Tortellini with Chorizo Sauce

We made this dinner last week, another easy comfort-food dinner, made with pantry and freezer ingredients.
Served with a side of veggies (carrots and zucchini cooked in the microwave), it's a simple but wholesome dinner.

My son wanted to be in charge of dinner, so I directed and he prepared.  It was fun, and simple enough that he could do it all himself, starting with salting the pasta water.

I buy chorizo at the grocery store, in the meat section near the hotdogs and hispanic foods, and keep them in the freezer since I never use more than one at a time and they're sold in packs of 8.

One thing we learned the hard (messy!) way is don't forget to pierce the skin of the sausage if you decide to defrost it in the microwave.  Ka-Boom!

Of course, that's how my son learned the all-important lesson: when something explodes in the microwave, clean it up right away!

Tortellini with Chorizo Sauce

1 chorizo sausage
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 cup V8 juice*
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup diced onions

1 lb dried tortellini

* if you don't have V8, you can substitute a small can of tomato paste and use 3/4 cups chicken broth instead)

Put a large pot of water on to boil, salted and covered.
Brown the sausage in a wide non-stick frying pan.  Add the diced onions (you may have these in the freezer if you do this) and cook until the onions are soft.  Add the liquids and bring to a simmer.

By this time, your water should be boiling.  Add the tortellini and cook according to the package (typically about 11 minutes).

Let the sauce simmer while the pasta cooks.  Microwave the veggies and set the table.

Drain the tortellini and add them to the sauce.  Mix and serve.

Total preparation time: about 20 minutes.

For the record, it's helpful to actually put the vegetables on the table when you eat, instead of leaving them in the microwave where you will find them the next morning....

Fish Tacos

Once in a while, I get a hankering for fish tacos.  Thankfully, the most recent episode was on a Friday, so we had time to be relaxed after work and school.  This dish doesn't take long to put together, but it did require a quick trip to the grocery store for fish, since I didn't have any on-hand.

The traditional fish taco is a little different than ours, but we improvised with a few extra ingredients (more veggies) and they were wonderful. 

This kind of dinner is fun to enjoy with kids.  You have to play with your food!  The only cooking was done in one pan, and since I think it's best to serve the fish warm, but not necessarially hot-off-the-stove, it makes the whole dinner more relaxed.

As people drifted in and out of the kitchen, the tomatoes were sliced, the limes were sliced, the peppers were chopped and the zucchini was stirred.  The fish was last into the pan, for just a few minutes, and when it was all spread on the table it looked like a party.

Friday Night Fish Tacos

3 small tomatoes, sliced
1 lime, quartered
lettuce, shredded
8 small flour tortillas
guacamole

0.5 lb fish per person - sea bass, cod or other white, firm-fleshed fish

options:
sliced zucchini, sauted with fish
shredded cabbage
salsa
sauted green/red peppers

Prepare and set out the tomatoes through guacamole.  Saute any veggies in the pan that need to cook more than a few minutes.
I added a little olive oil and sauted the peppers and zucchini for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the fish, lightly salted, to the hot pan.  (you can remove the other veggies and put them aside in a serving dish if they're cooked though at this point, if not, they can cook with the fish).  Cook the fish about 4 minutes each side for thick pieces, 3 for filets.  When the fish is opaque and flakes easily, it's done.  Put fish in the serving dish, break into chunks and serve.

We assemble ours by putting some guacamole on the tortilla, adding the fish and other ingredients and wrapping.

I suppose this approach would work with lots of other ingredients - chicken, tofu, scrambled eggs - time to play with our food!

In fact, playing with the ingredients on the table led to another wacky-flavor combination: apple slices and lime juice!  I'm wondering if there's a new Fall pie in this one!