I recently discovered miso paste - a salty, umami paste that packs a flavor bomb to any dish. Miso paste is made from soy beans and rice or barley fermented with salt, water and fungus. There are two types of miso paste: white miso (shiro miso) is milder and great for salad dressings and sauces and red miso (aka miso), which is saltier and more pungent and is used in soups. You can often find them in the refrigerated section with tofu, seitan and the like. And this stuff lasts forever in the fridge. Most recipes call for a couple of tablespoons of this stuff. So don't be afraid to buy a container and stick it in the fridge. It will be like a old friend, waiting faithfully for you whenever you need it.

I often make a miso-soy glaze for fish and tofu, which my kids will inhale. Then I found this recipe by Ming Tsai. It's hearty, salty and sweet and comes together in less than 30 minutes. In other words, the perfect weeknight meal.

Miso-Butter Ramen-Noodle Soup
Adapted from Simply Ming One-Pot Meals, by Ming Tsai & Arthur Boehm

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ramen noodles
Kosher salt
2 Tablespoons canola oil
3 shallots, minced
1 Tablespoons ginger, peeled and minced
1 lb ground turkey or pork
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 quarts low sodium chicken broth
2 fuji apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
6 Tablespoons white miso

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large stockpot, cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain noodles and rinse under cold water. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat the same pot over medium heat. Add oil and when hot, add shallots, ginger, and ground turkey and saute until meat is no longer pink and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Add the scallion whites and soy and simmer until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and apples and bring to a simmer.
3. Whisk in the butter and miso and season with salt and pepper. Add ramen noodles and heat through, about 2 minutes. Divide the noodles and soup into bowls and garnish with scallion greens. Serve immediately.

Busy week ahead along with some cold nights (what else is new) so this week's meal plan includes lots of easy and fast meals, soups and one-pot dinners. As I often try to do, I asked the boys to each pick one dish to be included in the week's menu. So it comes to no surprise pasta and meatballs and fish tacos made it on the meal plan. Recipe links below:

Monday: Pasta & Meatballs picked by the little one. For a picky eater, he hasn't found a meatball he doesn't like. For me, I'm especially found of Great Grandma Turano's Meatballs from Dinner: A Love Story.

Tuesday: Portuguese Kale + Potato Soup can be made quickly with very just a few humble ingredients. Plus it tastes that much better the next day.

Wednesday: Barefoot Contessa Jambalaya because I will have leftover sausage from Tuesday plus I love one-pot dinners.

Thursday: Fish Tacos, Rice & Beans plus Avocado and Mango Salsa from ChopChop. My oldest requested this knowing it is our "vacation" dish, but hopes it will make him think of summer!

Friday: Beef & Broccoli was a unanimous request from both my boys. I often have to double the recipe because they can not get enough of this stuff.

Have a great week!

I will be the first one to admit that I can be lazy in the kitchen. I will avoid any recipes that require lots of ingredients (which means lots of shopping - which I hate). A dish that requires multiple cooking techniques? Forget it. I will only make risotto once or twice a year because I can't bear the thought of constant stirring. Well, it just so happens that my laziness efficiency  is actually saving energy and money.

Oxfam GROW Method #4: Cook Smarter

"We rely on precious fossil fuels to cook and heat our food, and these everyday tasks add up to big emissions, as well as big energy bills. Try cooking with as little water as possible, using a flat bottomed pan, covering your pan with a lid and reducing the heat as soon as the water starts to boil - you 'll save energy, water and money!"

1. Change How You Cook
Did you know that by 1) using just enough water to cover your food while cooking on the stove (rather than filling the pan up to the top);  2) Using a flat-bottomed pan and covering with a lid; and 3) reducing the heat as soon as the water starts to boil can reduce up to 70% of the energy you use?

And the next factoid is truly amazing to me: If all urban households in Brazil, India, Philippines, Spain, the UK and the US took these three steps, we would save over 30 million megawatt hours of energy a year. You're picturing Doc from Back to the Future shouting "1.21 gigawatts?! Great Scott!" right about now, huh? Or put in another way, saving 30 million megawatt hours a year is greater than if the same households each planted a seedling and let it grow for ten years. Woah. That's heavy.



2. Change What You Cook
Another way to save energy is to make things that don't require energy, like sandwiches, salads, cold soups or no-bake treats. So those nights when you'll eat a bowl of cereal for dinner because you don't feel like cooking for yourself? Great! Or you can try some of these one-pot or no-cook recipes such as Chicken Pho Naan Sandwich, Shrimp Gazpacho, Baby Bok Choy, Carrot and Apple Slaw,  Peach Plum Salsa, Almond Butter, Cream Cheese and Strawberry Sandwich, or Chicken Sofrito. And be sure to check out Oxfam's pinterest board for more recipe ideas.

Some of my favorite no-cook and one-pot meals

So go ahead - be lazy in the kitchen. Just make sure you put don't leave a mess, because I would NEVER do that (wink, wink).

This post (and my sharing on social media) was inspired by my participation in a compensated program initiated by Women Online/The Mission List to raise awareness about Oxfam America's GROW Method. All commentary and opinions are, of course, my own.

Any book that begins with "She longed for adventure" is sure to be a page-turner. And when this opening sentence is referring to a chicken named Louise, how can you *not* want to read on?

Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo and Harry Bliss is a story about a not so chicken chicken who leaves the warmth of her hen house only to find herself caught by pirates, survives a sinking ship, joins the circus, escapes a lion, kidnapped in a bazaar, only to free herself and other chickens from imminent chicken doom. My boys LOVE it. I love it. What's not to love?

Anyway, in the first chapter "Louise at Sea", the hungry pirates all have their own ideas on how they want to cook Louise. "Fried!" shouts one nasty-looking pirate. "Fricasseed!" shouts another. My oldest always giggles at this one.

So it is Louise that I think of every time we make Ming Tsai's Mushroom Chicken Fricassee with Edamame. This is one adventure I'm sure Louise is thankful to skip!



Mushroom Chicken Fricassee with Edamame
From Ming Tsai's Simply Ming One-Pot Meals

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds unskinned bone-in chicken legs with thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
1 large red onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
2 cups canned whole roma tomatoes, roughly chopped, with the juice from measuring
1 cup shelled edamame


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper

2. Heat a large roasting pan or large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and sauté, turning once, until brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

3. Drain the pan of all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the onion, garlic and mushrooms and sauté until lightly brown, 2 to 3 minutes, and season with salt and pepper. Add the tarragon, tomatoes with their liquid, and edamame. Mix well and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

4. Top with the chicken, transfer to the oven, and bake until the chicken is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a platter and serve.

The Good: GREAT weeknight meal. Easy to prepare with tons of flavors. Edamame gives it an unexpected twist. Boys could not get enough.

The Bad: Boys hated the mushrooms (to be expected). I had to shell the edamame by hand (oof), but you can purchase shelled edamame at most stores.

Grade: Solid A. Get this in the oven, grab a copy of Louise and enjoy (yeah, I'm a sick mama)!

"Celeriac: the unsung frog prince of winter vegetables" - NPR

My brain is telling me it is officially Spring. Yet I had to use my scraper this morning to clear snow off my car before taking the boys to school this morning. Yes, I live in New England. "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes." is said with as much frequency as "wicked awesome" around these parts. So I figured best to embrace these last whimpers of winter with a hearty stew before I start complaining about how hot and humid it is a few minutes later.

Colorful ingredients to brighten up a cold March day

This recipe for short ribs with root veggies come from our new favorite cookbook, Ming Tsai's Simply Ming One-Pot Meals. We've been cooking our way through this cookbook and have found a winning recipe on nearly every page. The extended forecast calls for cold weather through the rest of this month. So why not cook up this stew now 'cause its wicked awesome.




Short Ribs with Root Veggies
Inspired by Simply Ming One-Pot Meals

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
6 single-rib short ribs
3 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
2 onions, cut into 1-inch dice
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 lb carrots, cut into 1-inch rounds
6 celery stalks, split lengthwise and halved
1 celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 large sweet potato, 1-inch dice
1 large parsnip, cut into 1-inch rounds
2 tablespoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large shallow plate, combine the flour and chili powder. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour mixture.

2. Heat a stockpot or other tall wide pot over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, shake the excess flour mixture from ribs, add them to the pot, and cook, turning once, until browned about 8 minutes. Set the ribs aside.


3. Add the remaining oil to the pot, and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic and saute, stirring, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, celeriac, potato and parsnip. Season with salt and pepper. Add the ribs, soy sauce and enough water to almost cover the ingredients. Season to taste.

4. Cover and cook over medium heat until a paring knife passes through the meat easily, about 3 hours. Transfer the ribs and vegetables to a large bowl and serve.


The Good: Easy to make, full of nutritious veggies and short-ribs that melt in your mouth.

The Bad: Stew base was on the thin side. Not a quick weeknight meal (3 hours on the stove). Although boys ate some of it, they did not love it.

Grade: B. Will try making this in a crock pot as a weeknight meal.

I confess - I am a messy cook! The boys' play kitchen is in better condition than what our kitchen looks like after I tackle dinner. I read once the secret to a happy kitchen is to clean and put away as you cook. I don't know about you, but I can barely hold it together with several pots bubbling away on the stove while reading a recipe and pushing the littlest one away from open flame all at the same time.

That is why I gravitate toward one-pot meals for everyday dinners. Not only is there less to clean-up, but the stress-level comes down a notch when I only have to worry about one cooking vessel and not having to be in the kitchen the whole time. Chili, soup, and tagines are wonderful one-pot meals in my book. Then I came across a paella recipe in Mark Bittman's Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating. Make this and you will want to trade all your sauce pans, stock pots, roasting pans for a paella pan.



Paella
Adapted from Mark Bittman's Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating

INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups chicken broth, plus more if needed
Pinch saffron threads
1 lbs ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp paprika
3 oz chorizo, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 cups white rice
6 large peeled shrimp
2 boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Warm the broth and the saffron in a small sauce pan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tbs olive oil. Toss to coat.

2. Put the remaining oil in a 12-inch oven proof skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add onion, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook stirring occasionally until it softens (3-5 minutes). Stir in tomato paste, paprika and chorizo and cook for a minute more.

spicy chorizo gave the dish some heat but not too much

3. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally until shiny (1-2 minutes). Add the warm broth and stir until just combined, then stir in the shrimp, chicken and corn.

Tomato wedges made this dish extra meaty

4. Put the tomato wedges on top of the rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in the bottom of the bowl. Put the pan in the oven and bake, undisturbed, for 15-20 minutes. Check to see if the rice is nearly dry and just tender. When rice is ready, turn off oven and let it sit 5-15 minutes.

5. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with parsley. Optional: put the pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

The Good: Quick and easy. Did I mention this is made in one pot?

The Bad: Not an authentic paella, but we still loved it.

Grade: A. A rice dish packed with delicious veggies and protein. The boys asked for seconds!