Sandwiches (Fish and Fowl) and Something Altogether Foul

Aside from a bowl of cereal, there's probably nothing easier to make than a sandwich. Tuesday night we made chicken panini (I have the Le Creuset grill pan and the matching panini press) with fontina cheese and dijon mustard on mulitgrain "French" bread (the supermarket didn't have our favorite panella bread from Calandra's in Newark; we'll have to complain to the store manager). I must admit, even with the subpar bread, the panini was awesome.

We used the grilled chicken we'd made days before. That chicken was quite dry (we used the Purdue thin sliced, not the juiciest way to grill), and after a few days in the fridge, it only got drier. But lo' and behold, during the panini cooking process, the chicken was somehow "reconstituted." I'm assuming the moisture from the mustard, cheese, and olive oil, managed to "steam" the chicken as it cooked (over medium-low heat!). Brilliant! We paired this yummy sandwich with "crispy kale." Bad call.

Crispy kale? More like sucky kale (which is why I'm not posting the site or the recipe). I got the recipe from a kid's cooking site, but the only way any sane child would eat kale prepared this way (dry and dehydryated) would be to drown out the flavor with plenty of salt. No matter how super-nutritious kale is, I don't think risking sodium-induced hypertension is the way to encourage kids to eat it.

Last night instead of the sour cherry soup I planned on making (no time to remove all those pits), we had delicious tuna sandwiches prepared by "Bob." Friday I'll make the soup.

Menu a la Week: 6/7/08 - 6/13/08

Deviating from the usual plan, we have three or four new meals planned for this week (instead of the usual two to three). Today, spinach pie. With it, I plan to use up some ingredients that have been in the refrigerator for a while: the chopped onions I had left over from the turkey meatloaf, scallions from the mashed potatoes, fresh baby spinach that we haven't used yet, and the heavy cream I had laying around from the asparagus soup recipe.

The one big puzzle: What to do with the "fri-ta-toe" in the fridge from Wednesday and a bunch of smashed potatoes. That'll have to be tomorrow's lunch or I'll have to use the potatoes with the turkey sausage instead of pasta. I wish I had frozen some of the potatoes, but I had no idea that the smashed would stretch so far. That's a good lesson: If in doubt, freeze. It doesn't hurt to have a backlog of meals in the refrigerator, especially during the summer when hot days and the opportunities for fun abound.

Menu 6/7/08 - 6/13/08
Saturday June 7, 2008
Spinach pie

Sunday June 8, 2008
Turkey sausage with pasta

Monday June 9, 2008
Soup of the week and bread

Tuesday June 10, 2008
Turkey sausage with pasta

Wednesday June 11, 2008
Spinach pie and salad

Thursday June 12, 2008

Soup of the week with salad

Friday June 13, 2008

Fish day: Tuna wraps or other fresh fish

Easy Breezy Dinner Tonight: Tuna Sandwiches

Sticking with the plan/menu, we had tuna fish sandwiches tonight. Nothing fancy. No ahi. Just good old tuna from the can. We've been mixing it up between white (albacore) and light tuna so we don't mainline mercury month after month. Please check out this chart for eating tuna safely from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Apparently, since I'm no lightweight, I can eat a can of white albacore tuna once every nine days.

Lemon Tuna Salad Sandwiches
Serves 2, 1 sandwich each

1 can tuna
juice from 1/2 small lemon
1 tablespoon of Hellmann's reduced fat mayonnaise (formerly known as "Just 2 Good")*
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6-8 slices (thin) cucumber
2 very large slices of panella bread (or four slices of any normal-sized bread)

Directions
1. Drain water from can of tuna.
2. Mix together tuna, mayo, lemon juice, pepper, and celery salt in a bowl.
3. Toast bread.
4. Spread all of the tuna onto one slice of toast.
5. Spread the cucumber slices over the tuna in one thin layer, then top with the other toast slice.
6. Cut in half and enjoy!

Nutrition Information per Serving
Calories: 272; Carbohydrates: 29 g; Protein: 25 g; Fat: 6 g;
Cals./g: 1
*Points: 4

*Oh no! I just looked at the Hellmann's Web site and could not find Hellmann's Reduced Fat Mayonnaise Dressing on the Products page. When I used the Product Locator to search for stores in my area that sell it (Reduced Fat is in the dropdown menu), it pulled up some local supermarkets, but the search had automatically changed the product to Hellmann's Low Fat Mayonnaise Dressing. The low-fat mayo is 1 g of fat per serving and the reduced fat is (or should I say "was"?) 2 g of fat per serving. Time to send off an e-mail to the folks at Hellmann's/Best Foods to see if they've discontinued the reduced-fat mayo. (I got nervous and checked the expiration date on the bottle, and it's still in the future, August 12 2008. Proof that the bottle hasn't been sitting in my refrigerator for that long.)

Menu a la Week: 5/25/08 - 5/30/008

As promised, here's the inaugural edition of Menu a la Week. This feature is a list of the meal plans I devise every week to make shopping and cooking just a bit easier and more time efficient (I work in New York City and get home after 6 p.m. on most evenings, so knowing what's for dinner days in advance is a big help).

Often, the menu will feature items that get "reused/recycled" throughout the week. Some meals are already sitting in the freezer (or some major parts of a dinner are in there), and others will be cooked on a weekend day and then retooled as the week progresses. During the week, meals from scratch are limited to what can be cooked—or thrown together—quickly.

Each day, I'll post the recipes for what we've cooked (or links/references) as well as the best information I have regarding the nutritional content (often using Internet reources). Breakfast and lunch are usually some combination of yogurt, fruits, cereals, organic breakfast bars, hard-boiled eggs (well, the whites at any rate), sandwiches, salads, and, I admit, the occassional NYC bought—and not brought—lunch. In the future, I'll likely post about those meals as well.

Below is the dinner menu for the week of Sunday May 25, 2008 to Friday May 30, 2008. I may choose to substitute any of these dinners for another (it helps to be flexible). Asparagus is featured as it's in season and, of course, Memorial Day features a grilled meal. The dinners for this Thursday and Friday are planned as light meals because one of those nights, my husband will be meeting up with me in the city for the SOFA (International Exposition of Sculpture Objects Functional Art) exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory. We'll either eat out or fix tuna sandwiches when we get home.

Menu 5/25/08 - 5/30/08
Sunday May 25, 2008
Asparagus soup and small sandwiches (goat cheese and prosciutto?)

Monday May 26, 2008 (Memorial Day)
Grilled chicken (enough for several days)
Grilled Asparagus
Grilled potato wedges

Tuesday May 27, 2008
Asparagus soup and salad

Wednesday May 28, 2008
Chicken Pot Pies (already in the freezer!)

Thursday May 29, 2008
Tuna or other light sandwiches

Friday May 30, 2008
Grilled chicken Caesar salad