Simple Sunday Night Dinner: Herbed Chicken, Stringbean Salad, and Cous Cous

This past weekend, the entire east coast was on high alert for Hurricane Irene, which was supposed to be the largest storm to hit the region in quite some time. I was very lucky here in Washington, DC that we had minimal damage - just some fallen branches and general messiness. Regardless, I'm happy to use any excuse to stay in on the weekends to regroup from the work week and experiment with new recipes.

On Saturday night, I made Moroccan-style braised lentils and a pitiful excuse for yeastless bread. The dish (minus the bread) was a success - let me know if you want the recipe. Sunday night's dinner was much more notable. I made herbed chicken breast with string bean salad and cous cous. It was exactly the "homey" meal I was looking for after the storm...

No Meat Monday: Chickpea Burgers with Baked Potato and Veggie Crisps

No Meat Monday is a catchy little phrase I first saw at Whole Foods and soon learned that it's an ongoing international campaign. I decided to embrace this act - as well as removing meat from the most (but not all) of my meals - for health and environmental concerns (or, just being totally freaked out after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma). I'll admit that changing my diet is a challenge. Dinner used to be a simple task...simply cook meat, carbs, and veggies, and you'd be good to go. Nowadays, dinner takes research and creativity to ensure a healthy, flavorful, and most of all filling, meal.

I made chickpea burgers with baked potato and veggie crisps. The meal met all of my meatless requirements...check it out!

Summertime Fresh: Watermelon Salad

Watermelon ranks right behind ice cream as my favorite summertime treat. I'm lucky to live in a city filled with farmers market so this sweet fruit is easily accessible and always fresh. Watermelon is versatile, too. It can serve as a dessert one day and as a meal the next.

I made a watermelon salad to spice up a more traditional beef tenderloin dish. It was easy to make AND I had enough leftovers to enjoy as workday snack the following day.

Stock photo disclaimer: I'm still mastering the art of photographing food. Bear with me until my meals look as delicious as they taste :)

M3 Remix Rice

After devouring the M3 for Sunday night dinner and Monday's lunch, I still had about a cup of the mango salsa left over. Naturally, I didn't want to compost such a delicious topping, so I turned to Sheryl Crow's new cookbook, If It Makes You Healthy, for some inspiration.

Sheryl (yes, we're on a first name basis) has a fantastic Soffrito Rice rice recipe that features mangos as the key ingredient. I made a variation of the recipe to (1) reuse the mangos and some leftover veggies from the weekend and (2) avoid Whole Foods at 7:00 p.m. on Monday at all costs.

Meal Alliteration: Mexican Madness for Mom (M3)

My mother visited this past week, so naturally we did all that great mother/daughter stuff: shop, chat, and of course, we ate. After a subpar dinner out on Thursday night, followed by two decent dinners, I decided I should "wow" her with a home cooked meal. I attempted a fresh, Mexican-style meal full of flavor and nutrients: zucchini corn fritters with grilled mesquite chicken, chipotle mango salsa, guacamole, and cilantro lime sauce.

If you had to choose one final meal, what would it be?

Morbid question, right?

Oddly enough, I've had several conversations about my last meal, and my answer is always the same: macaroni and cheese. I'm not talking about gourmet, fancy-schmancy macaroni and cheese, I'm talking about the boxed-up Velveeta kind in all its gooey deliciousness.

I think the time has come to move on from cheese that doesn't require refrigeration to real foods that require a bit more thought, time, and room for error. I'll be chronicling my new life in the kitchen (and probably some other topics, TBD of course). Hopefully you'll enjoy the trial and errors of my culinary pursuits and maybe even learn something, too :)