Dinner day 8

No photos on this one sorry...

I am not a beef eater but I love tacos! So my answer is ground turkey instead of beef. You have to tweek it a bit since the turkey is much leaner. I like to add a bit of tomato paste and cook the turkey in a bit of oil. I add the paste for texture as well as flavor. Then I add in the envelope of taco seasoning. I know I should make up my own mix but there are so many good ones out there already. I don't always like to reinvent the wheel, if I don't have to.

When reviewing taco seasoning mixes I look for msg and tbhq. I don't want either of these things in my body. Also the other deal breaker is high fructose corn syrup. I love my sugars don't get me wrong but I avoid that stuff like the plague!

When searching for taco shells, I really love the crunchy ones, I do look for nongmo, no lard, no tbhq, and usually organic or blue corn. White corn is non gmo so I get that kind of tortilla chips too!
I use romaine lettuce and shredded cheese. Usually I have fresh tomatoes and an avocado to chop on top, not this time. But this was still a tasty meal because we had lots of chips and salsa and from Trader Joes I purchased frozen chili and cheese tamales. Wow what a treat they were tasty and easy to prepare. Yum! I highly recommend these!

Dinner day 7

Hey folks, have you ever made something and were so stinking proud of it? Holy moly that is how I feel about this dinner. It was a bit processed and a bit homemade. It was a dinner of jasmine rice, thanks to Patti Davis sending me out to sea with a big bag of it, veggies and tofu in a Trader Joes Masala simmer sauce and Naan.  I made the naan. That's right, baking aboard again. I have never made this aboard and I think I have found a new favorite. There are some hazards and pitfalls but it would be an adventure without them!

So the recipe...
4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup water

Mix the first 3 ingredients then mix the yogurt with the water and add it to the dry ingredients. Mix together and then knead for 5 minutes add in a bit of flour if it is totally sticky. Then place in a well oiled bowl and let rest for 1 hour or more. Turn on grill and get it hot, like 500' hot. Then pull off golf ball sized or larger sized balls of dough and roll out on a cutting board. Bring to grill and grill on one side till you see bubbles on the top then flip. Cook on the other side half as long. I am being vague on purpose as the time changed as the grill got hotter and hotter.

If you over cook them they get really tough and chewy but are wonderful the next day. Very forgiving.
As for the rest of the meal, the jasmine rice is just great for a 2 to 1 ratio with a bit of salt. Nice and sticky great for leftovers. To a sauce pan I added some oil, cut up tofu, diced onion, cauliflower that I cut into florettes.  I sauteed them for about 7 minutes added the broccoli and simmer sauce. I cooked it for 10 more minutes. The rice and veggies were done at the same time. I turned off the heat and let them sit while I tackeled the naan. It was a bit of orchestration but what a hit.  The meal needed a bit of something and friends of ours Kat Tripplet and Charles Jordan were just married and their give to the guests was some homemade peach jam. It was the best on the naan with the meal. It was as if it were a chutney rounding the meal out perfectly. Thanks Kat and Charles!

Dinner day 5 and 6

Day 5 was spent in Beaufort, Sc we walked around went to a few shops. We were treated very well at the chocolate tree. I got the sea salt dark chocolate covered caramel. OMG it is sooooo good. The salt is not overwhelming and the vanilla is pronounced in the caramel which is thick and very chewy. The chocolate is not bitter but has a great flavor without too many additives. No waxy aftertaste. We went to Luthers for dinner they had half priced hamburgers and heaters. It was so warm inside. It was hard to leave after dinner was over but back to the boat we went.
 
Day 6 we had Ceasar salad and gnocchi with red sauce.  There is not much to say about this dinner except I did learn a helpful hint. When the gnocchi is just done, they do not all cook at the same rate they will float to the top. Skim the ones off the top and set into your serving bowl keep going and when you are done shed parm cheese on top pour on your sauce and you have a quick and delish dinner. I was scared of gnocchi and tried them at a cooking class. So happy I did, they are a new favorite!

Dinner day 4

I made vegetarian onion soup. It was not my favorite recipe  To do it over I would omit the thyme and beer. I would use vegetable stock adding in nutritional yeast. I would also add flour to the caramelized onions for the mouth feel since I am omitting beef stock.

The recipe that I got off epicurious.com is called Belgian onion soup.  I sliced up 5 onions, just so you know this makes 4 servings, and placed them in my saucepan on med heat with 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. I was skeptical of this from the get go. The onions overwhelmed the pan. I left them alone as the recipe said to do. Stirring every 5 minutes for at least 20 minutes. The onions browned, caramelized in 25 minutes and were one fourth the size. Amazing! So then I added in 3 cloves of sliced garlic and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the dried thyme. I cooked them again with the same stirring every 5 minutes till the garlic browns. It took 15 minutes. I poured in a beer and let it reduce by half. Then adding in 1 quart mushroom stock and letting that reduce . The soup is then quite thick.  At this point you should let it sit 24 hours I had 2 hours. So, I spooned the soup into ramekins topped it with sliced bread and Swiss cheese and popped it under the broiler.
I thought it was pretty good but it was bitter. The combo of beer and thyme was not nice. Not a total fail but at least I tried something new. Please try this but tweek it, no beer, no thyme, add in flour to coat the caramelized onions maybe 2 tablespoons.
 
I also used the leftover rice to make rice cakes. I took the rice and made patties golf ball sized then rolled it in bread crumbs and freshly grated parm cheese. Then saute them in oil. Great idea but the rice I had made was not sticky enough. It became fried rice scramble. It was delish but not pretty.

Dinner day 2

Last night we pulled into a marina just north of the South Carolina border. We have been having engine issues and according to my weather research we were in the path of an intense thunderstorm. I was very happy. I knew that the engine would need to cool off before jeff could work on it and I would be evicted from the galley when that happened. I needed a dinner that I could fix and basically forget. Eggplant Parm was my solution.

I took fresh eggplant sliced it up and roasted in the oven at 350' for 15 minutes, yellow onions sliced and salted then roasted in the oven for the same time. Meanwhile, I used a fork and whisked nearly a pound of tofu with 3 cloves of fresh garlic some rosemary and thyme and pepper. I poured in some marinara sauce in the bottom of my pan layered the eggplant then tofu then sliced mushrooms, fresh spinach, eggplant, onion, more sauce and shredded mozzarella. I placed that in the hot oven for 15 minutes then turned off the oven. It would cook while I waited to able to get into the galley again. I lightly broiled the top so the cheese crisped up but really oven time was 45 min. I could have put the veggies all in raw and cooked it for 45 minutes but I feel like the eggplant gets soggy and gross and I knew I made enough for lunch today. Plus roasting the eggplant you don't need to salt it first to draw out the bitterness. It cooks out.

I hope this inspires you to use what's in your pantry and cook up something yummy tonight!

Dinner day 3

Tangerine scented black beans over mango studded rice with mushroom spinach arugula quesodillas. Now that's what I call dinner

Ok ream or squeeze one tangerine remove pits. Open 2 cans of seasoned black beans do not drain. Open one can of fire roasted green chilies. Add everything to a saucepan and heat. Taste you may want to add cumin.

Sautee in oil onions then green peppers then garlic then rice sautee until fragrant. Add water and a dash of salt. When boiling turn down heat add mango stir and cook till done.

Well, I made up this one and the mango did not shine through as much as I had hoped. Which ended up being ok since the beans with the fresh tangeine juice were so good!

So there you have it another fail but thank goodnes as it would have been overpowering. If I were to do this rice again I would use fresh mango adding it in with fresh lime juice after the cooking and would garnish heavily with cilantro and not add the tangerine juice to the beans. The arugula while faint added a nice bitterness. Enjoy!