Last night...

...was PF Changs takeout :)

2 days behind

Monday:
Balsamic Tomato Pasta
**We used brown rice noodles from Trader Joes**
Ingredients
-2 cans (14 oz) chopped tomatoes
-4-8 pieces of drained sun dried tomato in olive oil, thinly sliced - use more or less to your liking
-2 garlic cloves
-3 T olive oil
-1 t sugar
-3 C Corkscrew pasta
-3 T Balsamic Vinegar
-Parmesan cheese

Directions
-In a large skillet, stir together the first five ingredients and simmer on low for 30 min (to remove some of the water from the tomatoes and infuse the flavors).
-While sauce is simmering, cook pasta in large pot of salted water until al dente.
-Drain pasta and return to pot.
-When 30 min simmering is done on sauce, add vinegar on Tbs at a time to taste.  Cook another 1-2 min.
-Pour sauce over drained pasta and toss.  Sprinkle with cheese
-Serve as a main dish or as a side to grilled chicken or other light meat dishes.  **I usually grill chicken, chop it up, and throw it in with the pasta.

Serves 6-8

BUT THE RECIPE THAT STOLE THE DINNER SHOW SITTING AS A SIDE TO THE PASTA:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-butternut-squash-recipe/index.html
This was the best, best, BEST butternut squash I have ever ate!  I seriously felt like I was eating a rich buttery cake with every bite.  It was sweet, soft, buttery, and SO delicious!  I can't wait to buy more squash so I can make it again!

Tuesday:
Herbed Cheese-Stuffed Salmon
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/seafood/herbed-cheese-stuffed-salmon/
**I used herbed goat cheese for the semi-soft cheese, and ground walnut meal (I ground walnuts in my food processor as fine as I could get them before they started turning into walnut butter) for the bread crumbs.

I made a side salad of: Romaine, chopped pears, cranberries, walnuts, and Trader Joe's Champagne Pear Vinaigrette.

And another side of cooked quinoa and mixed in cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, parsley, black beans, and a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar, and I placed chopped avocado on top.  The two side dishes didn't really go together, but it was what I had on hand, and they were both good in their own way :)

Tonight

We made blue cheese burgers... mmm!  I bought 80/20 ground beef - using beef with more fat makes the burgers tastier, and less dry... and animal fat is good for you!  We lathered them with blue cheese, a little wasabi mayo from Trader Joe's, a little bbq sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes.  I ended up using half a bun - the bottom part.  Just a little bread on a burger is SOOO good, but I don't want the fullness, or the badness of two buns, so I do one :)  Then we also made homemade garlic fries.  I cut up potatoes, tossed them with EVOO, smokey salt (from Trader Joe's), and minced garlic.  Dessert is  from my Primal Blueprint cookbook: Walnut Meal Brownies.  They're actually pretty good! Here's the recipe:

Walnut Meal Brownies
1 3/4 C walnut meal (purchased or ground in a food processor)
3/4 C cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t fine sea salt
2 lg eggs (room temperature)
1 C coconut milk (room temperature)
1/2 C honey or maple syrup
2 t vanilla 
1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil, gently melted (I'm out, so I used butter)
1/4 C chopped walnuts for topping (optional)... **and I didn't use**
Butter for greasing pan 

Instructions:
-Preheat oven to 350F.
-Butter a 13x9.
-In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients until well blended.  Set aside.
-In a small bowl, whisk eggs, coconut milk, honey or maple syrup.  Add melted coconut oil, and whisk until completely blended.
-Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and whisk well; be sure to scrape sides and bowl bottom so no pockets of dry ingredients remain.  Batter will be thinner consistency than conventional brownies.  Pour batter into prepared pans.
-If desired, sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of batter.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

Saturday dinner with friends

Yesterday some friends came over for dinner. We made one of our favorite recipes:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/brisket_baby/

With Caesar Salad with a new dressing:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/eggless-caesar-salad-recipe/index.html

And another delicious side of:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/green-beans-with-caramelized-onions-and-almonds-recipe/index.html

Stay tuned for tonight's dinner...

Friday dinner

So I attempted to make this tonight: http://www.stainlesssteelthumb.com/2011/01/ancho-rubbed-king-salmon-tacos.html but I didn't have as many of the ingredients as I thought I did, so I was about halfway there.  :)

Applesauce Cake - redone - pumpkin style

Another gluten free treat:

There's a recipe in the back of one of Madeline's books for Applesauce cake.  It sounded good, but pumpkin sounded even better and I had some pumpkin in the fridge I needed to use.  And of course, for now if Madeline is able to eat what I make, it has to be made with an alternative flour - gluten free.  I've only cooked with Almond meal so far.  It's pretty good.  It's not as fine as a flour.  I'd like to try cooking with another flour soon, like coconut flour.  I've got to practice making a gluten-free pumpkin pie soon!  Anyway, here's the recipe, and also how I adapted it...

Applesauce Cake (pumpkin cake)
1/2 C butter (mmm...!)
1 C sugar (I used about 3/4 C brown sugar.  You could use honey or maple syrup, or even molasses too)
2 eggs
1 1/4 C flour (I used 1 1/2 C almond meal)
1/2 t baking soda (almond meal doesn't rise like traditional flour does, so I upped this to just under 1 full teaspoon and I added just under a teaspoon of baking powder)
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t allspice (I ended up using 1/4 t ground ginger and 1/8 ground cloves)
1 C applesauce (again, I used pumpkin puree)
2/3 C raisins (I didn't add raisins.  I feel they ruin a perfectly good recipe :) )
*There is a Butter Frosting recipe that you use to frost the cake, but I didn't do that.

Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Add eggs and beat well.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Add to creamed mixture alternately with applesauce, beating after each addition and blending well.  **I actually rarely do two separate bowls.  I think it just takes too much time, so I just throw all the ingredients into one bowl and give it a good stir!**  Stir in raisins.  Pour batter into 9" greased tube pan.  (I used a pie dish)  Bake at 375F for 45 min or until browned.  **Almond meal seems to cook slower than regular flour so you have to give it more time.  I think it ended up taking just over an hour.

So - straight out of the oven, if you dish some up in a bowl, it hasn't set yet and seems more like bread pudding, and it actually tastes like delicious eggy, pumpkiny bread pudding.  After it's cooled, it takes a little bit more shape and actually holds together when you cut it, verses needing to scoop it when it's warm.  It still tastes like bread pudding, but it is slightly firmer.  Almond meals stays WAY more moist than flour, in fact, I almost feel like you need to let your final product be exposed to the air and breathe a little, otherwise, sometimes it can stay so moist that it gets mushy.

FOR TONIGHT...
We've got leftover twice baked potatoes, and left over spaghetti squash, and for a protein, I'm going to throw a rub I made a few months ago that's in our pantry (don't remember what's in it) on some chicken breasts and grill them.
The green and yellow is for the Ducks.  Even though I am not a huge football fan and actually would vote for the Beavers over the Ducks because of all my ties to OSU, I'll still be a supportive Oregonian and say "Go Ducks!"

Dinner's Done!

Here's tonight:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/twice-baked-potatoes/70094ef5-645b-4d9f-b6ae-af0d449ef38e

Not sure what to have on the side yet.

Oh ya, and when I make caesar salad, I most often use this recipe for the salad dressing:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/02/my-caesar-salad-part-1/

Bon Appetite!