image of Tartine and Brown Rice and Vegetables
image of Tartine and Brown Rice and Vegetables

Cook Once, Eat Twice

Mushroom Tartine with Fontina
Dinosaur Kale Tartine with Goat Cheese
Brown Rice with Mushrooms, Kale, Kabocha Squash, and Chicken Sausage

Who doesn’t love getting two meals out of one cooking session.  Even I, who loves to cook and cooks all the time, revel in the culinary twofer.

I had a friend over for lunch and was in the mood for something light and simple, so decided on two kinds of tartines accompanied a simple side salad of mango, avocado, and mint.  For those who are not familiar, a tartine is the French name for any open face sandwich served on toast.  I toasted baguettes and then rubbed the toasted bread with a whole peeled clove of garlic.  I mounded sautéed mushrooms and leeks on one side of toasted baguette and topped with shavings of fontina cheese.  Then spread the other half of toasted baguette with goat cheese and topped it with sautéed dinosaur kale.  It made a tasty lunch loaded with crunchy, smooth, and creamy textures.

A couple of days later I had a hankering for brown rice and vegetables.  One of my favorite lunches when I worked at Whole Foods was brown rice and vegetables with rotisserie chicken.  Which is a meal I still enjoy.  I had roasted kabocha squash on hand, the leftover mushrooms and kale, and some chicken sausage.  I piled all of that onto a bed of brown rice and garnished with cashews.  I enjoyed this meal with cold and crisp hard cider and had an (almost) instant dinner.