Dinner from Three Boxes...

Sometimes, you get home at 8:30, and you want dinner, and you're not quite desperate enough for the ever classy bowl of cereal and glass of wine gourmet combo. Thankfully someone invented Trader Joes, which is fully equipped to let you feel like you're cooking something wholesome with the absolute bare minimum effort. Witness: dinner from 3 boxes. (ok, ok, fine. technically some of them are bags. that just doesn't have a good ring to it).

Now, for the very complex ingredient list:

(plus a sliced mango. because sometimes if you go to the store when you're tired and hungry, you somehow end up dazed and void of willpower, wandering in the mango section).

Here is what you do:
1. Throw the chicken on the BBQ (or oven according to package directions)
2. Throw the bag of rice in the microwave.
3. Heat a little sesame oil and ginger or garlic in a pan (I used ginger paste in a jar which is now my staple way of getting ginger), and cook the green beans for however long it takes for the meat to be done (not long).
4. Slice the mango.

and... voila!

 

The curry chicken tenders aren't quite my favorite of the marinated TJ meats, because I was hoping for them to be a little bit saucier, but the flavor was pretty good, and they cooked fast, so I was happy.

ps. there MAY have been a fourth box, which I can highly, highly recommend...

Korean Beef Salad

I posted a few months ago about my Korean Fusion Tacos- inspired by the many L.A. taco trucks and helped along by Trader Joes- since then they've become a staple feature at our barbecues and are always a hit.

The first thing I want to tell you are a few modifications I've made since the original post... the core of the recipe is still the same- TJs Bool Kogi Beef, and some flatbread. There is a subtle difference in the toppings, though... the broccoli slaw is still fine, but I've taken to using English/hothouse cucumbers which I slice thin using a grater. Toss on some rice vinegar, a little sesame oil, and some red pepper flakes. In a seperate bowl, thinly slice red onions and marinate in the same stuff. Then chop a little cilantro. And... assemble!

Now we have: Tacos, 2.0

What we have here are day after remnants, in a sort of deconstructed taco, salad-like form. It was pretty much just a way for me to use up the leftover meat and cucumber, but actually, it was delish. I warmed the meat a little because this meat is just not that good completely cold, but that contrasted really well with the chilled tart cucumbers. This would be a really nice summer meal (or, if you live here, and its 90 in October, a really nice meal for a blazing hot fall evening). Try it!

Squash Fries!

In yet another squash themed post, I present to you a super fast weeknight meal that is truly easy to just throw together in 20 minutes from deciding to do it to eating at the table.

The squash is another in my list of new-to-me summer squash varieties from the CSA box. This one is patty pan, or scallop squash. I'll give it this, it is the cutest one yet- it looks like a cross between a flower and a space ship, and that is something you don't see every day. Also, it has now been in my fridge for almost 2 weeks (in a ziplock bag in the crisper drawer) and it held up beautifully.

I cut it into lengthwise strips, about the size of thick cut french fries. These were pretty large (I think sometimes this variety can be fairly small) so it worked well.

I used just a little bit of my fancy butter (from the coconut cupcakes) since I have to do something with it (2/3 of a pound are in the freezer, for some special occasion, but I have about a quarter of a stick worth sitting around, so why not), a chopped clove of garlic, salt and pepper, and just a tiny sprinkly of dried rosemary. I just pan fried the squash and let it get a little brown. Summer squash and rosemary is one of my absolute favorite combination and is probably the way I most frequently eat it (although, usually it is steamed).

I had this with the now staple food item of Trader Joes chipotle chicken skewers, just because they are so easy! Over all, it was a quick, easy, and 95% healthy dinner. Yum!