Delicious days: week 1

Delicious and simple

Sunday

Pasta

Quick polenta. Don't forget salt. Stir in smoked mozzarella at the end.
Roasted tomatoes -- little red tomatoes and chopped garlic, olive oil, salt. 425° until crinkled. Add chopped fresh basil.

Also made pesto. Chopped basil leaves tiny. Chopped garlic cloves. Mixed together with olive oil and salt. Next time might try mortar and pestle... 

I froze this in ice cube tray.

Monday

Chicken

chicken curry 

I planned to marinate chicken in tandoori spices, but decided to go with the simpler chicken curry recipe from NYTimes cooking app. I used a bit more curry powder than called for, also didn’t use tomatoes but added frozen chopped spinach instead. It’s good and worth jazzing up a bit, but next time I’ll: 

*marinate the chicken pieces in tandoori spices mixed with a cup of yogurt

*Sauté some garlic with the onions. 

* cook the chicken BEFORE adding  coconut milk

*add some other vegetables

*top with herbs, as suggested. 

Good with brown rice 

Tuesday 

kale

Surprise! this was delicious. But I like kale. I almost thought it would be my entire dinner, but then I fried a little sliced chicken sausage and leftover polenta in my iron skillet. That was enough.

Kale
Heat up 1/4 C. olive oil in hot skillet. Add 3 cloves garlic. Cook one minute or until light brown. Add kale, ribs removed and coarsely chopped, and chicken broth. Cook. Stir in red wine vinegar. Salt to taste. Cook a little more, until not crisp.

Wednesday

Sopa de calabaza*

The hard part is peeling a pumpkin. But it's worth the trouble.  Soup alone wasn't quite enough, so I finished with chocolate and roasted almonds. I mean I ate them later, but writing this now makes me think almonds might be good with the soup. Chocolate too!

Place in soup pot:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds pie pumpkin, peeled and chopped
chopped up celery, carrot, and onion( I use the kind you buy pre-chopped at Trader Joe's)
A box or can of chopped tomatoes, either large or small -- depends on how tomato-y you want the soup
garlic, parsley, bay leaf,
chicken broth and water,  to make 5 cups
3 ounces white wine
1 T. honey
1 T. cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook until pumpkin is soft.
Mash or blend with immersion blender.
Add 1 cup heavy cream.

*based on a recipe from Goya products

Thursday

Eat out

Friday

Eat out

Saturday

Salmon

Thaw frozen salmon. (I used Sockeye.)
Rub with olive oil, seasoned salt, and pepper if you want. Put on parchment paper. Bake at 450° about 12 minutes per inch of thickness,
Recipe says make a sauce: Mix 3 T. olive oil with herbs to equal 1 T., and 1 T. lemon juice and some lemon zest. pour sauce n top of fish and tent it with foil and let it rest 5 minutes.
Also made brown rice (Trader Joe's frozen)
and salad of mixed greens with olive oil, vinegar and mustard.