Recent Dinner Winners

Just popping in because I wanted to share some recipes that I think others would like.

First off, this Thai Kale Salad with Cashews from Minimalist Baker was awesome.

Who doesn’t love salty cashews in their face?  Mmmmm.  I subbed sesame oil for olive and nixed the sesame seeds and it was still awesome.

We all licked our plates.

I would never have thought to add green beans to a salad like this, but it was fantastic.

And the dressing!  YUM.  All cashew, all the time.

Definitely worth adding to the regular rotation.  Make this, you guys!

Next was a basil recipe, because the garden overfloweth.

I went to Ikea last month for no purpose other than getting out of the house and came home with two bags of meatballs – one veggie and one turkey.  I’d heard such good things about their meatballs, so I decided to give them a shot.

Full disclosure, I wasn’t thrilled that the meat wasn’t organic and wouldn’t buy it under normal circumstances, but I’m banking on the fact that the Swedes aren’t as shady with their meat as Americans are.  Is that the dumbest thing ever?  Probably.  Just being truthful.  I’m very all or none and it’s something I need to actively work on.  Organic is important to me, but at what point does the search for perfection become detrimental to your health instead?  I can get really worked up when a lettuce blend I want to buy isn’t organic and so then I don’t buy it, which results in me eating something worse that I didn’t even want and being unhappy about it.  So what should I do?  Buy the damn lettuce I want, right?  I think that’s the answer.  I don’t know.  So off track.

Meatballs!  The chicken ones are gluten free (the beef ones are not).  I haven’t tried the veggie ones yet, so stay tuned, but the hype over Ikea’s meatballs is with reason.

They were good – salty and savory little bites that are neutral enough to go with almost anything, whatever flavor direction you go with sauce and accompaniments.  P and V both devoured them.  I prepared them in the oven per the instructions.

Then served them with pasta, home-made pesto, and broiled tomatoes from the garden.

More love for my Brianna’s poppyseed dressing!  It’s not summer without a few of these in the pantry.  I have it on kale salads for lunch on a daily basis (still rocking the massive kale monsters for lunch with all the nuts and avocado possible).

So about the above salad creation….WHAT a beauty.

It had:
butter lettuce (2 packs of organic are now sold at our Costco for the price of one at WF – hooray!)
nectarines
avocado
roasted pepitas (broil/550 degrees F for a minute or so until they start popping)
raw white corn
and poppyseed dressing

No leftovers of that one AT ALL.  Not to be outdone, there was this dinner featuring nectarine as well…

This is from Kitchen Confidante (a new to me site).  I found it while searching for (duh) more ways to use up our nectarines.

Based on what we had in the pantry/fridge I made a couple of tweaks – I subbed farro for wheatberries and strawberries for cherries.

I added the goat cheese to our bowls afterwards so P would have a dairy free version.

Super good and very filling.  Definitely a favorite vegetarian dinner that we will be remaking often thanks to the abundance of nectarines in our backyard.  I shared the recipe with my family, and they all made it and liked it so MAKE THIS ONE FOR SURE.

This meal was cobbled together because I had planned on us going to market (and not cooking) that night but it was too hot…sooooooo I grabbed salmon from the freezer and quinoa from the pantry and then emptied every vegetable left in the fridge onto the cutting board to meet it’s fate in this side dish.

The sauce was a tamari ginger miso concoction that I wish I’d written down but that’s life.  Just a reminder that unplanned and seemingly thrown together dinners are often just as stellar as the thought-out planned meals.  Not sure if that’s depressing or impressive.

The above bowls were created from similar circumstances.  I don’t remember what happened, but whatever I’d been planning on making didn’t happen.  I think I hadn’t yet made it to the grocery store for the weekly haul.

So the tomatoes and green beans were from the garden, and then I just bulked them up with wild rice and “cheese” (leftover Kite Hill’s almond ricotta for me and P, parm for Kyle).  He also had shrimp on his (standard freezer item).

All you need for bowl magic is a grain, a green, and a protein.  🙂

Another thing I have in the freezer…home-made croutons!

Back in May (?) I brought challah baked French toast to a friend’s house for a baby shower.  But I was left with way too much challah to eat as is, so I cubed it, tossed it in olive oil and salt, and baked it in the oven.  Boom!  Croutons for days!  I separated them into a few different bags and froze them.  So on nights when I want to take a simple salad to the next level?  The answer: brioche croutons!!

This was a Caesar-esque salad, but to keep it veg but still hearty, I added roasted pecans.

It was so good.  A unique and filling way to enjoy Caesar salad.

That’s all I got.  Hope you make some of those!