Pesto Tofu Stir Fry

Pesto Tofu Stir Fry... As I think I have mentioned before, I consider any meal where the protein and veggies are in bite sized pieces all mixed together in a sauce over some sort of starch to be a "stir fry". In last night's case it was a pesto themed vegetarian stir fry. I can't say that it was particularly innovative or that it took any skill, but it was satisfying and healthful and there were plenty of leftovers to bring for lunch - what more could a girl need??

On the Menu:
Tofu, Onion, Asparagus Pesto Stir Fry over Balsamic Brown Rice

The Stir Fry:
Alls I did was chop up my onion and asparagus into bite sized pieces before sauteing for about 10 minutes on medium heat with a liberal pour of olive oil. Once the veggies were slightly caramelized I added a big spoonful of TJ's pesto. Side Note: My dad makes an insanely Dahlicious homemade pesto, and while I know it's easy unfortunately my food processor seems to have died and thus without a replacement yet I am confined to the jarred stuff - TJ's version is pretty good though. I gave the veggies and pesto a nice mix so that each little morsel was coated in the tangy sauce. In another pan I sauteed a ton of chopped tofu, also smaller bite sized pieces. Once they were slightly crisped on the outside I tossed them in with the veggies along with another spoonful of the pesto and gave the whole thing a toss. I let it sit on low heat for another 5 minutes while I fixed up my rice.

The Rice:

The same pre-cooked brown rice I always use. I love this stuff. Once it was steamed and ready to serve I simply put a little pile on my plate and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar. This added a night tartness and acidity to the rice, an extra layer of flavor if you will.

I covered the rice with a heaping portion of my tofu & veggies and dinner was served! Again I know this isn't my most exciting meal here on Dahlicious, but let's face it not every Tuesday night will include an extravagant meal. My goal here is to put out doable recipe's - some more complex than others. But the true nature of this blog is to inspire those of you just embarking on your journey into cooking, or for those of you who have already started on your way, to feel like most nights can be a "homemade meal" kind of night, and not always with a whole lot of hassle.

Happy Wednesday!

Healthy Teriyaki Chicken & Fried Brown Rice

Healthy Teriyaki Chicken & Fried Brown Rice... Trader Joe's Soyaki Teriyaki Sauce is a staple in my kitchen. I've got at least 3 bottles sitting around at any given time. It's lighter than your usual teriyaki sauce, not so thick and sweet. It's got a bit of a tang and its full of sesame seeds for texture. I just love it. My mom used it growing up, and I would say it is definitely a taste that reminds me of my childhood (as odd as that might sound). I had been thinking of doing a regular ole stir fry, but decided to change it up a bit. Instead of sauteing the chicken already sliced, I opted for a baking/broiling technique after marinating it in Soyaki. Instead of simply sauteing veggies in more of the sauce and serving OVER rice, I decided to saute the veggies in soy sauce and add scrambled egg & brown rice to create a sort of "fried rice". I've done a faux fried rice before on Dahlicious, but this one was different because this time I added egg. Which not only created a more realistic, restaurant style flavor & texture, but it added protein to a dish that otherwise was comprised mainly of veggies and carbs. I also stuck with brown rice, as I always do, and used just a few dashes of soy sauce and some fresh garlic to season the dish. Simple and healthful.

On the Menu:
Soyaki Marinated Chicken Breasts w/Veggie Fried Rice

The Chicken:
I marinated two chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag with plenty of the soyaki sauce for about 30-45 minutes. Marinate longer if you can, I didn't decide on this meal until I was home from work so I only had a little bit of time before my stomach started growling undeniably. I set my oven to broil and let it get hot while the chicken marinated and while I chopped and started sauteing my veggies. I placed the breasts on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and popped them in the oven on the top rack for 8 minutes on each side.
I took the chicken out and let it rest for just a minute before slicing and serving. I am telling you I will never go back to the days before broiling my chicken breast. It is so insanely easy and keeps the chicken so moist inside, yet I can always count on it being fully cooked after the 8/9 minutes on each side. Love the technique!

Marinated Chicken Pre Broil

The Veggie Fried Rice:
I happen to be going out of town this weekend, and eating out tonight, so last night I was in need of using up all the veggies in my fridge. I ended up having TONS extra to bring as leftovers to work which I am excited to dig into when the clock strikes 12!

I started by dicing 1 yellow onion, 1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 bunch of broccolini, and a small bowl full of kale (I removed the ribs and shredded the big pieces by hand into bite size leaves). I sauteed in some olive oil over medium heat with 3 cloves of pressed garlic. Once the veggies became a little wilted and opaque I added in a handful of chopped mushrooms and a few dashes of soy sauce for flavor and to help deglaze just a bit. Once the veggies were cooked to my desired state, fully cooked but still with some integrity in the center because I like a little crunch in my fried rice veggies, I pushed the contents of the pan to the edges and created a hole in the center. I whisked 2 eggs in a bowl, just as you would with scrambled eggs and poured it in the hole. I used a fork to scramble the eggs right in the center of the veggies, and once the egg was forming nice scrambly chunks I started giving the whole pan a toss. A few more dashes of soy sauce along with the TJ's steamed brown rice, and voila!

Sauteing the crunchy veggies

Adding the kale

Making the egg hole

Scrambling the eggs

Adding the rice & soy sauce

Finished product

Dinner is served!

This was a super easy dish, but involved a lot of fresh ingredients. I felt like I got all the veggies and protein I could possibly pack into a meal, while keeping it Dahlicious, not to mention I've got lots of leftovers!

Weeknight Staple: Tuna & Veggies

Weeknight Staple: Tuna & Veggies.. I'd say at least once a week I make some sort of seared or broiled tuna with veggies. It's quick and healthy & it's definitely one of my go to's. This week my tuna/veggie night happened on Monday and it was even simpler than usual. I had a few things on hand that needed to be used up and so, my simple little meal was born.

On the Menu:
Lemon Broiled Tuna Steaks w/sauteed kale & mushrooms

The Tuna:
Last night I broiled the tuna, mostly because I wasn't in the mood to clean the grill pan (when I broil it I just place the tuna on aluminum foil which I use to cover a cookie sheet - so the clean up is simply throwing out the foil!). I drizzled olive oil over both sides of the tuna steaks, along with a few big squeezes of lemon as well as salt & pepper. I popped it in the oven on the top rack, and let it broil for 4 minutes on each side. This cooked my tuna almost all the way through, with a slightly pink/raw center. Cook for 5/6 minutes on each side if you want it well done, and 3 minutes on each side for a rare center. It was flavorful and healthy and easy as can be.

Kale & 'shrooms:
In a large saute pan I simply sauteed the mushrooms in garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper. I let that go on medium/low heat for a few minutes and then added my kale. I let it all saute on medium heat while my tuna was in the oven and voila! Dinner was ready in approximately 15 minutes. Super easy meal. Very little prep besides slicing the mushrooms and dressing the tuna.

Sorry there aren't more pics, but it was that simple!!!

Hope everyone had a Dahlicious Monday night dinner to start their week off right!

Spinach Egg Toast (Breakfast/Snack)

Spinach Egg Toast (Breakfast/Snack)... Last Friday I came home from work in the late afternoon and was feeling pretty hungry. I had eaten an early lunch and had plans for a late dinner. I had just enough time in between that I knew it would be necessary to whip up a snack with a few things in the fridge.

What I ended up making was of course Dahlicious and healthy and filling, but I realized it would also make a swell breakfast if you have a few minutes in the morning to make a warm little plate of eggs and veggies.

What I had:
Fresh spinach
Eggs
Whole Wheat Ezekiel Bread

How To:
1) Toast your bread
2) Saute a few handfuls of spinach in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.
3) Make two fried, scrambled, poached, sunny side up etc eggs
4) Stack the spinach on the toast and the eggs on top of that
5) Finish it off with a little more salt, pepper, or perhaps some shredded Parmesan cheese if you've got it on hand!

So Simple. So Dahlicious. So Filling. Pretty Healthy. Enjoy!

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!