Pork glazed with sesame oil with fresh squash

My mother brought us two garden fresh yellow squash and I thawed out pork in anticipation of guests but they had a family emergency...

Ingredients
-5 thin cut boneless pork chops
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- sesame seeds
- one tablespoon orange juice concentrate

In a large frying pan or cast iron skillet, heat butter and sesame oil over low heat. Add meat, increase heat to medium, and cook for about five minutes each side. Glaze with orange juice concentrate and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

For the SQUASH:
Without cleaning the skillet...

Ingredients
- 2 medium yellow squash, chopped
- about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
- about 2 tablespoons butter
- about 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- about 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- one cup water
- about two tablespoons orange juice concentrate

Add first four ingredients to skillet over medium heat, squash last.

Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl to make a sauce.

Stir fry squash until golden. Add sauce and cook until the juice boils down.

Steak stuffed with feta and apples

This is what I'm attempting for tonight's dinner with my dad and stepmom:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/09/crockpot-flank-steak-stuffed-with-apple.html

Of course, being me, I have deviated from the recipe.

It's 7 a.m. and I have just set 4 pieces of sirloin tip steak to marinate in the crock pot reservoir in the fridge. I made my marinade with:
- somewhere around 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I came home about 12:30 and embarked upon the stuffing. Her recipe calls for one golden delicious apple, "one half block" of feta, something like 1/3 cup chopped almonds and two cloves garlic. I had more steaks than her, but she said she had leftover stuffing. Now, my stepmom doesn't like garlic...

So I mixed:
- About 3/4 cup feta (instinct says I should have used more)
- two gala apples
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- about 3/4 teaspoon minced garlic (the jar kind)

And I eliminated the nuts. Cheese and meat are enough protein. The nuts can't add that much texture...

I rolled about a large handful and a half of stuffing into each steak and returned it to the juice in the crockpot and put the crockpot on high. Then I tossed some extra stuffing on top. I planned to reduce the heat to low when I get home from my meeting, which will probably be after school at 3:30.

There was also a lovely raspberry, spring mix, feta, raisin and sesame stick salad...

Ginger Pork

Today's experiment is Ginger Pork. I'm expecting company at an unknown time, so I wanted to make something I could keep warm in the oven (with a loaf of homemade bread, of course.)

So in the Le Creuset skillet, I put three large pork chops, about 1" thick each. I put:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- about 3/4 teaspoon four color pepper
- about 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- about 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger
- one tablespoon white grape juice.

I cooked over medium about five minutes each side. When I flipped them, I drizzled
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Then I made a sauce of
- one tablespoon white sugar
- one cup white grape juice
- one tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I poured that into the skillet and put the whole thing in an oven preheated to 300 degrees.

The recipe is inspired by Venir Dîner, C'est Prêt, a French cookbook. I plan to serve with a Dole Spring Fling Salad and my bread. I'm debating whether or not to add cooked baby carrots. I'm thinking yes.

Scrambled egg wraps

Tonight for dinner I made a knock off of Vito Caiati's Heuvos Diablo. I started with five eggs (that's how many were left in the package). I only had two tortillas left so I heated those in my le Creuset pan, with a touch of olive oil in the pan. For the other, I put the last section of homemade bread in the skillet.

I made a simple salad for each of us of romaine lettuce, a touch of romano and some ranch dressing.

I put a tortilla (or bread) on each plate. Then I added more oil to the Le Creuset skillet and approximately an equal part low sodium soy sauce and let it heat. Added a can of potatoes. (Yes, a can. I keep them around for when I want potatoes and don't have potatoes.) Sprinkled them with It's a Dilly.

Scrambled the eggs, added some soy milk, put them in a different skillet. Once they were scrambled I topped with havarti dill cheese and transferred to the tortilla shell.

For the sauce, I mixed one part horseradish mustard with two parts mayonnaise.

The beverage of choice was 100% juice diluted with seltzer.

Crazy Vegan Burgers

I started with a teaspoon canola oil, a teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon of fresh dill and 1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce. I'm frying some vegan boca burgers. We're not eating them with a bun and if I don't mind corrupting my vegan meal, I may add some smoked gouda.

But then, my daughter wanted cottage cheese and apple butter with hers. And a side of blueberries, so that's a lot of cheese.

My husband raved about these. He said they were so good he had to read the blog to find out what I did to them!

Stir fry with seitan

This is the basic recipe for a basic Asian style sesame sauce:

For a half-pound of meat, or equivalent veggies, mix

• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (I use low sodium)
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger

Marinate whatever you wish to season. I would recommend leaving it in the sauce for a while.

Now from here, I'm making some spaghetti noodles because I'm out of rice. I'll fry them and make them like lo mein. I'm using the seitan I made yesterday as my meat. And california blend vegetables, which I plan to marinate in whatever sauce the wheat meat (seitan) doesn't soak up.

Hot Dill Slop

Today's house special is far from gourmet. But it's snowing and we didn't have the stuff for the soup I originally planned.

This is a variation of Eileen Bresslin's vegan herbed potatoes recipe, beefed up as a skillet meal for a snowy winter day. (We had tea and Fred the Amish Friendship bread for breakfast. I've got him in the freezer.)

Ingredients:

• About three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Equal amounts low sodium soy sauce
• About two tablespoons fresh dill
• About 2/3 cup frozen French cut green beans
• 1 vegan original Boca burger, broken into crumbles
• 1 can sliced potatoes
• 1 can whole kernel corn, no salt added

In a skillet (I used my Le Creuset), put the oil, the soy sauce, and the dill. Heat over medium. When the skillet is hot, add other ingredients and cook until hot.

This turned out fabulous!

By the way, if you notice strange specks on my stove in this photo, it's dill that didn't make it into the skillet.

Fried Rice and Egg Rolls

I'm reheating some of my crab egg rolls for lunch today because I have to work late and this way I know my daughter has had some good stuff today.

The egg rolls can be found here:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/01/crab-rolls.html
For a side I prepared some 'fried rice.'
Ingredients:

• One tablespoon sesame seeds
• One tablespoon canola oil
• one teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
• one-half cup brown rice
• one quarter cup peas
• one quarter cup spinach, ripped tiny
• one small can water chestnuts

In a wok, combine the oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds. When the wok heats up, add the vegetables. Cook a few minutes and add the rice. Cook until the rice absorbs the leftover "sauce."

Beef cutlets in port sauce

My vegetarian friends will hate me tonight... We're having some cheap cuts of top round beef tonight, that I got at Wegmans for $2.50 (with one of their coupons for the meat department). In a skillet, I started a sauce of approximately the following:

1. 2 tablespoons butter
2. 1 teaspoon four color organic peppercorns
3. 1 tablespoon olive oil
4. between 1 and 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
5. About 1 tablespoon port

I have the meat cooking over medium, trying to slowly cook the meat. I'm thinking of serving with potatoes.

I only had two potatoes left, so I chopped them and tossed them in boiling water. I opted for Green Giant Immunity Blend steamed vegetables: cauliflower, orange and yellow carrots, and cranberries in a light butter sauce (which I thought could also lubricate the potatoes).

Chicken "Stir Fry"

My daughter had the last of my mother's meatballs and sausages in red sauce for lunch, with an apple and some fritos.

My husband and I had my mom's leftover rice curry. BUT my husband used the last of the vegetarian Morningstar Chikn Nuggets and I had planned to make those into chicken stir-fry with the microwaveable/steam in bag vegetables and concoct some sort of Asian-style sesame sauce. I didn't get to the sauce. My husband felt bad about using the nuggets, so he chopped up one chicken breast from the freezer and fried it. We served with brown rice and some low-sodium soy sauce.