Simply Norma

Although most days I have leftovers for lunch, this time my son made a Summer Chicken Salad that was quite tasty.

Unlike the other chicken salads I’ve had, this one was different in that it had grapes along with chicken and slivered almonds, a combination of ingredients that I never would have thought would go together.

But this combination did work well together and made for a filling lunch. I didn’t have anything else to go along with it. Just chicken salad.

The older I get, the simpler I like things to be when it comes to food. Any older folks out there know what I mean? Or am I the only older one out here?  (smiles)

You have to like chicken, prunes, capers and green olives in order to like this dish. Do I have your attention?

Yes — prunes. Before you pass on this post, let me tell you that the Chicken Marbella actually tasted very good with prunes. My problem with the recipe was with the green olives — they just didn’t seem like they belonged with this recipe. And, I LIKE green olives.

If I were to make this recipe, I would exclude the green olives but keep the prunes. They added a nice sweet flavor to the chicken. Very tasty!

The side dish we had was a Roasted Eggplant and Garlic Salad. Well, what can I say about it? First, I’m not a big eggplant fan although I have had eggplant parmesan and other vegetarian recipes that include eggplant that tasted okay. This one though — well, it was not my favorite. The eggplant seemed slimy. Seems like I use that term when things slip and slide in my mouth. (laughing)

To me, it was kind’ve like eating mushrooms and I’m not a fan of mushrooms either.

But you can try it and see if you like it, no? For people who like eggplant this will probably be a great dish!

Another day — another paleo dinner.

When I was younger, my mother used to make bacalao fritters, a Puerto Rican cod fritter.  So when my son made these fritters they reminded me a little bit of what I used to have growing up. They’re not the same but still brought back the memory.

These Cod Fritters were quite tasty and included sweet potatoes in the filling (my favorite). With fish, one normally has tartar sauce, right?  We had homemade tartar sauce that complemented the fritters very well.

The cod fritters were served with a tomato and cucumber salad and baked sweet potato fries. Yum!

Another paleo dinner hit!

(Note:  The Puerto Rican bacalao fritters can be bought at most stores or online (click on the picture below to buy them online). However, if you purchase them in a box, remember that you don’t get a whole lot of fish … just so you’re not surprised if you decide to try them.

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So, goulash is basically a stew — a nice hearty and fill-your-stomach kind’ve stew.

Hungarian Goulash usually has paprika as one of the ingredients and this one was no exception. The ingredients call for lard, tallow, olive oil or butter — we used olive oil in ours.

Side note: I remember that when we moved to Minnesota from Seattle, we brought our Hungarian Paprika with us. I don’t recall how old it was though (laughing) but it was a large container and I didn’t use it too often (although when I made scalloped potatoes I would use it).

The beef was really tender in this stew (a good thing) probably because it simmered for approximately 1.5 hours. It kind’ve reminded me of when my mother makes Carne Guisada (a Puerto Rican beef stew).

This goulash was filling but we still had a side dish – Cabbage Stuffed Peppers which I found quite delightful. I know, I know, you wouldn’t think of cabbage as being delightful, would you? But I did. There was a sweetness to the cabbage and the peppers also tasted sweet.

The strange thing about the Cabbage Stuffed Peppers? I didn’t know I was eating cabbage. It’s true! I had to ask my son what the peppers were filled with in order for me to know. I believe that’s a good thing since I know a lot of people don’t like cabbage although I’m not sure why.

This would be a good recipe to try on someone who doesn’t like cabbage — but they do need to like peppers.  (smile)

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