lunch – Page 7 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

12-15: Pasta with Salami

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses June 13, 2018October 27, 2020beef, beef bouillon, black pepper, boiled, carrots, celery, cheese, chicken bouillon, chili sauce, chopped, conchiglie, cubed, diced, Dutch oven, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, grated, Italian, lunch, minced, mirepoix, olive oil, oregano, Parmesan, pasta/noodles, peeled, penne, pork, rotini, salami, salt, sausage, sautéed, side dish, sliced, tender-crisp, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

Pasta with a thin sauce didn’t seem super appropriate for dinner, so I made 12-15: Pasta with Salami and dished it out for lunch as part of a meal prep. While there are a few differences between the recipe card photo and my final product photo, my creation was similar in spirit to the beautifully shot photo below. The place settings are so retro–such a great scene they set.

The exquisite setup showcases the raw ingredients along with the wonderful cutlery and plating of the dish. How magnificent!

12-20: Fettuccini with Ham

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses June 8, 2018October 27, 2020black pepper, boiled, butter, cheese, chopped, creamy, diced, dinner, easy, fairly inexpensive, fettuccini, frozen, grated, half-and-half, ham, julienned, lunch, melted, mushrooms, Parmesan, parsley, pasta/noodles, peeled, piquant, pork, salt, sautéed, sliced, smoked ham, sweet peas, untested, vegetables, whipping cream, yellow onions

Fettuccini and ham are different foods I’ve heard of before. 12-20: Fettuccini with Ham is a dish I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. It is both “piquant and tasty” as described below and I enjoyed the dish a lot.

Time for a confession: I have never cooked fettuccini nests before in my life before I prepared this dish. My parents weren’t adventurous with their pasta choices. We were strictly a spaghetti and angel hair household when it came to noodle pasta. Having a cream based sauce was rare also, they generally opted for a tomato-based sauce.

12-33: Individual Beef Lasagna

Adam Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses April 23, 2018October 27, 2020beef, boiled, broccoli, canola oil, celery, cheese, cream of mushroom, creamy, dinner, dried herbs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, grated, half-and-half, herbs and spices, individual, lasagna, layers, leeks, lunch, melted, milk, mushrooms, olive oil, oregano, parsnips, pasta/noodles, peeled, roast beef, sautéed, sliced, untested, vegetables

Have you ever thought to make individual servings of lasagna? I’ve never thought to make lasagna in single servings and after attempting 12-33: Individual Beef Lasagna, I would not try it again. Join me, won’t you? Watch as I do my best to follow this recipe from deep within the minds of the wacky editors of Simply Delicious.

The example photo looks so elegant. The blue rimmed wine glass is excellent, I wish I had a set of those. The description is not hyperbolic when it says this is a completely new version of lasagna. It’s barely lasagna.

13-8: Vegetarian Calzone

Adam Martin Group 13: Vegetarian Dishes, Section 2: Main Courses April 21, 2018October 28, 20201998 dinner, appetizers, calzone, carrots, celery, chopped, diced, dinner, eggs, fairly easy, frozen, garam masala, garlic, healthy, herbs and spices, Hutton house, Indian, inexpensive, Italian, leeks, lunch, minced, olive oil, party food, pizza, puff pastry, purée, revisited, salt, sliced, steamed, sweet peas, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, vegetables, vegetarian

Much like Ben Wyatt, a late-addition character from NBC’s Parks and Recreation, I have enjoyed my fair share of calzones. Hawaiian calzones are one of my favorite types, pineapple and Canadian bacon can’t be beat! However, when wanting to eat in a health conscious manner, 13-8: Vegetarian Calzone is a great meat-free alternative.

Preparing this dish was super easy. A lot of time can be saved by using ready-bought puff pastry.

Editor’s note: This was a dish I made as part of a big family dinner I cooked with a family friend when I was 13–my step-grandmother is vegetarian and we made this so she’d have something to eat. My mom made her a baked potato for Thanksgiving once, complete with a toothpick-and-construction paper turkey head, wings, and tail that I painstakingly spent the day crafting. She did not appreciate the turkey-potato (too closely resembled an animal for her…go figure), but she did like this calzone.

9-45: Country-Style Sausage Medley

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 22, 2018October 18, 2020all-purpose flour, basil, black pepper, boiled, braised, butter, cabbage, carrots, chervil, chicken, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, chives, country-style, dairy-free, dinner, dried herbs, easy, franks, green onions, ground chicken, ground meat, ground turkey, herbs and spices, hot dogs, inexpensive, leeks, lunch, parsley, peeled, salt, sausage, sliced, snow peas, tender-crisp, thyme, turkey, turnips, untested, vegetables

“Country-Style” carries multiple definitions and connotations. The author of 9-45: Country-Style Sausage Medley surmised that a dish containing this many varieties of vegetables must be “country-style”. Chicken sausage is a low calorie option, however, it lacks the punch of flavor a good beef sausage can provide.

This dish contains a lot of vegetables already. If I had to add any other vegetables, I might substitute the cabbage for Brussels sprouts.

9-7: Cabbage Rolls

Adam Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 16, 2018October 18, 2020all-purpose flour, beef bouillon, beef broth, black pepper, blanched, boiled, braised, butter, cabbage, cooked rice, creamy, deglazed, dinner, egg-free, fairly hard, folded, gravy, Greek, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, half-and-half, inexpensive, lunch, pan-fried, rice, rolls, salt, slurry, steamed, stuffed, stuffing, untested, vegetables, whipping cream

Cabbage is probably my least favorite cruciferous vegetable. Although cabbage is present in most Chinese food dishes and it doesn’t bother me in that format, however, just the thought of eating plain cabbage is not very appetizing to me. The meatloaf-like mixture inside 9-7: Cabbage Rolls was the most edible part of the dish. I like that they served it with a blurred out Heineken.

Anything that involves a stuffing and rolling procedure is usually best done in a big batch because they are a pain to put together.

8-36: Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce

Adam Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 1, 2018October 16, 2020beef, beef tenderloin, black pepper, butter, cast-iron, chilled, chopped, diced, Dijon mustard, dinner, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, gluten-free, lunch, marinated, pan-fried, parsley, salt, sautéed, sliced, untested, wok, yellow onions

8-36: Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce was the first of two beef tenderloin recipes I made on the same night. The other dish, 8-22: Beef Tenderloin with Whole Garlic, was a completely different preparation. It was interesting to cook it two different ways and compare the final product.

Utilizing an onion-mustard marinade resulted in a completely different flavor than in the other tenderloin recipe. The beef was not marinated at all in the other recipe. If I had to choose, I prefer the marinated beef from this recipe because it was more tender.

4-36: Golden Potato Medley

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters February 27, 2018October 13, 2020all-purpose flour, au gratin, black pepper, blanched, boiled, bread crumbs, butter, carrots, casserole, celery, Cheddar, cheese, cheese sauce, chopped, creamy, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, grated, green bell peppers, half-and-half, lunch, melted, milk, Monterey Jack, panko, pared, Parmesan, party food, peeled, potatoes, red bell peppers, roux, salt, sautéed, side dish, sliced, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions, yellow potatoes

There are few things in this world as good as potatoes and vegetables covered in cheesy breadcrumbs. It’s a popular side dish that you’ve seen many variations of. I really enjoyed 4-36: Golden Potato Medley and the plating that Simply Delicious shows below looks so much better than how my dish came out. I go more for utility than aesthetics when I’m cooking, but it’s also true that you eat with your eyes before your stomach. 👀

This dish is the perfect side dish, but it is hearty enough to be eaten as an entree. It doesn’t look like much, but is perfect with hot sauce.

7-19: Cajun-Style Pork Ribs

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses February 25, 2018October 15, 2020American, American South, baby corn, black pepper, bone-in, bourbon, brandy, broiled, Cajun, canola oil, carved, cayenne pepper, cherry tomatoes, corn, dairy-free, dinner, dried herbs, dried spices, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, garlic powder, gluten-free, grilled, lukewarm, lunch, marinated, New Orleans, paprika, party food, pork, red onions, ribs, roasted, salt, sliced, spareribs, spice blends, thyme, tomatoes, untested, vegetables

Chili’s, Applebee’s, Red Robin…I’ve enjoyed racks of ribs at almost every restaurant that offers ribs as a major offering on the menu. Freshly smoked ribs are a delicious delicacy. These oven baked ribs lack the smokiness of ribs cooked in a smoker. The flavor profile for 7-19: Cajun-Style Pork Ribs is influenced by the alcohol-infused marinade and the Cajun spice rub mixture.

Simply Delicious thinks these spices are fiery, however, I’ll have to disagree. Maybe I’m too desensitized to spice now, but I could have used about 30% more spiciness. I wasn’t always a fan of spicy food, but now some of my favorite hot sauces are sriracha, Tapatio, and Tabasco.

9-16: Individual Salami Pizzas

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses February 24, 2018July 5, 2020Alfredo sauce, all-purpose flour, barbecue sauce, canola oil, Cheddar, cheese, Colby Jack, cornmeal, crushed tomatoes, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, green onions, herbs and spices, individual, Italian, kneaded, leeks, lunch, melted, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, olive oil, oregano, Parmesan, party food, pepperoni, pesto sauce, pizza, salami, salt, shredded, Silpat, sliced, snacks, tangy, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, yeast

Simply Delicious has several takes on pizza–we’ve covered quite a few already including 13-11: Vegetarian Pizza, 1-9: Four Seasons Pizza, and 5-31: Oven Pizza Pancake. There’s even 11-4: Calzone with Seafood if you like your pizza folded in half with toppings on the inside. 9-16: Individual Salami Pizzas is probably one of the more “traditional” pizza recipes so far.

It’s recommended to make this for something like a kid’s party, since it’s pretty tough to find a kid who will say no to pizza. I was a teacher for several years, ran a meal program for a school for a year or two, and I’m here to tell you that pizza (in whatever shape/form/capacity) was always a crowd pleaser for young and old.