I thought I would share my new favorite quick fix week-night dinner. I honestly can’t get enough of it. It’s easy, relatively healthy, inexpensive and most importantly, it’s delicious!  I’m estimating the entire dinner costs less than $14 for two people and takes about 30 minutes (but 20 of that is marinating and boiling). What is this miracle dinner?  Drumroll please….

Grilled Portabella Mushrooms (marinated in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, canola oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, sugar and fresh rosemary-if you have it. Marinate time: 20 minutes; Grill time: 10 minutes.)

Spinach Salad (baby spinach, grape tomatoes cut in half, diced red onion, walnut pieces, goat cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and spinach salad dressing warmed up. Mix the salad up.)

Potatoes (we like red potatoes, but any kind will do)

Try it. You won’t be disappointed. The meal just happens to be vegetarian, but it doesn’t seem like it because the portabellas are so meaty!

Tip: Don’t buy your portabellas from the grocery store – they are really overpriced. Try a local produce market or farmer’s market. We paid roughly $1.50 per mushroom at Pike Place Market.

We enjoy many great meals throughout the year at my mom’s house; John and my mom are great cooks.  However, no meal stands a chance against Christmas Eve dinner. We spend 364 days of the year looking forward to Christmas Eve dinner and it never disappoints. It’s a production. A damn good production.  Although we all pitch-in that day, it’s really my mom’s labor of love. She learned from her mother – and someday hopefully my daughters will do the same. It’s elegant, yet relaxed. Gourmet and soothing. Thick with tradition.

I say this every year, but this year was the best yet.

We had a delicious dinner last night at Stacy and Andre’s – I mean it was REALLY tasty. Derek and I were still talking about it this morning when we woke up. Pork Tenderloin, Risotto with Truffle Oil and Caprese-like Salad. Inspired by “Sunday Nite Dinners”, the four of us have decided to start “Wednesday Nite Dinners” to help get us through the long, rainy Seattle fall/winter. We haven’t decided if we’ll do it every week, or every-other week. I DO know that we’ve got some good meals ahead of us.

I’m looking to expand my weekday dinner routine. You know, the staple dinners. The dinners you make on week nights when you don’t have a ton of time or a ton of patience. My standard meals are getting a little old, and now that Derek is living here – I feel like I need to mix-it-up.

Please leave a comment and tell me what your staples are. Yes, I’m talking to you. As a reader, I usually ask nothing of you. I’m asking now, please leave a comment and tell me your weekday favorites. I’m going to have really hurt feelings if nobody comments – and then I’ll probably be embarrassed and want to pull down this post – but I won’t because I want my blog to be as uncensored as possible. See? Just leave a freakin’ comment.

Tonight, I came home to a wonderful treat. Derek cooked up a fantastic dinner for me. He is a great cook and a top-notch griller. Tonight was no exception.

Drink: A cold gin & tonic

Appetizer: Cougar Gold Cheese and Rice Crackers

Main Course: Ginger – Soy Flank Steak atop Grilled Green Onions

Side Dishes: Sautéed Baby Bok Choy and Horseradish Mashed Potatoes

I’m stuffed – it was delicious. And to top it off – the meal was mostly fresh and/or locally grown. The Cougar Gold was produced in Pullman, Washington. The Flank Steak was bought from a local butcher on Queen Anne – the beef was raised in Oregon. The green onions, ginger, garlic, lime, bok choy and the potatoes were all purchased at Pike Place Market. We are about to start a movie – but he tells me there is dessert too. Life is good!

Yesterday, we cooked an amazing dinner. Everything was grown, prepared and purchased locally. See photos below (although the photos don’t do the dinner justice – we were too anxious to eat the food).

Menu:

Jumbo Shrimp – Purchased fresh from a local fisherman who was driving around the roads of Punta Mita selling to the community. ($10 for half a kilo)

Mahi Mahi – Purchased fresh from a fisherman at the marina. ($4 for a half kilo)

Homemade Mexican rice, refried beans, pico de gallo and tortilla chips from our favorite restaurant. We got it to-go. ($7)

In our complex, there is full kitchen setup (under a palapa in the sand). It is complete with a refrigerator, bbq, sink, etc. We prepared the meal drinking beer and listening to Jimmy Buffett’s satellite radio station “Margaritaville” (btw, if you have sirius radio it’s channel 31 and it’s perfect for tropical vacations). We bbq’d the shrimp and mahi mahi with butter, garlic and lime juice. It was so delicious – quite possibly the best meal we’ve eaten since we arrived (and for $11 each). It was such a lovely experience to be cooking and eating under the stars and in the sand.

I’m sure you’ve heard all of the talk and debate about how far our food travels, buying locally and supporting local farmers. I won’t pretend to be an expert, because I’m not. But I went to Pike Place Market on Sunday and purchased everything that I possibly could for our dinner that night. The market was bustling with tourists and locals alike.  Everyone was marveling at the vibrant produce and fresh seafood. I left with a bag full of groceries and a smile on my face.

While I don’t have the time or the money to ‘buy local” everyday, it was delicious and made me appreciate our dinner even more. This summer, I hope to check out the local Farmers Markets in Ballard, Fremont and Magnolia.   

Derek took a few pictures while we were there.