Tag: food

Alternative Tuna Salad

From Photo Challenge

We frequently have that last minute conversation of “What is for dinner tonight?”. We had that last night. We almost ended up walking to our local sushi place (I dream about their seaweed salad). Ultimately, I came up with the idea of a tuna salad.
I basically took a can of tuna, leftover lentils and added in whatever seemed appropriate from what we had in the refrigerator. What we got was a tasty and quick main dish that we served with (leftover) steamed yams with sprinkled cinnamon.

Here is a (hopefully) complete list of ingredients:

  • 1 can white albacore tuna (or whatever tuna that has the lowest mercury levels)
  • 1 cup (approximately) cooked leftover plain lentils
  • 1 sliced roasted red pepper, organic from jar
  • 1/2 cup black olives
  • 1/2 key lime juice
  • some feta cheese

I didn’t add salt because the feta and olives add salty flavor but you may want to add pepper and other herb seasoning. Also, I would have added tomatoes to the salad if we had any in the house.

Coq au Vin

From Photo Challenge

I finally made that Coq au Vin I have been taking about for a while (and a reason why I bought that fancy pot with the rooster on the lid). The recipe from Williams Sonoma worked well. I only had to make a few substitutions. For one half of the chicken I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and for the other half I used the bone in thighs. I see button mushrooms in many french recipes but I can never find them in my grocery store so I substituted with baby bella mushrooms. In addition, I did not buy enough shallots for the recipe. Instead, I ended up adding colored boiler onions that we had at home. Finally, when it said skim the fat off the sauce, I didn’t need to – no visible fat could be found. It was very good, and even better as leftovers. It was a very successful cooking evening.

From Photo Challenge
From Photo Challenge
From Photo Challenge
From Photo Challenge

We ate it on the patio with a glass of Beaujolais mixed with sparkling water and a side of persimmons. Carlos ate his with rice and a side salad.

From Photo Challenge

Epcot Food and Wine 2011

It is that time of year again. Every fall, Epcot hosts a Food and Wine Festival. There are many food and alcohol events during that time but most are a separate admission price. We usually go once or twice a year – once as a large group and another time to sample the goodies we missed while hanging out with the group. Our group event was on a Saturday this year. We had another one of those perfect Florida weather days. It appears that everyone in Orlando decided to visit the park on this day. I was able to sample a couple of dishes. Some of them included Feijoada (Brazilian dish), beef skewer with chimmichurri, cheese fondue, and pumpkin mousse. My favorites from the first day included the Argentinean Skewer and the pumpkin mousse. We also enjoyed many beverages, many in France, on this day.

Cosmo Slush

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

Grand Marnier Slushie – tastes like a Cream Cycle

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

Lydia enjoyed the lobster claw

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

Carlos had the coq a vin

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

And you can’t go wrong with some Rosa Regale

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

At some point during the day, we got an infused tequila sampler. The jalapeno tequila was the best.

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

On the second visit, I was able to try a few more dishes.
I enjoyed the pork sliders in Hawaii (with Mai Tai).

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

Finally the Greek Cheese.

From Epcot2011v2.0 2011-10-30

Eithiopian Spicy Lentils

From Food

Around a week ago I decided to go on a slow carb diet. Basically for 6 days you eat beans, meat, and veggies and avoid dairy, breads, and grains. And on the 7th day, you cheat, you can eat anything you want. I needed to make large batches of things that I could eat throughout the week so I would not be tempted to fall off the wagon. I took out a recipe for Ethiopian Spiced Lentils that I used in the past and enjoyed. I made my own modifications below:

  • Used pretty much all the spices mentioned in the recipe but not necessarily in those amounts. I took the approach add seasoning, taste, add more seasoning.
  • I omitted the red wine vinegar (mostly because I thought at the time it wasn’t allowed on the diet – still not sure if it is)
  • I soaked the lentils over night before cooking. Technically you don’t have to soak lentils but it is always helpful to release gases in the beans/legumes.
  • I sauteed carrots along with the onions and garlic.
  • I always end up cooking things longer than recipes say. I tend to cook at slightly lower temperatures than they recommend. This was probably simmered an additional 5-10 minutes.
  • I ate the dish without rice.

What I would change about how I prepared this dish:

  • Either omit the peas altogether or cook them with the lentils so they are mushy. I am not a big fan of sweet peas. I would rather know that they are not even there.
  • I would cook the carrots with the lentils so they are also mushy. It was distracting to have crunchy carrots in what was essentially a mushy dish.
  • Make it slightly less spicy hot – a little less red pepper.

Veggie Lasagna

I made a fresh vegetable lasagna about a week or so ago.

From Lasangna

Ingredients:

  • Shredded Tomme Cheese (From a local Dairy)
  • Shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese
  • Shredded Mozzarella
  • Ricotta Cheese
  • Bay Leaves
  • Parsley
  • Basil
  • Oregano
  • Dash of spicy seasoning
  • Thyme
  • Olive oil
  • whole wheat Lasagna noodles
  • roasted red peppers
  • Muir Glen crushed plum tomatoes
  • eggplant
  • salt to taste
  • onion
  • garlic
  • green pepper
  • zucchini
  • glass of wine to drink while cooking

From Lasangna

From Lasangna

I chopped up all veggies and sauteed them in olive oil or canola oil (with the exception of the roasted red peppers that were already cooked). I added the canned tomatoes and spices to the sauteed veggies and let them all simmer together for about 30 minutes. I cooked the pasta according to package requirements (it recommended al dente for lasagna making). I oiled a glass pan and started a bottom layer of the cooked pasta. On each layer I put first ricotta, second pasta sauce mixture, third some chopped roasted red peppers, and fourth spread a layer of shredded cheddar, tomme, and mozzarella. At the very top, more shredded cheese was added to melt over the lasagna noodles. It was cooked in the oven at 350 for 30 -40 minutes (inspect for lightly browned at top). After it cooled, I cut the lasagna and placed it into multiple freezable containers. It is a great quick dinner for when you don’t have time to cook. We still have a few servings left in our freezer from this batch. It was yum yum good.

From Lasangna