Today it's 90 degrees. Autumn, which officially starts on Thursday, has its work cut out. I'm craving some Japanese Chicken Curry, but that will have to wait until that famed San Francisco fog/natural air conditioning returns to the coast.

In the meantime, we're having minimal-cooking meals, the last of the garden veggies and lots of sun tea!

Monday: Costco chicken. Prepared by driving in my air-conditioned car with a detour through the vegetable cooler inside Costco.

Tuesday: Tofu Tuna Salad, which requires only heating the sauce (and you can skip this if it's just too hot!) and barely any cutting.

Wednesday: Mauna Lani Leftover Chicken Pasta Salad, using the meticulously prepared and previously chauffeured Costco chicken from Monday.

Thursday: Quinoa Salad, using the rice cooker. The can opener will not cause me to break a sweat.

Friday: OK, it's supposed to cool down. Panini using Roasted Tomatoes and Greek Salad. Aloha to the last of our tomatoes and cukes.

Bonus Saturday: My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice

Even with the late-summer heat, every season has something to celebrate. Before you know it, we'll be bemoaning winter tomatoes and craving beach weather. 

Eat Well. Be Well.

We had a great weekend BBQ and learned a few things. Notes to self:

1) Low or indirect grilling is a must for proper Huli Huli Chicken. Direct heat pretty much incinerates the chicken. It ain't pretty. (See below)  No matter how hungry you may be, start early and go the indirect method.

2) 20 full chicken legs for 16 people is a little much. Especially when some of the people are under age 13. 
2a) The vegetable corollary: The same applies for 8 full ears plus 3 scrawny home-grown ears of corn. 

3) Magical Self-Separating Finger Jello never fails to amaze. It is now a science experiment for one of my daughter's friends. Something about relative densities?!

Needless to say, this week is about using leftover cooked-but-not-carbonized chicken and corn.

Monday: Chicken Kelaguen. A good summer meal and as a bonus, uses the bag of shredded carrots in my fridge. A few more chicken legs used.

Tuesday: Omi's Shoyu Fish. In the hopes of having more precise measurements.

Wednesday: Leftovers' Roulette Chicken Tacos--shredded (leftover) chicken with fresh (leftover) corn salsa, shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream (also leftover from last week's strawberry muffins).

Thursday: Something new: pork/mushroom/kimchee stir-fry. And rice.

Friday: Quinoa Salad with the rest of the corn and the last of our fresh cucumbers. It's starting to feel like Fall.

Bonus Saturday: If you are in Mountain View CA, consider attending Hui Ilima's 52nd Annual Luau. Traditional, homemade Hawaiian food.

Eat Well. Be Well.

What do a stomach virus, a Friday-night date and warmer-than-expected weather and have in common?  They threw off last week's dinner plans, although, really it doesn't take much to toss menu plans around in this house.

Monday (yes, this was yesterday)--"Make Your Own Wraps", aka "Cleaning out the Leftovers". Leftover NY steak from Alexander's (the previously mentioned date) got sliced up and voila--carne asada. Salmon and spinach wraps got a facelift with guacamole and salsa. And Superbowl pork chili verde became carnitas. 

I did make fresh guacaomole and Jalapeno cheese dip that we didn't get around to having for our Superbowl party. 15 minutes of work to empty 3 Tupperwares, and use 2 leftover avocados, an errant lime and 7 slices of Jalapeno cheese. All before they turn into biological hazards.

Tuesday--Hot and Sour Soup. Stomach virus and 73 degree weather in February put the ix-nay on this last week. All are healthy and it's suddenly February-cold again. I have a piece of pork and am ready to go today.

Wednesday--Pannini. That carton of grape tomatoes that look like a good candidate for roasting, plus two red peppers and an orphan zucchini. And I need an eggplant.

Thursday--Korean Chicken Soup. (with thanks to my FB-Liker Lisa G :) ) Bean sprouts and bok choy were beau-ti-ful this week. All I need is to buy a new jar of kim chee.

Friday--Maybe Techie Gnocchi, or something with okinawan sweet potatoes, or the kabocha I have in the pantry. Also making Quinoa Salad for my daughter's potluck, so hopefully I'll finally get a good snapshot of that.

I got a new for-pay contracting job. And like all marketing consultant/wife/mom/tutor/chauffeur/cooks, time is is limited and tasks are many. On the plus side, marketing consulting does pay to feed my ohana, it's very interesting work for a large "techie" company. I've just finished a communication programs for a new product and helped launch a new website. However, all that time spent there takes away from my real passion of feeding my ohana, literally and otherwise...

So I've focused this blog on dinners that you can do Easily. Swiftly. When you are Kind of Tired, Rushed or A Little Bit Grouchy. Easy to make. Good eating. And we all know that a good meal always makes you happy.

Here's the work week of PDQ dinners.

1) Spaghetti with Simple Tomato Sauce. My friend Lana swears I stole this from her, but I solemnly swear that I did not. It is descended from Cooking Light. Garlic, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes and a can of whole tomatoes. We use two cans because we love it so much. Basil if you have it. You can have spaghetti sauce faster than you can boil the water for the spaghetti. (Meatballs not required!)

2) Costco Rotisserie Chicken. Yes, you have to buy this one, but it's so worth it. One complete (hot!) meal, and the leftovers lead to....

3) Chicken Divan Use the leftover chicken. Cut broccoli or buy a bag of pre-cut broccoli. Prep time = 10 minutes, and that's if you buy uncut broccoli. Bake time 30 minutes, the same amount of time it will take to make the rice to go with this.

4) Banish the Bottle Teriyaki Chicken. This is THE go-to dinner. Not to sweet, not too salty. Pour everything into a pan and let it cook. Again, in the time it takes to make rice, the chicken is done. Open a bag of salad for a fully balanced meal.

5) Quinoa Salad. The handy-dandy rice cooker to the rescue again--this time to make the quinoa. If you can open two cans and cut up a cucumber, you are done. And a vegetarian option to boot!

6) Fish sandwiches with marinated tomato salad--Brand New
Buy a carton of grape or mixed tomatoes, buns and your favorite fish. Have mayo, salt, pepper, lemon, sesame oil, shoyu, olive oil and balsamic vinegar at home.

Split the tomatoes and toss a little Hawaiian salt and olive oil over them. While that sits, bake your favorite fish (I had mahi mahi ) at 350 for about 20 minutes.

While that bakes, make a shoyu-sesame oil-mayonaise and green onions sauce for the sandwiches. When the fish is done, drizzle balsamic vinegar over the tomatoes. Spread the mayo/sesame oil/shoyu over the bread and eat.

I'm planning some more updates to the site, and more quickly than this past month! Thanks much for sticking with me. Eat well. Be well.