Category: Lunch

White Beans and Shrimp with Tomatoes

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

This dish is the perfect meal after a long day of physical activity. It’s healthy, it”s full of protein and best of all – it is delicious! My best running buddy gave me a wonderful cookbook a few years ago for my birthday, The Runner’s World Cookbook. It’s a great collection of recipes for pre-run, post-run, recovery meals from a race, et. created by other runners. I have thoroughly enjoyed that cookbook and this is one of my favorite recipes from it. This is a recipe that lends itself to some creative embellishment if you so desire. A friend of mine added mushrooms to his dish and really liked it. I’ve added spinach instead of parsley and there are times it didn’t have any green color to it at all because I didn’t have any in my fridge. I’ve also changed up some of the amounts so its a bit different than the original recipe.

My son loves this meal but we have to sometimes bribe him to eat the beans and tomatoes too. He will pick all the shrimp out if you let him. And, if you have leftovers – you have to keep a close watch on them or the shrimp will go missing from those too!

 

 

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Spaghetti with Lamb Meat Sauce

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

This is another favorite of my family. I know lamb is not utilized very much in the south but we absolutely love it. It’s quick and easy and delicious.

I found this recipe in the Food and Wine Cooking From Scratch Pasta Cookbook several years ago. It’s just a basic tomato sauce with spaghetti and ground lamb except this recipe uses cumin. Cumin is a spice often used in middle eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. It pairs beautifully with the lamb. You can find ground lamb pretty easily now at Publix or whole foods. 

My 11 year old even loves this dish. If you have the fresh mint on hand, I would highly suggest using it, it really brings the dish together.

 

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Szechuan Shrimp with Rice

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

If you’re like me, sometimes you just need a good fix of Chinese Food. We used to order take out but that can get expensive over time!  I started trying to experiment with my own recipes about 10 years ago. We love this one, it uses shrimp and I think it’s better than what you can get at most take out restaurants. It makes quite a bit so you’ll have plenty of leftovers if you don’t have a large family. I also love that it is gluten free, egg free and dairy free. Finding a Chinese dish free of those three things can be difficult! Our son’s dairy and egg allergies are so severe that we can’t even take a chance on eating Chinese food out and about. Even a small cross contamination could send him to the emergency room.  Szechuan cuisine is typically very spicy and originated in the Sichuan province of China. We have younger tastebuds at our dinner table so this recipe has a very small kick to it. You can definitely increase the amount of red pepper flakes to increase your heat. This takes a little more time than most of my recipes, about 45 minutes from start to finish. But oh my it’s worth it when you taste it!

Bacon Leek Linguine with Goat Cheese

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

So this recipe has been a recent discovery. I found it a couple of years ago in one of my quick from scratch food and wine cookbooks. I have adapted so that our family could eat it. It was one of my first forays into cooking with leeks and I must say – they are quite tasty! I will definitely be cooking with them again.

 I used bacon in my recipe but you could also use pancetta or probably even prosciutto. If you’ve read my blog before you know my love affair with bacon. I should probably seek some kind of counseling. But as I see it – as long as I can keep running and keep my cholesterol down  – I should get some kind of reward right? Why not bacon?!

Ok. Back to the recipe. This one is fairly easy to make and quite tasty. My 11 year old even liked it but he probably inherited my love for bacon. You could also substitute just about any type of pasta. But I like the thickness of the linguine, I think it holds the sauce well since it’s a non-traditional sauce.

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Steak Pizzaiola with Orzo

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

Steak Pizzaiola is a classic Italian dish with fresh tomato sauce. It’s often served with steak or sirloin. You can serve it with potatoes, rice or even spaghetti but we love it with orzo. Orzo is a rice shaped pasta and I love the texture of everything together – a bite steak, the fresh tomato sauce and the small pieces of pasta just go together perfectly.

This is one of the first dishes I made when we got married. Justin and I both love this dish and now Atticus does too. It’s fairly easy to make and I love it year round – especially in the summer time with fresh garden tomatoes. But, any tomatoes will work – I used Romas this time because that’s what I had on hand.

I love that it is naturally dairy and egg free and you can easily make it gluten free as well. I also love that it incorporates fresh ingredients which really come through when you sit down at the table to enjoy it. It is quite an easy dish to make. You could also use just about any cut of steak. We like ribeyes and they were on sale so that it what I used last night.

 

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Porcini Mushroom Risotto

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

 

I absolutely, positively love risotto. I love any type of risotto. Plain risotto made with chicken broth and a little onion and butter or the fancy kind like in

this recipe. For the longest time I was intimidated to make it because it can be complicated. But – I have finally perfected making it and we eat it as often as I have the time to cook it! Now, many of the recipes that I post on this blog are quick and easy foods that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. That is not the case with this meal. I usually allow for about an hour of total prep and cooking time. And let me tell you – it is worth every single minute. Also, when cooking risotto, make sure you that can give it your undivided attention. This is not one of the dishes where you can start it and walk away. You must stay close by, especially during the stirring portion which takes 30 minutes. I really hope I haven’t discouraged you from trying this recipe! It is so delicious! And – you can find every single ingredient at your local wal-mart. Yes, even the dried porcini mushrooms. I use the earth balance vegan butter so that my husband can eat it. He can’t eat dairy but he can tolerate goat’s milk/cheese. I leave out the goat cheese for my little guy as he is highly allergic to all types of animal milk/dairy.

I found this recipe in the Italian Food and Wine Quick From Scratch cookbook. I honestly didn’t change much of anything from their recipe. But, I have included a LOT more details in the instructions. If you are a seasoned cook, I hope you thoroughly enjoy this recipe. If you’re nervous, just take your time and if your first batch doesn’t turn out well then try it again! My first couple of tries with risotto weren’t terrible but it was definitely edible. It takes time to figure out the right texture that you want. The creaminess along with the flavors are amazing!

 

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Picadillo

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

Picadillo is a classic Cuban dish and we absolutely love this version of it. I found the recipe in the Food and Wine Cooking From Scratch One Dish Meals cookbook years ago. I’ve made it several times and tweaked it to accommodate our family’s dietary restrictions. This dish is dairy free, egg free, and gluten free. You can serve it with warm, flour tortillas or you can just eat it plain. We often eat it without tortillas and it is still just as delicious. It is even better warmed up the next day.

 

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Chicken Quesadillas

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

  

This recipe is a hit with all ages. It is fairly easy to make, especially if you are using leftover chicken that is already cooked. Even if you have to cook your chicken, it can all be done in less than 35 minutes. If you’re feeling frisky, you can even make some salsa to serve with it. Some folks like sour cream and the other fixings with their quesadillas. We’ve found that these are tasty enough all on their own with no extras.

I like making my own fajita seasoning because that way I know exactly what’s going into our food. No extra ingredients that I can’t pronounce! You can always add additional vegetables or you can even take the chicken out and make it vegetarian or substitute a different protein. This is one of my favorite recipes for leftovers. All I really need to have on hand is tortillas. The other things are staples we tend to keep on hand.

You will notice in the recipe that I don’t specify amounts for this one. That’s because you can add however much you want in each tortilla. If you’re cooking your own chicken, I usually use 2 nice sized chicken breasts. We also like to use the larger, 10 inch tortillas as you can just fold them over and cook 1 tasty quesadilla using 1 tortilla instead of 2.

We started using the goat cheese because my husband developed an allergy to cow’s milk. I think it is even more delicious! I use a mixture of sharp goat cheese and soft goat cheese.

Coconut Thai Soup with Chicken

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

I’ve been cooking this Thai soup for at least 10 years. We love all kinds of food but we really love Thai food. We had many a date at the Thai restaurant in Huntsville before we got married. In fact, it’s still there and still a tiny little restaurant that serves amazing Thai food. If you’re ever in 5 points in Huntsville, AL, we highly recommend The Thai Garden. Anyway, we fell in love with Thai coconut soup many years ago. This recipe originated from the Food and Wine Cooking From Scratch with Herbs cookbook. However, I’ve changed it considerably over the years. It is so delicious and the lemon and ginger broth smell so amazing when it’s cooking. It’s a fairly easy meal to make and it is very yummy as a leftover the next day.

One bit of advice if you plan to serve it to guests – you may want to find the lemon peel and ginger chunks before you serve it. It won’t hurt you if you don’t, in fact we like them in there. I like crunching down on the ginger for a blast of flavor. But, if you’re not expecting it, it might be quite the surprise.

When it comes to rice, I highly recommend using jasmine or basmati rice. It costs a little more but the flavor and texture make ALL the difference in the world. If you don’t have cilantro, you can omit it without losing a whole lot of flavor. But if you can help it, do not skip on the fresh lime juice. It makes all the difference in the chicken marinade and then later right before you serve it. I think the fresh squeeze of lime juice right before you serve it wakes up all of the flavors in the soup and melds them together beautifully.

 

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Pasta with Fresh Veggies and Conecah Sausage

Posted on by RaDonna Ridner-Thurman

This recipe uses one my family’s favorite foods, conecah sausage. Conecah sausage is made in Conecah county, Alabama. It is absolutely delicious. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend it. It is smoked sausage, but we think it is better than any national brand out there. We like it grilled, sauteed by itself or with peppers and onions. It is great to have on hand when you need a quick, filling meal.

This is a recipe that I created a couple of years ago. You see, I like to run. I like to run longer distances actually. I am currently training for my 2nd marathon and I’ve run 5 half marathons and several 15, 10 and 5K’s. I like to do my long runs on Saturday mornings and if you are running really long (10+ miles), it helps to eat a lot of carbohydrates the day before. So I started experimenting with what sounded good to my brain… garlic, fresh tomatoes, fresh spinach, and pasta. Oftentimes, it was whatever I had around the house. My favorite version of this dish is with 1/2 pound of chopped bacon. You could also put in shrimp or grilled chicken. It is just a simple pasta dish with some fresh veggies and a protein. Even if you aren’t running 10+ miles, this dish is usually very popular with the whole family.

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