On Our Table: Dinners of December, Part One
Looking back on the first half of December, and being amidst the first snowstorm of the season, I’m fondly thinking of all of our dinners that were, in a word, cozy. The word “cozy” can mean many different things when it comes to food; some reserve it only for baking dishes overflowing with homemade mac-and-cheese. Some say cozy can only be applied to hearty soups.
However, I am of the belief that the term “cozy” applies to any and all meals that make you feel like you’ve been enveloped in joy. Can you be covered by a feeling? Sure! Let’s go with it. The dinners we’ve made so far in December are meals to make you feel joy and each one was just so, so good.
I have linked key ingredients and recipes when available. I hope you find some (holiday season) dinnertime inspiration from these meals and that even just one of them brings you some (delicious) joy.
Note: this post may include affiliate links. I will only recommend items I trust and enjoy. Thank you.
Penne with Kale, Tomatoes, and Sausage
One of our favorite meals gets enhanced with chopped plum tomatoes, red onion, and a hearty shower of Parmesan. Make this dish with the excellent, and locally-owned, Pig Rock Sausages Hot Italian Sausage.
BBQ CHICKEN WITH ROASTED CAULIFLOWER
Craving BBQ at home? Cook boneless, skinless chicken with a jar of Stubb’s BBQ Sauce, add a side of pickles, and there you go! Quick to cook and majorly delicious. We paired ours with roasted cauliflower, which didn’t really go, but we made it work. ;)
MEATLESS FOOTBALL NACHOS
For me, nothing goes better with football than a giant platter of homemade nachos. And the best part of making them at home is that you can top them as you please!
We went the meatless route for this version, but added plenty of shredded cheese, diced tomatoes and onion, and a lot of avocado. Lately, our nacho chip of choice is the local brand Mi Niña, which makes fantastic tortilla chips.
STUFFED SWEET POTATOES AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS
One of the best dinners involving sweet potatoes is to roast and then top them with a lime-based yogurt sauce and a sautéed mix of meat and veggies. So delicious! And very versatile.
Here, ours included ground turkey and peppers, but we have made them with beef, pork, or even spicy sausage. So many options. We added a side of Brussels sprouts for some extra green on the plate.
RED COCONUT CURRY CHICKEN AND PEPPERS
Happy to report that red coconut curry is one of my favorite dinners and one of the coziest meals on this menu. This dish can be made with any number of veggies and works nicely with a protein of your choice. We tend to make it with chicken, but I love it equally with shrimp.
The original recipe, which we’ve made countless times (and uses shrimp), is from the excellent cookbook Dinner by Melissa Clark.
philly cheesesteak skillet
If there is only one meal you make from this guide, let it be this one. Without a doubt, one of the most delicious dishes we’ve made and I salivate just typing out its title. I love a cheesesteak and this somewhat healthier option (no roll) is just as awesome and perhaps even more flavorful. Yes, we added extra cheese, but who wouldn’t? It’s divine.
In case you’re curious, this dinner would be amazing for lunch too; I’ve been told the leftovers are scrumptious. Get the recipe, via All the Healthy Things, below.
Spiced Meatballs and Chickpeas
Meatballs are never a bad idea. I unabashedly love them and repeatedly proclaim them to be a weeknight dinner winner. This great recipe is for lamb meatballs which are ridiculously flavorful when cooked in a spiced tomato sauce. The side of chickpeas (we chose to crisp them in olive oil) is a terrific accompaniment.
Five stars for this meatball main course. The recipe is by David Tanis and we found it within the New York Times Cooking app.
roasted sweet potato and chickpea salad with wild rice
My creativity for salads can only go so far so these days so my favorite method for sprucing up an otherwise basic bowl of greens and veggies is to do two things.
One, mix in a grain! I love adding wild rice to salads during the winter. It makes the dish warm, cozy, and more filling. Salads are filling of course, but if they’re meatless, then I do need something else in there to feel full.
Second, pick a delicious dressing! Even if I’m not creative with the main ingredients that’s not a problem when it’s all mixed with an excellent dressing. This one had a Mustard-Herb vinaigrette from What’s Gaby Cooking and it turned a regular salad into something extra-special for a weeknight.
Farfalle with meat-sauce marinara
I’m definitely not the first one to tell you that meat-sauce-and-pasta is a great weeknight meal. However, let me offer you this grain of wisdom to take your meat-sauce above and beyond a “weeknight level” of goodness.
Sauté together diced carrots, celery, and onion (sounds like a soup, right?) before adding the meat, and then de-glaze the pan with red wine while it’s all in there, then let the wine reduce before adding the tomato sauce (we used a jar of Rao’s for this one). OMG this dish was so far superior to our meat sauce nights of the past. I loved it.
For the record, we always use Jovial Foods gluten free pasta. This dish featured their farfalle (bow-ties).
pepperoni, mushroom, and olive pizza
Weekends call for pizza and on a recent Friday night we decided pizza was the answer for dinner. Not in the mood to prepare our usual from-scratch crust, we opted for another great option: a frozen crust from Against the Grain Gourmet. They are delicious and excellent for last-minute pizza-making needs.
Our pizza was topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives, which happens to be one of my new go-to topping combos. Remember: invest in a pizza stone for your oven so that your crusts (homemade or not) come out perfectly crispy every time.
HOT PEPPER BEEF
One of my other favorite meals that calls for thinly-sliced skirt steak is this dish, Hot Pepper Beef, from the incredible cookbook Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge by Grace Young. It would be a wonderful gift for the stir-fry-fan in your life.
This dish is so flavorful and really delicious without actually being too spicy. The colors are festive so it’s a great dish for the season. We’ve made this dinner several times and each time I have it, I enjoy it even more.
Thai-style Sweet and Salty Shrimp
Shrimp is another great protein to cook with during the holidays. It cooks so quickly and can be used in countless recipes. Our most-recent shrimp dish discovery was this meal which included a sweet/savory sauce and plenty of shrimp.
We enhanced the recipe by including bok choy and serving it with brown rice noodles. So good! I’m always happy to find a new, delicious shrimp dinner. I discovered this one on the New York Times Cooking app.
shrimp scampi burger with roasted potatoes
Alert the masses! Shrimp scampi burgers are the protein you never knew you needed! We included these gluten free shrimp scampi burgers in our latest North Coast Seafoods order and I’m so glad we did! They are delicious! Perfect on their own, without a bun, served on a bed of spinach, alongside a pile of roasted potatoes.
The burgers arrive frozen so be sure to defrost them in the fridge prior to cooking. We sautéed them in a cast iron pan with a bit of olive oil. Cook them on medium-high until browned on both sides and the shrimp turn pink. Potatoes on the side are optional, but uh, why skip those? ;)
chicken, broccoli, fusilli
Rounded out the first half of December with this classic dish, Chicken, Broccoli, Ziti (fusilli), which is as delicious as I had remembered.
The key to making this potentially-bland meal full of deliciousness? Plenty of parmesan, garlic, chicken stock, and cornstarch to make it a little saucy. Also, we cooked the chicken and broccoli with shallots - another key ingredient.
There are many recipes out there for this dish, but I have provided one that most-closely resembles the meal we made. Seth improvises often when making dinner, but I hope this recipe can help!
ENJOY!
Mollie and Seth (and Athens!)
@glutenfreemollied