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There are three main reasons fajitas are never a bad idea for dinner: They are delicious, they are pretty healthy and they are incredibly easy to make.

Yes, you can buy an envelope of fajita seasoning or a bottle of  fajita marinade, but my advice would be to save your money for something else because making fajita marinade from scratch requires mostly ingredients you should already have on hand and takes a matter of minutes.

As you well know, fajitas can be made with steak, chicken or just veggies. This weekend, I made mine with a piece of venison tenderloin because that’s what I had on hand. You can slice up the beef or chicken before marinating if you’d like, but another bonus of fajitas is the fact that you can get away with using a less expensive cut of beef such as a skirt steak, flank steak, or top round. If you want to spend a bit more, go with a London broil or top sirloin. Marinate and grill it while it’s still in one piece, then use a very sharp knife to cut paper-thin slices from the steak and it’ll be tender and delicious.

Here’s how to make a fantastic, from-scratch fajita marinade. Grab a bowl and dump in:

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced (or more to taste)
Juice of 2 small limes
1/2 Tbsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk it all together and pour it over the meat in a gallon zipper freezer bag. You can divide the marinade and put half in with the meat and half in with the sliced veggies (bell peppers, onions) if you like. If you are only doing veggie fajitas, slice up a bunch of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and whatever else you like and soak that in the marinade.

Cook your fajitas in a skillet on the stove top or on the grill. After that, you know what to do: Get out the tortillas, sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and lettuce, guacamole and/or whatever your little heart desires to go on top of the fajitas and go to town. Enjoy.

Do you make fajita marinade from scratch? If so, how does your recipe differ from this one?

If you’re like me, your schedule is looking pretty nightmarish over the next couple of weeks in terms of all the stuff you still need to do. Cleaning, shopping, baking, wrapping, traveling…. oh, my! It is always a fun season, but also very busy and a little stressful.

That’s why I’m always looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner, particularly on those nights when my kitchen is a disaster area from baking or trying out a new recipe (like the eggnog I made last night for next week’s column – ohhh, boy is it good! I’ll share that recipe soon).

Sometimes, it can be as easy as buying a rotisserie chicken and having a cold tossed salad with chunks of chicken on top. Sometimes, a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup is a warm, hearty, simple go-to meal. But I thought it might be nice to have some other ideas, so I went to my quick-meal cookbooks and found some recipes I wanted to share.

Do you have a favorite quick meal for a busy night?
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Gumbo is one of those dishes you can spend an entire afternoon preparing. If you’re going to go whole hog and do it the authentic way, you’ll need to prepare a dark, rich roux that takes a lot of standing and stirring.

But the great thing about gumbo is that even if you cheat and do a quickie version, it still turns out pretty tasty. With the “Holy Trinity” of Cajun and Creole cuisine – onions, bell pepper and celery – along with ingredients such as andouille sausage, tomatoes, chicken broth, and shrimp, it’s darned near impossible to end up with a bland and boring meal. Bonus: This is a bit healthier.

Over the weekend, I tested an easy weeknight gumbo recipe that earned a thumbs up from my judge. As long as you’re departing from tradition and skipping the roux, you might as well tweak this recipe in other ways that satisfy your crowd, as well. For example, skip the okra and throw in some corn or other leftover veggies. Or, if you’re on a tight budget, skip the shrimp. Just be aware that okra is a thickener, so if you do not use it and want thicker gumbo, you may wish to use a little cornstarch slurry.

Click “Read More” to see the recipe.

Finally, a reader emailed me over the weekend with the following question. I don’t have an answer but hope that someone reading this might:

“I was recently back in my birthplace, Philadelphia, and realized that the ONLY thing Roanoke doesn’t have that I wish they would was a good, old-fashioned diner that serves scrapple.  Do you know of anywhere in the Roanoke Area (I’m even willing to drive a little) that serves scrapple?”

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Photo by Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times.

Nasty weather days call for belly-warming meals, such as my Grandma Nair’s goulash.

Although goulash is a Hungarian dish described in food dictionaries as a “stew,” my grandmother wasn’t Hungarian, nor did she ever claim to make Hungarian goulash. Authentic goulash is often made with stew beef and Hungarian paprika and is served over buttered noodles. Grandma’s goulash was Southern-lady goulash made with ground beef and elbow macaroni.

Nevertheless, it was delicious. So when I knew the cold air and wind were coming to hang out for a couple of days, I thought I’d try making goulash the way my grandmother did. My aunt put together a book of Grandma’s recipes for all of us for Christmas last year, but I hadn’t gotten around to making the goulash yet.

This is an extremely basic recipe, but it’s the kind of recipe that shows you how much flavor ingredients like celery and green peppers can impart. It smells like stuffed peppers while it’s cooking. I will admit that I tweaked this recipe (Grandma, if you are reading this on a computer in heaven, I want you to forgive me for tweaking your goulash recipe because it is a habit I cannot break. I also want to know why there are computers in heaven).

Anyway, I added an extra can of tomatoes, which you will NEED for additional liquid, as well as a teaspoon of Hungarian paprika. That really makes the dish. Feel free to use home-canned tomatoes and fresh mushrooms if you want to class this up a bit. I used some nice grass-fed local beef.

Grandma’s Goulash
Serves 4

1/2 box elbow macaroni
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 green pepper, finely chopped
2 to 3 stalks celery
2 cans (about 14 oz. each) diced tomatoes
1 small can of mushrooms
1 tsp. Hungarian paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook macaroni in boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook ground beef until just browned. If you used a fatty blend that released a lot of grease, drain most of that off.
3. Stir in green pepper, onion and celery and saute until vegetables start to get tender.
4. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, paprika and macaroni. Stir to combine, then cover and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 25 minutes.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Halloween is next week, and after that the rest of the holiday season will be bearing down on us like a freight train. A pretty, sparkly freight train decorated with lights and hauling roasted turkeys, to be sure, but a freight train nonetheless.

How many nights will you leave work thinking about all the errands you need to run and the fact that you’re not sure what to put on the table for dinner that night? I know it’ll happen to me more than a few times and it would be great to have a home-cooked meal in the freezer just waiting to be warmed in the microwave or in the oven.

That’s the point of Southern Living‘s new cookbook, “Fix It & Freeze It & Heat It & Eat It.” This book contains more than 200 recipes that can be cooked and frozen for nights like that. I love the concept and some of the recipes look tasty, so I think I’ll share a couple here. And if you know someone who could use this book, well, I’ve just given you a gift idea to boot!

Do you ever fix meals ahead of time and freeze them? What have you found that freezes and reheats the best?

Queso Potato Chowder
Serves 6

1/4 cup butter
1 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup onion, finely chopped
3 poblano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 (20-oz.) package refrigerated Southwestern-style hash brown potatoes
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
2 (14-oz.) cans low-sodium fat-free chicken broth
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded asadero or Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Toppings (optional): corn tortilla chips, chopped red bell pepper, chopped red onion, sliced jalapeno peppers, chopped fresh cilantro

1. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat; add bell pepper and next 3 ingredients and saute 4 to 5 minutes or until tender. Add potatoes and cumin, then saute 5 minutes or until browned and tender. Gradually stir in broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of Dutch oven. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 minutes.

2. Whisk together flour and next 2 ingredients. Stir into potato mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low.

3. Add cheeses and cook, stirring constantly, until cheeses melt and mixture is thoroughly heated. Serve with desired toppings.

To freeze: Allow soup to cool completely (you can accomplish this quickly by placing the pot of soup in a bath of ice water in the sink to cool. Stir the soup often to help release the heat). Ladle into gallon- or quart-sized zipper freezer bags. Remove excess air, seal, label and freeze for up to one month. To reheat, thaw soup overnight in the refrigerator and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Cumin-crusted Pork Cutlets
Serves 4 to 6

3 whole wheat bread slices
2 Tbsp. self-rising yellow cornmeal mix
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
8 thinly sliced boneless pork loin chops (about 1 1/4 lb.)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 large egg
2 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Process bread in a food processor until finely crumbled. Combine bread crumbs, cornmeal mix and cumin in a shallow bowl.

2. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper. Whisk together egg, mustard and 2 Tbsp. water until blended. Dip pork in egg mixture; dredge in bread crumb mixture, pressing to adhere.

To freeze: Lay 4 chops on the bottom of a labeled gallon-size zipper freezer bag. Top with a piece of wax paper, then lay remaining 4 chops on top of the wax paper. Freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, heat 2 Tbsp. hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 4 chops to the pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Place cooked chops in a warm (200-degree) oven while you cook the remaining 4 chops. Serve warm.

Crunchy Ranch Tortilla Chicken
Serves 6

1 (1-oz.) envelope ranch dressing mix, divided
2 lbs. chicken breast tenders
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 (13-oz.) package ranch-flavored tortilla chips, finely crushed
Vegetable cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. dressing mix over chicken.

2. Whisk together buttermilk, egg, and remaining dressing mix. Place flour and crushed tortilla chips in separate shallow dishes. Dredge chicken in flour, dip in buttermilk mixture, then roll in crushed chips. Coat chicken lightly on all sides with cooking spray. Set aside.

3. Place a large baking sheet in oven for 5 minutes. Place chicken on hot pan. Bake at 450 for 18 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

To freeze: Cool chicken completely. Place in a labeled large zipper freezer bag and freeze up to one month. To reheat, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken tenders on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until hot and crisp.

Source: “Fix It & Freeze It & Heat It & Eat It” by Southern Living

Photo courtesy Incredibleegg.org.

Over the weekend, I came across my mom’s old microwave cookbook, “Microwave Cooking Made Easy.” I remembered how amazing microwaves were in the 1980s — almost like magic.

Well, I don’t use my microwave for a lot more than heating up leftovers, and some folks don’t even like to use microwaves for that. But if you are still a devoted microwave user, you may want to reconsider some of those old tricks. This is especially true if you’d like to serve a hot breakfast on weekday mornings without having to get up early or spend too much time in the kitchen (and who wants to do that, really?).

The American Egg Board recently put out a pamphlet called “Eggsceptionally Easy Breakfast” that includes several recipes for egg dishes that can be whipped up in just a couple of minutes and cooked in the microwave. Some are scrambles cooked in coffee mugs and others are made in microwave-safe ramekins or bowls. To see the recipes, click “Read more” below.

Even if they are “nuked” breakfasts, so to speak, I think they’re more nutritious than a toaster strudel or a Pop-Tart, or those microwave breakfast sandwiches. Do you ever make breakfast in the microwave?

Read more »

Strawberry spinach salad. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis l The Roanoke Times

When summer brings its grueling hot spells, the last thing we want to do is crank up the oven to 400 degrees or have multiple burners glowing on the stove.
It’s awfully tempting to nix the idea of cooking altogether and head out for dinner at an air-conditioned restaurant, but that’s not friendly to the wallet or the swimsuit physique. That’s why I’m always looking for simple, healthy ideas that don’t take a lot of energy — whether yours or the oven’s — to pull together.
Several Southwest Virginia registered dietitians were kind enough to send me their favorite summer recipes, which they promise will pack a lot of flavor and leave you feeling full. The most heat they require is one stove burner or an outdoor grill, and if you have a side burner on your grill, it might be worth firing that up to keep the kitchen cool.

Click here to continue reading this column.

You can find and print these recipes just by clicking the link:

Vegetable Frittata

Strawberry and Spinach Salad

Grilled White Fish with Apricot-Ginger Relish

Indian Spiced Grilled Baby Squash

Penne Pasta with Ricotta

Tangy Marinated Lentils

I was also sent some recipes I couldn’t fit in print today, but I’ve added them to the Plateup recipe database at plateup.roanoke.com. Here are the direct links:

Read more »

roger_mommaerts/flickr

I downloaded this photo of a person grilling salmon from a random Flickr account. Let’s examine it and see if we can figure out what he’s doing wrong.

Or perhaps it depends on who you ask.

I am certainly no expert, but I have been firing up the grill more and more myself these days in an effort to learn more about how to turn out great grilled food. I used to leave it up to Howard, but sometimes he’s busy doing other things, such as mowing the lawn, while I make dinner and I figure I could at least learn how to cook a hamburger or a piece of fish. The steaks are still up to him because he has that mastered.

I bought some fresh sockeye salmon at Kroger yesterday (wild-caught, 3/4-inch thick, $8.99/lb. on sale this week, FYI) and it was a lovely, deep ruby red color. I did not want to screw that up. So I did a little research and settled on a method I found on YouTube. It worked perfectly.

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Do you ever read a recipe and wonder why it even needs to be written out so explicitly? I mean, some recipes look more like common sense than actual recipes.

I came across one recently while hunting for a new side dish to fix for an early Mother’s Day supper with my lovely mom. The recipe, called summer vegetable bake, came from a cookbook called “Vegetables on the Side” by Sallie Y. Williams (which I highly recommend).

It called for potatoes, zucchini, onions and tomatoes cut into chunks, tossed with olive oil, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, salt and pepper and then roasted in the oven. I skipped the tomatoes because they aren’t in season and instead got a couple handfuls of fresh green beans. I chose red potatoes, picked some rosemary and thyme from my herb garden, and added a few cloves of garlic to the mix. Voila! It was a huge hit, and it was so easy it was almost ridiculous.

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Yeeeeeeah, you know it’s Friday because I’m going to give away some freebies, kids. And since we’ve been doing cookbook giveaways for so long (not that there’s anything wrong with that), I thought I’d mix it up a little bit and offer a different kind of prize.

Do you remember when McCormick came out with their “Recipe Inspirations” line, the little kits that provide all the spices you’ll need for a recipe, plus the grocery list for the other ingredients and a recipe card? Here’s a product review we published.

Anyhoo, McCormick has expanded the line to include “World Flavors.” The new line includes Asian sesame salmon, Caribbean grilled steak, chicken Cacciatore, chicken Marsala, chicken tikka masala and Tuscan chicken stew. I have one of each, and in an effort to let more people win, I’m going to give them out to six different people. To find out how to enter, read the rest of this blog entry:

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This broccoli wants to be roasted and eaten.

My grandfather did not like broccoli; wouldn’t eat it except about once a year when my mother made her cheese-smothered broccoli casserole for the holidays. But a friend of mine made some broccoli the other night that could make broccoli lovers out of many broccoli haters.

Personally, I love the stuff. And this Ina Garten recipe for broccoli roasted and topped with pine nuts, fresh basil, Parmesan and lemon zest was easy to make and really hit the spot. I could have eaten an entire plate of the stuff. The recipe calls for 4 to 5 pounds of broccoli, but one could easily halve that. It appears, from the Google searches I’ve done, to be a pretty popular recipe. Some of you may have tried it before. If you haven’t, see what you think!

On a different night, Howard and I decided to grill some chorizo from Sandy River Pork in Axton. This chorizo sausage was so good it didn’t need to be added to a recipe, although that would work, too. I decided to accompany it with some Spanish rice and refried beans.

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I dropped off the grid yesterday with a nasty migraine. I think you guys would have been proud of me, though, because I managed to stumble into the kitchen and blindly sear a venison roast, then throw it in the oven with some taters, carrots, onions, red wine and beef broth before returning to my position on the couch.

Today is so much brighter, not only because I ate a good meal last night and woke up headache-free, but because I have a cold venison sandwich in the refrigerator for lunch today. Wheat bread, Duke’s mayonnaise and cold, roasted venison. Mmm, it’s one of my favorites.

This morning, as I made my sandwich, I thought that some folks may find it odd. But then again, I’ve always been a little bit odd when it comes to lunchbox sandwiches. I started with the standard peanut butter and jelly as a tiny tot, then worked my way up to bologna and mayonnaise, which I ate with nauseating regularity for several elementary school years.

I’m surprised it took me as long as it did to get tired of the bologna, but it happened (and I haven’t been too keen on eating a bologna sandwich, unless it’s fried and topped with yellow mustard, ever since). At that point, I entered a weird American cheese/lettuce/mayo phase. My mother said it was gross, but she made it for me anyway. And I loved the creamy cheese with the crunch of the lettuce.

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This dish is fast and tasty.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I’ve got another healthy, delicious and quick meal idea in honor of National Nutrition Month. I decided to make this dish after purchasing a huge, gorgeous head of Chinese cabbage from Runner-bean.com. Chinese cabbage is otherwise known as napa cabbage, and it’s available at the grocery store, too.

This may not be a St. Patty’s Day dish, but it’s full of green! I love napa cabbage because it’s so tender and it cooks so quickly. It also reduces a LOT when you cook it – more than green cabbage, it always seems to me. So if you see a recipe call for an entire head, like this one, do not be alarmed.

I will credit my editor and friend Kathy Lu with helping me decide, just before quitting time on a weekday afternoon, what I could do with my cabbage that would be quick enough for that very night. She said she makes this dish all the time (just not low-sodium).

I ran by the grocery store and picked up a small pork tenderloin on my way home. The only other ingredients this requires are low-sodium soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, some garlic, a smidge of oil and a smidge of sugar. Oh, and the rice you wish to serve with the pork and cabbage. But you can feel free to doctor it up in any way you wish.

Here’s how I did it:

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When I was a kid, my mom thought she was funny when she said, “Yes, I have a dishwasher — two, in fact!”

Truth is, I’m a horrible dishwasher. That’s why my sister washed and I dried.

It isn’t that I leave food residue behind. Oh no, I scrub every nook and cranny.

It takes me forever, which causes me to dread it. So I employ various methods to either put off the dishwashing or slough it off on someone else — the this-needs-to-soak-overnight trick (which really means it needs to soak until someone else gets tired of looking at it and washes it for me); the I’ll-put-this-in-the-dishwasher-even-though-it-will-probably-melt trick; and finally, the all-out whine fest.

Having admitted all that, I’ll go one step further: When my husband does the dishes, I complain about the food residue he leaves behind.

Yeah, he’s a patient man. He perseveres because he likes a spotless kitchen and because he knows, as the sign in his stepmother’s kitchen reads, “No man was ever shot while doing dishes.”

To continue reading this column, click here. You’ll find one-pot recipes for Spanish Rice, Moroccan-Style Chicken Stew, Quinoa Risotto with Arugula and more!

I had a couple of light bulbs go off over my head this weekend. Okay, they were about the size of an oven light bulb instead of a standard size, but I still think these tiny tips might be worth passing along.

Spoon bread for cheaters: I had some leftover cornbread recently. Specifically, I had six corn muffins I’d let sit around too long, and they’d become a little too dry to enjoy the standard way. Cornbread is one of those breads that lends itself well to creative leftovers. For example, you could turn it into a cornbread dressing, make cornbread croutons or just do what my grandfolks used to: Crumble it into a glass of cold buttermilk and go at it with a spoon.

But I thought I remembered my mother turning leftover cornbread into spoon bread, and I had such a craving for spoon bread that I tried to find such a recipe. I had no luck whatsoever! But seeing as how I had very little to lose, I decided to experiment. Here’s what I did:

1. Scald one cup of milk in a medium saucepan.
2. Stir in about two tablespoons of butter until melted.
3. Crumble the dry, leftover cornbread into the mixture and stir until all of the liquid is absorbed. Serve hot with another pat of butter, if desired, or a drizzle of honey or molasses.

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When I saw pot roasts on sale at Kroger last week, I decided to search the recipe database on PlateUp for a recipe I could try. Savory Sweet Pot Roast caught my eye because it looked tasty and easy and because, let’s face it, anybody with the user name “GRANNYTREBOS” might know a thing or two about fixing a pot roast.

It didn’t hurt that she said she likes to cook it in “a deep cast iron skillet.” You go, granny. But I don’t have time during the week to slowly roast a hunk of meat in my cast iron Dutch oven, so I figured I’d try to adapt the recipe to my Crock Pot. We ended up having a delicious meal last night.

The name on this recipe is very fitting, because the juice, which I thickened into gravy, has a sweetness from the brown sugar, as well as savory and slightly tart notes from the other ingredients, which include vinegar and mustard. I used almost a whole sweet onion, which was probably the equivalent of a medium onion. But next time I make this, I’m doubling up on the sweet onion, because it was so delicious eaten with the meat and the gravy.

Try this recipe soon. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I’ll type it below because it’s short, but you can click here to print it from the recipe database.

Read more »

Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times

Wow, you all should see the fabulous recipes rolling in to the PlateUp recipe database since we launched our contest yesterday! I had hoped at least 40 or 50 recipes would be submitted, but we’ve already surpassed that by a healthy number. At the end of this post, I’m going to link to a few of the submissions we’ve received so far. If you all are anything like me, you’ll immediately begin to think about when you can make some of these dishes. Don’t forget to enter your own recipes for a chance to win Kroger gift cards. To do so, simply go to the green “Submit your recipe” box on this page. Please be patient – it might take a day or so before your recipe is approved and shows up in the database.

Meanwhile, I’ve been doing slow cooker recipe testing again, and I’ve discovered a surprising winner! This photo is of our dinner on Tuesday night: Santa Fe Pork. It came from my Pillsbury “Fast Slow Cooker” book, which has very, very simple recipes. Sometimes, they are so simple that I highly doubt they’ll be complex in flavor. This is one of those, but my husband encouraged me to try it.

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I remember the first time I tried a bite of quiche. It was back when mom cooked at Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado, and I was allowed to taste a piece of quiche Lorraine. At the time, my taste buds were too immature to appreciate Swiss or Gruyere cheese, and this egg pie thing just seemed a bit strange.

We all look back at our juvenile tastes and wonder what in the world was wrong with us. How could anybody not love a savory egg custard filled with delicious ingredients and baked into a flaky, buttery crust? Quiche is so easy to make, especially given the quality of refrigerated, ready-made pie crusts these days. It’s also an insanely versatile dish, appropriate for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, midnight snacks… well, anytime!

That’s why I decided to bake a quiche next week for some friends who are in extended recovery from illnesses. With all the baked spaghetti and lasagna and chicken with sides they’ll be enjoying from other friends, I figured a quiche would be a nice change, or at least something they could have for breakfast or throw in the freezer for a later date. I made a practice quiche this weekend based on a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. Of course, I couldn’t follow the recipe to the T, instead incorporating some user comments and my own variations. It was absolutely delicious. But note to self: You need a deep-dish pie pan. No more of these shallow quiches!

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Tomatoes, white beans, spinach and shrimp over angel hair. Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times

While searching through a recipe folder at home the other day, I found proof that I was constantly thinking about food even before I started writing about it. It was an e-mail from my colleague, Natalee Waters, with a pasta recipe she shared in exchange for my chicken pot pie recipe. Often, that’s where I find the very best recipes — not in cookbooks, not on the Internet, but from a friend who simply says, “Hey, you gotta try this!”

Alas, I had never made Natalee’s recipe, probably because it got lost in my overflowing folder of “someday” recipes. But I went ahead and made it Monday night, and it was as quick and delicious as promised. It calls for canned tomatoes, a can of cannellini beans, spinach, feta cheese and, if desired, some shrimp for added protein. Chicken would also be a satisfactory addition to this dish. Check out the recipe and print it, if you like, in the recipe database here.

And now for that cocktail: I love Mexican cuisine so much that I’m rarely unhappy with a dining experience at a Mexican restaurant. But every once in a while, I’ll order a regular lime margarita and my stomach will rebel as if I’ve just consumed battery acid. It’s the acid in the lime mixer, of course, and chasing it with spicy food only makes it worse.

Last night, my friend Ken made me the most amazing blackberry margarita. It struck me that if I want to enjoy tequila cocktails without the stomach-eating effect, alternative fruits such as blackberries, cherries or peaches are a wonderful idea.

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Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times

There’s always a spot in my recipe scrapbook for a dish that’s quick and easy to fix, but doesn’t taste like it. However, I am typically skeptical about these rapid-fire recipes if they call for convenience or packaged ingredients along with something fairly expensive, such as pine nuts or a really fine cheese.

I can’t help but worry that I’ll be spending a bunch of money on a specialty ingredient that will be lost in the dish or wasted on the dish. I guess that’s the pessimistic way of looking at it; you could also hope the fancy ingredient will serve as that bit of magic dust that elevates the entire meal to a new level.

Last night, I tried a recipe that was a fine example of this predicament. Most of the ingredients for Sauteed Chicken with Brie & Vegetable Sauce were pretty typical: boneless chicken breasts, water, milk, white wine and vegetable soup/recipe mix. But then, it called for 4 oz. Brie, Gruyere or fontina cheese, which is not exactly as affordable as my 8 oz. bags of shredded Kroger-brand cheddar.

Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times

I took the chance on this dish because it sounded so delicious, and I knew the leftover Brie would not go to waste (give me a loaf of crusty bread and a glass of wine – Mmmm). The recipe was extremely simple and the dish cooked really quickly (would have been even quicker with thinner chicken breasts). We enjoyed the flavor and will probably continue to enjoy it when we have leftovers tonight.

Would I buy a hunk of Brie again for the specific purpose of making this dish? Probably not. If I had some Brie leftover from a party or something, would I buy some chicken and vegetable soup mix for the specific purpose of making this dish? Absolutely. I suppose you could also buy a small wedge of Brie at a shop that will cut and sell by the pound.

Click this link to see and/or print the recipe for Sauteed Chicken with Brie & Vegetable Sauce. What did you make this weekend that you would or would not make again?

Susan Nicholson

Every Sunday, we run a 7-Day Menu Planner on the back of the Extra section to help readers plan their meals for the week ahead. This feature is written by a lovely lady named Susan Nicholson who lives in Atlanta with her husband, Nick (a.k.a. “Cupcake”). It is read by some 6 million people every week.

But Susan is originally from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and she and Nick have traveled through the area and stopped to say hello to us at The Roanoke Times on a couple of occasions. She has a great sense of humor and an interesting past — Susan once owned and operated a microwave specialty store and cooking school. She attended the La Varenne cooking school in Paris and is a registered, licensed dietitian.

Now, Susan has a new blog where you can keep tabs on her as she tests recipes for the 7-Day Menu Planner or dines out with friends and family. Occasionally, she’ll even throw in some personal entries about her sweet new kitties, Smoke and Flash.

Find Susan’s blog, “Making the Menu,” here.  Follow her Twitter account under “7DayMenu” here or friend her on Facebook here. And if you are ever looking for past recipes from the 7-Day Menu Planner, they are archived here. A link to that archive can also be found on the main page of PlateUp.

My husband is going to scowl at the bad REO Speedwagon reference in my entry title today because he despises REO Speedwagon, but he’s going to like the topic, because he loves tuna salad.

I’m a fan myself, particularly during the summer. Nothing says easy like whipping up a batch of fresh tuna salad, then dishing up big scoops on a bed of lettuce and tomatoes with a handful of crackers. Quick, simple, cool!

When it comes to making tuna salad, though, there are tons of variations and some people are quite insistent about the pickle relish issue — to add or not to add? I grew up on tuna salad made with pickle relish, and I still make my standard version with it. Basically, my recipe is two cans of tuna (white albacore if it’s on sale or I’m in a splurging mood), a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise, a tablespoon of pickle relish, a squirt of mustard, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

If I want to dress it up, I add chopped celery or a little onion, and if I have fresh cucumber on hand I will sometimes add diced cucumber to the salad for a refreshing change and some added crunch.

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I’ve got a couple of recipes to share that are just perfect for hot summer days such as this. One is for a Napa Cabbage Slaw with Cilantro Dressing that my friend and colleague brought to my house over the weekend, and the other is for a White Bean and Tuna Salad. I found the latter recipe on one of my all-time favorite recipe sites, Simply Recipes, and I have not tried it yet but I just can’t wait to break it out for a cool evening meal.

For some reason, I always get a hankering for tuna salad for supper during the hottest days of the year. On a nice bed of homegrown lettuce with a few wedges of ripe tomato and a stack of crackers (Wheat Thins for me – I’m a Wheat Thins addict) you’ve got yourself a perfect, no fuss meal. I usually make a very simple tuna salad with canned tuna, mayonnaise, pickle relish, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar, but the white beans seemed like an interesting twist. Bonus: The recipe is high in protein and gluten-free.

I’ll share those recipes below. Meanwhile, you may still be experiencing some kinks with the blog, but we are working those out. Thanks again for your patience.

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