Dinner for One - Beefy Peas

Don't hate me but these pictures really are terrible.  It is impossible to make split peas look delicious since they have this terrible muddy green color about them.  Not to mention that I am using my 3Gs iPhone with bad lighting to take these pictures.  They have no hope.

All that being said, I am loving eating these meals.  It is a one pot wonder at it's best.

Start by boiling one cup of peas with 2 cups of water for about 30 minutes.  Keep an eye on them and if they start to run out of water then add more.  Try to not add too much water so the leftovers aren't soupy.  As the peas are boiling toss in the beef and any extra flavors.  The beef I used was about a cup of leftover roast.  When you stir the peas the beef will shred into the soup.  Depending on how salty the beef is you may want to toss in some bouillon, but isn't really necessary.

Here is my first bowl of soup the night I made this.  Looks yummy, no?

Since there were plenty of leftovers, I did my favorite thing to do...create a patty/cake out of it.

Combine
1.5 cups of the leftovers
1 egg
1/3 cup flour

Drop roughly a quarter cup of the mixture into bread crumbs then flatten the mixture out in a hot skillet that has a bit of oil.  Cook both sides until crispy and you get something like this.

The texture and taste were pretty awesome.  I served them with dijon mustard, sour cream and sriracha.

Since I really don't eat much there are still two portions of soup left and one portion of the patties.  The leftover patties are going to go into a tortilla with some mustard and arugula for lunch one day and the soup will just be reheated with some water to thin it out a bit.   Who knew peas could be so versatile?

Dinner for One - Lentils and Quinoa

Forgive the ugliness of this meal.  I will also admit that I had a leftover slice of pizza while this was cooking so my portion was quite small.  The main goal of this was to have leftovers that I could put on top of a salad for lunch the next day.

Recipe

1/2 cup Lentils

1/2 cup Quinoa

Stock (I used Mushroom)

1/2 tsp Paprika

Pepper

Both lentils and quinoa have a water ratio of 2 to 1.  Since we have a total of 1 cup of dried goods, use 2 cups of liquid.  This makes it easy to adjust when you want more or less.  I just happened to have some celery that needed to be used so it got diced and tossed in, but it doesn't really affect the dish much so it can be left out.  Combine everything in a pot and bring to a boil.  When it starts to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for around 15 minutes or until the liquid is all gone.

Possible modifications

This would be really good with other spices, especially curry powder.  I had considered tossing in some hot peppers, but decided I wasn't in the mood.  Get creative with what you have in the pantry and what you are in the mood for that day.

Salad Option:

This is what lunch the next day looked like.  Well worth the effort of the day before, but you could also have just go straight to making this as dinner.  Underneath there is a bed of romain lettuce, parsley and tomatoes.  On top there is the lentil and quinoa mixture plus some goat cheese.  It makes for quite the satisfying lunch considering how much protein is in lentils and quinoa.

Dinner for One - Cabbage Saute

Admittedly this was lunch, but it could just as easily be dinner.  The inspiration for this meal was Reuben sandwich.

1/2 Small Cabbage

1/4 to 1/2 cup Pulled Pork

1 small can Green Chilies

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1/2 tsp Caraway Seeds

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Toss everything in a skillet and saute on medium heat until the cabbage is tender.  Roughly 10 to 15 minutes.  Serve on top of a toasted piece of bread with some cheese on top.  Obviously the bread and cheese are optional.  What really makes the dish are the caraway seeds.  The caraway seeds provide the distinctive flavor that rye bread has which is goes right along with a Reuben.  If you don't happen to have leftover pulled pork you could easily substitute some other protein, like a sausage link, ground beef or ground turkey.  Whatever you happen to have on hand will work just fine.

Dinner for One - Beets and Millet

It doesn't get much easier than this.  Open a can of beets put half on a plate next to whatever grain you have (I had millet).  Top the grain with a bit of butter and salt and microwave the whole thing.  Top with a bit of goat cheese and dive right in.

This may not be the prettiest picture, but it sure was tasty.

Dinner for One - Sweet Potato and Millet

As usual I didn't really use a recipe, and didn't really write one.  Consider this a dinner idea and run with it.

For starters Millet is a type of grain that is high in manganese and phosphorous.  One of my favorite websites, Worlds Healthiest Foods, provides quite a bit of information on Millet and its health benefits.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=53

It is easy to prepare and is similar to cooking rice.  Simmer one part Millet to two and a half parts water for about 25 minutes.  I made a large batch on Monday so I could enjoy it all week.  To reheat, I just add a little butter and salt and microwave for about a minute.  It doesn't get much faster than that.

As for the sweet potato, I bought a bag of frozen diced sweet potatoes and microwaved them according to the directions on the bag but you could easily cook up a fresh one instead.  Once they are cooked I stirred in a small spoonful coconut butter, a teaspoon of curry powder, quarter teaspoon of allspice, and a quarter teaspoon smoked paprika.  

Plate everything and top with a few coconut chips and call it dinner.  

My estimations are that this meal is about 300 to 400 calories.