Lentils are great for fast cooking; you don’t have to soak overnight, you don’t have to cook 
for hours, and lentils get a beautiful consistency- most fall apart into a thick soup, while some hold up for heterogeneous texture.
You can add any flavors you want and lentils will soak them in. This is a pretty standard curry, which I love to have around for a simple dinner and easy leftovers.
Warming food, for a cool winter's night
This soup was wonderful, and easy. It’s not fast because I wanted to incorporate the smoked ham flavor, but it takes very little oversight. Next time, I’ll probably slow cook an extra can of the beans, the hock, and 8 cups of stock overnight the night before.
You can skip the ham hock and make this vegetarian, and it would be very fast- just saute all the ingredients (minus the stock) in the stock pot for 5 minutes, add vegetarian broth, and simmer for 15 minutes. Then blend half, mix, and serve. Continue reading
In Michigan there was a restaurant that had weekly ‘Taco Mondays.’ After enough years in San Diego, that seemed like hilarious defilement of the tradition of Taco Tuesday. Thursday is somewhat in the middle, starting with a ‘T’ but not the same sound as ‘Taco.’ It is, however, swimming night, and the end of an ever longer week, which means quick and simple takes priority over alliteration.
Taco Tursday
Tacos are a staple in our house, though I suppose our versions aren’t very Mexican. This week we used ground turkey, though we’ve been known to use beef, buffalo, or black beans. We had some fruit with them for a complete balanced meal.
Ground turkey is a terrible substitute for beef in hamburgers. They don’t quite taste right, and there’s never enough fat to cook them on the grill without them sticking unless you add filler (and what’s the point in that?). Tacos are the perfect meal for ground turkey, since the goal is actually to have the meat fall apart, rather than stick together. Plus, when cooked with seasonings and a little water or both, it won’t dry out or have any chance of being bland. For tacos, use the leanest stuff you can find, whether 96% beef or all white meat turkey. Extra firm tofu would probably work fine, but I’m not a huge fan of tofu unless it’s in chocolate mousse (maybe that recipe will come soon).
Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat, add ground meat. Sprinkle taco seasoning evenly over meat, and stir using a spatula and breaking up the meat as best as possible. Add finely chopped spinach or other healthy greens- I use about 4 handfuls of spinach for about a pound of meat. This is one time finely chopped is important- the idea is to eat extra greens without really noticing, so take the time to chop them up small (a food processor would work, too).
Add about 1/4 cup water, cover, turn to medium-low heat and let cook for about 15 minutes. It’s hard to overcook as long as the water doesn’t run out, so keep an eye on the meat and add more water if you aren’t ready to eat and it’s run out.
Chop fixin’s. We use pre-chopped onions, bell pepper, and cilantro. We also use greek yogurt, Mexican or cheddar shredded cheese, cilantro, and copious quantities of hot sauce (chipotle Tabasco or garlic Chilula for me, the hottest stuff we can find for the Ninja).
Soften wraps (we use whole wheat w/ flax seed wraps) by wetting hands and wiping a little water onto them; then microwave for about 10 seconds.
'Utensils are for the weak!.'
Fill wraps with tasty goodness. Try hard not to overfill- if anything, that is my fatal flaw. My epitaph will likely read ‘Here lies MM: She overfilled her tacos, omelets, and sandwiches, and consistently made a mess because of it.’ But if you do, there’s only a little shame in a fork and knife.
Sabud Garam Masale Waale Lobhia. That sounds bad-ass, right? 
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The Ninja made falafel Thursday while I was at Target trying to spend my FSA money and buy presents for people like Perpetual Motion Machine’s teachers. Somehow, he makes falafel without burning himself with splattering oil. I guess that’s just because he’s a ninja.
Pot roast, to me, captures the emotions of a traditional, all-American 1950’s home-cooked family meal. This is a Norman Rockwell, Betty Crocker, Leave It To Beaver meal.
What we don’t think about, though, is June Cleaver’s big secret- this sucker is easy. It’s even easier with modern technology, because we can cook without even being at home.
I tweaked this recipe from Martha Stewart (her recipe is here), simplifying a bit and substituting a few things I had on hand- I am physically incapable of actually following a recipe, and some of these substitutions are genius waste-minimizers.
This risotto seems fancy, but isn’t hard to make. It does take a bit more time at the stove than other meals, but if you prep in advance and have a kitchen timer so you don’t forget to do the minimal maintenance during cooking, it can be done on a weeknight, too. It’s amazingly tasty, and makes phenomenal leftovers for lunches.
Pot Roast on Paper Plates 