We're weighing in on Fridays, and we're giving ourselves a deadline of the first day of spring: March 20. (Not that we can't keep losing after that, but that's the end of our competition.)
Here's where you come in. I'm looking for any and all great-tasting, healthy recipes you've got. I'll try them out and, with your permission, will post them here at Throwing Spoons. (Of course, before I start posting the good-for-you stuff, I'm going to have to share my cousin Matt's recipe for monkey bread. He brought some to the family party and it is seriously the best monkey bread I have ever had.) Watch for it in the next few days. I'll also post the long-overdue pizza crust and sauce recipes (I promise, Laura!).
2 spoons thrown:
My suggestion (which is hardly a recipe) would be to go with a simple pasta at least once a week. The kind where you saute a vege (broccoli or cauliflower or winter squash, for instance) with some garlic in olive oil, add a little broth and simmer it, then toss with the pasta that suits the size of the vege. Add a drizzle of oil at the end (black pepper or crushed red pepper add a lot of punch, and a bit of Parmigiano if you can justify it.
Another simple dish for me (which is fairly healthy) is a perfectly sauteed chicken breast. First, give it a slight pounding just to even it out and thin it slightly(we are not going for scallopini here), salt and pepper it, then dust it with either Wondra (that flour in the can) or rice flour (used for tempura). These types of flour make a paper-thin coating that acts like ball-bearings in a pan and requires less oil, and it results in very crisp and not at all heavy crust on the meat.
Get your pan hot, but not smoking hot, film it with oil and add the chicken- saute for about 4 minutes on each side, until golden and lovely. Take it off the heat, cover and let stand for a couple of minutes in which time it will finish cooking.
You can add garlic and herbs to the pan when you saute the chicken (watch them or they'll burn) or let the chicken rest on a plate and saute them after the fact, adding a bit of broth or wine and boiling it down into a pan sauce. Lemon, capers, olives, and all sorts of things (even some chopped tomatoes) can take the dish any number of ways. AND, if that isn't enough, this is the way I cook most of the fish I cook. That coating makes it so easy to turn the fish without breaking it, and it is so light that it never takes away from the taste of the meat.
Indian food is a good option as well. If you care to go vegetarian, you can make a meal of dal, rice, raitias and bread (just use the plain flat breads and cut back on the dishes that are ghee-based.
How about vegetarian burritos- that just occured to me, rice, stewed pinto beans, a nice chunky salsa, and not too much cheese. (Stewed pinto are an excellent all-pupose bean to work with- do some Googling on those).
Okay, now, I have to go cook dinner.
PS. The monkey bread above with the nuts and apples sounds a lot better than those I have had. Very creative cousin you got.
PPS. This is too long for me to check for errors- consider it one more paper for you to grade.
I have my favorite "cooking light" recipe to share with you....I will get it to you the moment I get home!
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