Lazy-Ass Pasta Bake

I considered making Giada deLauretiis' Spicy Baked Macaroni since, you know, it's winter break, and I have time. Unfortunately, I got back from the movies a little too late and went with this quickie version posted on Slashfood by Marissa McClellan instead. It's a little annoying that the recipe's not written out in standard-ish, easy-to-follow recipe format, but I guess it is so easy it might look a little silly written out like a recipe! Anyway, I bolded the ingredients before printing and that helped a bit.

I am totally pleased with the recipe! I especially like that it's got spinach in it. Plus it is the easiest pasta bake recipe ever. I cooked the pasta and mixed the sauce and then had to head out to yoga. Then when I came back, Kea assembled it in the pan and baked it. So it's convenient in that sense too. Hurrah!

Fresh Spinach, Orzo and Chicken Soup

I don't know who gave me this cookbook--either my mom or mother-in-law. I think maybe I have one from each of them. It's totally hawking Costco products, you know like it'll say "1 pound Grimmway baby carrots," but whatever, I can ignore that kind of thing.

I love soup. It's my favorite thing to make. Except the kind that you have to puree. Cuz we didn't have a blender until like a month ago. And also it kind of grosses me out to put savory things in a blender. We just always used it for smoothies you know? But actually we have a stick blender so that seems okay.

But beyond my issues, I had to cook and then go to Pilates and then come back and be able to eat right away. Cuz Pilates gets out at 7:45 and I am starving by then.

So here's the recipe:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cut in 1-inch cubes
salt and pepper
2 T olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t ground coriander
pinch of ground cinnamon
32-oz chicken broth (I rounded up--way up--and used three cans)
2/3 cup orzo
1 T fresh lemon juice (I used the juice of a whole lemon)
2 c fresh baby spinach
1/3 c grated Parmesan (just realized we forgot to put this)

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat olive oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and sear until lightly browned; remove to a plate.
3. Reduce heat to medium, add onion and garlic, and saute until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add spices and stir for 1 minute.
4. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add orzo and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes.
5. Add chicken, bring soup back to a boil and cook for 1 minute.
6. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Divide spinach among 6 bowls and ladle hot soup over spinach. Garnish with Parmesan.

Kea and I both liked it although I felt it had too much chicken. So maybe more orzo next time. Kea thinks maybe more broth.

Time: 50 minutes. I don't think it's supposed to take this long. I'm slow. I was late to Pilates.

Source: Cooking in Style: The Costco Way. 2006.

After minor oral surgery. Or Chinese food from the Internet.

Kea was going to be out of town, which meant it was time to prepare some eggplant. While I have converted him to kim chi and tofu, he still is not a fan of eggplant. I'm thinking some baba ghanoush should do the trick, but haven't had the chance to try it out yet.

Anyway, my mom has a recipe for Szechwan Eggplant but for some reason i couldn't find it. I decided to look online, wary of "fake" Chinese food recipes. I don't know... as someone who grew up eating Chinese, Japanese, and Korean food, I'm just very wary of grabbing any old "Asian" recipe off Food Network or whatever--no matter how helpful they are in other contexts. I do love me some cracker ass Panda Express though so maybe I shouldn't worry so much. I guess I was just looking for an ingredient list that sounded right.

As stated in my description, I'm also lazy, so I didn't want ingredients that were too hard to find either. I'm also very opposed to uni-tasker (TM Alton Brown) ingredients, that is, ingredients I will buy for this one recipe and then never use again. I ended up with this recipe. I wasn't necessarily looking for a vegetarian recipe, but I love tofu so I figured I'd go with it. Cuz really i was supposed to be studying, not Googling recipes.

As hinted at in the title, I had had minor oral surgery on the day I planned to prepare this. (If you are brave and want to see what the procedure was like, click here. But don't say I didn't warn you.) The nurse had told me it would be no big deal--just a couple of stitches--so I didn't realize I'd be in pain afterward. Jeez, I never had stitches before okay?

But perhaps I'm a trooper because I managed to go to both the Chinese market and the Kroger afterward. The Chinese market was also ridiculously crowded (maybe because it was the Friday before the new year) and people kept letting their friends join them in line. Luckily my stink eye deterred at least one woman.

Anyway, that night I ended up having two bowls of chazuke instead of Szechwan Eggplant, which had to wait for the next night. And I found I had forgotten a whole bunch of stuff. So I left out the vinegar and sherry and used olive oil and flour instead of peanut oil and cornstarch. I also used crushed red pepper instead of cayenne, but that seems like an improvement to me anyway. Do Chinese even use cayenne pepper!? I also used this nasty tube of ginger instead of fresh. Tubes of ginger are no good, but other than that, the dish was exactly what I wanted. Plus eggplant and tofu ended up being the perfect thing to eat in the days after my surgery.

Florentine Cannellini One Pot (off a can of Bush's Beans)

This is one of the recipes Kea and I have in rotation, truly off a can of Bush's Beans. It's quick, easy, yummy, and full of fiber.

4 slices bacon, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (14 oz) can chopped spinach, drained*
3 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (15-16 oz) can of EACH drained and rinsed: cannelini beans,** dark red kidney beans, light red kidney beans
1/2 c. sun-dried tomatoes, cut in thin strips
1 t dried basil
Garnish: shredded parmesan

Brown bacon over high heat in large stockpot, about 8 minutes.*** Add garlic and onion, saute 6 minutes. Add spinach, saute 2 minutes. Add beans and all remaining ingredients. Simmer 10 minutes.

*I use frozen spinach because canned spinach seems gross to me.
**I use something called Northern beans because cannelini's cost more and they look the same.
***My onion pieces were about twice the size of my bacon pieces so the bacon got burnt. So you probably either want to throw the garlic and onion in earlier or make sure the bacon is not chopped too small and the onion is not chopped too big.