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!)

Almond Crusted Salmon

Almond Crusted Salmon...I like to eat a lot of fish during the week, its healthy, its quick, just seems like a good idea - right? But sometimes it can get a bit monotonous and sometimes you need to add a new texture to the mix. Enter almonds.

I've had nut crusted fishes before, but last night I decided to attempt my own version - using whole unsalted almonds and salmon. I figured I'd just make it up as I go, as I often do, and that if it turned out well I'd share it, and if not no one would ever have to know that it was a bad combo. I will say it did turn out well and I am quite happy to share that it was simple and provided a nice crunch without using breadcrumbs and instead adding protein on top of your protein!

On The Menu:
Almond crusted salmon, sauteed broccolini, and whole wheat spaghetti w/sauteed onions & tomatoes

The Almond Crusted Salmon:
I happened to have a bag of unsalted whole almonds in my pantry, which I bought a little while back thinking I'd be good and eat them as a snack at work. As it turns out I hate unsalted whole almonds, so they've been sitting there just waiting to be put to use. I grabbed a big hand full of the almonds and put them in a zip lock bag, ensuring all of the air was squeezed out. I took a meat tenderizer, and using the small pokey side I gave it a good smackin. You could use the bottom of a pot, or you could toss them in a food process to get a good chop. My technique worked quite nicely so I'd recommend it if you've got some sort of tenderizer/mallet.

Once the almonds were half dust/half small crumbles I dumped them into a cream soup bowl (a flat plate would do) and added a liberal sprinkling of grill seasoning. You could add anything here. If I had any fresh herbs on hand they would have been chopped and added - but alls I had was the seasoning. Then I gave it a nice mix so that the salmon would get a good even coating. Before dredging the salmon in the almonds, I patted the it down with a paper towel (in the hopes it would make the nuts stick better) and I added a little salt & pepper to the fillets. Then the dredge. Sadly not much of the nut mixture adhered to the raw salmon so I ended up using a spoon to cake the rest of the nuts on top of the fillets. Once they were nicely covered I drizzled a bit of olive oil over the top and popped them in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

The Pasta:
This type of side dish has become a staple when I want a little carb and need to use some veggies in the fridge, yet want to keep it light. I sauteed one whole yellow onion (which I had sliced and cut in half) along with the rest of the little yellow tomatoes I had to use up - in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, crushed dried oregano, and crushed dried basil. Once the tomatoes were ready to squish up I did so and added just a tiny bit of butter. I let that continue melding together on low heat before adding my al dente whole wheat spaghetti.

The Broccolini:
Simple saute in olive oil, salt and pepper. A little steam action at the end and voila - flavorful greens!

Happy Friday to all - try this Dahlicious new fish recipe next week when you're ready for a little crunch!

Shrimp & Whole Wheat Spaghetti

Shrimp & Whole Wheat Spaghetti... It's Tuesday night, your cooking for one, it's late September so it's starting to get dark a little earlier now, and you're ready to make a quick but satisfying dinner. You're in the mood for a little carb but you know the weekend is just around the corner and you aren't interested in totally ruining your healthy streak for the week. You've got 5 whole peeled shrimp, a bunch of fresh broccoli, a hand full of baby yellow tomatoes, garlic, lemon, and green olive tapenade - so clearly turning that into a Dahlicious sauce over perfectly al dente whole wheat spaghetti comes to mind... clearly.

On the Menu:
Shrimp & Whole Wheat Spaghetti

How To:
Super Simple. Saute the broccoli and tomatoes with a crushed garlic in olive oil over medium/high heat. Once the broccoli starts to brown and the tomatoes are getting soft, add in your shrimp. I let my shrimp marinate in a bit of lemon juice for a few minutes before tossing it in the pan. Cook them for just a minute or two on each side until they're pink and a tiny golden. Add a big squeeze of lemon juice and a tad more olive oil. Let that saute for a bit until the tomatoes are soft enough that they're ready to be squished. Go on and smash them up, creating a bit of a sauce and add a spoonful of the tapenade. I happened to have a jar of this on hand but you could add capers or chopped olives, heck even whole kalamata olives if you have them! This was just an extra layer of flavor and texture for me. I love olives and that acidic punch they bring to a dish so I often toss them into a lot of my sauces/sautes (side note: they're great for spicing up plain green beans as well, when you're sauteing your greens just add a spoon full and they really brighten it up).

Once your pasta is just al dente, still a bit firm on the inside, scoop it out (its OK to keep a little bit of the starchy water - so don't feel like it must  be drained completely) and toss it in your shrimpy mixture. Give it a good toss and let it sit with the stove off for a minute or two to get the pasta fully coated in that Dahlicious goodness. Now the pics don't do it justice, but this dish was very flavorful (as you might assume from the garlic and tomatoes and tapenade and lemon) but it was still light. Plus with the broccoli and shrimp in there is was healthy too!

Hope yall are having a Dahlicious week!

Additional side note - I am a big promoter of TJ's but I will remind everyone that all of their nut butters have been recalled due to salmonella outbreaks. I happened to eat the Almond Butter with Flaxseeds for lunch on Monday - wish me luck!!

Tofu & Kale Stir Fry

Tofu & Kale Stir Fry... Monday was one of those nights where I immediately changed into comfy clothes upon getting home from work & with the rain that quickly ensued, I had no interest in making any great efforts at ANYTHING that night. When I have no interest in making any real effort, yet I still know I need to eat a healthy hearty meal, I generally turn to a stir fry. For this reason, I usually make sure that in my fridge I have ample veggies and some sort of protein that can be made into a stir fry (ie: tofu, chicken, etc). Additionally, a bottle or two of TJ's Soyaki is always on hand and so is a box of their already cooked, frozen brown rice.

On the Menu:
Tofu, Kale & Bell Pepper stir fry over Brown Rice

I wish there was a whole lot to describe here but there isn't. I sauteed my kale and bell peppers in a bit of oil until they were slightly wilted. At the same time I crisped up some hunks of tofu in a seperate pan. I then added a liberal pour of the Soyaki into the veggie pan and let the kale & peppers steam in the sauce. Once the tofu was golden brown I added it to the veggies and gave it a toss. I let it meld together on low heat for another 10 minutes and served it over hot brown rice.

Easy as can be, and Dahlicious to boot! Hopefully I can get more inspired to create NEW dishes soon, mostly I'm on repeat mode, plus eating healthy (fish & veggies) is on my to do list for now!

Seared Tuna & Warm Lentil Salad

Seared Tuna & Warm Lentil Salad... It's been another hectic two weeks! First there were a few nights where I was repeating some already documented Dahlicious meals (with slight variations based on what I had), then there were out of town guests (which meant eating out - Chicago style deep dish is a must when I have visitors), and of course the weekend lent itself to eggs benny brunches and a fun dinner party with lots of new friends!

Side note: For the dinner party I brought a side of roasted potatoes. Worked out so well, I just prepped them earlier in the afternoon and then put them in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes while I got ready for the night. I used yellow and red little potatoes, cut them into quarters, drizzled with olive oil, crushed garlic, salt & pepper. When they were finished I tossed them in a bunch of very finely chopped fresh parsley and voila!

So last night I finally had a chance to whip up a meal. With all that eating out I felt like I needed to try to be good this week, so I kicked it off with a healthy, yet hearty, Sunday dinner.

On the Menu:
Seared Tuna, sauteed garlic broccolini, warm lentil & avocado salad

The Tuna:
As I've done many times, I simply marinated the tuna steaks in olive oil, lemon juice, and a liberal sprinkling of lemon pepper on both sides for about 20 minutes in the fridge. I took them out just before cooking and threw them on my grill pan on high heat for about 2-3 minutes per side. A little longer if you like it cooked all the way through. Simple. Add some fresh lemon wedges on the plate for an additional squeeze before eating.

The Broccolini:
I love broccolini, its a great veggie. It has the small leafy/flowery bits that regular broccoli has, but somehow seems to absorb the flavor of the olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper better than your normal broccoli does. The only tip I have here is to sauté them on high heat for 5 or so minute until they're getting a little browned, then add just a splash of water and cover them on medium/low heat for another few minutes. Since they have a thicker stalk than say asparagus, this quick steaming helps to cook them all the way through.

The Warm Lentils:
I've made these Trader Joe's pre-cooked lentils many times before, however last night I spiced them up just a tad. I took a beautifully ripe avocado and cut it into bit sized chunks. I added a handful of cherry tomatoes cut in half, a bunch of chopped fresh parsley, 1 crushed garlic clove, a little drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon. A tiny salt & pepper to taste. I gave all of that a good toss in a large bowl, and once the lentils were finished (3 minutes in the microwave to get them nice and hot) I just folded them into the fresh ingredinets. If you wanted to serve this cold you could use the lentils right out of the refrigerated package. They're a great side, hot or cold to serve when you want a starch but you're looking for a healthy alternative!

This meal was healthy and filling AND let me tell you easy! It took all of 8-10 minutes for the broccolini, 5 minutes for the lentils (do your chopping while they're heating up for 3 minutes), and about 6 minutes for the tuna.

In all - if you've got 20 minutes, you can make a healthy and complete meal... just plan ahead! Hope yall had a Dahlicious Sunday. Keep checking back this week!