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Trader Joe’s Pecan & Hazelnut Crusted Salmon

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Trader Joe's Fish and Vegies for Dinner tonight

Trader Joe's Fish and Vegies for Dinner tonight

Like salmon?

Well, we sure do and we found a new product at Trader Joe’s that is just wonderful:

Trader Joe’s Farm Raised Pecan & Hazelnut Crusted Norwegian Salmon (now that’s a mouthful!)

Now, you might be wondering how this tasty little number has escaped out notice for so long? We are wondering that ourselves. In our defense, it seems that our Arizona Trader Joe’s store, has created a new section in the cold case which can only be described as “Salmon Land”. There are a number of different packages of smoked salmon, and also a number of different packages of fresh salmon to try. (Yes, you guessed right-  we are going to be “tasting” all those new kinds of salmon soon)

As you know, we both just LOVE nuts, so when we saw this package of salmon with nuts all around, we knew what we were going to have for dinner tonight!

This meal for two was so simple to make that it would be great for those who are just learning to cook.  You can add your favorite side dishes (maybe you like rice or carrots or corn) and just have a quick and delicious meal.
Now, truthfully, the directions on the package were a bit lacking, and so we just cooked the fish the way we normally would. There were two pieces in this package, so we just placed each piece on a piece of tin foil (use a bit of oil or spray on the foil so the fish does not stick) in a pan, and cooked it in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Trader Joe's Fish and Vegies in the pan

Start Cooking!

We also served the fish with one of our favorite Trader Joe’s frozen vegetables: Trader Joe’s Brittany Blend (a mixture of green beans, yellow beans and carrots) as well as a piece (or two or three…) of Artisan bread. This week it was Trader Joe’s Artisan Bread-Roasted Garlic with Thyme– YUM!
This meal was just wonderful. The fish had a nice crunchy nutty crust that gave a special flavor to the entire meal. We just love that vegetable blend (good color on the plate as well) and the bread? Well, what can we say but YUM!

This meal would make a great special occasion dinner (think Mother’s Day Dinner) or a easy meal any night of the week (Hey it’s Wednesday!).

Trader Joe's Fish dinner

Ready to Eat!

So check out your refrigerated fish area the next time you are at Trader Joe’s- there may be a great surprise in store for you.

PS- that cute little wedge of lemon comes with the Fish- Nice touch Trader Joe’s!!

Dinner and a Movie Night

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Trader Joe's Indian Fare

Trader Joe's Indian Fare

Or, a “night out” while staying in…

Are you looking for something a little different for dinner tonight or a night this weekend?
What about trying a Dinner/Movie combo night from the comfort of your own home?

Maybe we are a little odd, but we like to team up movies with corresponding cuisine and pretend to be out on vacation someplace else.

The idea originally came to us quite a while ago, during a hot summer. We were in the public library and were checking out the DVD’s  (OK truthfully?  this is soo far back in time, that I remember looking at VHS tapes…..). Anyway we found  ourselves browsing in a section on travel videos to cold places, and so we checked a couple out to, you know, sorta go on vacation without leaving the area. There are a zillion of these travel DVD’s at the library and on a range of places all over the world.

Well, to make this potentially long story short, we LOVED it, and have expanded the “just watching travel videos” to watching films that take place in other countries and more recently, adding some special food/ meals to movie night.  This combination makes it feel as if we have gone on a mini vacation, even if for only one night.

So last Saturday, we watched the movie “Bend it like Beckham” and ate some wonderful Indian food from Trader Joe’s. YUM!
The Movie “Bend it like Beckham” Bend It Like Beckham (Widescreen Edition)
for those who don’t know it, takes place in London and is the story about a young woman who loves to play football  (soccer to Americans).  And how she is trying to find her place growing up between what her parents want her to do (Traditional Indian cultural expectations such as get married and learn to make traditional Indian foods) and her love of playing football and desire to go to college. This movie is touching and funny and has wonderful scenes of  her sister’s traditional Indian wedding along with scenes from the London area where they all live.

For our meal selection we chose Trader Joe’s Brown Basmati Rice and Trader Joe’s Indian Fare Punjab Choley. This is a meal of garbanzo beans in a tomato sauce with some ginger and other assorted spices. This meal is so flavorful that we add another can of garbanzo beans to stretch out the sauce without loosing any of the spice. In fact if you are a “medium spice” kind of person like we are, we highly, recommend the additional can of beans, as the Punjab Choley is very spicy!

We were also supposed to pick up a package of Trader Joe’s Garlic Nan Bread (in the freezer section) but we just plum forgot. Oops! Oh well, I guess we will have to have another Indian Movie “night out” soon! Both the Garlic Nan and the regular Nan are wonderful- they heat up in about 5 minutes.

One new place that we are getting our movies is from Netflix. This is a great service, that seems to work well for busy people. For those of you that don’t know about it, you manage your account on the computer, and select the next video you want, and it arrives in your mailbox. We have not been members that long, but we have both really enjoyed the selection of movies that we can choose from as well as the speed in which movies arrive. To return movies, just stick them back in the postage paid envelope and back in the mailbox. In about 2 days the next movie on your list, or queue, appears in your mailbox like magic. …hmm magic… maybe we should have shepherds pie and watch a Harry Potter flick…

So the next time you are looking for a fun night out, try our Dinner and a Movie “night out at home” instead. With the variety of items that you can find a Trader Joe’s, the possibles are endless.

What dinner/movie combos have you tried?

Do you need ideas for your next dinner/movie combo? Leave a reply after this post, with your requests. Maybe we can brainstorm together…

Easy Recipe Vegetable Frittata for 2

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Easy Veg Frittata

Easy Veg Frittata

This is an easy recipe for a vegetable frittata that would be great for a brunch, lunch or dinner. This frittata goes together quickly and if you plan for it, you can even use up any leftover vegetables you might have from last night’s dinner.  This recipe is great for beginning cooks as it tastes terrific and (the way we made it) is actually a twist on a simple plate of scrambled eggs.  As always, our ingredients came from Trader Joe’s!

We got this idea from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters book. He actually calls the recipe “More-. Vegetables-Than Egg Frittata and it is on page 170.  We read his recipe and then modified it slightly for the items we had in the refrigerator today. We also modified the dish to be more like “scrambled eggs with lots of goodies” instead of a classic frittata which come out more like an eggy “cake” that you can serve in wedges or slices. We actually prefer the scrambled egg style, so that is what we created.

Mark notes that you can use cooked or raw vegetable when you make this frittata and that is what we did. We had some leftover zucchini from dinner a couple of nights ago, and then added in some fresh vegetables. We used slightly less vegetables then the original recipe called for, and would plan to use more next time.

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • Olive oil (for the pan)
  • ½ small sweet onion, sliced or diced
  • 2 -3 cups sliced cooked and raw vegetables (we used spinach, zucchini slices, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms) (the original recipe called for 4 to 6 cups of veggies)
  • ¼ cup fresh basil leafs (we did not have any fresh basil and used a spoonful of pesto in the egg mixture instead and that worked perfectly)
  • 1/3 -1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (he says optional, but we say use it!)
  • 2-3 eggs (we used 3 eggs for the two of us)

Lets Cook!

1. Heat the skillet (non-stick) over medium heat, and add a spoonful of oil.  Now add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes while you get all the other vegetables ready.

2. Add the chopped up vegetables (except any tender leaf like spinach or the basil leafs) and continue to cook until they are cooked and heated through the way you like them. We like our vegetables “crisp-tender” so that you can stick a fork into the vegetables and it goes in easy, but the vegetables are not “mushy”. When the veggies are ready, season them lightly with salt and pepper

3. While the vegetables are cooking, crack 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk together. Add some salt and pepper and the cheese (and pesto if you are using it).

4. When all the vegetables are ready, add the leafy vegetables (the spinach) and stir them around the pan for a minute. When they start to wilt, add the egg mixture to the pan and stir around the pan and continue to cook like you would for regular scrambled eggs. The eggs will cook, the cheese will melt and in a few minutes you will have a great frittata.

We are sorry to admit that this dish smelled so good that we just FORGOT to take a picture to show you the end result. Sorry. Next time we will try to control ourselves better and take a second to snap a photo.

We hope you try this recipe. We enjoyed making and eating this recipe so much that we are planning to make it again soon. We thought this recipe was easy and tasted GREAT.

If you are just learning to cook, are starting to cook more at home and/ or have joined the Food Revolution, this recipe would be a great one to master as it is very flexible and forgiving. You can use any kind combination of vegetables and cheese you have on hand, and this is also a great way to use up leftovers at any time during the week.

We recommend you “plan” to have some vegetables handy for the next time you are planning on serving eggs at your house.

Hey, did you make this frittata? What combination of vegetables and cheese did you use? Please take a minute to leave us a comment and let us know.

THANKS!

Easy Chinese Dinner Menu

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Easy Meal Orange chicken, brown rice and zuchini

This is an amazing meal that comes together FAST when you come home tired and don’t feel like cooking at all. In fact, we suggest keeping a bag of this chicken in the freezer for just such an emergency or “just in case” meal when you have had a super busy day.

Menu: Orange Chicken, brown rice & veggies

Tonight we used these three products from Trader Joe’s:

  • Mandarin Orange Chicken
  • Brown Basmati Rice
  • Zucchini squash

Here are the steps we used (to feed 2 people):

1. Pre-heat: Get  the oven warmed up, to heat up the chicken.

2. Start the rice: We used 1./2 cup of the rice and 1 cup of water. Brought this to a boil in a pan with a lid, and the turned it down to a low-medium heat to cook for 30 minutes. Then we checked and added a bit more water (2 spoonfuls) and stuck the lit back on, and let the rice continue to cook, until it was finished cooking. Total time 40 minutes.

Since we chose fresh veggies this time, we cut up 3 zucchini squash into half-moons and started to steam them on the stove.

4. Start the Chicken: As there were only two of us eating tonight, we only heated up half the bag of chicken on a cookie sheet in the oven, following the package directions. We also stuck some hot water in a coffee cup and dropped in the frozen sauce packet to warm up. The rest of the package went back into the freezer for another night.

WARNING: the chicken  is so GOOD, you might want to heat up the whole package!

5. Eat: Now in the 20 or so minutes that it takes the chicken to warm up in the oven, the rice and the zucchini will finish cooking.

Ta-da–  Everything ready to eat at once!

orange chicken, brown rice, vegies

Have you tried the Mandarin Orange Chicken? What do you think? Drop us a line when you get a chance and let us know.