What's For Dinner?

A Gin(a)ious

Sometimes, I’ll be reading a food blog (you know, one of the hundreds I subscribe to) and I’ll see some random food combination or recipe and think “Really? What the heck was she thinking?” And it’s always the girls, right Matt? The guys always do “normal” combos, and us girls? Sometimes, I just don’t know…

Then sometimes, there’s something I think is weird the first time I see it, and then it sticks in my brain. It’s like a peanut butter smear that just won’t go away. I ponder, and think, and revisit posts dozens of times… and then I ask the author for specifics about that recipe or combo. And then I think on it some more. And then I find myself in the aisle of the grocery store that happens to have 90% of the ingredients I need, and I decide to go for it.

And you’re thinking now “Whattheheckisshetalkingaboutnow?” Yeah, I can read your mind from here OOOOoooooOOOOHhhhhhhhh….

I’m talking about Gina’s raw cauliflower sushi rice. I saw it months ago when she was in culinary school at 108 Degrees, and it stuck in my head. I know it’s not her recipe per se, but she’s the one I associate with it. I asked her today if there was a recipe or to just go with the ingredients til they taste right, she said to go by taste, and so I went. Mostly because well, with this whole “not eating grains or many carbs” Paleo diet thing, the thing I miss the most is definitely sushi.

In my food processor went a small head of raw cauliflower, which I pulsed until it vaguely resembled rice. Then I transferred it to a bowl and seasoned it with about 1/4 c. rice vinegar, one packet of Splenda (SHAMEFUL ha right), salt, pepper, and a little garlic powder. Then I tried my hand for the first time at rolling my own sushi rolls.

Not bad for my first time, eh? Adam and I got all these sushi sets as engagement presents (seriously, 3 of them) and they’ve just been sitting there, so I figured I’d break them out. These lovely raw rolls are filled with avocado, organic Persian cucumber sticks, and some (definitely not raw) canned crabmeat.

Gina my dear, you are a freaking genius. Absolutely GENIUS! Do you all get the title now??

I ate 2 rolls like the one pictured, then stirred the leftover ingredients together into a salad of sorts with a bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds. I have this feeling that I’ll be buying a lot more cauliflower now, and Adam, I apologize… you do have to sleep in the same room as me…

I purchased something new to eat with my sushi, and since I don’t have very many “this is my hand holding something I ate today” photos, I figured I’d start with my lovely Japanese wasabi paste. It was $2 and the hottest wasabi I’ve ever had!

And I’m finishing my meal off with a piece of this remarkable $1 Polish dark chocolate I get from our ethnic market. It’s better than any non-gourmet dark chocolate I’ve ever had, and better than most gourmet ones too!

I’m making some turkey burgers for Adam and for lunch tomorrow, so my cooking isn’t over yet… and I’m taking the first step of tackling Mount Clothesmore in our second bedroom tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off for 3 years and I just have to DO it. Please reassure me I don’t need the stuff I haven’t worn since I moved??

A couple of reminders for you:

Don’t forget to vote in the Cuteiversary Contest! Check out the entries on the last Cute Food Saturday post, then vote in the poll on the right hand side of the blog.
Go shopping! The 50% off sale on the oil and vinegar set only lasts until next Wednesday!
Enter Ashley’s Blogiversary contest!

Have a great Thursday all!

Technorati Tags: Asian, dinner, friends, fun, sushi, vegetarian

32 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 3rd 2010 | Tags: Asian, dinner, friends, fun, sushi, vegetarian
Posted in Asian, friends, vegetarian

Two Recipes and a Sale

Get it? Like Four Weddings and a Funeral? Ok, I’m a nerd.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

First of all, a big huge welcome goes out to all my new readers! Thanks for stopping by and reading! Feel free to de-lurk and leave comments so that I may follow your blog as well (if you have one). I don’t bite! Those of you coming over from Peas and Thank You, you’ll find that while my blog isn’t vegetarian or vegan, I usually give modifications to my recipes to make them such. Thanks again for stopping by!

Next, I have another chili recipe for you… see, I have this “thing” with trying to make the perfect pot of chili, and I’m getting there, but I’m not quite there yet. This last recipe was well, meaty. VERY meaty. Like, almost 3 lbs. of meat meaty. But it was delicious (do I ever say that something wasn’t delicious?) and could easily be halved and part of the meat could be cut out.

My recipe is based off this recipe for Paleo Chili found here.

Very Meaty Paleo Chili

Ingredients

1.5 lb. lean ground beef (90%)

1.5 lb. lean stew meat

1 medium onion, diced

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 can ro-tel (or other tomatoes with jalapeños)

1 can salsa verde (I used Herdez brand)

2 c. beef stock

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 Tbsp. ground cumin

4-5 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic powder.

Directions

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the stew meat a bit at a time to brown the outside. Don’t worry about cooking it through, as you’ll add it back in. Remove the stew meat, then add the onion and cook until translucent. Then, add the beef stock, bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the ground beef, return the stew meat to the pot, and add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer a few hours.

Adam added some beans to his chili, and I gotta say, I really did miss them in this dish. He said it was great though! My bowl had no beans.

Tonight, I opted for a more veggie-friendly meal with a bit of chicken stir fried with spinach, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, sriracha, and a bit of teriyaki sauce. I also roasted some brussels sprouts and red pepper strips. Ok, so that wasn’t really a recipe, but I’m going to call it one for now!

Last but not least, something I think you’ll ALL be interested in: cheap and gorgeous kitchen gadgets! For this week and this week only (until 3/9) I’m offering this beautiful oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper set from my OpenSky shop for 50% off!

See, the two carafes are for oil and vinegar (the larger for vinegar, I’d say) and the carved wooden base doubles as a pinch bowl for cracked pepper and salt, perfect for dressing a salad in style. Just visit this special sale link or click on the picture of the oil and vinegar set above, and enter your email address, and you’ll be emailed the coupon good for use in my OpenSky shop. Feel free to check out the other great stuff I have there as well, including the multi-tasking EnviTote.

Happy shopping!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, I’m off to watch Biggest Loser and eat some dark chocolate. Oh the irony…

Technorati Tags: Asian, beef, EnviTote, OpenSky, paleo, recipe, red meat, sale, simple recipe, spicy

13 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, March 2nd 2010 | Tags: Asian, beef, EnviTote, OpenSky, paleo, recipe, red meat, sale, simple recipe, spicy
Posted in Asian, Mexican/Latin, beef, chicken/turkey, simple recipe

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans

A few months back, my mom told me about this supper club she and a few other women were starting in their neighborhood. They started by going out for dinner once, and then agreed upon a theme for the next meeting and met at one woman’s house for a potluck-type meal. When I say potluck though, I’m not talking about tuna casserole and crockpots of chili!

Last night, my mom asked me if I’d like to join them for their Southeast Asian-themed dinner, I happily agreed! I felt badly that I didn’t have time to bring anything, but my mom insisted it wasn’t a problem. She thought it would be a great experience and I’d get to meet some fantastic people. She was right on both counts!

We walked in to the house and were greeted with “Would you like a drink?” As much as I wanted to try the hostess’ Singapore Sling cocktails, I opted instead for a mocktail of seltzer, pineapple juice, and a cherry.

There was the most gorgeous centerpiece on the kitchen island full of ingredients the hostess used in her dishes. It served as a trivia game to win a bottle of wine!

Can you name everything on that tray? I couldn’t! The last of the members arrived, including Liz from Lazy Cook, Crazy Cook (a fantastic blog, by the way, I recommend you check it out!) and some cooking ensued! There were pork potstickers with two dipping sauces to munch on while the other amazing dishes simmered away.

Liz got busy cooking her Pho, a Vietnamese beef and noodle soup. It was quite the process involving multiple soakings and blanching of cornstarch stick noodles, slicing of beef, and simmering of this wonderful-smelling broth.

And of course, silliness ensued as well

My mom prepared her larb kai for serving (don’t worry, I’ll get that recipe for you all, you’ll LOVE it! Or maybe my mom can write a guest post about it? HINT HINT!)

We sat down in this beautiful dining room with super-creative theme-related place settings

I had about half a glass of this amazing Israeli white wine as we sat down to eat. First I tried Liz’s pho (pronounced fuh). I absolutely cannot wait to try to replicate this at home! What’s fun about pho is that while it sounds simple, the person eating gets all sorts of options to doctor up their own bowl. I added bean sprouts, cilantro, hot peppers, sriracha, and cilantro to the already flavorful broth and noodle soup.

Next up was Tina’s (the host) laksa. Laksa is typically a Malaysian or Vietnamese dish, but she had melded together a few recipes for a bowl full of deliciousness. There was a complex sauce made with fresh turmeric, galangal (in the ginger family), a multitude of other spices, and coconut milk. In this sauce was shrimp, tofu, scallops, and halibut, along with skinny noodles. She topped it with a hard-boiled quail egg.

Next was my mom’s larb kai, a steamed and highly seasoned chicken dish that we’ve loved for years. It’s as delicious as it is beautiful!

Last but not least, after much talking and laughing, we got to dessert. There was some unpictured black rice and coconut ice cream that was an excellent compliment to this lovely meringue-topped pineapple and coconut bread pudding. It wasn’t too sweet, and the texture was phenomenal!

It was a fantastic time, and I stayed up WAY too late and probably ate way too much… but it was so much fun! I’m looking forward to the next meeting of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans (their aptly named group) when I can actually bring something! Next time: Italy at my mom’s house!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! I loved being included in such a fun event. Have a great Friday, and come back later to find out who won the SkinMD Natural giveaway! This means you still have a few hours to enter!!!

Technorati Tags: Asian, chicken, friends, get-together, supper club

16 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 26th 2010 | Tags: Asian, chicken, friends, get-together, supper club
Posted in Asian, beef, chicken/turkey, family, friends, pork

Just That Easy

I was at a loss today about what to cook. I had forgotten to take the chicken out of the freezer, and while I have enough spinach to sink a ship, I don’t have many other veggies to make a spinach salad. So it was off to the grocery store after work and I swear, I stared at the produce and the meat case for a long time before I figured out what to make.

I still wasn’t quite sure when I got home, but I started throwing some stuff together and wound up with a delicious Thai-style coconut curry type dish which I served atop a bed of spinach. Hey, I have to use it up somehow! Oh, and just FYI, I’m super-proud of this photo!

Simple Thai Coconut Curry

Ingredients

2 lbs lean pork loin or chicken or 2 blocks tofu, diced and drained

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 to 2 Tbsp. Singapore Seasoning (or something similar)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. (or more) Sriracha

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large wok. When hot, add the onions and garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the pork and half the Singapore Seasoning. Stir well and then add the rest of the seasoning. Add the coconut milk, stir in the sriracha, and lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook until pork is done, about 25 minutes. Serve over rice or veggies (or both!)

There was something about the jar of Singapore seasoning that spoke to me today. It smelled remarkably like my favorite Thai Matsaman curry, which has potatoes and blanched peanuts in it, which sounded SO good when I got home!

That’s all I’ve got tonight… I’m off to finish up my blue/green monster I made this afternoon with spinach, avocado, and blueberries and finish up reading this amazing book a student loaned me. It’s the second in the Hunger Games series, and I’ve been thinking all day about what’s going to happen next!

Have a wonderful night!

Technorati Tags: Asian, food, green monster, pork, red meat, simple recipe

20 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, February 22nd 2010 | Tags: Asian, food, green monster, pork, red meat, simple recipe
Posted in Asian, pork, simple recipe

Winner Winner Chinese Dinner

I know I swore my cooking posts would start again today, but after last week’s simple non-postworthy recipes, the subzero (yes, actually BELOW ZERO) temperatures, and the severe lack of ingredients in the house, we opted for a carry-out Chinese dinner from one of our favorite places, China Wok. I’m a slacker, I know.

Oh, and it was really tempting to not leave the house after seeing these hanging outside our front window:

Those are approximately 5 to 8 feet long icicles, the longest of which hangs directly above our front door. SCARY!

Back to dinner…

I started with half of these amazing steamed dumplings full of spicy pork:

And the rest of what I had didn’t photograph well… one patty of chicken egg foo young, a few bites of chicken fried rice, a bit of some spicy noodle thing, and of course:

My fortune read: “You will be recognized and honored as an influential member of the community”.

There’s a lot of catch-up I still need to do which I’ll address in tomorrow’s post, but for now, I want to announce the winner of the MyBlogSpark and Progresso Soup giveaway. Thanks to random.org, I came up with number #3 which was a recipe for cabbage soup from Christina! I know you’ll read this, so Christina, when you do, email me your information and I’ll contact your benefactor!

I’m off to watch the Simpson’s 20th Anniversary Special and get to bed early… it’s going to be a LONG week!

OH, and I’m committing to you here: I WILL COOK A NEW RECIPE TOMORROW. It has been blogged, so it shall be done.

Technorati Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, chicken, Chinese, dinner, dinner out, giveaway, noodles, pork, restaurant

10 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, January 10th 2010 | Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, chicken, Chinese, dinner, dinner out, giveaway, noodles, pork, restaurant
Posted in Asian, chicken/turkey, dinner out, giveaway, pork

Peanutty Noodle Wednesday

It’s BAAAAACK!!!

Noodle Wednesday is back after a one-week hiatus, and I’m so thrilled I decided to go with it! I couldn’t decide what KIND of noodles to make, so I asked on Twitter: peanut or parmesan? The overwhelming response? Peanut!

Some of the Twitter-spouses even chimed in that THEY wanted peanut, and one (who we didn’t count) said Parmesan.

So peanut noodles it was. I made a big serving of some of my Al Dente egg noodles:

And after draining made a quick sauce consisting of:

2 Tbsp. Simply Skippy peanut butter
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
tiny squeeze Sriracha hot sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Ok, it wasn’t even a sauce, I just stirred all that into the hot noodles and it all melted together. And it was delicious.

Not the prettiest dinner in the world, but it certainly was delicious! The only thing I wish I’d done was make more of them so I could eat them for lunch tomorrow! I also wish I’d put some color on the plate so it looked prettier… but oh well, they were AWESOME!

In other news, today is Sesame Street’s 40th birthday! I still believe that Sesame Street is truly the best show on TV, now or at any time, and I’m so glad I got to grow up watching my favorite monsters, birds, grouches, and worms (remember Slimey?) In honor of this momentous occasion, my favorite Sesame Street song!

What’s yours favorite Sesame Street song or skit???

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday! This week is going SO MUCH FASTER than last week!

Technorati Tags: Asian, dinner, food, fun, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetarian

11 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 4th 2009 | Tags: Asian, dinner, food, fun, noodles, pasta, simple recipe, vegetarian
Posted in Asian, simple recipe, vegetarian

Warning Blah Post Ahead

I’ve been sick since Friday. Not sick like I was last spring where I had to go to the hospital, but sick. I had a headache so bad I nearly passed out in the shower Friday morning, a fever maxing out at 102 degrees, and my body hurt like I just worked out for hours.

Luckily, I’m on the mend, and my appetite came back yesterday and I indulged in some pizza. Tonight all I wanted was Chinese food, so that’s what we got!

steamed spiced pork dumplings (my favorite!)

Chicken chow mein cantonese with…

pan-fried noodles instead of rice!

We always had chicken chow mein cantonese growing up, and its a total comfort food for me… which is what I needed! I’m resting up tonight as I’m planning on heading back to work tomorrow. Too bad I have too many cooties to go visit my favorite little peapod!!

Baby Quin, Halloween 2009

Could he be any cuter?!

Here’s hoping I’m up to cooking tomorrow!!

Technorati Tags: Asian, cute, dinner out, friends, noodles, sick

18 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, November 1st 2009 | Tags: Asian, cute, dinner out, friends, noodles, sick
Posted in Asian, dinner out, friends

Thai-ed Up

I had my 2nd of 4 dress fittings today, and I was lucky enough to have my mom join me for this one. It’s a good thing too, because I can’t get into my dress by myself!!! It went well with only a few moments of feeling bad about myself, but those were squashed quickly.

My mom wanted to go somewhere for dinner, and suggested the Thai food place we went to almost a year and a half ago. I love Thai food, and we haven’t gotten it in a long time… so I was in!

We started with some fresh spring rolls and chicken satay with the BEST peanut sauce EVER. I thought of Miss GC with all the peanut sauce!

Then I got my favorite: Pad Si-Ew for my dinner. I ordered it with extra vegetables and easy oil, and they actualy listened to me!

My mom got larb kai, which is a slightly spicy ground chicken dish with cilantro…another favorite of mine!

We got to sit and chat for a while, which was really nice… with all the wedding stuff going on, it was great to have some “mom time”.

Some of my favorite shows are on tonight, and I think I’m going to use up some of my weekly Points® (yes, I’m back to that now) on some light pumpkin ice cream and some tea. Weird I know, hot and cold… but its a great combo!

TGIFFF!!! (Thank Goodness Its Finally Freaking Friday!)

Technorati Tags: Asian, chicken, dinner, dinner out, family, Thai, wedding

15 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 29th 2009 | Tags: Asian, chicken, dinner, dinner out, family, Thai, wedding
Posted in Asian, dinner out, family

Messing Everything Up

So it’s been Noodle Wednesday for the last three weeks. We talked about maybe going for noodles, but then Adam went and suggested Sushi Station. We all know how I can’t turn down sushi! We had much of the same stuff we had the last time we went. Don’t remember? Here’s a review:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
Now do you remember?? We did get 3 new things tonight though:

Dream Roll: Shrimp, krab, cream cheese, cucumber all wrapped in pink soy paper

Mini cheesecake squares and mini cream puffs

It was all quite enjoyable! We stopped by Barnes and Noble afterward for a coffee, and I thoroughly enjoyed my decaf skinny caramel macchiato… as camera shy as it was.

OH! The winner of the Progresso Prize Pack from MyBlogSpark was determined using random.org, and came up with:

Which was this comment:

QUIX!!! Congratulations! Email me with your mailing address, and I’ll get your info onto your benefactor!

Today marks exactly ONE MONTH until our wedding!!! I can hardly believe it! I have a second dress fitting tomorrow, and a date to go shopping at IKEA for some centerpiece details this weekend.

Tomorrow also marks the return of Guests for Dinner!! If you’d like to be featured in the return of this fantastic series, send me an email and I’ll get you details on how to participate.

Have a great night, I’m off to watch Top Chef!

Technorati Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner out, food, giveaway, sushi, wedding

11 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 28th 2009 | Tags: Asian, Chicago dining, dinner out, food, giveaway, sushi, wedding
Posted in Asian, dinner out, giveaway

365 Days (Giveaway Post)

359 Posts

6,077 Comments

over 100 recipes

5,930 Tweets

245 Google Reader followers

402 FeedBurner subscribers

715 Twitter followers

ONE YEAR OF WHAT’S FOR DINNER!

Did anyone figure it out? The theme for yesterday’s Cute Food Saturday was “birthday cakes”. Not because any human was having a birthday, but because the blog was! I cannot believe it’s been a year already. I’ve met some of the most amazing people, both virtually and in real life, and had wonderful experiences, fun times, and great food.

I’ve discovered new foods

Indulged addictions:

Drastically improved photos:

Then and Now

Eaten at amazing restaurants:

Tru thanks to FoodBuzz, Frontera Grill

The Publican, and Red Mango/Yogen Fruz

And through all this, we’ve been planning our wedding, which will be in 41 days!

To celebrate my Blogiversary, I’m going to give one lucky What’s For Dinner reader a “favorite things” prize pack including, but not limited to:

One foodie charm of their choice
One coupon for free Oikos yogurt (16 oz)
One 32 oz. jar Tropical Traditions Extra Virgin Coconut OIl
One coupon for free Alouette spreadable cheese
One package of Matt’s Cookies (a Chicago favorite)
Three pieces of Fannie May chocolate (another Chicago fave, individually wrapped of course)
Two Cherry Pie Larabars
A Food-Themed bracelet by my ColorHungry friend
One Chicago-themed travel mug

That’s not all, but I haven’t figured out the rest yet! Due to shipping costs, entry is limited to US residents only. How to enter? The usual!

Leave a comment below for one entry
Link back to this post on your blog, or email me for a second entry, AND leave a second comment that you’ve done so..
Tweet about the contest mentioning @imadedinner AND (this is the key for the third entry) leave a second comment to tell me you’ve done so

Only comments will be counted for entry!! The contest will run the whole week, and the winner will be announced on Sunday, October 25th.

I spent today at the apple orchard with Lizz and Skylar, and then we went to Asian Noodle House…enjoy the pictures!

Thank you all for continuing to read my little blog, and for being such wonderful additions to my life. I’m truly grateful for all of you!

Technorati Tags: alouette, Asian, cheese, Chinese, cute, dinner, dinner out, food, friends, Frontera, frozen yogurt, giveaway, noodles, out, restaurant, Rick Bayless, sushi, thank you, Tropical Traditions, twitter, wedding

151 Comments

Mara @ What's For Dinner?, October 18th 2009 | Tags: alouette, Asian, cheese, Chinese, cute, dinner, dinner out, food, friends, Frontera, frozen yogurt, giveaway, noodles, out, restaurant, Rick Bayless, sushi, thank you, Tropical Traditions, twitter, wedding
Posted in Asian, contest/giveaway, dinner out, friends, giveaway

What's For Dinner?

A Gin(a)ious

32 Comments

Two Recipes and a Sale

13 Comments

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pans

16 Comments

Just That Easy

20 Comments

Winner Winner Chinese Dinner

10 Comments

Peanutty Noodle Wednesday

11 Comments

Warning Blah Post Ahead

18 Comments

Thai-ed Up

15 Comments

Messing Everything Up

11 Comments

365 Days (Giveaway Post)

151 Comments

Donate to What’s For Dinner

Search What’s For Dinner

Shop my OpenSky Shop

Cute Food Saturday!

Become a Fan on Facebook!

Follow Me on Twitter

Recipes by Email

Friday Firsts

Lijit Search

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Comments? Questions?

Categories

Donate to What’s For Dinner

Search What’s For Dinner

Still Hungry?

Shop my OpenSky Shop

Become a Fan on Facebook!

Follow Me on Twitter

Recipes by Email

Friday Firsts

Lijit Search

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Comments? Questions?

Categories