Vacation Cooking
February 21, 2011
I’m going to handle meals on the fly this week, since the boys are off from school and we’ll be more flexible with both our eating times and locations. They’ve requested Baked Ziti one night, so I’ll make that. I’ll have to go food shopping first, because my fridge is really empty! But, we do have a nice store of homemade food in our freezer: 16 Bean Soup with Flanken, J.’s Smoked Beef Ribs, Vegetarian Mushroom Barley Soup, and Moroccan Beef Meatballs in Cumin & Coriander Tomato Sauce.
I also cut out a batch of recipes from the March 2011 issue of Cooking Light magazine — I am excited for some hearty, new meatless or low-on-meat ideas. The only problem is they’ll be a long-shot in terms of the boys eating them. And, when I handed J. the stack of recipes to see which he’d like me to make first, he said “None of them.” Boo! Everyone is raining on my new recipe parade. Still, I think they’re worth sharing in case you have more receptive families:
- Chicken Fried Rice: one of my favorite Chinese take-out dishes, with a more reasonable nutritional profile;
- Vegetarian Moussaka: subs bulgur for the ground beef, making it both vegetarian and kosher;
- Artichoke and Goat Cheese Strata: would be lovely for brunch;
- Green Chile Tamale Pie: a Mark Bittman recipe using just 2 oz. of ground beef per serving; and
- Chickpea Chili: slow cooker recipe using dried chickpeas, green olives, and golden raisins.
If you make any of these recipes, please let me know how you like them. Or, invite me over for dinner. I’ll leave my family at home.
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Filed under: Meal Planning,Recipes
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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5 Comments
1.
Aunt Barbara | February 21, 2011 at 2:40 pm
The veg moussaka looks tempting. I will try it one of these days. Not today: company for lunch & different company for dinner. This is my 5-min. sit-down.
Dara Reply:
February 21st, 2011 at 2:54 pm
I’m going to make it for my parents! The idea of bulger instead of ground meat is very interesting to me.
2.
Sarah | February 22, 2011 at 10:35 pm
The Chicken Fried Rice sounds delicious and I have nearly all of those ingredients handy in the house. The kids have been asking me to make fried rice for them and this recipe could be the winner. I’ll let you know if I make it.
Thanks for sharing
3.
Cindy | February 27, 2011 at 6:17 pm
I recently made a vegetable fried rice for my family and they all loved it. I got the recipe from Ellie Krieger (Food Network). It uses brown rice, edamame, corn, egg, etc. The only complaint I got was that the little boy doesn’t like the little green things (scallions). The kids even asked me to add peas and carrots next time!
Dara Reply:
February 27th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
The problem I’m going to have is that my kids don’t like rice much to begin with. A. will occasionally eat it, but G. won’t touch it. And then I will wind up eating too much of it when they decide not to!