Veggie Tofu Stack

Veggie Tofu Stack... Last night was one of those Thursdays where I wanted to use up all of the perishables I had left in my fridge. I ended up creating a stacked meal, full of steamed veggies, tender lentils  baked tofu, and sauteed onions. Random? Yes. Healthful? Yes. Dahlicious? Yes. Not sure if I will ever recreate this particular dish, as it really centered around the things I had left to use up, but in a pinch I always like feeling good about the meals I create from odd tid bits.

What I had:
1 yellow onion
A few cloves of garlic
1 red bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
Asparagus
Tofu
TJ's pre-cooked lentils
Leftover puttanesa sauce

How To:

Tofu: Usually I chop tofu into small bite sized cubes and crisp up the sides with olive oil in a saute pan, but last night I decided to try a baking method. I cut the large block in half and let it sit wrapped in some paper towels for about 20 minutes to dry it out a bit. Then I let the tofu "filets" marinate in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and crushed dried oregano for another 20-30 minutes. Then in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Voila! Easy to make, easy to clean, easy to serve.

Tofu marinating

Onion: I was really in the mood for caramelized onions, so I took the low and slow approach. I sliced the onion into very thin half moons and sauteed them with a touch of salt, a liberal pour of olive oil, and 2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic. I put the onions and oil in the pan before it got hot, and then raised it to medium/high heat for just a few minutes. Then I brought the temp back to medium/low heat and continually stirred the onions for the next 30-40 minutes.

Slice into half moons

Low & Slow

Asparagus & Peppers: Super simple, I just cut them into bite sized pieces (~1.5 inches in length) and let them steam on the stove top. I figured I was getting plenty of olive oil in the onion so might as well go light with these veggies.

Gotta love colorful fresh veggies

Lentils: I've used them a million times, just heat and fluff and you've got a great starchy (yet healthful) base to your meal.

The Stacking:

Bed of lentils

Baked Tofu Filet

Caramelized Onions

Moat of steamed veggies

Optional sauce if you're in a saucy mood

The Stack

Happy Friday everyone - have a Dahlicious weekend!!!

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving... I know you all might be  musing over this title wondering, "Was yesterday really Canadian Thanksgiving??", "Is Victoria Canadian??", "Is Canadian Thanksgiving like REGULAR Thanksgiving??". The answer to the first two is NO. The answer is the third is YES.

I'd like to start by saying that Monday of this week was technically Canadian Thanksgiving, but due to the nature of the crowd that came together last night, Wednesday was a much more "do-able" night for the feast this week. To answer the second question, I am not in fact Canadian however my sister-in-law is and this party happened to be held by her younger sister (whom we have decided to refer to as also my sister-in-law..."my sister-in-law's sister" is just too much). Anywho, Whitney - the host- decided that in honor of her Canadian roots she would hold a get together to celebrate this day of saying thanks for Dahlicious fall food, for her friends and family in Chicago. Not to mention we learned a bit about some of her family's traditions around the holiday season (I know, I know, most of us wouldn't consider it the "holiday season" yet, but I ate turkey and stuffing last night so I'm gonna go ahead and say that the "season" has commenced.)

Whitney is a nurse, so luckily she had the entire day off yesterday to slave away in the kitchen making a long list of tasty classics with her own family's spin - and I must admit I am in awe of her skills and her effortless attitude of being calm and collected!

On the Menu:

• The Bird - which weighed something like 23lbs.. this was for 9 people and was MORE than enough. Everyone was sent home with leftovers.
• Stuffing - this is a family recipe but the "secret ingredients" here are sausage and butter
• Mashed Potatoes - also a fam recipe but the trick to it's creaminess is LOTS of cream cheese
• Green Beans - simple and buttery
• Waldorf Salad - a Dahlicious rendition with apples, celery, grapes, bananas and raisins 
• Yorkshire Pudding - I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of this but just imagine a popover.. and if you've never had a popover then imagine the most incredibly buttery, fluffy, heavenly pastry you've ever experienced (oh and go try a popover)
• Pumpkin Cheesecake - at Thanksgiving I am more of a pecan pie girl because I often think that punkin pie (yes that's how I prefer to say and spell it, just let it be) is too pungent, so this was right up my alley. All the goodness of that punkin flavor without the intensity - not to mention an insanely Dahlicious crust.

I will be putting up some of these recipe's in separate posts for easier organizing/sorting! So be on the lookout in case you're interested in adding some new & improved twists to your holiday meals!

The Main Event - Lots of juicy dark meat on that guy!... and white too if you're one of those people...

Penny's Sausage Stuffing

Waldorf Salad

These aren't Whitney's (theyre from google) but you get the idea of what Yorkshire Pudding is

Cranberry Sauce

Buttery Green beans

Cream Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

Could this plate be any cuter or more Dahlish???

Punkin Cheesecake Heaven

It was really fun to get together with extended family (Whitney and her boyfriend Ryan) and their friends/family here in Chicago. Still considering myself new to the Windy City I sure appreciate these dinner parties where I get to meet new crowds. You start to realize that when you get older and continue migrating your life from city to city that you end up with a hodge podge of friends, which is just the way I like it! Not to mention, as a food lover (perhaps obsessor) I can definitely say that partaking in eating events such as last night is a joy for me and my belly! Thanks Whitney for a Dahlicious night!

Italian Broiled Chicken Breast & Saucy Veggies

Italian Broiled Chicken Breast & Saucy Veggies... "That's blasphemy!!" 'What else is there to eat???". These were the text message responses from my grandma last night after telling her what I made for dinner and prefacing the recipe with something along the lines of "I don't usually like chicken breasts...".

You see, I've never been a fan of chicken breasts, with all that dry white meat and no skin or bone - how boring. So over the course of my almost 24 years on this Earth I have come to loath plain grilled chicken breasts, despite how easy of a "go to" they might be, or how low in calorie compared to other protein options we have... I just can't get into them. I do however like dark meat, I love legs and thighs, and I do appreciate a nicely roasted breast if its still on the bone and I can crisp up the skin. Yep, I'm OK with roast chicken, but the problem is it takes a while (see how I've perfected the temp & timing in my other post about roasting chicken). So lucky for me, a girlfriend of mine recently told me about a technique she used and I can now say that I've tried it twice and am ready to share the tip: Use the broiler!!

On the Menu:
Marinated Broiled Chicken Breasts with sauteed broccolini & spaghetti squash with TJ's Puttanesca Sauce

The Chicken:
One of  my college roommates had a staple meal she made for her and her boyfriend that I ended up adopting myself. I have to say that I haven't made it in some time, but it's one of those dishes I'd never experienced growing up but is surprisingly easy and totally Dahlicious in a pinch. It might sound funny but bear with me... she would saute sliced chicken with chopped onions, peppers, & broccoli then add a bottle (or most of a bottle) of zesty Italian dressing (Kraft, Wishbone, etc) then let it all simmer and reduce and serve over rice or pasta. SO I decided to use the flavor profile of the dish in a new way - as a marinade! I know, not the most inventive thing in the world, salad dressing as marinade, but I hadn't done it in a while and I was quite pleased that it popped in my head.

So I marinated the chicken breasts in the Italian dressing for about an hour, then put them on a baking sheet and added a little salt and pepper to both sides, and a drizzle of olive oil. I had the oven on Broil and I put the chicken on the top rack for approximately 8 minutes on each side. So in 16 minutes total I had these two chicken breasts that were evenly cooked throughout and extremely moist! (The other time that I tried this broiling technique I marinated the breasts in olive oil, grainy mustard and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce which created a nice little crust).

The chicken won't be crispy on the outside the way it would be if it was roasted with skin on, but again it is evenly cooked and total moist and tender. Now my girlfriend who suggested the technique said she broiled for 7 minutes on each side, and the first time I did it it took about 9 minutes on each side. I'd suggest going with 8 on the first side, then try 6 on the second side - pull it out and cut into it to judge if it needs another minute or so.

Zesty Italian

Let it marinate

Pop in the oven on Broil!

The Veggies:

All I did was give the broccolini a quick saute in olive oil and salt and pepper, then a dash of water and a lid at the end to let it steam through.

I had an extra spaghetti squash leftover from last week (Bolognese & Spaghetti Squash) and seeing as I am trying to be low carb this week (which will go out the window tonight when we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with a group in Chi) I figured I'd just use this as my pasta fake out  So I used the same technique of cutting the squash in half long ways, drizzling with olive oil and pepper, then turning upside down and roasting in the oven at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. I added a heaping spoonful of TJ's tangy olivey Puttanesca sauce and voila! Dinner was served.

Bare Skins after Roasting and shredding

The "Spaghetti" which I kept warm on low heat in a pot on the stove

Bon Appetit!

Side Note: While the chicken was marinating and the squash was roasting I whipped up the lunch I brought to work today.. Kale salad with avocado, beets and baby heirloom tomatoes - look at those colors!!

Who doesn't love colorful food??

Have a Dahlicious Wednesday!

Turkey Bolognese & Spaghetti Squash

Turkey Bolognese & Spaghetti Squash... Bolognese was a favorite of mine growing up, and this slightly healthier twist on my mom's classic has already been featured on Dahlicious. The one I made last night was pretty similar to the one I wrote about before, this time though I unfortunately didn't have any red wine on hand and used a bit more tomato paste than last time. Also, in the previous post I used a can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes, this time I had a can of San Marzano whole tomatoes so I did the crushing/cutting of those myself before adding to the sauteing turkey/onion/garlic mixture.

The Bolognese:
As I mentioned this is a sauce I've featured on the blog before. There are many variations depending on what you have but this time I used..
1 Large yellow onion
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 lb ground turkey
1 28oz can whole San Marzano tomatoes (gave those a crush/chop and used all the juicy sauce as well)
A few large tablespoons of tomato paste (leftover from the bit I used in my Creole Shrimp dish Sunday)
Salt, pepper, crushed dried oregano, crushed dried basil, a pinch of sugar, bay leaves

It's pretty simple just give the onions, garlic and turkey a good saute in the seasonings until fully cooked and slightly browned. Add the tomato paste & San Marzanos (red wine if you've got it) and more seasoning to taste. Toss in the bay leaves and let it simmer lightly for as long as you've got - I'd say at least 30-45 min for flavors to develop.

The Spaghetti Squash:
This is something my mom often made, and something I have been interested in making on my own for some time. I have had difficulty finding them in TJ's sometime's limited fresh produce department, but lately they've been in stock! So I grabbed two on Sunday hoping to put them to use this week. My mom usually boils/steams them whole, but I read a tip online that looked interesting and perhaps would keep the squash from becoming too watery as it often does.

1) Cut the stem off - this will make it easier to accomplish step 2
2) Cut the squash long ways - I was surprised at how hard the raw squash was so this took a bit of strength
3) Scoop out the gunky seedy center - very similar to what you might do with a pumpkin before carving
4) Drizzle the inside with olive oil, salt & pepper - or any seasonings you'd like but I'd keep it simple if you plan to serve it with a flavorful sauce
5) Place the halves face down on a cookie sheet - I think this must allow for the inside to steam naturally
6) Pop in the oven at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes
7) Test the tenderness with a fork when you think it's done - it will be soft yet still have some integrity, it should be easily pierced with a regular ole fork even from outside
8) Use a fork to scrap out the meaty center after letting it cool for 5-10 minutes.

Scoop out those seeds

Flip them the other way to cook!!!!

Scrape out the tender "spaghetti"

Serve with any sauce and enjoy! It is a great alternative to pasta because you get the texture without all of the empty carbs. Happy Wednesday everyone!

Lazy Pot Roast

Lazy Pot Roast... I hope by now you all know that this blog is about creating Dahlicious well rounded meals on regular ole weeknights with love and care and occasionally a little bit of work, but I also hope by now you see that I am all for cutting a few corners when I'm in a crunch or when I'm just not interested in the long version of a recipe. Last night was one of those corner-cutting nights. I happened to pick up TJ's Fully Cooked & Seasoned Traditional Pot Roast (it's found near the chicken sausages and the Mexican Style Carnitas in the refrigerated section) when I was shopping on Sunday, unsure of exactly what I'd do with it - just knowing that I like pot roast and I trust they'd do a good job of this since I love their carnitas version.

The package suggests just heating and serving, which you could absolutely do, but I figured I'd go ahead and make it just a tad bit snazzier - turning it into a proper one-bowl kind of meal.

On the Menu:
Lazy Pot Roast with Onions & Green Beans over Brown Rice

The Roast:
In a large saute pan over medium/high heat I tossed my chopped onion and chopped green beans (inch long pieces) in a little bit of olive oil salt and pepper, just until it caramelized a bit. Then I gave the pot roast (which comes in one large hunk) a chop - well it started off with me cutting a few pieces with a knife and quickly turned into more of a "hands on" shredding. I kept the pieces fairly large knowing they'd break down later. I threw all of the meat into the sauteing veggie mixture and let the pieces of pot roast get a little crispy. I added a splash of beef stock just to deglaze the pan and let it simmer for just a minute. I then transferred all of the contents of that pan into a Pyrex baking dish, poured a bit more of the beef stock over the entire dish (about halfway up the meat/veggies) covered it with foil and popped it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Once it was nice and hot and steamy, I removed the foil and let it go on the top rack for another 10-15 minutes just to get a nice crust on the top layer.

I took it out and let it sit for a minute while I got my brown rice steamed up, and served it in a bowl.

This meal was obviously hearty, but I must say that it was decently healthy too. Besides the obvious fact that red meat has more calories than say tuna or salmon might have, the only additions we had in the meal were the onion, the green beans, a little bit of beef stock, some olive oil, and a few carbs with the brown rice. I wouldn't suggest it as a light meal, but I would say that if you are in the mood to make something easy & hearty - yet not chalk full of butter or flour to create a thicker gravy, than this might be right up your alley!

Hope yall are having a Dahlicous week! Happy October!

Shrimp Creole & Brown Rice

Shrimp Creole & Brown Rice... I would like to start by saying that I got the inspiration for Sunday night's dinner from a blog follower! This young man was someone who I knew briefly in college. We are friends on Facebook and he recently contacted me to let me know how much he enjoys my blog posts and told me about some recipe's of mine that he has tried! After a bit of chit chatting he sent me a great looking recipe for his Grandmother's Shrimp Creole dish which gave me the idea to create my dinner last night. I veered a bit from his original recipe, due to ingredients I had on hand and those that I found at TJ's, but the idea of recreating this spicy southern classic is the same! The moral of the story is - thanks to everyone who follows! Please reach out and let me know if there are dishes you have tired or recipes you use that I could be inspired by for an upcoming post.

The Ingredients:

1 Yellow onion
1 Bell Pepper ( I used a red one - but you could use yellow, orange or green)
A few cloves of crushed garlic
A sprinkle of Cayenne
Small palm full of crushed dried oregano and crushed dried basil
A bay leaf or two if you've got them
A pinch of Sugar
1 Lemon's worth of lemon juice
1 Can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 large spoon full of tomato paste
Whole peeled shrimp
TJ's Smoked Andoullie Chicken Sausage
Salt & Pepper to taste
A tiny bit of butter at the end

How To:

Chop the onions and the bell pepper into small pieces, maybe dime sized. Saute them over medium/high heat in olive oil with the crushed garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, oregano, basil, and half of the lemon juice. Once that is starting to soften, add in 2 of the sausages also chopped up. I cut them in half long ways and then sliced the pieces into quarter inch thick half moon shapes. Let that saute together and add the pinch of sugar and the big spoon full of tomato paste. Tomato past is a great way to add a little sweetness to a sauce or saucy dish such as this, as well as acts as a bit of a thickening agent. Let that continue to saute for a few minutes and then add the can of diced/crushed tomatoes and a bay leaf or two if you have them on hand. You can let this simmer lightly on low heat with a lid for as long as you need. I let it go about an hour.

In a separate saute pan I cooked my shrimp in olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of salt and pepper until they were pink/golden on each side - just a couple minutes. Then dump the whole pan into the sausage tomato pan and give it a toss. Add a little bit of butter just to give it an even creamier finish and an extra added richness.

Voila! Serve over TJ's brown rice (freezer section, takes 3 minutes to steam up) and you've got yourself a southern inspired spicy shrimp dinner!

TJ's ingredients

Saute the veggies

Love their Chicken Sausages

Add the sausage and seasonings

Let it get nice and caramelized

Add the tomato paste & tomatoes

Add the bay leaves and let it simmer lightly

Saute the shrimp

Dump em in!

Enjoy!! ( I forgot a pic before I started chowing down!)