Organic switcheroo pays off

Chives sprout early in the herb garden

One must be fickle when it comes to quality. Meal prep started this morning when I pulled chicken thighs from the freezer. But they ended up back in the freezer after a quick stop by PCC Natural Market on the way home from meetings.  Rosie’s organic chicken thighs looked too good to pass up. Sure, they were pricier than the “bargain” thighs thawing in the fridge, but the recipe was simple; a better quality chicken would make a big difference.

A peek at the sink was big clue of the health factor in tonight’s meal. Mounds of broccoli, carrots, radishes, bok choy, chives, garlic littered the sink. It all ended up in the compost bucket, but not before the best bits landed on our plates.

Braised chicken with carrots, radishes and chives

Braised chicken with spring vegetables. Lovely with chopped chives, an early harvest from our herb garden, and served with long-grain rice plus …

… Bok choy and broccoli stir fry – a recipe clipped ages ago from the newsletter of a fantastic home delivery service, Pioneer Organics. The service is long gone, sadly, and so are the recipes.  No where to be found online and my clippings fail to include attributions.  Here’s a similar recipe at RecipeZaar. To make the Pioneer version, just steam the chopped broccoli stems florets and bok choy stems in advance. Saute the bok choy leaves in oil with garlic, then add the remaining steamed veggies. Toss with 1/2 tsp red chili flakes and 1-2 Tbsp soy sauce.

Yum.  I expended all my cooking energy tonight. Tomorrow night I’ll be dining at the yacht club for my monthly business dinner  – la de da – and the guys … well, we’ll see what happens.

Happy cow, cranky boys

This week’s meals were a mash-up of simplicity and duplicity with mixed results, to no surprise.

We started out easy with salmon burgers on Monday.  No problem there.  By Tuesday fish sauce worked its way into the ingredient list.  It was noticed. Kale showed up on Wednesday and was largely ignored by the boys. Then, adding injury to insult, I substituted veggie “protein crumbles” for ground beef in the tacos on Thursday.  We nearly had an all-out revolt. Fortunately I had fish sticks as a back-up (I know what you’re thinking, but they do fit into taco shells quite nicely).

So what was I thinking? Truth is that I started the week with little time or energy to think about a meal plan.  Menus were scribbled on a card, scratched out and revised daily.  We did end up with a couple of winners but largely, meals were spontaneously created from ingredents on hand.  Here’s how it shook out:

Monday: Salmon burgers on Orowheat Sandwich Thins; spicy roasted broccoli; french fries; arugula and fennel salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Tuesday: Thai pork chops with spicy vegetable salad*; rice.  *Excellent recipe from Sheila Lukins’ cookbook “Ten” – featuring her top 10 recipes in several food categories.

Wednesday: Chicken with carrots and olives; rice; sauteed kale with garlic

Thursday (a new low in culinary depravity): Tacos with veggie crumbles or fish sticks, cheese and salsa; corn; “margarita” cole slaw (a spontaneous concoction of shredded savoy cabbage, diced carrots and a dressing of mayonnaise and Trader Joe’s margarita mix) and … margaritas, of course!

Friday: Sole with orange brown butter; polenta with goat cheese and rosemary; caesar salad.