…but not tonight.  Whenever I’m on my work week, I try to get dinner on the table 30-45 minutes from when I start futzing in the kitchen.  We even have a “5 o’clock house rule” where our rugrats can only start watching TV after 5 pm so I can prepare dinner uninterrupted.  My kids literally transform into zombies when they start watching TV.  It’s a cool magic trick.

Tonight, I had great intentions but it ultimately took me almost 90 minutes to get food on the table due to poor planning.  On Sunday, I had already cooked some pork chops and chicken breasts in my SousVide Supreme (for Monday and Tuesday night) so I had my protein set.  I got derailed because I made too many damn vegetables.  However, the plus side is, I have a lot of veggie leftovers! 

Here’s our final spread:  cauliflower fried rice, broiled zucchini and raw tomatoes with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil, roasted portobello mushrooms with balsamic and roasted garlic flavored extra virgin olive oil, and sous vide Rub With Love  pork chops.

I’ve wanted to make cauliflower rice since I read about it in Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Cookbook (which I don’t love) and on Food Lovers’ Primal Palate blog (which I do love).  Before going to bed, I washed and cut up the cauliflower:

When I woke up, I popped my pre-cooked, refrigerated pork chops into my Sous Vide Supreme (which I had filled and preheated earlier to 130 F) to reheat and I started preparing my vegetables.  I would’ve finished in 30-45 minutes but I mistakenly decided to use the oven for two of my veggie sides (broiled zucchini and roasted portobello mushrooms) so I had to wait for one to finish before heating the other.  Damn it, why didn’t we put in a double oven when we remodeled!  That, coupled with chopping (albeit with a processor), nuking, and then frying the cauliflower, delayed dinner.

Here’s the cauliflower (2 small heads chopped then nuked) frying in the pan with a minced onion, 3 cloves of minced garlic, and coconut oil:

I seasoned the “rice” with salt, pepper, and Trader Joes’s 21 Seasoning Salute.

For the mushrooms, I preheated the oven to 400 F and then I wiped the tops off with a damp paper towel and removed the gills with a spoon.  Then, I seasoned each mushroom with salt, pepper, and Consorzio Roasted Garlic Flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oil (buy at Costco!) and wrapped them individually with foil.  I placed the packets on a foil lined baking sheet (in case one exploded) and popped them in the oven for 20 minutes.

When I took the mushrooms out, I sliced them and drizzled them with the cooking juices and some balsamic vinegar.

Then, I cranked up the oven to broil and put in my tray of sliced zucchini (which I had seasoned with salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil).  While they broiled for 5-10 minutes, I chopped up some tomatoes.  Then, I tossed everything on a plate with some balsamic vinegar.

I had sous vided the pork chops with my chicken breasts on Sunday (140F for 3 hours) and was glad to see that they turned out okay because I’d crammed the SousVide Supreme to the brim with 4 big bone-in chicken breast and 4 bone-in pork chops.  After reheating inthe SousVide Supreme at 130F for 40 minutes, I seared them off in my super hot cast iron skillet with some coconut oil.

Here’s a pic of hubby’s plate:

Tonight, I’m going to make sure that dinner only takes 30 minutes to make.  Word.

About Michelle Tam

Hello! My name is Michelle Tam, and I love to eat. I think about food all the time. It borders on obsession. I’ve always loved the sights and smells of the kitchen. My mother was (and is) an excellent cook, and as a kid, I was her little shadow as she prepared supper each night. From her, I gained a deep, abiding love for magically transforming pantry items into mouth-watering family meals.

Other Recipes You May Like

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *