Cashew Cauliflower Curry

I love this combination.  It's colorful, has a lot of textures, is quick and easy, and I really love the cashews that bring out the nuttiness of a great brown rice.  I splurged on the Lundberg mixed whole grain brown and might not ever go back.  This curry could be made with any combo of veggies, but I do like the green beans and cauliflower.  I fried the tofu in some peanut oil tonight but it's kind of a pain and might go back to just stir-frying it.

Creamy Turnip Soup with Sausage

A slight variation on creamy potato soup, I used 4 turnips, chopped and boiled in homemade chicken stock, plus the leftover roasted veggies from the weekend.  The soup was a little bland, needing salt and pepper, but spicy chicken sausage added a bit of both texture and flavor, and warm bread was a great dipper for the soup.

Lentil Brussel Spout Stir Fry

I read somewhere that brussels sprouts have been selectively bred to be less bitter.  I don't know if it's true, but the sprouts we had tonight were crisp and fresh and toasted nutty and fantastic.  Lightly caramelized with some tiny new potatoes and black lentils, with a sauce of mint and Greek yogurt, plus almonds and dates sprinkled on top.

Thomas wasn't interested, but he's not feeling 100%, and Andrew fought on principle, but the adults were happy and have big bowls for lunch tomorrow.

Salmon Burgers with Summer Salad

These burgers turned out fantastic, despite being a total improvisation.  A pound of salmon, a little bread crumbs, some bottled teriyaki sauce, and a spin in the food processor.  I lightly coated the outsides with bread crumbs before pan-frying them.  They were great on thin sandwich buns with some lettuce, although I might add a little sauce of some sort to the sandwiches.  Teriyaki mayo of some sort? Wasabi mayo?  Just a little teriyaki thickened up?

The salad was also great, very light and summery and nice after a hot few days.  Cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes in a tahini-lemon-yogurt dressing, with cayenne, cumin, and garlic.

Spinach and Ham Casserole

This casserole was good, with a nice flavor and a good consistency.  It would be easy to prepare and assemble, then bake the next day.  It's a bit light on the vegetables - we ate the rest of the fruit salad to round it out, but maybe a side salad or adding some red peppers?

I used red onions and skim milk with a lot less Gruyere.  It was a bit less saucy than I think whole milk would have done, but it might also sauce up overnight.  I'm excited for the leftovers, as I think it all meld together well.

Milk-poached Tilapia

I saw a recipe suggestion for fish poached in milk and thought it sounded a little weird, but worth a try.  I just laid tilapia fillets in a 9x13 pan, sprinkled on some Old Bay and covered with milk (a cup? maybe a little more, enough to just cover the fish).  I baked it uncovered for about half an hour, flipping them about 20 minutes in.  The milk evaporated a bit, although not enough to thicken into a sauce.

They were good, a little bit buttery almost, but without a thick creamy feeling.  It might be good to bake them longer and let the milk boil off or to pour it off and reduce into a sauce.  I served it with some simple roasted potatoes and steamed carrots.

Spring Gnocchi

We're trying to take full advantage of the spring weather before this weekend's snow, so this was another bright, light dinner.  It didn't turn out quite as good as I had hoped, but might be worth trying again, with some modifications.  We also didn't make our own gnocchi, but the packaged ones are pretty good.  This was largely a bit of a trick of timing, so maybe that will help next time.

I put the proscuitto in the toaster oven to crisp and then started two pots of water boiling.  The larger is for the gnocchi and the smaller is just to blanch the peas.  I chopped and started sauteeing the shallots (in a large pan) while the peas blanched, and then drained the peas.  The peas went into the large pan and I tried to keep them stirring, then cooked the gnocchi.  Once they were floating, I threw into the large pan as well, and let them sautee as well.  This was tricky as I basically made a double-batch, maybe next time sautee in small sections.  I made (with Andrew's help) the lemon ricotta, which needed way more lemon, and sliced the cripsy proscuitto into pieces.

We plated it all with a scoop of gnocchi and peas, topped with a large spoonful of ricotta, and sprinkled some proscuitto, and served it up.  It needed salt and pepper, despite adding some during the cooking.