Two Dinner Recipes for 1st 2012 Post!

Hey there long lost friends!

First of all, I apologize for my accidental 1 month+ hiatus.  I had all these great plans to write all about my Christmas baking (which I will soon!), but then the business of the holidays got away from me/I enjoyed being lazy.  And now that it’s been a few weeks since getting back into the swing of things, my curious fans (aka, the two people that read this blog) have been getting on my case to post something new.  So voila, TWO dinner recipes today since I’m so far behind:)

And now for my second apology… only the first recipe will have pictures:(  The second is a recipe I make on a somewhat consistent basis (once a quarter?) and I had made it a few months ago, taking pictures on my phone with the intent to post later.  And I made it again this past week knowing that I had taken pictures previously so I didn't take any new ones.  Too bad I didn’t realize they were phone pictures because, now for the good news, I got an iPhone two weeks ago!  And was inspired to write today and didn’t feel like making a trip to the Verizon store for pictures.  (It’s my birthday tomorrow… I’m enjoying my weekend!)

So now, onto the food.

Honestly, both of these dinners make excellent Sunday Night Suppers, but with a small amount of advance planning, are also quick enough to be included in my Weeknight Cooking Series (I’ll cite my tips for this in both recipe directions).

And without further ado…

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Ingredients

1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds eggplant

1 egg, beaten

½ cup bread crumbs

½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

Sauce Ingredients

½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

½ onion, peeled and minced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

½ teaspoon crushed oregano

½ teaspoon dried basil

Black pepper to taste

Topping Ingredients

1 8 ounce ball fresh mozzarella, sliced

1 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

1.      In a saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium-high heat until onions are soft and slightly brown.

2.      Add the crushed tomatoes, ½ to full can of tomato paste (depending on your taste), oregano, and basil.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.

3.      Meanwhile, preheat the broiler.  Slice eggplant crosswise into approximately 3/8 inch slices.  Dip the eggplant slices into the egg, then the bread crumbs.

4.      Lay the coated eggplant slices in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with half of the olive oil.

5.      Broil for a few minutes until golden brown (you’ll have to watch them).  Turn the slices over and drizzle with the other half of the olive oil.  Again, broil a few minutes until golden brown.

6.      When eggplant and sauce are both done, lay the eggplant in a 9 x 13 baking dish and cover with the sauce.  (If you’re doing this as a weeknight meal, you can follow the recipe up to this point the day before, cover with aluminum foil, and place in the refrigerator overnight. )

7.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

8.      Lay out the mozzarella slices on the casserole and sprinkle with Parmesan.

9.      Bake for 25-35 minutes until bubbly.  Finish it off with a few minutes under the broiler to brown the cheese.

Makes four very large pieces.  Sorry no pictures of the finished product:(  I made this the weeknight way so Jarrett was the one to finish it up.  And the one picture of my piece was taken on my old phone...

*Recipe adapted from The Weeknight Survival Cookbook by Dena Irwin, R.D.

Shrimp Curry

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

1 (2-inch-long) piece fresh ginger, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (preferably Madras)

1 to 2 fresh serrano chiles, halved lengthwise

1 cup water

1 (14-oz) can unsweetened coconut milk (full fat or low fat is fine)

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 lb large shrimp in shell (21 to 30 per lb)

Directions

*If you're making this as a weeknight meal, feel free to chop the onions, mince the ginger, and peel and devein the shrimp a day ahead!

1.      Saute onions and ginger with salt and sugar in the oil in a large, heavy skillet or sauté pan over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes.

2.      Stir in curry powder and chiles and cook, stirring frequently, 2 minutes.

3.      Stir in water, coconut milk, and lime juice and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.

4.      While sauce simmers, peel and devein shrimp. Add shrimp to sauce, season with salt and pepper, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve over jasmine or basmati rice.  (I make my rice following the package directions… use 1 cup uncooked rice to go along with this dish!)

Makes four servings.

* Original recipe can be located here.

And I promise I won’t wait another month until posting again!

Sunday Night Supper: Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

As I mentioned in my most recent post, I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K last weekend, and also volunteered as a running buddy at the DC Girls on the Run 5K.  So I had figured that I’d be all “runned out” by this weekend, right?  WRONG!

Soooo Jarrett and I went out to the bar with friends and had “party night” on Friday, so we then had “date night” on Saturday at Tsunami Sushi and Lounge in Logan Circle to use up one of my livingsocial deals (no blog post on Tsunami, I’d give it an “average”, nothing special).  We were very tame on Saturday night and I had been receiving peer pressure all week to do the Jingle All The Way 8K on Sunday morning.  It was only 5 miles and it was a beautiful, sunny morning (though cold) so I figured, “What the hell?” and registered on-site that morning.  And it was a quick, fun run:)

The Tulsa Hurry Canes! (yes, I'm aware I didn't go to Tulsa... but they all did... it's all good!)

Jenn and Me:)

I went to a fantastic brunch at Old Ebbitt Grill with the Hurry Canes afterwards (definitely get the Long Island Eggs if you go there, and the French Toast looked good if you want something sweet), then I headed home to shower and put on my sweats.

Anywho, the reason I’m telling you all this is because after a run, I usually just want to lounge around at home and cook.  So after we put up our sweet, gaudy Christmas tree, that is exactly what I did.

I love lights!  And ornaments!  And candy canes!  And yes, my wall and foam roller are both orange.

Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

4 to 6 sprigs sage leaves, cut into chiffonade, about 2 tablespoons

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Coarse salt and black pepper

1 pound penne rigate, cooked al dente

Romano or Parmigiano, for grating

Directions

1.      Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet or sauté pan over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it (if using sausage links, first remove sausage from casing). Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Drain fat from skillet and return pan to the stove.

2.      Add the remaining tablespoon oil, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.

3.      Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes.

4.      Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble.

5.      Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in cream. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste.

6.      Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

7.      Remove the bay leaf from sauce.  Return drained pasta to the pan and toss with the pumpkin sausage sauce over low heat for 1 minute.

8.   Garnish the pasta with lots of grated cheese.

*Original recipe may be located here.

Best enjoyed in the fall or winter with a glass of wine (as always) and Love Actually!

A Binge Post

Why did I title this entry, “A Binge Post”?  While I did not officially “binge” last weekend, there was much eating and cooking going on, and I felt a succinct title would be better than one that was a run-on sentence.  This is basically four posts mashed into one, and probably should have been four posts, but I had a busy week, so I’m taking the cluttered way out.  However, I’ve subtitled each one so you can pick and choose to read only the ones that interest you!

That said, on to the food…

Running for Chocolate

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early… well, dark and early… 6am to be exact… earlier than I wake up for work… to run the Hot Chocolate 15K at National Harbor.  (That’s 9.3 miles for all you non-math/physics majors out there.)  I was super excited because what could be better than two things I love, running and chocolate, combined into one!

Since I don’t want this post to be a complaint of how poorly this race was organized, if you haven’t heard about it already, you can read about what a disaster the Washington, DC Hot Chocolate 5K/15K was here.  I’ll just say that after picking up two friends, Sarah and Tarcy, we were on our way out of the city on 295 by 6:55 am and we didn’t get to the start line until about 7:45 am due to the traffic and parking issues.  To find out that the 8 am start time was delayed.  Cut to 9:15 am… the race finally starts!  Again, I don’t want to complain about the course/corrals/walkers, so I’ll just say that I spent most of the race zigzagging around the thousands of people and still never achieved my optimal pace, so I was not super happy with my time.  At least I had the chocolate to look forward to!

Good news about the chocolate:  It was Ghirardelli, so it was great!  We got fondue in a little nacho-type tray with half a banana, half an apple, a few marshmallows, a few pretzel stick and a rice krispie treat.  And hot chocolate!  (Sorry for the lack of pictures… my brain usually only has food and sitting on its mind after a run.)

Bad news about the chocolate:  They rationed it:(

So basically, food is what saved the day.

Restaurant Review:  Cuba Libre

Saturday night, Jarrett’s old boss, Dave, was in town (old as in former), so I had made reservations at a place that I thought he would enjoy.  Cuba Libre!  Due to the fact that I didn’t take pictures (I didn’t want Dave to think I was weirder than he already thinks I am), this will be a super quickie review of what we got and whether or not you should ever get it:)  Though I have eaten here before, it was awhile back so I’ll only focus on what we got this time.  And since we decided to just do appetizers/tapas all family-style on our table, I can’t comment on any of the entrees.

Cuba Libre

801 9^th Street NW

Washington, DC 20001

http://cubalibrerestaurant.com/i/washington-dc/

Tropical Red Sangria

Very average for sangria, but we got a pitcher so it definitely made sense if you know you’re all gonna want more than one drink.

Cuban bread and butter (on the house)

AMAZING!  I *may* have enjoyed this more than some of the dishes we ordered.  And since it’s their bread basket, you can eat as much as you want… for FREE! 

Tostones (Twice-fried crisp green plantains.  Garlic-mojo dipping sauce.)

Personally, I love tostones.  I have a Puerto-Rican Uncle Julio and growing up, my Auntie Sandy also made tostones for his birthday.  Maybe I only love hers…  I found Cuba Libre’s tostones to be too big (so they weren’t crispy enough) and the dipping sauce was not chock full of flavor.  I’d try something new next time.

Pato Ahumado (House-cured smoked duck, roasted corn salsa.  Huitlacoche vinaigrette.)

The boys wanted this to satisfy their meat cravings.  Personally, I could take it or leave it and I didn’t think the amount you got was worth the price.

El Chinito Cubano (Crispy “Cuban sandwich” spring rolls.  Pickled carrots, cabbage, and cilantro salad.  Chinese mustard sauce.)

Excluding the empanadas, this was my favorite item.  I like the concept as well as the execution.  We almost placed a second order; it tasted great!

Coctel de Camarones (Cuban style shrimp cocktail.  Latino coctel and avocado salsa.)

Also very tasty.  The accompaniments to the shrimpies were wonderful and you got 6 not-large-but-not-too-small shrimp.

Mama Amelia’s Empanadas (I got the Shrimp, creamy spinach, and pine nuts and the Hand-chopped chicken, corn, sweet peppers, and Jack cheese.)

These we all just ordered on our own, whatever we wanted.  Fantastic.  I ate my shrimp one first, so I only had a few bits of the chicken, but they were both great.  The dough was definitely what makes it.  The boys both also got the chicken, as well as the Pulled pork, roasted poblano, and charred tomatoes, and they raved about theirs, too:)

No dessert for us that night as the boys just finished my empanada and I was still on sugar-overload from all of the chocolate in the morning.

I’d eat here again… there’s still so much on the menu I need to try!

Sunday Night Supper:  Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup and Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Finally, a section where I’ll have pictures because I planned ahead/didn’t have post-run brain/wasn’t self-conscious!

Jarrett loves this tomato soup and since it’s starting to get cold outside, I thought it was a great idea.  It’s definitely a simple dinner… the grilled cheese takes no time to make at all, but the soup takes awhile and makes 8 cups so there’s plenty to eat throughout the week.  And you can easily whip up some more grilled cheese as needed or pair the soup with something else!

Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup

Ingredients

1 head garlic

½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling garlic

Salt and pepper

1 cup onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

8 cups stewed tomatoes, including juice

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove loose papery skins from garlic, leaving head intact.  Cut half an inch off the top of the garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake on center rack for 40 minutes until garlic has softened.  Allow to cool.

2.      In a large saucepan or dutch oven, heat ½ teaspoon olive oil.  Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

3.      Stir in tomatoes, water, and all seasonings.  Bring to a boil.

4.      Reduce heat and squeeze in roasted garlic.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

5.      Puree with a hand blender until mostly smooth.

*Original recipe may be found in The Eat-Clean Diet, by Tosca Reno.

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

Pam

Butter

Bread (for as many sandwiches as you want)

Shredded cheese (as much and whatever kind you like, my sous chef (Jarrett) and I used a mixture of Grafton Vermont Cheddar, Gruyere, and Emmenthaler)

Directions

1.      Over medium heat, prepare a grill pan placed over two burners (or just a skillet) with Pam.

2.      Butter both sides of all of the bread you intend to use and place in heated, prepared pan.

3.      When nice and brown and crispy, flip the half of the pieces of bread over, and put as much shredded cheese as you would like in each sandwich on each of the flipped pieces of bread.

4.      Take the unflipped pieces of bread and placed them, ungrilled side up, on the pieces of bread with cheese.

5.      When the bread touching the grill pan is nice and brown and crispy, flip the entire sandwich one last time, until the last side of bread is nice and brown and crispy.

6.      Serve with tomato soup:)

Note:  I like my sandwiches cut into triangles, but Jarrett did  the majority of the grilled cheese while I was making the soup... including the cutting...

Book Club Goodies:  White Chocolate Chip Dried Cherry Cookies

I am in two book clubs.  Yes, two.  If you combine both clubs’ books into one, I probably read them about 50% of the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I love reading… it mostly just depends on if my reading schedule lines up with the book clubs’ schedules.  I won’t read more than one book at a time, I won’t partially read a book, stop, read a second book, then go back to the first book, and when I finish a book, I need another one in queue to start reading right away.  I always purchase the book club books and there have been multiple occasions where I’ll read it like a year after we’ve discussed it.

But it’s all good because book club is about more than just reading books… it’s also about wine and female camaraderie and wine.  So this month, one of my book clubs had a cookie exchange!  It’s where you make/bring cookies, and so does everyone else and you take a few from everyone, so you all leave with multiple kinds of cookies!  The recipe below always makes me think of Christmas for some reason, and since this was December book club, it’s what I decided to make.

White Chocolate Chip Dried Cherry Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon orange liqueur

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup dried cherries

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2.      In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and liqueur. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cherries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.  (You should get about 24 cookies… I think this is the first time I actually correctly made the amount the original recipe called for!  But feel free to make them larger or smaller as you desire.)

Please excuse my messy kitchen:)

3.      Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

*Original recipe can be located here.

I swear I'll try to make my next few posts shorter!

Sunday Night Supper: Cioppino (Seafood Stew) and Pumpkin Granola

This Sunday was quite similar to last Sunday… did some yoga, did some organizing, but other than that, I was quite lazy:)  Since completing the marathon a few weeks ago, I’ve been somewhat (okay, very) excited to reclaim my weekends and not spend them recovering from running crazy long distances.  I’ll be honest… I go crazy if I don’t run, but after clocking 8 miles on Saturday, I realized how nice it was to not have to take a nap after.  And to not be too sore for yoga the next day.

But anywho, I took a few minutes to decide what I was really craving and I decided upon seafood (remember how much I love fish).  Seafood that would reheat well.  In a stew.  So normally, I would mix up which cookbooks I use… I rarely use the same one in the same month, let alone two weeks in a row, but when I saw this recipe in Ellie Krieger’s So Easy, I knew it was exactly what I wanted.

Cioppino (Seafood Stew)

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes (if you use no-salt-added, then also use ¾ teaspoon of salt when you add the pepper)
1 cup water (or fish stock)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ pound scallops
½ pound skinless halibut fillet, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1.      Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

2.      Add the garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, an additional 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste.

3.      Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.

4.      Add the tomatoes with their juices and the fish stock or water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and pepper. (This base may be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.)

5.      If necessary, when ready to serve, reheat the soup base on the stovetop, and bring to a boil. Add the shrimp, scallops, and halibut. Reduce the heat and simmer, until everything is just cooked, about 5 minutes.

 6.      Divide among 4 bowls (or 2 and refrigerate the leftovers) and garnish with the parsley.

Look, I even included nutritional info for once!

Nutritional Info Per Serving: Calories 440, Total Fat 8g (Sat Fat 1.5g, Mono Fat 3.5g, Poly Fat 2g), Protein 40g, Carb 36g, Fiber 4g, Cholesterol 125 mg, Sodium 1100 mg

*Original recipe can be located in Ellie Krieger’s So Easy.

Now the original recipe included a loaf of whole wheat Italian bread to be served with the stew.  But now’s as good of a time as any to mention how much I love garlic.  However, I’m not really a fan of garlic bread with my pasta as I feel it detracts from the main event.  But alongside seafood stew, that’s another story.  And I decided the bread needed to be dressed up a bit, so I quickly whipped a very quick, easy garlic bread.  Which can easily be customized to any flavor palate as one could easily throw in some oregano, goat cheese, etc.!

Simple Garlic Bread

Ingredients

1 loaf whole wheat Italian bakery bread

6 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup olive oil

Directions

1.      Preheat broiler.  Slice the bread and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Combine the garlic and olive oil, and brush onto the bread slices.

2.      Broil until the tops are just starting to brown, about 3-5 minutes.

Serving suggestion:)

Moving onto dessert… at dinner on Saturday, Sarah had told me how she’d been cooking a lot lately, and had just whipped up some pumpkin granola.  I had some pumpkin to use up, and have made my pumpkin muffins/pumpkin bread multiple times since the chili cook-off, so I thought, “ohhh, something new!” and decided I must make it.  But I also really wanted a dessert.  The original recipe recommended serving this granola with some milk or yogurt, so why not vanilla ice cream.  Which is exactly what I did:)

Pumpkin Granola

Ingredients

5 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (apparently I don’t have this in my spice cupboard, so I had to omit it)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup applesauce
¼ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used my trusty Madagascar Bourbon vanilla powder)
3/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt. Mix well.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract. (Since I used vanilla powder, I combined it with the dry ingredients.)  Whisk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. They will be moist. Evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and stir. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and stir in dried cherries and sunflower seeds. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

*Original recipe can be located here.

Like I said, this works great as a topping on vanilla ice cream as dessert, but as I’ve been munching on it a few times a day since Sunday, you can also eat it alone… or with milk or yogurt… or something untraditional we haven’t thought of yet!

But I think it's best on ice cream:)

Sunday Night Supper: Pork and Mango Stir-Fry

I’ve decided to start attempting a once-weekly post which will be themed “Sunday Night Supper”.  (Disclaimers:  1. Depending on my weekend plans and how they affect what I actually end up eating for Sunday dinner, this may not actually posted once-weekly.  Could be once-every-three-weekly… who knows?  2. Due to my schedule, this attempted once weekly post may not (scratch that… probably won’t) occur on Sundays.)

Okay, now that the disclaimers are out of the way, what is Sunday Night Supper?  I go through phases of executing this, but for the most part, for regular weeks, I like to make a big dinner on Sundays, and generally make something that requires much more time than I would prefer to spend making dinner during the week.  Sunday Night Suppers usually make 4-6 servings, so that Jarrett and I can eat as much as we want, and still have enough for 2-4 servings of leftovers (for either lunch or dinner) during the week.  On weekdays (while I do LOVE to cook), I generally don’t like to spend more than 20-25 minutes making dinner (my commute between DC and Rockville plus my workout schedule usually gets me home around 8pm every night, which is why the leftovers are nice sometimes).  So I use Sundays to try out recipes that are a bit more labor-intensive.  And I usually have some free time at some point during Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to peruse through my cookbooks for something interesting and go get the necessary ingredients.

For instance, this past Sunday, I woke up a *tad* hungover.  I feel that this is totally acceptable as number one, this was the first weekend since June that I was not training for a marathon, and number two, Daylight Savings ended on Saturday night.  These two things combined had “party” written all over it, so party we did.

Anywho, I had gotten all of my errands out of the way prior to Sunday, so this week was perfect for a Sunday Night Supper.  After lounging on the couch eating macaroni and cheese and watching She’s the Man, Jarrett and I went for a lovely 14 mile bike ride.  This is somewhat shorter than what we would normally do, but again, 1^st weekend post-marathon:  we hadn’t gone on a “real” bike ride since June and were both still somewhat sore.  So after spending the day relaxing and getting a little bit of our “sweat on”, it was time to start making Sunday Night Supper!

This Pork and Mango Stir-Fry is a “must” to put in into the rotation.  No “specialty” or leftover ingredients (aka hard to find or where I’m asking myself, “Okay… what do I do with the rest of this?”).  Also, it’s healthy and reheats well.  The majority of the time you spend making this recipe will be on cutting up the ingredients.  (Note:  I am particularly bad/slow at cutting things up… though things did improve when we got our Shun knives.)  But seriously, once everything was sliced and diced, it only took about 15 minutes to cook (not counting the brown rice which I obviously started ahead of time, set the timer, and forgot about until the timer went off).  Speaking of the brown rice, this is a good time to point out that I made 4 cups rather than 3, because I like carbs and feel like each serving should get a full cup.  Speaking of altering recipes, this is a good time to bring up that when I post recipes, to the best of my ability, I post what I did/used.  I substitute as I see fit for my tastes and/or what I have on hand and encourage you to do the same.  I do always include links/directions to the original recipe (but that’s mostly so that my ass doesn’t get sued if I become wildly famous from blogging).

Pork and Mango Stir-Fry

Ingredients

3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth

2 teaspoons cornstarch

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 pound lean pork tenderloin, thinly sliced

1 medium red onion, sliced

1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 pound snow peas (I had bought one package of “fancy” snow peas, so I don’t actually know how much I used… or what makes them “fancy”)

1/4 cup dry white wine (original recipe calls for Chinese cooking wine (Mirin) or dry sherry, but I couldn’t find either)

3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 1/4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 large firm but ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into chunks

4 cups cooked brown rice

Directions

1.      In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth and cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved.

2.      Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a wok or very large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until just cooked through, about 4 minutes.  Transfer the meat to a plate.

3.      Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in the same wok or skillet.  Add the onions, peppers, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes.

4.      Add the snow peas, cornstarch-broth mixture, wine or sherry, soy sauce, Chinese five-spice powder, and red pepper flakes and toss to combine.  Cook until the peas are crisp-tender and the sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes.

5.      Return the pork to the wok.  Add the mango and heat through, about 2 minutes more.  Serve over rice.

*Original Recipe from Ellie Krieger’s So Easy.

Tapioca Pudding

Go to store.  Purchase Kraft Minute Tapioca (unless you already have some in your pantry as I do).  If you’re reading this blog, you probably cook and therefore, should already have milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla in your fridge/pantry.  Follow stove-top directions on box.  (It’s like chocolate chip cookies; there’s no better recipe than the one printed on the bag of chocolate chips, so why mess with it.)

Lastly, Sunday Night Suppers are best consumed with a bottle of wine:)