Crabby Menus

The rapid onslaught of work doesn't seem like it's going to let up, so here's some meal planning, as well as a recipe for what we had for dinner tonight.

Monday: Eggs, pan sausage, toast
Tuesday: grilled shrimp, mushrooms, peppers, sweet potatoes
Wednesday: Pizza?
Thursday: Salmon w/dill, green beans, quinoa
Friday: baked bbq chicken breast, brown rice, brussels sprouts

Tonight we were invited to a Super Bowl party, but didn't attend because a) we're lazy and b) it's hard to resist temptation in the form of fried finger food and barrels of beer. My response to an appetizer-like food was crab stuffed mushrooms:

Healthy Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

~20 medium-sized mushroom caps, de-stemmed
1 t olive oil
1 T shallot, minced (I used the smaller lobe)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c panko
1/4 c greek yogurt (I used fat free fage)
1 T cream cheese, room temp
1 T grated parmesan
1.5 t dijon mustard
1 t Old Bay seasoning
1 t kosher salt
1 c cooked crab meat
1/4 c shredded mozzarella cheese
salt+pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Heat oil over medium heat in a small pan. add shallots and a pinch of kosher salt. cook until soft (a couple minutes if they're small enough). Lower heat and add in garlic. Cook for another minute or so and remove the pan from the heat. In a large mixing bowl, add cream cheese, greek yogurt, mustard, parmesan, Old Bay, 1 t kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper and mix until well combined. Add in panko and the crab and gently mix until combined. Take about a ping-pong ball sized amount of the mix and press until it's formed a ball that sort of sticks together and place in the mushroom cap. Repeat. sprinkle the entire batch with cheese (or place a little bit on each mushroom if you're anal, like me). Cook entire batch for ~20 minutes.

This really tastes like crab, which is good if you like crab and bad if you're using KrabMeat^TM. This isn't the typical crab stuffed mushrooms, it's been considerably healthied up, but when you're craving the real deal, it's good enough. I served it with a dipping sauce made of 1/4c fat free greek yogurt + dijon mustard + Old Bay with a pinch of salt.

I have better Colby in my refrigerator

We bought a batch of eggs that have blood in them. Definitely not appetizing and I'm not sure if they're fertilized. Either way, I won't touch them, but since Colby will eat anything, he's in charge of making sure they don't go to waste.

This morning he made scrambled eggs, as I made smoothies for us and he called me over to the pan, "Hey, look at the dead chick!"

I looked in horror until he told me that it was a dried apricot. That he put into the pan ON PURPOSE to freak me out.

I clearly have found a winner.

Late night menu

In the spirit of a quick update here's a menu based mostly on a $78 shopping "spree" at Central Market.

Tuesday: Mustard-dill salmon with couscous, steamed broccoli, and roasted brussels sprouts
Wednesday: chicken stir-fry w/broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms, brown rice
Thursday: French bread pizza with mushrooms, artichokes, and pepperoni
Friday: Grilled shrimp with sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts
Saturday: Chicken+black beans+ pepperoncini+ cheese, w/tortilla chips
Sunday: Turkey sandwich w/spinach+artichoke spread, fruit smoothie, and chicken noodle soup

mustard dill salmon for two

2 salmon filets
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 T dijon mustard
1 T honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh dill
1/4 t kosher salt
salt+pepper

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix together EVOO, mustard, honey, lemon juice, dill, and salt. Place salmon skin side down and sprinkle with salt+pepper and cover with sauce mixture. Bake for ~18 minutes.

We had this tonight and it was super quick and tasty... now onto more pressing issues like flux freezing in star-forming molecular clouds.

J D Salinger

J.D. Salinger died the other day. In his honor, I'm sharing the following link because the phonies at the New Yorker made it *seem* like they were giving free access to some of his old stories, at least briefly, but they were only doing that for subscribers to the New Yorker. Pricks.

The Uncollected Writings of Jerome David Salinger.

Excuses

I have so many half-written posts, that it's even more unreal than the tournament. This is partially because I've been on a diet and all the foods that I've been making for myself, while extremely edible, are rather repetitive and boring (e.g. baked chicken/salmon with brown rice/quinoa and spinach/broccoli/brussels sprouts). I have made a few interesting dishes, but mostly I've been crazy busy.

You see, this semester is the one in which I present a defense in order to pass into doctoral candidacy. That sounds super fancy, but it really amounts to a shitload of work and with my guilt complex, means that I'm pretty much done with blogging until I finish my thesis, which should be some time in May (I hope). I'm going to try to post sporadically, but it's definitely not going to be more than a few times between now and then because I won't have time to really cook or write (aside from my thesis).

Shred It.

I've been cooking a lot lately, but nothing that merits* recipes. I've been trying to be good about what I've been making and eating, and I have been, but that means that everything is sort of boring. Mostly it's baking a lot of chicken and salmon and eating salads. I've also started the 30 Day Shred, which is where Jillian Michaels sort of yells at you to do stuff for 20 minutes and you're supposed to lose weight. I guess I'll wait for 28 days to see whether or not I've been truly shredded. So far, I'm mostly sore.

I sort of carb-bombed myself tonight (which totally makes the 30 day shred worth it :-P) with this gem:

French bread pizza for the lazy

1/2 loaf crusty french bread, cut in half lengthwise
1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
oregano
salt+pepper
granulated garlic
red pepper flakes

Set oven to 350. This is actually just a token. You probably don't need to heat this with the way that I made it. Combine all ingredients (besides the bread) in a small sauce pan. Heat through and season to taste. Spread bread with a lot of sauce and the bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

So I just submitted a modified version of this recipe for the Aiming Low backburner recipe contest. The modified version includes things like "olive oil" and "cheese" for all those who believe that pizza deserves lactose. :)

*just because this doesn't *merit* a recipe doesn't mean that it won't get one

Making Amends...

So it's been awhile. A big howdy to the three readers that I have left (Chris, Kyle, LeeAnne...). I spent the 17-29 Dec in Michigan generally bumming around and eating (amazing) restaurant food with a break in the middle for beef wellington and green bean casserole on Christmas Eve. Granted, I was doing my usual tour of Michigan restaurants, but combined with the holidays and what was to come, I've gained about 4 pounds in the past month. Sadness.

While the nonstop pigging out in Michigan was fun, it was even more fun to come back to my new house to a kitchen that was screaming to be used. I obliged and threw together a New Year's Eve dinner with all of my aforementioned readers and Colby and made the following:

cheese plate with:
baked brie
comte
Saint Andre (something or other soft cheese)
gouda

charcuterie plate with:
prosciutto di parma
culatello (which is like the best part of the prosciutto, but my underdeveloped palette couldn't really tell the difference)
pepper encrusted cured sausage

hummus
sundried tomato dip
butternut squash soup
mini beef wellington (again, I know, but it's delicious)
Zingerman's mac'n'cheese
shrimp cocktail
crab cakes

And I think there could have been more, but we all ate (and drank) ourselves into oblivion that night. Usually home cooking is much healthier than eating in restaurants, but new years eve was definitely the exception, which leads me to my next announcement: I'm going on a diet to make up for the excess (weight) that came with the holidays.

I'm going to try to chronicle some of the healthy recipes that I'm making. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need all the motivation I can get... but one last "bad" recipe (that isn't even that bad) for the road:

Sundried tomato bread spread (Adapted from Gourmet)

1 c sundried tomatoes (if packed in oil, drained)
1/2 c walnuts, toasted
2 T water
1.5 T red wine vinegar
1/2 shallot lobe (~1 T)
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

pulse all ingredients in a food processor until it forms a paste. Add salt to taste.