped garlic with the ginger for a few seconds, then add the bell pepper strips. Stir. Drain the mushrooms and add them to the skillet. Keep the water in case we need to add some to the skillet. Return the beef to the skillet, add the Worcestershire sauce and continue stir-frying. You may add some of the mushroom water to the skillet to make sure that the beef is well cooked and the mushrooms too. If you are using fresh mushrooms, you don't need to soak them of course, and if you need, just add some water or broth to the skillet until everything is done.

Drain the pasta, and place it in the serving dish. Top with the meat and vegetables.

                                                  

TIP: this recipe can be adjusted to your taste, change the meat/veggies/pasta ratio and the spices according to your taste. We like more beef than veggies, actually my husband does, and we can't eat hot or spicy foods, so I made it accordingly. He ate all his veggies though.

TWO CAN STILL EAT THE SAME DISH

Now that mom is no longer with us, I feel I have lost my strong ally in the kitchen battles. She was open to suggestions and to any innovation I would come up with, and ready to try anything new. It's been only two weeks, and not only I missed her from day one, I already feel that I have to go through an uphill battle with my husband to make him more flexible when it comes to food. His taste is so traditional that even if he was open minded years ago and willing sometimes to cautiously try new dishes every now and then, lately he is entrenching himself in a very rigid position and reverted back to his old eating habits. His diet consisted mainly of meat, cheese and bread, now he almost eliminated all of the meat, and added waffles and corn flakes. I'm trying my best to convince him not to go to the dark side and follow me to a healthier lifestyle. So it's not so much new recipes, but special menus that I'm using to entice him and convince him to eat what I am serving. The main idea is to build the menu around an item he loves, then add side dishes that he may be willing to try, one or two, not more. I think the same principle can be applied to a difficult child too. I've seen many of my friends children refusing food at home, but eating up anything I serve them.

                                                     

So the menu today is built around chicken Milanese. The fried tender chicken breast cutlets are everybody's favorite. I'll add to that some sauteed asparagus (both on previous blogs), and for the something new to try: a creamy asparagus soup. This way I'll catch two birds with one stone: I'll give my husband asparagus that he loves, and finish up the 2.25 lb bag of asparagus I have in the refrigerator.

CREAMY ASPARAGUS SOUP

The main reason I thought of this soup is the huge quantity of asparagus I bought. Two pounds is a lot of asparagus if you are only two people, and you are not inviting some friends. The bonus?  It is snowing today in New York. What better than a creamy soup to keep you warm in such a weather? I thought I can make a creamy soup without adding any fat or cream. How? you may ask. Just as I make the creamy lentil soup, but with different ingredients. It was easy, and it came out perfect. You'll need:

1 lb asparagus, hard tip removed and cut into 1 inch pieces

3 to 4 small potatoes peeled and cubed

2 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture

1/2 bunch dill (about 1/2 inch in diameter, it's winter, bunches are smaller)

1 tsp oil

Vegetable or chicken stock, about 4 cups (enough to cover the potatoes), or water

Salt and pepper

Reserve a few of the asparagus tips for decoration.

In a large pot cook the onion/garlic mixture in oil until translucent. Add the potatoes, stir, then add the stock. Sprinkle some salt and pepper if you are using water. Let cook until the potatoes are tender, then add the asparagus and dill. Cook until all the vegetables are done, then remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes, just so that you can puree the veggies. With an immersion blender  beat the soup until smooth. You can also do that in a regular blender. Return the soup to the pot, adjust seasoning if need be. If you sauteed the other pound of asparagus to serve with the chicken cutlets, you can cook the asparagus tips in the same skillet in two tbsp of water. If you are only making the soup, you can cook the tips in a tbsp of water in a glass bowl in the microwave. Serve the soup topped with a couple of asparagus tips on top. 

                                                   

COOKING FOR TWO

I've been away for a while. My mother passed away. It took me a while to be able to go back to the kitchen and cook something. But I had to. My husband started a very bad trend, he doesn't want to eat real food, only waffles and honey for breakfast and corn flakes for dinner. This is not a way to keep a healthy lifestyle, or a life for that matters. I asked him if he had something special in mind, but he insisted that he couldn't swallow anything but his waffles and flakes. Yesterday I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands and feed him something good, force feed him if it came to that. He just came out of a 5 days stay in the hospital and he should be nursed back to health. I know he used to love steak, so steak it is.

GRILLED STEAK WITH GORGONZOLA SAUCE

                                              

This is one of my husband's favorite meals. We use to go to this famous restaurant in Manhattan just for him to have it. So I thought, maybe this will do the trick. I asked if it was OK with him, and he agreed with no confidence at all that I will be able to replicate his dish. I'll try, I told him. It worked. It's the easiest elaborate dinner you can prepare. You just have to get a good cut of meat, the rest is nothing. For the sauce I used the half and half, and some leftover 2%milk I had in the refrigerator instead  of heavy cream. It worked fine. You'll need:

1 steak, fat trimmed if you prefer. This time I left it on as encouragement.

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

2 cups half and half, plus 1/3 cup 2% milk

2/3 cup grated Parmigiano

1 cup Gorgonzola cheese crumbled, plus an extra 1/3 cup

Heat an over the stove griddle, sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper on both sides and grill it, undisturbed on one side for 4 to 5 minutes before turning it to the other side. If you want it well done, just cover the steak when you turn it for a couple of minutes, before you remove it from the fire. In the mean time, prepare the sauce: in a non stick skillet let the milk simmer on medium high heat until it thickens. It will take about 30 minutes, but it will thicken without adding any fat or flour. Just stir it with a spatula every now and then to make sure that it wouldn't form a crust in one part of the skillet. Add the Parmigiano and stir to melt, then add the first cup of Gorgonzola and stir until it's almost all melted. Remove the sauce from heat. Transfer about 3 ladles to a sauce boat and add the remaining Gorgonzola while still hot to help it melt a little. We need to   keep some visible chunks of cheese. Plate the steak and drizzle some sauce over it. 

ROTINI WITH SPINACH AND GORGONZOLA SAUCE

                                              

I also thought of a nice side dish that I always have at the same restaurant: creamed spinach. I know for a fact that my husband would never go for it, so I thought of sweetening the deal, and at the same time finish up some rotini I have left in the pantry. I offered him pasta with creamed spinach. He was not convinced, but the pasta was delicious. You'll need:

1 box of frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained

2 garlic cloves finely chopped, or 1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp oil

Salt and pepper

About 3 cups pasta, rotini, shells, or bow ties

While the pasta is cooking in salted water, start cooking the spinach: in a non stick skillet cook the garlic in oil for a few seconds, add the spinach, sprinkle some salt and pepper and stir to heat it through. Don't add too much salt, remember the sauce has cheese. When the spinach is cooked, about 4 to 5 minutes, add it to the skillet with the remaining Gorgonzola sauce from the previous dish. Stir to combine and heat through. Add the cooked pasta and toss. Serve. How easy was that?

If you have some extra sauce leftover from the steak, drizzle some over the pasta.