How are we feeling this week? Or whenever you and yours start back to school (if you do)?
Our district starts today, and Beck goes next week but we’re deep in prep for the big day. Beck has asked weekly when school is starting back since it let OUT in May, and now is up to asking about three times per day if tomorrow is the first day of school. She loves it, and I love that. …
What do you watch while you eat dinner?
Do not tell me that you talk to other people. I won’t hear it.
…Today in Quick Dinners With Four-ish Ingredients:
And also What To Do With Baked Tofu!
This is a dinner that I made specifically to pair with the baked tofu from Monday, and one that we make all the time. We love Thai food, and Thai green curry is something that I order almost every time I go to a Thai restaurant.
Curry, though, can take some time to simmer and build flavors. I love doing that BUT definitely only on weekends. Weekdays aren’t the time to add little pinches of this and that or be dealing with whole lemongrass and jalapenos, nope. So THIS Thai Curry is the polar opposite in terms of effort: Vegetables, coconut milk, green curry paste. Full stop, done and done.
…Oh hi, summer.
My basil plant is doing GREAT this year, in a new sunny spot from years past, so prepare yourself for a gazillion “but it’s seasonal” basil-using recipes. You’ll get no apologies from me on that one.
I’ve been playing around with broiled chicken more, and after a few tries I’m definitely liking the method for a few reasons. It’s super quick and doesn’t smell up the house OR require walking outside to get to the grill, two things that can be a deterrent for me sometimes. This particular broiled lemon chicken is broiled on just one side because the pieces of chicken are super thin. If you don’t feel like cutting the chicken pieces in half (or buying thin-cut chicken) you don’t have to, just flip the chicken and broil on the second side.
This entire meal is done in half an hour or even less if you make the basil sauce another day as part of meal prep. Let’s do it!
…Obviously healthy enough for what we’re trying to do this January.
One thing I’ve been trying really hard to do since having Will is find a balance between 1. complicated meals that I love to make but take forever and trash the kitchen and 2. takeout. I know that seems dumb, but I’m never the one to look for “super quick and easy weeknight meals!” I don’t mind eating at 9pm, I love cooking, and it mostly works for me.
Until, of course, it doesn’t. Will has been taking a longer stretch of sleep (like…two hours, don’t get too excited) in the late evenings, so if we eat at nine and go to bed around 11pm I’m missing a lot of that good sleep. Then homeboy wakes up sometimes every hour at night, I’m exhausted and forgetful and irritable and honestly the fun crazy dinners are mostly not worth that.
So the quest is to find quick dinners that are actually GOOD, and this is definitely that. It’s sweet potato gnocchi that boils in four minutes, during which time we saute some spinach with so.much.garlic. aka my favorite way to eat spinach. Then the gnocchi gets a brown butter + sage bath because we’ve earned it, and dinner is ready in FIFTEEN MINUTES, tastes like something from a fancy restaurant. You need this in your life, trust me.
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