Indian Style Green Beans

A quick and easy one today. This green bean recipes comes courtesy of my mom. My favorite way to eat green beans has always been stir-fried with garlic, then steamed for a few minutes with soy sauce and rice vinegar.  But even that gets boring after awhile and this recipe is a a great savior in that regard.  The spices play in the background, never overwhelming your taste buds like some other Indian dishes can. A squeeze of lemon adds brightness and it’s so much fun to listen to those mustard seeds pop in the hot oil!

The only point where mom and I disagree is texture. I like my beans crisp, fresh, crunchy, just warmed through. A satisfying snap when you bite into each one. Mom prefers a soft, limp bean that barely needs chewing. I tend to think they’re soggy and mushy, but I’m not gonna knock it because the flavors are that good. They will seduce you no matter how long you steam them.

Read the recipe and the rest of the post here…

Chili Pork in Sweet Maple Sauce


In a desire to keep this blog (and my diet) from becoming all chicken all the time, I am making an effort to buy different cuts of meat at the store.  It’s actually been a challenge, since I am primarily a poultry and seafood eater. But in an effort to branch out, I’ve been buying pork. It helps when it’s on sale. I bought a thin-sliced pork loin, which is really lean and cooks up in a matter of minutes. I also did a pork chop loin, which is thicker and takes a while longer to cook. In both cases, I used the same sauce.

And in both cases, it was definitely a success. The sauce was sweet and complemented the pork really well. The whole recipe comes together very quickly and I recommend it for a weeknight meal. You can have dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes!

I served this with a spinach side. I just sauteed some spinach in the leftover pan juices and added a some raisins and pine nuts. What a quick and easy side!
Read the recipe and the rest of the post here…

Mom’s Turkey Meatball Soup

Mom's turkey meatball soup

My mom is great at making soup. I, like many people, will never be able to cook quite like my mother. She came up with this recipe for a quick weeknight meal and it’s been in regular rotation at our house for some time now. I tried making it the other day and let me just say, it wasn’t as good as when mom makes it.

I love the recipe though, because it comes together quickly and uses a hunk of frozen spinach that you don’t even have to thaw ahead of time. I also like that the meatballs get thrown in the soup raw, although if you have the time and don’t mind getting another pan dirty, you can certainly brown them before adding to the stock pot.

Essentially, this is a shortcut recipe — a way to get a homemade soup quickly. Of course, the meatballs would taste better if they had garlic, parsely and parmesan mixed in. Of course, it would be better to brown them rather than to cook them in the soup. And it uses a bare minimum of ingredients, stuff I always have laying around. It doesn’t even call for chicken broth! Because sometimes, you just want a quick dish without all the fuss and this is a great way to do that.

With this recipe, I’m going to include notes from my mom. I’m not going to edit them because I love her Ukrainian take on the English language.

Read the recipe and the rest of the post here…

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