LiveGreenNOW

By Traci L. Claussen

Photo courtesy RDAnderson.com

Ever get home and wonder what you’re going to make for breakfast, lunch, or dinner only to order out because the stress of cooking is more than you can take?  It can be overwhelming for some, and a creative pallet for others.  If you want to learn how to make incredible, delicious meals in a blink, take a lesson from that popular action-series, MacGyver. Smart will always get you out of a jam, even if that jam is in the kitchen. Here’s a list of items along with a couple of cool summer recipes to create your next meal like an action-hero.

First, what you buy at the store is key. There are less than twenty items (allowing you to move through the grocery line faster) that are essential to every kitchen, including seasonal items that help provide a burst of freshness: Olive oil, balsamic, parsley, provencial herbs, goat cheese, pine nuts, basil, avocado, tomato, fresh berries, walnuts, garlic, spinach or mixed greens, lemon and lime, angel hair pasta, and a couple of chicken breasts.

Ready?  Let’s cook!

Summer Spinach Salad ~ Serves 4

• One 5-oz package of Baby Spinach
• 1 cup of fresh, sliced strawberries
• 1 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1 cup walnuts, or pistachios if prefered
• 1 chicken breast, grilled with lemon/lime and herbs, then sliced
• 1/2 lemon & 1/2 lime ~ squirt over salad before serving
• splash of balsamic
• splash of olive oil

Toss all ingredients in exactly that order and serve  ~ total kitchen time: 15 minutes

Try a crisp white wine like Veltliner which is made with organically grown grapes from Austria ~ available at Whole Foods for $11.99

Provencial Angel Hair Pasta ~ serves 6

• 1 pkg Angel Hair Pasta, cooked
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tbs provencial herbs
• 1 cup pinenuts
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Cook pasta, set aside. In a saucepan, sautee pine nuts, garlic, tomatoes, basil, herbs, olive oil for about 15 minutes, or until tomatoes are cooked.  Toss into angel hair pasta, top with goat cheese and serve with your favorite wine and bread.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Green House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.