Or in other words cook dinner more. I’m spoiled and married a man who loves to cook and knows his way around a kitchen better than I. But truth be told, I’ve gotten a bit lazy. We have an agreement in our house that the person who prepares dinner doesn’t do the dishes. And after a long day, scrubbing a few pans and rinsing plates is much easier for me than whipping up a healthy dinner for four.
Inspired by the Food Network and armed with the recently published Sunset Cookbook {thanks Eric!}, I’m determined to learn new techniques and fall in love with the experience of preparing the family dinner.
About once a week I’ll be trying out a new recipe from the enormous volume and sharing it here. First on the plate: Crusted Portabella Burgers. I swapped out ciabatta rolls for sandwich buns and ended up guesstimating the amount of chipotle chilies (one whole one is probably equal to 4 minced teaspoons), so it was a bit hot for the kiddos. Each downed two glasses of milk to cut the spice. So if you’re looking to increase your kid’s dairy intake, this might do the trick:
Crusted Portabella Burgers
Ingredients
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/3 cup Italian-style fine dried bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 4 portabella mushroom caps (5 in. wide; 1 to 1 1/4 lb. total)
- 4 round sandwich buns (4 in. wide; 3/4 lb. total)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chilies or hot sauce
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 1 cup spinach leaves, rinsed and crisped
- Salt
- Pepper
Preparation
1. In a bowl, beat egg whites and oil to blend. In another bowl, mix crumbs and chili powder.
2. Rinse mushroom caps; drain. Coat each cap with egg mixture, drain briefly, then coat with crumbs, shaking off excess. Set caps, gill sides down, slightly apart on a 12- by 15-inch baking sheet. Lay bun halves, cut sides up, side by side on another 12- by 15-inch baking sheet.
3. Bake mushroom caps in a 450° oven until browned and flexible when pressed, about 20 minutes. About 3 minutes before mushrooms are done, add buns to oven; bake until lightly toasted.
4. In a small bowl, mix sour cream and chipotle chilies. Spread mixture on cut sides of buns. Layer equal amounts of onion and spinach on each bun bottom, top with a mushroom cap, add salt and pepper to taste, and cover with bun top.
Recipe from the Sunset Cookbook
Yum. I will have to store the recipe for future use, however. Sans kitchen there is really not a lot of cooking or dish washing going on here!