Both my mom and I grew up eating dinners that were considered balanced: one part meat, one part vegetable, and one part grain.
Since laying off the grains, and lately trying to incorporate more vegetables into my day, we’ve come up with a new ratio in my house: one part meat/protein, two parts vegetable. That can be just one vegetable dish, or multiple ones.
I like the aesthetic (not to mention the Rule of Three) inherent in a dinner divided in three. Plus, cooking food separately like this helps keep things simple, which I thought some of you might appreciate. Fancy recipes are great, but for the quick-get-something-cooked days that many of us have, it comes in handy to be comfortable with more basic food.
So I thought I’d chronicle my successes with these simple dinners.
Stir-Fried Cod, Roasted Asparagus, and Sweet Potato Fries
Stir-Fried Cod Fish
These are frozen cod pieces from Trader Joe’s. Can’t get much more simple and tasty. Once they were thawed, I did a quick rub with some dried herbs: curry, cumin, turmeric, that sort of thing. I stir-fried them lightly in a little olive oil.
Roasted Asparagus
I tossed asparagus with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, and roasted it on a high temp for about 15 minutes in my toaster oven. Easy peasy.
Sweet Potato Fries
My son calls them orange French fries. I microwaved them for a few minutes (I know, I know; my shortcut for cooking potatoes and sweet potatoes is pretty much the only time I use the microwave, and the time saved is totally worth it sometimes), cut them into fries, tossed them with sea salt and cumin, and pan-fried them in olive oil over a medium heat for a bit, flipping occasionally.
Baking the sweet potatoes works well, too, and they are also lovely with cardamon.
Voilà.
Dinner is served.
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