purplelara

gyro salad (with lamb or pork) and tzatziki

Hey, I promised recipes didn’t I? Ya, sorry. We’re fasting for…Iran? Or, um Dafur? Or something?

Actually, I’ve been in a bit of a food slump for the past few months.  I’m not sure if was the nice weather or what but we’ve been eating a lot of burgers, chicken breasts and salad.  Boring. Combined with the fact that I also hardly ever have time on the computer, I’ve fallen behind on the recipes.  Sorry.

The other day I picked up one of those recipe magazines that are always displayed at the grocery check out line – I’m not sure where they get off on charging $10 for these magazines, but this one had some great recipes in it and I wanted to get out of my slump so I bought it. When I got home, I flipped through it and was inspired to get cooking again.

The next day I was super excited to be trying a light Tandoori chicken recipe…until I read that I have to marinate the chicken for a day. So that’s for another night then.

Not to be deterred, I dragged out a couple of my older magazines and tried one that I hadn’t tackled yet, and it’s definitely a keeper.

I started this dinner with a recipe called “Gyro Chopped Salad with Lamb Chops” from a Cuisine at Home “Cuisine for two” magazine (yes, yes, the title is barf-worthy, but the recipes are fab) I bought a couple of years ago.  As usual, I changed it a bit.

• 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
• 1 cup cucumber, seeded, chopped (seeded? are you kidding me? who seeds cucumbers? let’s go with “chopped”)
• 2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
• 1 garlic clove
• Juice of half a lemon
• S&P to taste

• 4 cups romaine, chopped
• 1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled (or you know, more)
• 10 grape tomatoes
• 8 kalamata olives, pitted
• 4 peperoncini, chopped*

• 4 lamb or pork loins**

Spoon yogurt onto several layers of paper towel or cheesecloth. Press and compact, then set aside to drain (I left mine, draining the liquid several times, for about an hour).

In a food processor, zap the cucumber, 2 tablespoons feta, garlic and lemon juice until the cukes are minced.  Add drained yogurt and combine.  Add S&P to taste.

Assemble romaine, onion, feta, tomatoes, olives and peppers.  Top with tzatziki.

*Do you have any idea of what these are? Me neither, but google knows   everything , so here’s a picture.

**This recipe calls to season 4 lamb loin chops with salt, pepper and dried oregano. I bought pork loin chops, because they are cheaper and less fattening. Instead of just “seasoning” them, I marinated them for about 1/2 hour to an hour in some lemon juice, garlic, oregano and pepper.

(almost) bandera salad

Another rip off recipe, this one from Cactus Club.  I’d never had this salad at Cactus Club, but it’s Andrew’s favorite so I took a stab at it a while back using the description from their online menu.  I’ve since tried it at the restaurant, and while mine is not exactly the same, it’s just as delicious and since it runs about $15 at Cactus it’s obviously way cheaper to make it at home.  When we do make it at home I get to remind Andrew (after he has two helpings) that he just ate about $30 worth of salad, and also that he has to wear pants in a restaurant.

• Spring mix salad
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about one per person)
• Cajun seasoning
• Feta cheese to taste
• Approximately one cup cooked (and cooled) corn
• Approximately one cup chopped dates (do yourself a favor and make sure you buy the pitted ones)*
• A couple of handfuls of crunchy-munchy bits (as Andrew calls them, aka chow mein noodles – quite often found in the produce section, near the croutons, otherwise, try the Asian or International section)**

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with Cajun seasoning and throw on the BBQ.

The salad at Cactus is served with a Honey Lime Vinaigrette.  I have yet to make a reasonable facsimile from scratch, but I’ll keep trying.  Lately I have been wimping out and buying a Key Lime Vinaigrette from IGA and adding the juice of one fresh lime, and a squirt of honey. Mix with braun, etc.

I assemble the salad by dumping everything on the plate except the chicken and crunchy-munchy bits, which I add after I’ve added the dressing (I prefer not to drown out the flavor of the Cajun seasoning and the crunchy-munchies can get soggy).

This is a real stand-bye for us.  One meal doesn’t use up all of the feta, corn, dates or noodles so we often have these ingredients at home, which means I just have to pick up some lime, chicken and salad on the way home.  There’s really very little prep to do, so it all comes together really quickly and is really yummy.

*We bought some “real”, “fresh”, “a uthentic”, blah blah dates at an Iranian store one day and they were awful – mushy and too sticky. The ones found in the grocery store are better for this salad.

**We always laugh at the “International” section. When does a food qualify to move from the “International” sectio to the regular aisles? They have Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai and Japanese food (among others) in the International section at IGA, yet pasta and pasta sauces are in the regular section.  Italian isn’t International, but
Mexican is? I personally believe Mexico should be up for a promotion to the regular section, as I’ve been eating it for as long as I can remember.  Asian foods may not have been on the North American radar quite as long, so I think they need to put a little more time in the International section before they can be promoted.  Also I think too
much.

wasabi chicken burgers part 2

I came home with stuff to make Andrew’s favorite – Bandera salad (more on that tomorrow), but Nicole called and propositioned us (!!).  Her offer: she’d bring beer (and cheese) if I’d make my wasabi chicken burgers to go with the beer (and cheese) and the Canuck’s (last, as it turned out) game.

The only thing I have to add to my previous entry is that Nic brought asiago cheese and I do believe it is the perfect cheese for these burgers, so forget the cheddar, baby.

a night out

Hurray! I didn’t have to cook. We were invited to Nicole’s to eat, drink wine and watch the game.  She made us an amazing dinner of salmon with (I think?) a sour cream sauce, bocconcini salad and steamed new potatoes.  I’m reserving this space for her recipes, if she’ll give them to me, since Andrew said it was the best meal he’d had in AGES and AGES and AGES. Ahem.

steak with spinach salad

There’s not much to say about the steak, other than I rubbed some pre-made steak seasoning on it (a low-sodium version) and BBQ’d. Oh wait, there is one other thing. I really want a meat thermometer. HINT HINT ANYONE WHO IS READING THIS FOR WHOM I COOK DINNER FOR EVERY NIGHT HINT HINT.

This is the spinach salad recipe I usually follow, I no longer remember where I got it – perhaps I’ve cobbled it together from a few different ones:

• Bag of pre-washed spinach
• 3 or 4 hard boiled eggs
• 4 or 5 sliced mushrooms
• Almond slivers
• Two or three strips of bacon, chopped and cooked – obvs.

Dressing

• One tablespoon olive oil
• One garlic clove, smashed
• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
• Minced shallot (an onion will do if you don’t have shallots handy).

I always whip up my dressings with my Braun handheld – this dressing can go back in the fridge or you can warm it up right before serving, which is nice in the fall or winter.  I have on occasion omitted the bacon entirely (when I forget to buy it).  When I do, I have added a small plop of bacon grease in the dressing – sounds gross but it’s not.  It’s best if you are going with the warm dressing for this, as it needs to get melty.

I guess you could call this our low-carb dinner, not that we’re trying for that (if it’s not low-carb, don’t yell at me, I don’t know, I’m just making conversation).