I made this easy recipe last night and all three of my girls chowed it down. Sometimes I forget how easy it is to make couscous. If you live in Utah, the cheapest place I have found to buy couscous is the bulk section of The Good Earth. Nectarines are in season right now and they are fabulous!!!
6 servings
Cooking Light, June 2000 ( 1 cup)
1 ¼ cups water
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped nectarines (about 3 medium)
½ cup coarsely chopped spinach
¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
1 (15 ½-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
Nectarine slices (optional)
Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan, gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork; cool. Combine lime juice and next 5 ingredients (juice through coriander0 in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add couscous, chopped nectarines, spinach, onions, and chickpeas; toss well. Garnish with nectarine slices, if desired.
Delicious, kid friendly, and cheap! Does it get any better?
It may not seem like spinach with lemon juice would go well with chicken and corn fried rice, but trust me, this works! The different flavors, textures and temperatures go perfectly together. I tried this out on my kids, and all of them loved it (and 2 out of 3 even ate the spinach). This comes from Chef Ming Tsai who responded to a challenge to some of the nation's best cooks: Come up with a meal that is family-friendly, budget-conscious, and delicious. IMO, he nailed all three!
NOTE: I skipped the whole chicken step. I just bought a ready-made roasted chicken (Costco's are really good) and shredded it. I also just did white rice, because I didn't want to cook two different kinds of rice. I'm lazy.
Chicken and Corn Fried Rice
Serves 4
1 pound ground chicken
2 eggs
1 large yellow onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ginger powder
2 ears of corn when in season, or 1 bag frozen (12 ounces)
1/2 (10 ounces) bag spinach (washed, spun dry, de-stemmed, leaves torn)
2 tablespoons naturally brewed soy sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
4 cups cold, cooked long-grain rice, brown and white combination, preferably day-old so it's nice and dry*
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Canola oil
Heat a wok or large saute pan over medium-high heat. Lightly coat with oil. When oil shimmers add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and brown, breaking up any large chunks with wooden spoon or spatula. Remove chicken to a plate. Add about 1/2-inch oil to wok and allow to heat; add eggs, which will puff up. Cook scrambled eggs and remove to a paper towel-lined plate. If necessary, add more oil to wok to lightly coat, then add onions, garlic, and powdered ginger, and cook until nicely caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add corn, rice, chicken and egg, and toss to combine. Add naturally brewed soy sauce, toss to combine, and check for seasoning. Place mound of raw spinach in center of four dinner plates. Drizzle with lemon juice and season. Top with fried rice to cover. Enjoy!
*Alternatively, if you're not cooking rice the day before, place the cooked rice in a single layer on a sheet tray, and place in freezer to cool and dry.
My belly is so big that it is hard for me to cook. I am in need of a lot of easy dinners because I still have at least 8 weeks until this baby comes. I went grocery shopping at Buy Low last week and found lots of ripe mangos on sale as well as some avocados. Spencer reminded me of this recipe. I change it a bit depending on the ingredients I have. This is the first time I have used avocados in it. I usually put in steamed asparagus. Getting back to easy, I just used what I had. It was good, so I thought I would share it. I would love other easy (summer) dinner ideas from any of you.
Mango Salsa:
2 ripe Mangos cut into medium chunks. If you don't know how to cut a mango check out this clip.
2 ripe avocados cut into medium chunks.
3 T fresh chives--chopped (or any other kind of onion that sounds good to you--red, sweet, green)
Juice from 1/2 lemon or a whole lime
If I don't use chives I put in some chopped cilantro along with the onion.
Salt to taste
Quesadillas:
Cheddar and/or mozerella cheese--as much as you want
Tortillas
Sliced Grilled chicken--I put some KC masterpiece seasoning on two small breasts and cooked them on our BBQ. It was enough for two adults and three kids.
BBQ sauce to taste. I like a medium amount. Too much drowns out the salsa.
Make the quesadillas with the cheese, BBQ sauce and chicken in the middle. Serve with the salsa. We had home-made grape juice with this and that was it.
I spent a few days over the weekend traveling for work and eating delicious restaurant food but very few vegetables, and got home with a major broccoli craving. Threw this together tonight, and it's very quick, easy, healthy, and delicious. It makes about four servings.
Read on for the complicated instructions...
You will need:
1 package of Jenni-O turkey breast tenderloins (when these go on sale, I always get two or three and throw them in the freezer). You could also use a pound or so of boneless chicken breasts.
1 package of steam-in-the bag broccoli florets (like Broccoly Wokly). This is easiest, but not cheapest. For cheapest, just get a bunch of broccoli. The bag is 12 oz. of florets, but precision is not important.
onion and/or garlic (optional - like half an onion, 1 clove of garlic) Fresh ginger would also be good.
some kind of interesting Asian sauce in a bottle. I used Whole Foods peanut sauce. Thai red curry would also be good. Or teriyaki.
soy or tamari sauce
some broth or water
some kind of oil (I used peanut)
cooked rice (I use brown, and I use a rice cooker, which makes this whole thing easy)
If you're using onion and/or garlic, chop it. Cut the turkey or chicken into bite-sized chunks. Follow the instructions on the broccoli bag, or otherwise cook in microwave to your likeing. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add about a T. of oil, then the turkey, onion, garlic. Stir, then add maybe 1/2 cup liquid (broth or water). Splash some soy or tamari sauce in at this point - not too much! When the broccoli is done, add that to the pan. Stir-fry some more, adding liquids as necessary. When the turkey or chicken is cooked through, serve over rice and top with your desired amount of bottled Asian sauce. If you don't have or don't like a pre-made sauce, a blend of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and some peanut butter would work. I sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on mine to make it look pretty. The whole process (not counting the rice, which cooked on a timer while I was gone during the afternoon) took about fifteen minutes.
*Also known as the "post-travel colon cleanse."
(Also, I know I'm messing up the thing where the post gets divided into two sections. The template makes half my font size really teeny tiny then when I fix it, the break goes away. Sorry!)
Aka: Four ingredients and dinner's ready...
I'm actually making this tonight with some cornbread and watermelon. Delish.
1 small container Russian dressing
1 packet Lipton Onion Soup
1 can whole cranberries
4-6 chicken breasts
Combine first three ingredients in a bowl and pour over rinsed chicken in a 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until chicken is done. Serve over rice, serve with a nice salad, whatever you want. I want cornbread and watermelon.
Want an easy, CHEAP, DELICIOUS DINNER? AND, do you want to see pictures I took of this actual dinner?! I never thought I'd take food pictures, but I did. And I feel okay about it...
Once again, this is another Megan recipe. My good friend Megan gives me the best ideas and best recipes so I owe yet another one to her. Beef tacos (maybe not a meal for our organic, natural, no preservatives or out-of-the can friends)(I know you're out there and you won't like this), but the rest of you should try this:
First you need some small yellow corn tortillas...
And then a few cans of this (I know, I know -- canned beef?! But it's good.)(I use two cans for two people and there's always extra). 
Combine two cans of (drained) beef with one can of sweet corn (drained)...heat up over medium heat. You can add onion, too, but I usually don't.
While you're heating up the meat, lay a few tortillas on the skillet and grate some cheese over them to melt on medium heat.
Once your tortillas are a little crispy, add some meat in the middle and top it with whatever you like. I top with tomato and avocado (sometimes sour cream, sometimes just tomato...whatever I have). And there it is! Very delicious, economical and easy.
Aren't you excited that I took food pictures?! Let me know how you like it.
