I've cooked an omelet using this recipe from the Times a couple of times over the past few week and it's come out well. It's easy to make, and doesn't require ingredients that I don't already have in the kitchen. I cheat and use frozen spinach. I'll bet fresh spinach would taste better.
I saw this recipe awhile ago on NPR's website. I've cooked it twice and it's tasted pretty good. I've altered the recipe a bit, though. I used lemon juice from a bottle, used frozen spinach, used garlic powder instead of minced garlic and omitted the ginger -- ginger is expensive.
I made black bean soup following this recipe from the Times, and it came out quite well (even though I omitted the salt). Cilantro was the only ingredient I was not familiar with, and it was found alongside the parsley and lettuce in the vegetable section. It was $.99 for a bunch, so relatively inexpensive. Just be careful not to let the beans scorch, you have to stir it somewhat often.
Yesterday and tonight I poached salmon fillets for dinner. To make this, I did the following:
1. Took a frying pan and put a little bit of water into the bottom of it.
2. Brought this water to a boil.
3. Put the salmon in the water and covered it with a lid.
4. Waited until the salmon was done (flaked easily with a fork and was light pink).
I also made a side dish of pasta (small pasta works better, like orzo if you have it or elbow macaroni), and served it with lemon juice, which you can pour right over the fish and the pasta.
You could also, I suppose, use rice instead of pasta, although then I suppose the lemon juice wouldn't work so well.
It was quite easy to do and did not take long at all.
I saw this recipe in the Times and thought it was worth a try. I modified it slightly. I used plain olives and frozen cauliflower which I prepared in the microwave. I also omitted the thyme because I didn't have any. It still worked out perfectly well.
Lately I've been experimenting with cooking tilapia. To do it, I put an inch or so layer of water in a frying pan, bring it to a boil, and then put a filet of tilapia in the water. I then return the water to a simmer (not a boil), cover it, and poach it for five minutes. Then, I flip the tilapia piece over and poach it (covered) for another five minutes. It's then pretty much done, and I usually eat it with rice and some vegetable. It makes my meals more interesting. My grandmother has suggested adding lemon to the water, and I also use pepper on the fish.
I got a Target ad in the mail that also had a recipe for a Shrimp Noodle Bowl. After reading the recipe and discovering that the most extensive cooking it involved was simmering and boiling, I decided to try it. I halved the recipe, since I like to use my medium saucepan for other things, and it came out pretty well. I tried the same recipe again tonight and modified it with a bit of onion. That worked well and made the soup a little bit less bland. Half the package of spaghetti is a lot of pasta, though, so you might want to use less if you would like your noodle bowl more soup-like. (I did)
With part of the rest of the onion I made some pickled cucumber. Maybe one day when I am feeling more ambitious, I'll try Caley's recipe.
