Category Archives: Quick & Easy

Dinner Tonight: Oven-fried Pork Schnitzel

Posted on January 31, 2012 by kerry

Wow. I am still recovering from this weekend! I had a fun weekend with some wonderful ladies at a beach house in Plymouth — but I didn’t get enough sleep and I just don’t function without enough sleep.

The weekend was a girls’ weekend to send-off our good family friend Joanne who is leaving for two years to work and live in Greece. It’s a super exciting opportunity for her, but we’ll miss her a lot! Lucky for us, Joanne’s sister owns a fantastic beach house that she very recently renovated–and she invited us down to stay. The place was amazing as was the company. We did a lot of chatting, drinking, eating, watching movies, and playing games.

I wish I had more of these for breakfast tomorrow!

Whenever I get invited anywhere, I feel like I need to make something to bring with me. It’s the easiest way for me to say thank you. In this case, I decided I wanted to bake some bagels for breakfast. I used to be very nervous about making yeast bread, but I’ve come to realize the hardest thing about making bread is waiting for the dough to rise. This recipe from King Arthur flour is relatively quick — it only took about 1 1/2 hours to rise. And the bagels take just over 20 minutes to bake. These were great, chewy bagels. I know they came out well because my sister ate two — and she’s pretty picky! I think I’ll be making them again soon.

This week will be light on new recipes. We have lots of leftovers in our freezer and decided to take it easy this week and use those up.

Tonight, however, I did make this great pork dish. As I’ve written before, I really like oven frying as a healthy option for making yummy, crispy food without all of the oil. We had some frozen, boneless pork chops in the freezer and decided to make oven-fried pork schnitzel. It came out crispy and juicy — I can’t wait to make this again!

Oven-fried Pork Schnitzel

Yum!

4, 4 oz. boneless pork loin chops
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

One at a time, place each pork chop in between two layers of plastic wrap. Use a meat mallet to pound the pork chops so that they are about 1/4 inch thick.

Set up a breading station by combining the flour and spices in a shallow pan, the whisked eggs in another shallow pan, and the bread crumbs in a third shallow pan. I like to use my round cake pans.

Dip each piece of pork into the flour so it’s well coated on each side — shaking off the excess. Then dip into the egg mixture to cover each. Finally dip into the bread crumbs to cover each side. Place breaded pork onto a lightly oiled wire rack over a baking sheet.

1. Place pork chops between two layers of plastic wrap; 2. Use a meat mallet to pound out to 1/4 inch thick; 3. Bread; 4. Bake on a wire rack over a cookie sheet

Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Flip and bake for another 5 minutes.

Posted in Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Pork, Quick & Easy, Recipe | Leave a comment

Dinner Tonight: Red Lentil and Sausage Soup

Posted on January 25, 2012 by kerry

I’ve been really into the crock-pot recently. It’s so nice to come home and know that dinner is ready with just a little preparation the evening before. Plus, it’s one pot so it makes clean up a snap (for Sean since I rarely do dishes.)

We’ve also been trying to pare down our pantry and use ingredients we already have. In this case, we had a bunch of lentils and a bunch of potatoes, carrots, and kale from our Boston Organics boxes. And we recently stocked up on spices at Penzey’s so we had plenty of flavor agents. We only needed to purchase chicken stock, canned tomatoes, and sausage for this super healthy, filling, and tasty meal.

In my experience, you just never know how something will actually turn out in a crock-pot. It’s a bit of a roll of the dice (did I put in enough liquid? too much liquid? will everything disintegrate to mush? will the beans still be crunchy?) This recipe came out awesome! On a scale of 1-10, I gave it an 8 1/2; Sean gave it an 8. The lentils broke down during the cooking which made the consistency super creamy; the potato and carrot were perfectly tender without being mushy and the sausage kept its integrity and flavor. Coming home after our 2 mile walk with the dogs to a huge bowl of this soup made the end of the day a happy one.

Red Lentil and Sausage Soup
Serves 6-8

Comfort food that's *really* good for you!

1 medium onion, diced small
2 large carrots, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 small potatoes, diced small
1/2 lb. ground sweet Italian sausage.
1 bunch of kale, cleaned, stemmed, and chopped
2 cups dried red lentils
1, 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1, 28 oz. can water
1 quart chicken stock
2 tbsp. smoked Spanish paprika
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried thyme
Salt, to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Crushed red pepper, to taste

In a large crock-pot, combine the onion, carrots, garlic, lentils, potato, and kale. Make mini-meatballs out of the ground sausage. I was able to purchase bulk sausage, but if I couldn’t find that, I would remove the casing of sausage links and make that into meatballs. Add the meatballs to the crock-pot. Add the tomatoes, water, and chicken stock. Add the paprika, basil, and thyme. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Taste and add salt to your liking. Serve in large bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper.

Posted in Beans, Carrots, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Healthy, Kale, Main Dish, Meat, Potatoes, Potatoes, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Sausage, Soup, Vegetables | 1 Comment

Dinner Tonight: Cream of Mushroom Soup with Elbows

Posted on January 19, 2012 by kerry

Sean’s at a work outing tonight which means I’m on my own. I don’t have any problems cooking for myself, but when I thought about what I really wanted, it was clear: cream of mushroom soup with elbows, please.

While technically this dish is “cooking” — it’s not more than boiling some pasta and heating up that classic can of Campbell’s soup. You might think, “Really, Kerry? You can do better than that!” Sometimes, you just have to go with a classic. And, this dish…is a classic.

It’s classic dad food. It was one of the several dishes (including chili dogs and kielbasa) he’d throw together on nights when my mother wasn’t home. These dad classics were all foods she did not like, so when she was out, they were in.

To me, there’s something so comforting in a big bowl of cream of mushroom soup with elbows (bow ties are also acceptable.) It’s warm, creamy, and when topped with a hefty sprinkle of black pepper, nicely spicy. And it reminds me of being a kid.

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Elbows
Makes 1 very large bowl, but probably reasonable to split into 2 if you want to share

Thanks, Dad!

1 10 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 10 oz. can water
3 oz. elbow pasta (or bow ties), boiled and drained
Black pepper, to taste (I like lots!)

In a medium pot, stir together the soup and a can of water. Whisk together until combined. Bring to a boil. Toss with pasta. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Ladle into a bowl. Be happy.

Posted in Comfort Food, Cuisine, Main Dish, Pasta, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Side Dish, Soup, Starch, Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Dinner Tonight: Oven Baked Fish Tacos

Posted on January 17, 2012 by kerry

Today…was a day. All of my Monday meetings were pushed up a day along with all of my Tuesday meetings which meant time at my desk was scarce and I didn’t actually get to serious work until after 5:00. You’d think that leaving the office at 7:00 would mean no traffic. You’d think.

MEH!

Ok, now that I vented, there were three highlights of the day.

First — key lime pie. I made this last night for a meeting today and used some of my precious allotted calories on a slice. Heaven. I was almost transported to Key West for a millisecond.

Second, I got my new laptop speakers in the mail today. These have a great design — they clip on the back of your laptop screen and plug in through the USB port. Super space saving, there are no extra plugs, and they sound great! I’m now enjoying the soulful sounds of Joss Stone from our new media center while I’m typing this blog post. Maybe I’ll torture Sean with some Garth Brooks soon (guilty pleasure from my high school days! Go ahead. Mock away.)

Finally, we had fish tacos for dinner tonight. One of my absolute favorites and it allowed me to use up some leftovers I had from the salads we had on Saturday.

I make fish tacos A LOT. I decided to try an new way of cooking the fish. Normally I saute it with onions and peppers, but tonight I decided it would be quicker and easier to just put it all on a baking sheet and shove it in the oven. Since I used flounder which has thin fillets, it cooked up in 6 minutes! Dinner was ready in 15 minutes … and I was a much happier girl.

Oven Baked Fish Tacos
Makes 6 tacos — served 2 hungry adults

The best part of tacos is that you get to design your own!

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. flounder or tilapia fillets (these fish are nice and thin and will bake up super fast!)
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 recipe simple slaw (or leftover greens of your choice mixed with a simple vinaigrette)
Sour cream
Your favorite salsa
Cilantro, rinsed and pull the leaves off the stems
6 corn tortillas, warmed

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together the olive oil, chili powder, cumin, and salt.

Spread a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray or rub a thin layer of olive oil over the sheet. Place the fish on the baking sheet and use a pastry brush or spoon to spread the paste you just made over both sides of the fish.

Place the fish in the heated oven for about 6 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and flaky.

Serve on the tortillas with the slaw and avocado. Add sour cream, salsa, and cilantro to your taste.

Posted in Cabbage, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Mexican, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Vegetables | Leave a comment

This Week’s Lunch: Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans

Posted on January 16, 2012 by kerry

I’ve been making a lot of Mexican and Tex-Mex flavored dishes for lunches lately — burritos, enchiladas, chili — so this week, I decided it was probably time to change it up a bit. I was inspired by one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes: spicy string beans.

In this case, I added some chicken and made the dish sweet and spicy. It took forever to process the green beans, but otherwise it was quick to throw together. This dish hits all of the same flavors that I like when we order Chinese while remaining very healthy. Knowing this is in my lunch box will help getting back to work tomorrow after this long weekend much easier.

Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans
Makes 8 lunch portions

Lunch assembly line.

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. corn starch
24 oz. green beans, stems picked off and cut in half
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
24 oz. chicken breast, cut into medium cubes
8 cups white rice, cooked

In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, pineapple juice, soy sauce, water, garlic powder, ginger, crushed red pepper flakes and corn starch. Whisk together until well combined and the corn starch is mixed in without any lumps. Set the sauce aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a big handful of salt. Add the green beans and boil for 3 minutes. Drain into a colander filled with ice. Set aside.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the onion and saute until it gets soft and starts to brown. Add the chicken and saute for 5-7 minutes, stirring often so that all sides get browned. Add the green beans and the sauce (whisk it together one more time before adding to help redistribute the corn starch.) Stir to combine all of the ingredients.

Cook covered over medium high heat for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.

Serve over white rice.

Posted in Asian, Chicken, Cuisine, Green Beans, Main Dish, Meat, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Rice, Starch, Vegetables | 2 Comments

Dinner Tonight: Asian Chicken Salad

Posted on January 15, 2012 by kerry

What a great weekend. On Friday, I decided to bake some cupcakes — my friends on Facebook helped me choose between lime and coconut or lemon with raspberry icing. Lime and coconut won the Facebook vote. I was leaning that way anyway because I’m getting excited for our trip to St. Martin in March where I expect to drink lots and lots of limey, coconut-y rum drinks! I spent the rest of the night watching Pretty in Pink and Project Runway. Love lazy Fridays!

This is my dessert tonight!

On Saturday, we went to a belated holiday party where we took part in a Yankee swap — I lucked up and ended up with a great scarf from Ecolissa. Sean got the new hot game among our friends, Quelf. It’s a pretty silly party game. He broke it out at the party. I sat out and still had a great time just watching. It was HILARIOUS!

Today, we met up with Ana & Jesse for dim sum. They just got back from Brazil where they got engaged! It was great to see them for some congratulatory dumplings. It was Jesse’s first time going to dim sum. I hope he liked it so we can do it more often.

We spent the rest of the weekend working on a project that we’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time. We are creating a media library using an external media storage drive. Turns out it takes a long time to rip CDs into MP3s — after many hours, we’re still probably not even near half way done. But, it’s a good project to continue through the winter. I’m excited to finally have easy access to all of our music — and to be able to box up our CDs and move them to the basement so they aren’t taking up space.

Before we headed to the party on Saturday, I wanted to fill up on something that was filling and healthy. Like everyone else in the universe, I’m trying to eat healthier after the holidays. I didn’t want to get to the party and eat a bunch of junk. We had half a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I used that as inspiration to make this salad. It’s super fresh, flavorful, and filling. The salad base gets an extra punch from the cilantro and green onions mixed in.

This recipe makes a ton, so we had these for dinner last night and tonight. Plus we have leftover salad mix which we’ll use later in the week for something else (stay tuned!)

Asian Chicken Salad
Makes 6 HUGE Salads

GIANT, delicious salad.

Salad
1/2 medium head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 head romaine lettuce, thinly shredded
2 large carrots, cut julienne
5 green onions/scallions, chopped
1 medium bunch of cilantro, remove the bottom couple of inches of the stem and then roughly chop the bunch
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached, cooled, and shredded
1 14oz. package of fettuccine style rice noodles, cooked and cooled (found these at Whole Foods — you could really use any noodles you like.)
3/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted

Toss all of these ingredients together. If you are going to split this up over multiple meals, hold out the almonds and use them to garnish before each meal.

Dressing
6 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tsp. soy sauce
3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. granulated garlic/garlic powder
1 tsp. sesame oil

Whisk all of these ingredients in a bowl. Or put all of them in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and shake, shake, shake until everything is well combined (this makes for easy storage for leftovers!)

Posted in Asian, Cabbage, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Healthy, Lettuce, Main Dish, Meat, Pasta, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Starch, Vegetables | 1 Comment

Dinner Tonight: Tomato & Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

Posted on January 10, 2012 by kerry

I am in love with this unseasonably warm weather. I am not into winter sports and I’m very clumsy which makes icy sidewalks my nemesis all winter.

Sean and I have been taking advantage by taking lots and lots of walks instead of going to the gym which is fantastic this time of year when the gym gets super crowded.

Tonight we took the 2 mile loop around the neighborhood with Barley and it was so warm I had to stuff my gloves and hat in my pocket! I wonder if I could bribe Mother Nature with some cupcakes to keep this weather coming.

Barley is confused why we are stopping to take a picture.

After our walk, I whipped up this pasta. If you know me at all, you know I’m my own worst critic — so you know that this pasta is delicious when I tell you that after three bites I started to get sad knowing my bowl would be empty soon!

Tomato & Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

Tomato and Squash Pasta with Sauteed Shrimp

All that's left in this bowl now are my tears...

Salt
Pepper
1/2 lb. medium-to-large shrimp, cleaned and shells removed
2 tbsp. + 1 tsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. dried basil
1 large red pepper, diced medium
2 small summer squashes, diced medium
6 plum tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced medium
1/2 lb. dried spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained
Parmesan Cheese, to taste

Heat 1 tsp. of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper. Once the oil gets hot, saute the shrimp for 2-3 minutes until the shrimp get pink and just cooked through. Remove from heat and set aside in a bowl.

Add the rest of the olive oil and the butter to the saute pan. Heat over medium-high heat until the butter is almost melted. Add the garlic. Cook for about 2-minutes stirring to make sure that the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the red pepper, summer squash, red pepper flakes, and basil. Cook for 2-4 minutes until the squash and red pepper start to cook through stirring to distribute the heat. Add the tomatoes.

Cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. The tomatoes will start to break down creating a bit of a sauce and the summer squash will be cooked through. Toss in the spaghetti and stir to combine (I find stirring with tongs helps distribute all of the vegetables into the spaghetti.)

Serve in large bowls and top with the sauteed shrimp. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to taste.

Posted in Cuisine, Italian, Main Dish, Pasta, Peppers, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Squash, Starch, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Dinner Tonight: Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Posted on January 9, 2012 by kerry

Hey there! It’s my second post tonight — and my second post in over a year. I’m resolving to keep this blog up-to-date with lots of updates small and large. I hope I can keep this resolution!

So, how was your weekend? Mine was a nice mix of friends and productivity. On Saturday we went to a birthday tea party at Upstairs on the Square in Harvard Square. It was a great afternoon tea with lots of delicious bites. I think I drank my weight in tea! I also helped my mother with her new business website. Busy day!

Sunday was the first day in WEEKS that we didn’t have any plans. It was fantastic. Sean, Barley, and I went for a long walk. Sean and I planned our weekly menu, went to Penzey’s for a major spice shopping spree, and did our grocery shopping. Then I spent the evening cooking for the week and watching a few episodes of Psyche. There might have been a few glasses of wine in there, too.

Tonight, I made this honey mustard pork tenderloin. This was super easy, very quick, and really tasty. The whole thing was done in 25 minutes.

Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Smashed Carrots & Parsnips and Mac & Cheese

1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup honey mustard
1 pork tenderloin
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together the panko bread crumbs with the butter so that all of the bread crumbs are coated with butter. Transfer the bread crumbs into a shallow baking dish.

Season the pork tenderloin by sprinkling with salt and pepper. Then rub with the honey mustard so that the pork is evenly coated.

Dredge the pork into the bread crumbs so that the entire tenderloin is coated with bread crumbs.

Place the pork tenderloin on a pan lined with parchment or coated with cooking spray. Cook for about 20 minutes until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees and the bread crumbs are browned; let the pork rest for 5 minutes and then carve into slices for serving.

Posted in Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Pork, Quick & Easy, Recipe | Leave a comment

Kale and Butternut Squash

Posted on March 4, 2010 by kerry

One of the reasons I started getting Boston Organics delivery is because I wanted a reason to be creative. I figured that if I didn’t have a say about what I was getting each week, I’d need to create new, delicious dishes. This is one of them. It’s super simple and a great way to use up scraps of butternut squash — which was the starting point for this particular brainstorm. You need about 10-minutes to get this on the table and it’s super nutritious, too!

1 tbsp. olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, diced medium
1 tsp. chili powder
1 bunch kale, roughly chopped
salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick saute pan. Add the garlic and cook for a minute but don’t let brown or burn. Add the butternut squash and chili powder and cook, tossing or stirring frequently, for about 5-minutes until mostly tender.

Add the kale and cook until the kale is tender and cooked, stirring often. Add salt to taste.

Posted in Kale, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Side Dish, Squash, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

Crispy, Oven-fried Eggplant

Posted on September 2, 2009 by kerry

Recently, I had an eggplant hanging around and I had some leftover spaghetti sauce, so it made sense to make eggplant parmesan. I didn’t really want to take the time to fry it — plus, I really hate the mess that frying makes. And, while I do LOVE fried foods, I’m also trying to be more conscious of what I’m shoving into my face.

So, I decided to oven-fry my eggplant — and it came out DELICIOUS! It made for fantastic eggplant parm. And tonight, I decided to oven-fry another eggplant and stuff it into pitas with hummus and call it dinner.

Ok, ok, I know you’re wondering, “What the hell is oven-frying!?!” Basically, by oven-frying, I’m referring to breading a product and then cooking it in the oven at a super high heat so that it gets a nice, crispy texture that’s somewhat close to the texture you’d get when frying. I do this a lot with poultry, fish, and veggies — this is the first time I’ve tried it with eggplant.

I think it might actually be the best version of oven-frying I’ve tried. It was super crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. Aside from eggplant parm, and pita stuffing, I this eggplant would also be great on homemade pizza or just munching on as a snack.

Crispy, Oven-fried Eggplant

1 eggplant, cut into 1/4” rounds
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup egg beaters (or a few eggs, beaten)
1/2 – 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Spread the eggplant out over a cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with salt and wait 15-20 minutes. The salt will draw out water from the eggplant and you will see water start pooling up on top of the eggplant. After 15-20 minutes, use a paper towel to dry off the water — this will also remove some of the excess salt.

Set up a breading station — flour, eggs, and bread crumbs. Dip the eggplant into the flour and shake off the excess. You only need a thin layer of flour. Then dip into the egg and then the bread crumbs. Evenly coat the eggplant with breadcrumbs.

Place the breaded eggplant slices on a cookie sheet that you thinly coated with oil (or sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Flip the eggplant and bake for another 10 minutes. Eggplant should be brown and crispy.

Posted in Appetizer, Eggplant, Healthy, Main Dish, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 12 Comments