Broccoli Slaw

My version of broccoli slaw with shredded chicken makes an easy lunch to munch on at work.

Jewelled Salad

Last night's impromptu salad (I am clearing out the fridge) yielded this lovely creation. Your favorite salad mix + valencia orange segments + avocado + figs = jewelled salad. A light, fruity vinaigrette made with the juice of your orange, extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, kosher salt and pepper to taste.

Grilled!

Summer grilled beans! Few things are more simple and snack-worthy than long, crispy green beans grilled with olive oil and tossed with a squeeze of lemon and sea salt. While they're grilling, mix 1 part sriracha with 4 parts mayo for a spicy dipping sauce. YES.

Quickies

Here's a crappy picture of a completely uncrappy Cobb salad I made with the scraps of proscuitto and blue goat cheese from the BC Day long weekend. I was so famished, I hastily took the pic before I devoured this.


Forgot to talk about how refreshing Zaru Soba is in the summer heat, served cold. These are the green tea buckwheat noodles. Easy peasy.

Green Salad

I got sidetracked just when I began my Arugula week. Instead, here's an impromptu spring salad with lightly blanched asparagus, green bean and defrosted frozen peas. Toss with baby spinach, thin slices of cucumber (I used Japanese mini cukes), chopped dill, a few glugs of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. And some generous splashes of lemon juice.

Arugula: Weeknight Spaghetti

I think this week will arugula week, all because I bought a box of baby arugula and I'm trying to use it all up. Dinner tonight was a simple spaghetti with pesto, garlic and wilted arugula. Some butter while sauteing the garlic, and some parmesan to top it all off in the end. I also tend to use a pinch of nutmeg in non-tomato-based sauces, which I did here.

Chicken Asparagus Salad

Maybe it was because I was feeling a little under the weather today, maybe it was the rain finally reappearing after weeks of sun....but when I finally tossed everything together for this salad, I nearly fainted from the deliciousness. Using a roast chicken from Safeway cut back on a big chunk of time, so dinner was done in under half an hour. The salad can be served hot or cold, which makes it a good lunch for work the next day.

Asparagus and Almond Salad with Chicken from Breakfast Lunch Tea - The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery

Serves 6
- 18 asparagus spears, trimmed
- 1 handful of whole almonds, skinned
- 6 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- extra virgin olive oil, for frying chicken
- salt and ground black pepper
- arugula, for garnish

For the dressing
- 2 shallots, finely diced
- 4 tbsps red wine vinegar
- 2 large handfuls chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- salt and ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Place asparagus in simmering water and cook for about 5 minutes until the spears are just cooked. Drain and set aside to cool. Meanwhile, place almonds in a roasting pan with a little olive oil and roast for about 15 minutes--until they're golden. Set aside to cool. Fry or grill the chicken breasts until they are cooked through. Season with salt & pepper.

Cut the asparagus into 3 - 4 cm pieces. Slice the chicken breasts diagonally into four or five pieces (I just hand shredded them). I also decided to chop up the almonds as well. Make the dressing by combining the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, adding oil at the end. Carefully fold in the chicken, asparagus and almonds into the dressing and garnish with arugula.

Tomatos and Fish

Inspired by this post for an easy fish meal, I made a simple snapper meal last night. Using:

- chunks of fresh snapper
- about 2 cups grape tomatos, halved
- 2 large shallots
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- a giant handful of pre-washed baby spinach
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 2 tbsps of tomato paste
- olive oil
- dash of dried oregano
- salt, pepper

Heat the olive oil in a skillet on med-high heat, then crush the cloves of garlic and throw them in. As it gets fragrant, thinly slice the shallots and throw them in, stirring until they get translucent. After that, the tomatos and then let the mix sautee slowly until the tomatos get really broken down and mushy. Add tomato paste, salt, freshly cracked pepper, oregano and keep stirring and add a more oil if needed. After about 10 more minutes, add the white wine (this is always my favorite part because I just love the splashy, bubbling sound it makes). While it's reducing, quickly blanch the spinach in a small pot of lightly salted water. Drain and remove the spinach as soon as the leaves get bright green. Set aside. Return to the skillet and throw in the snapper, turning the pieces around every so often to make sure it cooks evenly. It shouldn't take more than another 5 minutes, because you don't want dry, overcooked fish. Scoop the mixture onto a bed spinach and serve.

This would be great using a whole fish, and another good variation on the recipe would be to use lots of fennel instead of oregano.

Lunch Salad

I made a big bowl of this for lunch today, and I think a smaller portion of this would also be really nice with a bowl of fish chowder. Using a mix of frissee, arugula and curly lettuce, I added strips of proscuitto and a light mustard-y vinaigrette (extra virgin olive oil + teaspoon of dijon mustard + dash of sherry vinegar + 1 squeeze of lemon juice + sprinkle of sugar and sea salt). Tossed with some parmesan & herb croutons (a stale whole wheat baguette cut into cubes, tossed with olive oil, powdered parmesan cheese and oregano, then baked). Top off with a poached egg and lots of pepper.

Green Beans & Leeks

One more belated post! Last week I happened to see some great looking off-season green beans at my local market, so I didn't hesitate to make 101 Cookbook's green bean recipe, which I've been dying to try. I decided to toss in some cooked quinoa to the mix, making it an easy lunch to bring to work the next day.

Eggs & Kale on Bread

I love eggs on bread. So when work dismissed us early due to the snowstorm today, I raced home to make one of my favorite lunches--eggs and boiled kale on bread. Taken from the always wonderful posts at Orangette, I indulgently made this as a late lunch for myself today. No shortcuts for this one--don't skip out any steps when making this relatively simple meal, because it's oh so worth it. My preferred bread for this is Country Rye. It's toothsome, chewy texture makes it also a great munching bread for dipping in oil and vinegar. In Vancouver, you can pick this up at Swiss Bakery on E. 3rd Ave and Main St.

Wakame Salad

I grew up enjoying the ocean-y taste and slippery yet crunchy texture of seaweed, and a nice little bowl of wakame salad makes a refreshing snack. I adapted this from Mark Bittman's recipe for seaweed salad with cucumber. I took out the minced shallots and cayenne in the original recipe, instead adding a dash of shichimi spice. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and let marinate overnight. This also makes for a delicious side during the summer.

- 1 oz assorted seaweed
- 2-3 Japanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- splash of mirin
- splash of sesame oil
- pinch of sea salt
- generous sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds

Proscuitto-wrapped Snapper with Greens

Belated post--I made an impromptu recipe to clean out my fridge. I had a quarter of an onion left in my fridge, which I chopped and sauteed with a clove of garlic. While that was cooking, I used two last pieces of proscuitto to wrap a small fillet of snapper. Sprinkle some pepper and top with the leftover dill in my fridge that would start to wilt soon. I threw this in the pan with some juice from half a lemon and covered it. After the fish was ready, I threw in a bunch of pre-washed baby spinach, pinch of salt, and stirred it with the onions for two minutes. 20 minutes for a meal and a cleaned-out fridge.

Crispy Kale

One of the easiest and healthiest sides I regularly make is the baked kale from Michael Pollan's salmon recipe on Martha Stewart. Once you've got your oven pre-heated, it takes no more than ten minutes to prepare and cook. I like sprinkling some paprika on the leaves before baking. These turn out so crispy, they taste almost fried, like delicate chips.