Stuffed

It's amazing to me that no matter if I am working or staying at home, I find a way to fill my days. Since our move, I have been one of the unemployed. Gladly. In fact, it's been a nice vacation (once our stuff was unpacked, anyway). Because I worked these past few years while Our Hero was in school, he's urging me to take it easy and relax a while. For the past month, I've happily obliged.

Perhaps my most highly anticipated "vacation" excitement is a trip I'll be embarking upon this Friday. We'll drive up to our OldHome and stay with dear friends for the weekend. Monday, Our Hero becomes DR. Our Hero, which is such a happy happy occasion (once the committee is through with him). Tuesday I'm off to visit my BFF Forever, and then spending time in HomeTown with my parents.

I know being far from family and friends is a fact of modern life, but I find that fact combined with the reality of full-time jobs' vacation allowances (even the good companies!) makes it difficult to see your family when your family isn't in the area. So with that in mind, I am taking full advantage of this job-free time and hanging out with some of the people I love most.

I fully intend to cook and post as I travel. Drea will be getting some food, and I think I'm up to the challenge to cook salt-free for my Pops. But for now, I'm enjoying chatting about the day with Our Hero over a simple meal made with market-fresh ingredients.

This high-protein recipe comes from Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, kindly via M. Thanks, M!

Stuffed Red Peppers Basque Style
3 good-size red peppers
1 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 hard-boiled eggs, crumbled
One 8-oz. can light tuna fish, drained and crumbled
6 sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Fresh bread crumbs, to taste (I used 1 slice whole-wheat bread)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the peppers lengthwise in halves (including the stems). Scoop out the seeds and ribs. Put pepper halves into a greased ovenproof dish.

Pour the oil into a skillet, Add the onion and garlic and saute briefly over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Combine the onion-garlic mixtures in a bowl with all of the remaining ingredients except the bread crumbs. Mix well.

Stuff each pepper half with the mixture. Cover each top with bread crumbs, and bake uncovered for about 25 minutes.

The Understood's Saturday Dinner

My lovely, amazing, and wonderful parents came for a visit this weekend! I was inordinately excited and really, really, REALLY had a great time. My beloved Pops is on a no-salt, extremely low-sodium diet, so it presents an interesting challenge for meal plans. I think we all did quite well this weekend. Our Hero, though he was awfully busy working on his dissertation most of the time, was sure to join us for meals. Ahem.

I'm including this recipe on the site because of the crazy-easy perfection to which it cooks salmon fillet. I discovered this technique somewhere (perhaps Everyday Food?), and have been using it for several years. On the side, we tossed together whole-wheat pasta, dill, grape tomatoes, red onion, toasted pine nuts, and a bit of Parmiggiano.

Salmon Broiled with Zucchini, Lemon, and Dill
1 lb. salmon fillet
4-5 small zucchini, cut into 1-inch slices on the diagonal
1 lemon, cut into eight wedges
4-6 thin lemon round slices from a second lemon
Handful fresh dill
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt (if desired) and black pepper

Preheat broiler. Cut the salmon fillet into 4-6 pieces, as desired. Line a broiler pan or baking sheet with foil. Toss zucchini and lemon wedges with olive oil to lightly coat. Nestle salmon in with zucchini. Scatter with dill and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top each salmon piece with a slice of lemon. Broil 10 minutes, until fish is desired level of done. I find this cooks salmon to the most perfect melt-in-your-mouth consistency. Squeeze the juicy broiled lemon wedges over your fish.

Not Your Typical Tuna Salad

This tuna salad was nice this week when I felt I barely had the energy to pull together dinner. I found it in the "Superfast" section of last month's Cooking Light and it certainly was. I just served it up with some toast and sweet potato fries. Yum!

I apologize for the lack of posts the last several days - the Understood parents came up to MyTown for a visit, so blogging was not priority #1. More soon!

Italian-Style Tuna Salad
From Cooking Light
2 6-oz cans solid white tuna
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 medium fennel bulb, chopped
Handful fresh basil, chopped
Lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 T. capers, drained
Black pepper

Mix all the ingredients to taste and serve! Made a great work lunch the next day.