This is one of my favorite side dishes, and I especially like it with anything Mediterranean. I made this to go with lemon-oregano grilled lamb chops for dinner, and probably could have hoovered the entire thing myself. This is good warm or cold, so leftovers are very useful. This could also be a main dish for a vegetarian night if you paired with a salad, etc.
Zucchini Ribbons with Mint and Feta
This side paired very well with lamb chops we had for dinner – got the recipe from Cooking Light, though I sauteed the ribbons instead of using them raw. Would make again.
Slow Cooker Hungarian Chicken
Now that I’m juggling two horses after work on top of normal life and crazed studying, I’m suddenly becoming BFFs with our slow cooker. It’s so far allowing us to keep making healthy dinners even if neither one of us is home until after 7pm (and tired, who wants to cook after that?). This was a Cooking Light recipe that we liked, though it needed extra on all the seasoning – especially the salt and garlic. The only real change I made to the original (besides a heavier seasoning hand) was to use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of bone-in…that’s just what we had. We’re mostly doing the low carb thing, so we did not server over pasta and it was just fine with a vegetable side. The below is with my changes to up the seasoning.
Grilled Swordfish with Lime, Basil and Mint
Given it was Labor Day weekend, we wanted to spend some QT with the grill – which is kind of silly because it’s not as though it’s going to be 5 degrees now that “summer is over.” But it was a good plan, since there was some deliciousness going on! This was a nice swordfish recipe that I got from Giada De Laurentiis and substituted lime for lemon because I thought it would go well with the rest of the flavors, and modified to serve just two. There was a lot of sauce left, so I think you could cut back the oil even further – we threw a lot out. Definitely a winner. Very filling with corn on the cob for a side.
Scallion Mint Dressing
We really enjoyed this dressing made with scallion oil over a light steak salad – great lunch. The longer you let the scallion oil sit, the better this will be. Because the flavors are pretty strong, you really only need a little drizzle…it packs a punch.
Lamb with Spinach (Saag Gosht)
This comes from my Madhur Jaffrey Indian cookbook, which is one of my favorites, and I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten around to posting it before. It’s easy, if time consuming, and really excellent. I’ve yet to try one of Madhur’s recipes that I don’t love, but this is a particular favorite of ours. It can also be done with beef, but I do think it would lose something without the lamb. I served it with roasted curry cauliflower and broccoli and a flatbread.
Caribbean Reef Chicken
We were really happy with this tasty, easy baked chicken dish, which came from a recipe database called RecipeSource. I did halve the sugar in the recipe from 1/2 cup to a 1/4 cup, so the rub was more watery than intended. But lost no flavor and it stayed on the chicken without trouble. The sweet rub on the chicken paired really well with some spicy garlic roasted green beans as a side. It also made a lot – I used four split chicken breasts, but you could really use any chicken you liked – a whole cut up chicken would be great for leftovers.
Turkey Bruschetta Burger
Given our glut of fresh tomatoes (and, unfortunately, an early peak now that bot of our ‘mater plants have croaked!), this was an appealing recipe idea from Skinnytaste. The burger recipe is what really interested me, because I had not seen a turkey burger made with zucchini before! It actually made an excellent filler. I left out the breadcrumbs and everything held together well regardless. Very tasty! We would make this again. We served it over a bed of lettuce with more tomatoes.
No-Carb “Bread”
So “bread” is going out on a limb for these guys, but they *are* pretty good. As someone who craves bread, I don’t think that they make a great substitute, but they were good as replacement flatbread for dipping, etc., and we also thought that a very flavorful burger would do well with them. I think if you added some herbs or a little cheese, they make good snacks – they’re pretty tasty on their own. They also could make a decent crepe substitute with some berries, etc. This recipe is all over the interwebs, but I believe I got them from somewhere on All Recipes.
Salmon with Basil Cream Sauce
In my epic quest to use up all the basil we’re growing, I made a cream sauce and froze it a few weeks ago…so most of the recipe is that. But it was excellent over baked salmon filets. I served this some sauteed squash from our CSA, and a cucumber and white bean salad. The sauce was fantastic…glad we have more in the freezer. That said, if you make this, freeze in SMALL portions – a little goes a very long way. This would do well with chicken or roasted veggies as well.
Om nom nom! 