boring and by the seat of my pants

Life is sort of unremarkable these days, which is remarkable.  After a busy summer, a big birthday, getting Corey home from Europe and back to school, getting Noah settled into a new school and Dylan back to the HS routine, and a huge work event I've been planning all summer behind me - life feels quite, well, boring.  I love it.

So you know that thing that happens when you have a ton of time to get ready and you find yourself late?  Like, you weren't hurrying and then suddenly you are totally behind? Happens to me all the time - I do much better with small windows.  Same thing with food lately. I have a small family to cook for and things are much calmer, and I've completely dropped the ball on planning.  So I've been cooking again but the meals have mostly been seat-of-my-pants variety.   Here's the evidence:

Dinner with no plan

Kitchen sink frittata

Heat up a skillet with olive oil.  Slice up some sausages (I had pre-cooked turkey sausage links on hand, for some reason) and cook them for ten minutes on med-high heat with some large-dice  potatoes and a chopped onion.  After ten minutes add some chopped red peppers.  After ten minutes add some spinach.   

 Add about 8 eggs, beaten with a little milk (1/8 cup?)

 

 Simmer on low-med heat, scraping up from bottom with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula every so often. 

 Serve with heated tortillas and tons of salsa.  Delicious, filling and ready to go in a half hour.


dinner with minimal plan 
I had a pork tenderloin defrosted but not marinated, and no plan when I got home at 5.  In my pantry I had some red potatoes and onions and in my fridge some baby carrots.  Here's how it went:

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with vegetables and potatoes.

 Wash and quarter about 2 lbs of red potatoes

Peel and quarter 2 -3 medium onions

Arrange them in a pan with a 1-1/4 lb pork tenderloin (rinsed and dried, fat trimmed)

Sprinkle the whole situation w a generous tsp kosher salt, tons of fresh ground pepper and  rosemary. 

I had some fresh rosemary in a pot on the patio.  If you don't have fresh, dried will do. I used about 2 tsp minced fresh, if it were dried I'd use 1tsp.  

Fresh garlic or garlic powder would be good to add, too.

Cook in a pre-heated 400 degree oven about 35 minutes, until meat registers 160.  Remove from oven and tent with foil (temp will continue to rise) - let rest about ten minutes.  Slice and serve.  YUM.

Dinner with a plan, vegetarian

Lastly, my sweet girl is home for fall break.  And she's a vegetarian, so last night I decided to tackle a veggie meal.  Man, was it good!   I didn't photograph all the steps, but here's the recipe (from CookieandKate) and the result. Note:  I substituted chopped kale for snow peas and it was awesome.

Crunchy Thai Peanut and Quinoa Salad

Salad

• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa 
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups shredded purple cabbage
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup thinly sliced snow peas or sugar snap peas (Jane's Note:  I couldn't find snow peas so substituted chopped kale and it was awesome.)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted and salted peanuts, for garnish

Peanut sauce

• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• Pinch of red pepper flakes

Instructions

1. Cook the quinoa: First, rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh colander under running water. In a medium-sized pot, combine the rinsed quinoa and 1 ½ cups water. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer the quinoa until it has absorbed all of the water. Remove the quinoa from heat, cover the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes. Uncover the pot and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set it aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, make the peanut sauce: Whisk together the peanut butter and tamari until smooth (if this is difficult, microwave the mixture for up to 30 seconds to loosen it up). Add the remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. If the mixture seems too thick to toss into the salad, whisk in a bit of water to loosen it up (I didn’t need to do this).
3. In a large serving bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, shredded cabbage, carrot, snow peas, cilantro and green onion. Toss to combine, then pour in the peanut sauce. Toss again until everything it lightly coated in sauce. Taste, and if it doesn’t taste quite amazing yet, add a pinch of salt and toss again. Divide into individual bowls and garnish with peanuts.
4. This salad keeps well, covered and refrigerated, for about 4 days. If you don’t want your chopped peanuts to get soggy, store them separately from the rest and garnish just before serving.