Dinner - Simple and Quick

Were you ever so tired that you didn't care if you ate dinner? You toss the words around in your head a few times to make up your mind: eat? or sleep? sleep? or eat? I only had about four hours sleep last night, put in a full day at work and came home in the dark. The last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner. But I've been trying to eat healthy lately after I recently failed my blood test - that's my father's joke: "I have to study tonight; I'm having a blood test tomorrow." Har! Har!

My cholesterol levels came back high (what else is new?) and my triglycerides were creeping up too. Maybe it was the tub of chocolate covered almonds I hid from my family back in October? You know the behemoth size container you buy in the Price Club? I ate it all by myself. I started with one, then three, then ten, until I lost patience with that game and just said the hell with it! and grabbed a fistful every time I passed the cabinet where they were hidden. When I put the empty container by the back door for my husband to add to the trash one night, he looked quite surprised.

"I didn't know we had these in the house," he said, turning the empty container upside down.

"We don't," I answered, and walked upstairs to weigh myself.

So now I'm trying to eat healthy and move around a little more. I wouldn't exactly call it exercising because I stop the minute I feel the sweat coming. I hate sweat. But I hate taking medicine even more. I cringe when I hear folks my age at a party excitedly comparing their cholesterol medications and shouting out their HDL vs LDL numbers, like they were competing with each other. I refuse to get sucked into that medicine spiral where you take one medication for something and you get a side effect that drives you to take another medication. Ugh! Pass the chocolate covered almonds and watch a funny movie. That's my kind of medicine.

In the past, when I would come home so tired, we would order some take-out food or drive to the local diner. Tonight I remembered some tofu that I had in the refrigerator. I usually buy the stuff with all good intentions and end up tossing it, unopened, a month after the expiration date. But I'm really trying to be good these days, so I pulled out the package with the most recent expiration date (I found 3 packages buried back there!) drained all the liquid and put the square of extra firm tofu between two paper towels to dry it out a little. I cut it into 1/2 inch segments, across the length of the block, dipped the segments in egg, then bread crumbs. (I mixed about one cup of 4-C Ready Flavored Bread Crumbs with 2 teaspoons of powdered cumin, one teaspoon of curry powder and some salt to taste)

Next, I cut up 3 small zucchini squash and 2 yellow squash into 3/4 to 1 inch chunks and tossed them into a large baking pan with a little olive oil, and set them in a 450 degree oven to roast for about 15 minutes, turning them to brown evenly, after about 7 minutes.

Often when I cook a meal, I think about the color presentation at the table and that will serendipitously create a natural, very pleasing flavor combination. Tonight I needed something dark for color contrast, so I pulled out an 8 oz package of fresh small Portabello mushrooms, plucked the stems off and rinsed the caps. They would be fried in some olive oil and butter and sprinkled with salt, pepper, paprika (for color and flavor) and topped with fresh, bright green parsley.

The mushrooms were frying in one pan at the same time that I was frying the breaded tofu rectangles in some fragrant virgin olive oil in another pan. After about 12 minutes in the oven, I added some cut up fresh Campari tomatoes, a sprinkle of sea salt, pepper and dried basil to the roasting squash.

The entire meal, from the moment I decided to eat instead of sleep, took about 30 minutes. You couldn't get a take-out meal delivered that fast. It was colorful, delicious and healthy. I felt satisfied, but not stuffed. There was room for dessert or chocolate covered almonds - if I wanted them. But, I repeat...I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to be good.