Day #231 - Chicken Salad Sandwich

Today I was in the mood for chicken salad.   I had some chicken breasts in the freezer, so I pulled them out and defrosted them.  I decided to poach the chicken, rather than sautee or bake it.   I put the chicken breasts at the bottom of a medium pot, added 2 cups of water, 1 chicken boullion cube, a palmful of dried herbs, and a few dashes of dried onion.   This combination added a nice flavor to the chicken breasts.

Once the chicken had cooked and cooled, I diced the breasts, mixed in some mayonnaise, crushed black pepper, and a little more of the same dried herbs and dried onion from the poaching liquid.

To build the sandwich, I spread a thin layer of chicken salad on two pieces of whole grain bread, topped both halves with swiss cheese, and put in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted.   To add a little extra kick (and since I didn't have any fresh tomatoes in the kitchen), I added a small bit of mild salsa.
Delicious!

Day #230 - Steak StirFry with Couscous

Tonight I decided to use up the leftover steak and throw together a simple stir-fry.   In a medium skillet, I melted a little margarine and started by sauteeing broccoli florets for a few minutes, until not quite tender.   I added some frozen snap peas and continued sauteeing.  Once the snap peas were thawed, I seasoned the vegetables with some crushed black pepper, Garam Masala seasoning, and soy sauce.   I let this cook down for a couple more minutes before removing the vegetables from the skillet, and then added the sliced steak.   I cooked the steak until it was heated thoroughly and starting to brown on all sides, then added the vegetables back in.

While all the vegetables and steak were cooking, I searched through my pantry for some rice.  I couldn't find any, but I did find a box of Garlic & Olive Oil Couscous.   That could work.   I cooked that in the microwave, according to the box directions.   The couscous ended up being a nice "bed" for the stir-fry, without overpowering the flavors.

Day #229 - You Call These Nachos?

Tonight I was really craving nachos.   However, I don't have any tortilla chips in the apartment.   I suppose I could have cut some tortilla shells into wedges and baked them to make chips, but I didn't want to wait that long.   I improvised, using saltine crackers as my nachos base.  I sprinkled some shredded Mexican-blend cheese on the crackers, and microwaved for 20 seconds so the cheese started to melt.  I then loaded it up with leftover taco meat, diced green pepper, tomato salsa, more shredded cheese, and topped with a few small dollops of Greek yogurt.    The Saltines didn't hold up very well under all the toppings, so I ended up using my fork to eat most of them.   But it took care of that nachos craving.

Day #228 - Chef Salad Bowl

When I made taco salad the other night, I cooked up two tortilla shell bowls.  Tonight I took the leftover bowl and used it for my large chef salad.   I chopped and layered romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, green bell pepper, and deli turkey breast in the tortilla bowl, drizzled with honey mustard dressing, and sprinkled with shredded mozzarella cheese.

Day #227 - Espresso Steak & Roasted Veggies

When I was at the Spice & Tea Exchange in San Francisco, I picked up a small bag of Espresso Steak Rub.  If you have been following my blog for a while, you might remember the Coffee-Marinated Pork Chops I prepared back on Day #100. Since those were a success, I had high hopes for this Steak Rub, which consisted of fresh pepper, ground espresso beans, kosher salt, garlic, cilantro, smoked paprika, and ancho chili powder.

I drizzled my steak with a little olive oil, sprinkled on the steak rub, rubbed the seasoning into the steak until well-coated, and then let it sit until room temperature.

Meanwhile, I had the oven preheating to 400 degrees, so I could roast some vegetables on the side.   I took red bell pepper slices, broccoli florets, and snap peas (thawed from the freezer), and tossed them with a little olive oil.   I spread the veggies  on  my stoneware baking pan, seasoned with a little salt & pepper, and roasted them in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they were tender and browned.  Since I had cut the vegetables somewhat small, they roasted pretty quickly. 

While the vegetables were roasting, I heated my stove-top grill pan to high, cooked the steak for a couple minutes on each side, then pulled it off the heat to rest.

Once the vegetables were roasted to perfection, I served up a nice mound of veggies onto my plate, cut off a few slices of steak, and enjoyed my dinner.


The steak rub added great flavor to the steak.  The espresso was not pronounced, but it did add a subtle richness with the smoky spice of the rub.   And the roasted vegetables were delicious as they always are - I ended up going back for seconds and thirds until I had eaten the whole pan.

Day #226 - Taco Salad

Mmmm... I love a good taco salad!!   I started by browning my ground beef, and adding in a packet of taco seasoning and some water.   I cooked the taco shell bowls by laying some flour tortillas over a couple of my ceramic (oven-safe) cereal bowls.  I snipped the tortilla shells on the quarter marks, just so it would take on the shape of the bowls a little more.  I cooked them at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes, then removed them from the oven.  I carefully flipped the tortilla bowls over, removed the cereal bowl, and then baked for another few minutes so the inside of the bowls would crisp up.   Once the fully-crisped tortilla bowls were ready, I added a thin layer of shredded Mexican-blend cheese at the bottom, then layered in the fillings: lettuce, tomato, green bell pepper, mild tomato-cilantro salsa, ground beef, and shredded cheese. 

Day #225 - Tomato Mozzarella Melt

Tonight's dinner was inspired by my friend, Anna.   Earlier I asked the question on Facebook, "What do I want for dinner tonight?"    Several of my friends responded, including Anna, who was having an open-faced, broiled tomato and cheese sandwich with garlic butter.   I saw her response shortly after leaving the grocery store, where I had just purchased some nice ripe tomatoes, so I figured it must be fate that I should also have a tomato & cheese sandwich.


I started by taking a whole grain Sandwich Round, spread on a little butter, and sprinkled it with some garlic salt.   Topped each half with tomato slices, which were seasoned with a garlic & peppercorn rub, added a handful of shredded Mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled with dried Italian herbs.  I baked this in my toaster oven for about 10-15 minutes at 250 degrees, just so the tomatoes would heat through.   I then switched the toaster oven to the "Medium Toast" cycle, which allowed the cheese to melt and the bottom of the bread to toast.  Delicious!!    Thanks for the suggestion, Anna!
With my tomato melts, I also had a small serving of Apple Chips, which I grabbed at the grocery store on a whim.