Suzanne often posts about her meal plan for the week, with helpful links to recipes. I am generally not that organized, but we did have some yummy food last week, and I’m here to tell you about it. Sunday, Ted made a truly delicious Salade Nicoise (link is to a recipe I posted a few years ago, and the picture looks a lot more like Ted’s), with tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, fresh tuna, eggs, and green beans from the Farmers’ Market. I think the only things we had to buy at the grocery store were avocado and Sauvignon blanc, as we already had olives at home. I didn’t take a picture…

I had planned to make chicken soup for dinner the other night, but then Ted told me he had to work very late and wouldn’t be home. I decided to save the soup for the next night, and make pasta for Maya and myself. I had a few beautiful tomatoes from the farmers’ market, so I decided to make this pasta, which uses uncooked tomatoes. You combine the sauce ingredients early in the day, and let them sit on the counter until you are ready to eat, then you cook your pasta. (Observant readers may notice a phone in the pic above, with Mulder’s picture as my background. That’s my…

Diane had a post the other day that included some delicious sounding zucchini, so I thought I would give it a try. Zucchini is not my favorite vegetable (or fruit), unless it is deep friend and dipped in ranch dressing, but when the zucchini are small and it’s not overcooked, it can be really nice. So I decided to try her recipe, which we ate with chicken (Maya had leftover pasta). Roasted Zucchini Ingredients Directions Preheat oven to 375 F. This is my default roasting veggie temp, it works for me. Slice zucchini into rounds, then toss with remaining ingredients down to oregano. Roast for 10-15 minutes until almost tender.…

After I made Nicole’s tacos last week, I had leftover sweet potatoes and guacamole. This is not a bad problem to have, so I decided to figure out how I could best use the leftovers. Also, I thought maybe I would add some protein, and quinoa sounded like a good way to do that. I cobbled together a bowl with mostly the same items from the tacos, though I added some tomatoes because it is tomato season. Putting this into a recipe form is ridiculous, but perhaps it will trigger in my brain next time I want something quick, easy, healthy, and delicious. Ted is the biggest meat eater in…

This is not a beautiful picture, but it’s the picture I have. This is our go-to guacamole recipe nowadays, and when Maya comes home from a long day of work and finds me making this, her eyes light up. Also she always requests it for an appetizer at family parties. It’s lime foreword and delicious. We originally found the recipe buried in a fajita recipe, here, and because of that when I want to find the recipe in my binder, I have to look under beef. Stupid. Guacamole Ingredients Directions In a bowl, smash together the first 5 ingredients, then add salt to taste. The lime does a pretty good…

I was motivated by Birchie’s visit with Nicole to try to duplicate some enchiladas tacos that they had for dinner one night. So I sent Nicole an email and asked her for her recipe, and she kindly got back to me, but by the time I got her email I had already made them. I had also sent Birchie a text, and she got back to me with some tips as well. Turns out my recipe was pretty close to Nicole’s, but she spiced her black beans and I spiced my sweet potatoes. I keep my recipes on my blog mostly for me, but also, you should know how to…

Faced with leftover chicken in my fridge, and looking to have something besides chicken and green salad, I went in search of a recipe for chili that used cooked chicken. I found this recipe, and decided to give it a try. I had some Penzey’s fajita seasoning in my cupboard that I hadn’t tried yet, so I used that rather than the spice blend she details. I did not sauté my onions with salt, as there was already salt in the seasoning. I doubled the recipe, and used 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes, and 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis. I made a separate batch for…

When we were in Portland, my step-mom made this salad twice, and it goes fast because everyone loves it so much. I wrote about the dressing 15 years ago on a vacation recap, but I had forgotten the salad ingredients. What to call it? Julie’s Salad? But I’m Julie, and my step-mom is Julie, so it’s confusing. How about Avocado and Apple Salad with Golden Balsamic Dressing. Back in 2010 I couldn’t find golden balsamic vinegar, but now it’s available in some of our fancier stores. Julie grows her own lettuce and herbs in her garden. I don’t have a garden, so I buy a package of spring greens with…

This recipe popped up in my Facebook feed yesterday, and I decided to give it a try. I served it with bbq grilled chicken, fruit salad, and potato salad. Maya didn’t want bbq fake chicken, so she had a frozen pizza instead, but she had some of the salad and really enjoyed it. The avocados at the grocery store yesterday were either really overripe or barely ripe, and I went with barely ripe. My avocado didn’t break down and get glossy, but the overripe ones would have been black in the middle. I used lime juice instead of lemon or rice vinegar, and I probably could have been a bit…

This is the salmon dish we had for dinner one night last week, and again this week. The salmon was good, but basic, just salt and pepper and sauté in a pan with a little olive oil. The star of this dish is the lentils, which are mustardy and so good. The original recipe calls for a can of Puy lentils, but I used 1 cup of dried French green lentils (which stay a little firmer and have better flavor than regular brown lentils, I think). I cooked them until tender, and then drained them. Then I used them as though they were the canned type. Because I used so…

Last week I was thinking about making one of my favorite soups for dinner, Red Lentil Soup with Warm Spices, but Ted wasn’t feeling well and I thought that a nice chicken soup would be more comforting for him. I love Chicken and Dumplings, and the Pioneer Woman has an excellent recipe, but Ted tries to stay a bit more low carb, so I thought I would just take the recipe and modify it. The changes I made were: She uses a whole, cut up chicken. I used bone in chicken thighs, and removed the skin. She uses 1/2 cup of carrots, I used a lot more, probably 1 1/2…