Thai curries might be one of my favorite quick meals to pull together. While one can make their own curry paste, I find the pre-made Thai Kitchen curry pastes to be pretty good. When making a bowl of curry I will usually add some extra Thai peppers and ginger to the pan, but for a quick, weeknight meal like this salmon, I keep the extra flavors minimal. This is about being quick and easy after all!

If you haven’t baked in parchment before, it might look at first glance to be complicated, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Simply make up your packets of meat, add some sort of liquid and seasoning, crimp the edges, and bake! The crimping is simply folding edges of paper over on top of each other to hold. Or in my case, not so much folding as cramming paper together quickly and hoping it holds (it always does, knock on wood!). (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Quick and Easy, Thai by Courtney

This recipe has to be one of my favorite weeknight meals (or weekend meals if I’m super-hungry). It comes together quickly, with a few ingredients, and I feel somewhat healthy and light with the salad portion replacing my usual baked potato and garlic bread side for steak.

To start, select your favorite cut of beef – filet, strip, ribeye, and sirloin would all work here. Season it simply with salt and pepper after you’ve rubbed with a bit of oil to keep it from sticking to your grill or grill pan. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Quick and Easy, Salad, Wine pairings by Courtney

A couple of years back I saw this recipe on an episode of Everyday Italian. The theme of the show was Picnic Planner, as Giada was packing a lunch to surprise her hubby with at work. The show was a bit cheesy, but the recipes had stuck in my mind for a while, especially the pasta. I love arugula and had wanted to make this for quite a while.

Earlier this year when arugula came in in the garden, I knew just what to use it for. I had always kind of thought this recipe was odd for a picnic, but after making it, I decided it was more like a pasta salad — perfect warm or at room temperature. The sauce you pour over it is basically a dijon vinaigrette, which is very quick and easy to make. Thus me making it this week with what I could find in the refrigerator and pantry. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dinner, Lunch, Quick and Easy by Courtney

One of my favorite prepare-ahead meals is pizza. Every month or two, I make up a big batch of pizza dough (usually doubling or quadrupling the recipe I have for 2 12-inch rounds), and I portion those out into large size and individual size lumps that are frozen for later.

When I do this, I also like to cube up some mozzarella and portion it into baggies (generally around 5 – 8 ounces per bag) and make a few batches of pizza sauce, freezing those in individual baggies as well. At some point in the month or two, I end up poaching a bag of sauce here, a baggie of mozzarella there, and I end up with just the pizza dough. So there are a couple of go-to pizzas I make when missing the other ingredients. (more…)

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Dinner, Italian, Lunch, Pizza, Prep for Later Use, Vegetarian by Courtney