Just A Really Delicious Week (Week 17)
We have so many exciting things to discuss today! And I’m not talking about the weather. Not only am I sharing with you all of our delicious meals from last week, but I have two announcements. *Cue the fanfare.*
First up, and probably the biggest website news, RECIPES are coming! Yes, you patiently waited, and waited, and we are now going to make everyone happy by featuring recipes here on the blog. Don’t rush over to them yet, they’re not quite ready, but I’d suggest keeping an eye on the site, and social media, so you can check them out as soon as I hit “publish.”
New dishes will be added regularly and we will be featuring simple, few-ingredient meals that are perfect for weeknight cooking. I can’t wait for you to see our recipes.
Second, I’d like to announce a new partnership with North Coast Seafoods, which is a local seafood distributor here in Boston. They offer all kinds of seafood, and shellfish, which can be delivered to your door, overnight! Yes, place your order Monday-Thursday to receive your shipment next day. Even better? Enter the code GLUTENFREEMOLLIE at checkout and receive 15% off your order.
We’ve been cooking with North Coast Seafoods’ Naked fish for a while and it is top-notch. Plus, it’s frozen so if you don’t want to eat it immediately, then it can wait safely in the freezer. Place your order today!
Now that we’ve talked news, it’s now time to talk food. Last week was just really, really delicious. I can’t explain it any other way. We made so many awesome meals, each unique in their own way, and I’d highly recommend making any or all of them.
As always, if we used a specific recipe, it’s linked below. For our original recipes, stay tuned. They will be coming soon!
Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wraps
Method for cooking pork tenderloin can be found here.
My love for lettuce-wrap-dinners is quite strong and I’d most certainly make them most nights of the week. They’re easy to put together and always filled with something flavorful and delicious. This time around we made them with marinated and sliced pork tenderloin (cut it very thin and cook in batches), jasmine rice, fresh cilantro, and crushed peanuts. Wowza.
Of course, this style of meal is easily made with any protein of your choosing, but I do think the pork tenderloin is especially excellent for this version. The flavor is savory and mildly spicy, which is a great combination with the thinly-sliced, wok-prepared pork.
And of course, the best part of making lettuce wraps for dinner is that you will always overfill the wrap and everything will fall out onto your plate on the first bite. That’s OK. Just grab a fork. :)
Chickpea and Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
For the nights when you want to make a more-filling salad, but make it meatless, let me introduce you to one of our favorite combinations. This bowl had a base of greens topped with a couple raw veggies (green peppers and cucumbers) and two cooked components (crispy chickpeas and roasted sweet potatoes). This mix of ingredients provided a great balance of cold, warm, and crunchy, not to mention delicious!
I think adding roasted cubes of sweet potato may be one of our best “discoveries” for our salads. Of course, we did not invent this idea, but I’m so glad we tried it once way back, because now we are hooked. Sweet potatoes are a nutritious, flavorful food and they add great “oomph” to an otherwise lackluster bowl of greens.
Beyond that, crispy chickpeas are just an essential when it comes to salad nights around here. We’re featuring our recipe soon and I cannot recommend them enough. They’re easy to make and add protein to meatless meals. Plus, they are so yummy! Even if we had meat in a salad, I still may include these chickpeas. They’re just that good.
Take your salad plate to a whole new level by adding a great dressing! We made a creamy, slightly spicy peanut dressing for this dish and it was the perfect compliment to the warm, and cold, ingredients. We’ll share the recipe soon!
BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Recipe by All the Healthy Things.
Here is another great way to use sweet potatoes! Stuff them! This recipe was fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough. It was very easy to prepare and the flavors were phenomenal. Make that BBQ chicken in the slow cooker, roast the potatoes in the oven, and quickly whip up the coleslaw. Ta da! A bold, delicious meal with minimal effort and maximum enjoyment. For this recipe, just make sure to purchase BBQ sauce that’s labeled gluten free (most should be good to go).
We loved this dinner (and all of the recipes we’ve made from this site) because they’re always ridiculously flavorful without having to stand by the stove for hours. This one in particular was very hands-off and we learned how to make awesome coleslaw from scratch!
Seth, who previously was very much “not a fan” of coleslaw in general has deemed this one “excellent” and is now looking for all sorts of other meals to make that could include this coleslaw. He loved it!
Sweet potatoes stuffed with BBQ chicken and coleslaw: a meal I never would have thought of on my own and I’m so glad we discovered it via this site. I can’t wait to enjoy it again!
Taco Salad with Corn Chips
We’ve been making a burrito bowl of some sort each week lately and this time around we added some greens and calling it a salad. A taco salad, to be exact. How different is this dish than previous burrito bowls? Not much! But this version includes leafy greens and organic corn chips on top because life should be fun.
Our taco salad recipe arrives on the blog this week, but I’ll give you a couple tips right here: always add guacamole. Diced tomato brightens it up. Lime juice over everything. And sprinkling crunchy corn chips on top is the best final garnish. The full recipe will be available soon!
PS: A taco salad is immensely versatile. Feel free to swap ingredients in/out for whatever you have on hand. I just think the guacamole is a must. ;)
Thai Basil Shrimp Fried Rice
Without a doubt, the best item we’ve grown on our balcony garden is Thai Basil. Well, I love the romaine lettuce, scallions, cilantro, and regular basil too, but the Thai Basil is the most-special. It’s very hard to find this ingredient in grocery stores, but so many of our favorite meals call for it. So, we cut out the search and grew it ourselves! Finally, it had grown enough that we could “harvest” some for dinner. Hooray!
Maybe I am biased (perhaps a little), but this was the most-delicious fried rice Seth has made. My goodness it was so ridiculously yummy and flavorful. I couldn’t get enough! Much of that is due to the fragrant, flavorful basil as well as the host of other ingredients we included. However, I can confidently say that the Thai Basil had a starring role in making this fried rice fantastic.
Our primary protein was Naked Shrimp from North Coast Seafoods (use code GLUTENFREEMOLLIE at checkout for 15% off your order) which was a good choice for this specific rice. Sure, chicken or beef would be good, but I love a flavorful shrimp fried rice. These Naked Shrimp were the perfect size too: not too small and not too giant.
We will be sharing this recipe with you soon so I hope you give it a try! It had a base of brown rice (cook it ahead and let it become cold and dry before using) to make it a little healthier and we added fresh snow peas for even more summer-garden-goodness.
Some people may prefer a few-ingredient mentality for fried rice, but I honestly prefer a more-the-merrier approach. This is a hearty, filling, and delicious dinner; add it all in and enjoy!
Zucchini and Ground Pork Capellini
I have been noticing that we’ve been saving our pasta-based meals for the weekends and I am here for it. Not only do pasta dinners have the ability to encourage relaxation, but they’re oftentimes heavier dishes. While this bowl wasn’t exactly “heavy” it was a bit more indulgent, but with splashes of summer thanks to fresh zucchini and basil. See? We’ve been using our balcony veggies every chance we get. Well, the zucchini comes from two sources: Seth’s parent’s garden or Wilson Farm. We’ve got options!
This dinner came to be when I couldn’t decide how to prepare the pork and I knew we needed to use the zucchini (a low-key dinner dilemma). Pasta to the rescue! Sautéed zucchini and ground pork is actually a delicious combination, if you haven’t heard, and once it was tossed with pasta and a lot of parmesan, it made for a really scrumptious meal. This dish was anything but a boring bowl of spaghetti. ;)
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Thank you for reading and stay tuned! Recipes are arriving so soon and I can’t wait for you to see them.
Enjoy!
