Don't get me wrong. I love to cook. But there's something wonderful about leftovers, because then it's like I've cooked minus the clean-up. And some things just taste better once they've had a while to sit and the flavors got a chance to meld....like lasagna. Lasagna is always better as leftovers than fresh, although fresh-made lasagna is of course delicious. But I wasn't even eating lasagna so I have no idea where that came from.
My list of leftovers included quinoa salad and *fake* chicken marsala. Quinoa is one of those super-grains that's crazy healthy and packed full of protein and all that good stuff. I threw it together with some blanched carrots, avocado, tomato, and sliced almonds. For a dressing I used a mix of olive oil with lime juice, plus a bunch of things I grabbed off the spice rack- garlic powder, basil, salt, oregano, whatever. I've in the past also just put a little Ranch dressing on there and it's been delicious as well, although it does kill the healthiness just a little. As for the Marsala, which is absolutely delicious, I paired it with some whole-wheat cous-cous because I just love cous-cous. It's so fun to say too- "cous-cous". I'm pretty sure my version of the chicken Marsala is the lazy way but it's still delish- first lightly brown the chicken in the pan with a tiny bit of olive oil, then dump out the chicken and saute the mushrooms (also with a little olive oil). Put the chicken back in the pan and splash in a whole bunch of veggie broth and Marsala wine, with a little salt, and then let it cook for forever. And by forever, I mean maybe 20 minutes or so, adding more liquid as needed. The idea is that all the flavors cook together and the chicken really soaks up the liquid so that it's really flavorful and juicy. While this is cooking, the cous-cous (say it out loud!) can cook too- I like to cook it with some veggie broth to make it more flavorful. Plus I never use up all the veggie broth just on the chicken so I may as well use it in the cous-cous.
After all this I still needed something sweet, so I gave in and grabbed one of the low-fat Chocolate Almond biscotti I made two days ago. It's one of my favorite recipes because it's pretty easy and fast, and it's healthy (as far as dessert is concerned) because there's no butter or oil in it! Now if only I could stop burning myself every time I try to flip them over in the oven, it would be the perfect recipe.
I have to move a bunch of furniture tomorrow and have promised baked goods to anyone willing to help me, so I'll hopefully get to try out one of the many recipes that I've bookmarked on my computer. I think I need to stop reading so many food blogs.
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