Lemon Basil Backup Plan

Last night I ended up getting some chicken sausage (easily the worst part of this meal, but it wasn't awful...just a little hotdoggy) and cooking it up with an onion, a whole lot of basil, juice from one lemon, about 3 tbsp of butter, some white wine, and some heavy cream.  Very similar to that thing I made during French week that I'm too lazy to find a link to right now.  It was yummy though.  Super quick, not terribly low-cal, but at least it was fresh.  All I wanted was fresh. 

It's a snow day here again, so lunch today should be creative.  Probably fried udon noodles again.  Yum yum yum.

MIA But Not Forgotten...

...one of these week's I'll stop pushing regions to the end of the list.  I swear.  It's just been one of those weeks...work has been crazy (I was up working until 1 am on Tuesday), it hasn't stopped snowing in like, 3 years, and I started training at the gym last night.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I haven't been this excited about anything in a really long time...look out Jillian Michaels, I'm coming for you. 

Seriously though, I've been cooking at home, it just hasn't been exciting (last night for example, I fried up some udon noodles for me, and made a pb&j for Nick). 

Tonight I won't get home until probably 8 PM, so I need something fast and healthy.  Suggestions?  Salad mixes won't cut it. 

Combined Efforts

I feel like I'm running into a meeting late, with papers and hair flying everywhere...sorry sorry sorry. It's been a heckuva week.  I'm going to combine the end of Moroccan week into one post, and remind everyone that it's Thai week and I'll do my best to have something exciting for you this evening...since I haven't even managed to eat yet today though, it doesn't look promising.

Saturday we had Moroccan grilled chicken...except that our grill is under 3 ft of snow, so we baked it. 

Nick applied the marinade while Kini watched with acute interest.

Baked at around 375ish for around an hour.  I also threw some carrots in and whipped up some brown rice.

And dinner was served.  Very yummy.

Last night we had Thursday's tagine.  I started it in the morning (see above) and snuck a peek in the evening (see below). 

Served over rice with toasted almonds and cilantro.  YUM! 

To the Women of the World, I Apologize

But the fact is, I married the best man of our generation. Possibly of the world.

Yesterday I woke up knowing for sure what I'd known (but wasn't willing to admit) on Tuesday...I have a cold. Not a huge, nasty, full-blown monster of a cold (thank God), just a really nasty throat cold. This is extremely familiar territory for me, but I actually haven't had one in a while...I got my tonsils out in college, so the odds went down considerably after that.

Enough of the TMI.

Anyway, last night, I was tired, achy, and knew I wouldn't sleep well because I never do with a hacking cough and an aching throat. So what did my man do? Looked up the recipe for hot totties online and whipped us up a batch.

 An ounce of whiskey, boiling water, a stick of cinnamon, 2 cloves, 2 spoons of honey, and a splash of lemon juice. 

 Cloves and cinnamon, steeping in the whiskey.

It was SO good.  We both slept like babies after that.  I love that man.

Oh, and dinner was pb&j because I didn't want to cook anything and we couldn't get out of the driveway.

How Tagine Saved Christmas

Or at least a snow day.

Nick usually works from home on Tuesdays, so I did some prep work on the first crockpot tagine and asked him to start it for us so it'd be ready for dinner last night.  Unfortunately, he really does WORK from home, so it didn't end up in the crock pot until nearly 7 last night, making 10 PM the earliest we could have eaten it.  Suffice it to say, I made us a workaround meal (pasta) while drooling over this teasingly undercooked tagine he'd put together.

Around 11, we called it done and put it in the fridge to save for today, which happens to be the first day we've been completely snowed in together.

Enter lunch:

It's marvelous.  The apricots (which I don't usually like) picked up the spices and flavors in a wonderful way, and the whole thing smells divine.  I had some toast with it, and it was the perfect cold day meal.  Yum.




Tagine

Moroccan Meatballs

This dish was pretty good.  I thought the meatballs were a little dry, but Nick liked them...we have different tastes in how dry is too dry for meat though (he loves a big ol' chicken breast, which is just the blanded, driest sounding thing in the world to me...he hates thigh meat though, which I think sounds delish). 

Simmering.

Tempting the puppy with meatbally deliciousness.  It had a little kick but not so much that I couldn't eat it (which probably meant it really tasted like cardboard, since my tastebuds are definitively anti-spicy), and worked really well over pasta. Wish I'd had some good crusty bread to go with it though! Oh, and that's provolone on the side.  I tried that with it, and it was meh.  I actually found myself craving a little sour cream with it...go figure.  We didn't have any though, so no verdict. 

Udon Noodles and Peanut Sauce: The Most Colorful Dish in A While

In an effort to use up some of the last of the Japanese week leftovers, last night I made Udon Peanut Butter Noodles. Kind of a quick 'n' easy version of Pad Thai almost.  It was super good and SUPER fast.  Using rotisserie chicken made it ridiculously quick to put together.  I used 16 oz of noodles (the recipe calls for 9) and half a red pepper, and there was still a LOT of sauce.  I think I could have lived with half the sauce, to be honest.  I also used water instead of chicken stock, and low-sodium soy sauce, and it still seemed a little salty to me.  But maybe that's just me.  Regardless, udon noodles are yummy and have a fun texture.  I'd make them again. 

Of course, Kini was just miserable about this dish...peanut butter covered chicken??  Poor puppy didn't get so much as a lick!