“Costa Rican” rice with thyme-roasted tomatoes

I had a college roommate who had spent some of her childhood in Costa Rica, and she said that one of the popular breakfasts there was white rice, lemon and tomato. As a fan of savory breakfast, this idea always appealed to me. When I was thinking of how to use my farmer’s market tomatoes the other night, I thought of a play on that dish using brown rice and a more upscale take on the tomato component.

Thyme-roasted tomatoes

These are great on their own, or as a component to another dish – I’ll tell you tomorrow about how I used them last night.

Farmer’s market tomato

Olive oil

Fresh thyme

salt

Preheat oven to 400-450.

Cut top off tomato. Rub with oil. Salt, add thyme on top.

Roast for 45 minutes to an hour.

Jazzed Up Frozen Veggies

I made Asian lettuce wraps for dinner last night and was looking for a quick, easy side that was relatively healthy. Most of the veggies in the fridge weren’t what I was looking for, so I decided to try to jazz up the freezer-based veggies a little bit – it was surprisingly successful.

Crispy Chicken Salad

They say you don’t make friends with salad, but this one may prove otherwise. Well, Becky liked it anyway.

There’s a coincidence

Just after I gushed over the wonder that is Bacon Mayo, Bittman does the same.

I’m not convinced I’ll have time to make it and enter the contest, but good to know the word is spreading that one thing can save mayo from being disgusting – BACON.

Picture This

Flank steak, with shrimp and white beans and tomato cucumber salad.

Double Beer Braised Pork Nachos

So tonight, I was thinking I’d make something along the lines of the Chili-braised Pork Nachos that CookThink had posted awhile back, particularly as I’d bought these peppers at the Farmer’s Market that reminded me of what they’d pictured.

So I started grinding up peppers in the food processor. John came over skeptically, “You bought peppers and don’t really know what they are?” “It’ll be fine,” I said.

Yeah, I took one taste of my chili paste and knew that these were Habanero-tastic. Hours later and my hands are still burning. Dumb ass. Time for plan B.

Apple-Orange-Peach Smoothie

Welcome to today’s variation on the smoothie, which is becoming my go-to breakfast. In an exciting turn of events, I think (fingers crossed) that my parents may get me a blender that A) actually crushes ice effectively and B) has a lid for my birthday.

Andrej’s Mabo-Dofu Recipe

Excitement! A submission from a new contributor. And it fits my criteria for non-Missy recipe blog posting – that I’ve tasted the recipe, and that it’s delicious. Thanks, Drej!

Shrimp with beans and tomatillos

Well, I achieved one of my summer food goals…cooking with tomatillos. I’m not sure I’ve ever even tasted tomatillos before this. They were more citrusy than I expected. I will say, though, despite the flavors not being what I was going for, I thought this recipe ultimately worked pretty well.