ENTREES

ENTREES

One-Pot Chicken With Artichoke Hearts

I first discovered a version of this meal about six months after I started blogging, when a reader sent me a Giada recipe for a dish called "Chicken Vesuvio" (as an aside, the photos I took of the dish are terrible...but also kind of cool examples of something I realized very early on that I had to work on). Over time that recipe evolved into the dish you see here, which is one of our all-time family favorites. Even when I think, "ehhh, not in the mood for chicken"…I am always in the mood for this. It's that good.

Oh - and this is an important part: it uses chicken thighs, which are apparently a thing that nobody wants to buy, because they are hella cheap. So cheap that I just said "hella." (They're also hella good.)

Chicken With Artichoke Hearts (serves 3-4)

Eat

Easy, Hearty Beef & Rice Stew

Here is what I think you should make this weekend:

This.

Oh my god, it's so good. It's like everything that's wonderful about winter, and is really best served in the presence of a Christmas tree. You can make it in a slow-cooker if you want, but I only remembered that I wanted to make stew for dinner around 3PM, so I used a regular stovetop pot, and it was done by six P.M. Vegetables, protein, a little carbs, a lot of deliciousness…it's all in there in that one pot.

ENTREES

Easy Steak & Avocado Fajitas

An addition to my roster of blink-and-they're done dinners: these. We're talking ten minutes. (Well, ten minutes if you don't include a couple of hours of zero-labor marinating…which I suppose you don't have to do, but it makes a huge difference.)

I've been making these minimum once a week lately, mostly to take advantage of these last few weeks of grilling-outdoors weather, but you can totally make them on a stovetop grill, no problem (because they're made with thinly sliced skirt steak, they cook up super-fast). They're great for an easy weeknight dinner, but if you just double (or triple) the ingredients you can just as easily serve dinner to a whole party (which is what I did last night - and the best part is that you really don't need any side dishes with these; just add prosecco and everyone will be happy).

What You Need:

ENTREES

Lemon Pasta With Goat Cheese & Asparagus

After I had Indy, I put up a post called "Post-Baby Pasta" in which I talked about how you can totally cook in the weeks after having a baby, so long as you're a little…open-minded about the whole thing.

And I stand by that: sometimes, throwing together a meal is just as easy (or at least almost as easy) as ordering in - you just have to be kind of un-fussy about what you make, be imaginative about using whatever you already have on hand (because let's get real: you are not "just going to run out to the store for a couple of things"), and make sure the whole deal takes no more than about ten minutes start-to-finish.

Let's call this "Post-Baby Pasta Number Two." I made it because it was 6PM and all of us were hungry, it was too late to start the takeout-ordering process, and when I looked in my refrigerator I found asparagus and goat cheese. In our cupboard, I found pasta, and pasta always makes our son happy, so there you go. It would have been better with a heartier pasta like rotini or fusilli, but what I had was spaghetti, so there you go.

Eat

Halibut Baked In Foil With White Wine And Lemon

If you have never tried baking fish in foil, let me tell you: you need to try it. Like, tonight.

Because it's both the easiest thing ever (I promise), and the coolest-looking thing ever; it's guaranteed to have whoever you serve it to all "ooh, ahh, how did you do that?!" And your answer will be: "With hours of intense labor." Except that will be a lie, because the total amount of effort that you will have put into this fancy-looking dinner will be approximately what is required to assemble a bowl of instant oatmeal.

I usually make salmon this way, but halibut is another nice, light, summery fish that goes well with things like white wine and lemon, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And: delicious. Nice, light and summery, as expected.


powered by chloédigital