When you’re still kinda full at 7pm but don’t want to skip dinner, what do you do?
How many of us haven’t had deep thoughts about, or written about, or extolled the merits of, breakfast for dinner? Similarly: How much have we all considered and dissected the possibilities of not-sad-weekday lunches?
I personally have thought about these two meal “opportunities,” let’s call them, a lot. I love a frittata or eggs-in-a-hole for dinner, and I’d like to enter pancakes into that mix, too (I keep forgetting, is the thing). As for weekday lunches — I’m getting better at those, thanks to my newfound enthusiasm for salad creation.
Something else I’ve thought about a lot is this: You go out for a big lunch. Let’s say you even have a drink, maybe two. It happens! You eat pasta, or a cheeseburger, or maybe even pizza. You’re full for a really long time. (And probably have a hard time working for the rest of the day, due to lethargy. At least, that’s usually the case for me.)
There are a lot of people out there who skip dinner or claim to just have a bowl of cereal for dinner on a day like this. Not me. But I also am not really capable of eating two giant meals in a day anymore. For which I’m grateful, because realistically I can’t handle it — my body will let me know this fact.
I’ve built up a list of things that I can eat on these nights. I’m sharing a few with you today. Anything that makes its way onto this list has to fit into two categories. Number one: It has to be relatively light. Like, not carbonara, which is one of my “regular” go-tos. And two: The dish has to lend itself well to leftovers. Because if I’m going to cook dinner on a day that I’ve eaten three steaks for lunch, chances are there will be leftovers, and I’m going to want them to be leftovers that get eaten.
Here’s what I have. And I hope you’ll share your counterparts in the comments below.
Pea and Arugula Frittata: Because I love frittatas so much, at any time of day. It’s hard to think of an ingredient that wouldn’t work in a frittata. (Chocolate chips?) And mastering a frittata is something that even I can do.
Spicy Tuna Rice Bowl: Because it turns out that soy sauce and scallions mixed with canned tuna taste really good.
Tofu “Larb”: Because the flavors of larb cannot be beat, and because you could easily put this on a salad the next day.
Salmon with Hot Sauce Vinaigrette and Pickled Veg: A Bon Appétit recipe that I am in love with. I should be tripling the recipe when I make it, honestly.
Pea and Arugula Frittata
Many of you know how much we love frittatas, and this one offers a super green variety. It’s almost like a salad frittata — the ratio of vegetable to egg is pretty perfect. Frozen peas are just fine. Parmesan is perfect, but you can beat 4 ounces of soft goat cheese into the eggs instead if you’d prefer.
Spicy Tuna Rice Bowl
A Spicy Tuna Rice Bowl using canned tuna – combined with soy, sesame, and wasabi – may be a strange concept, but trust me, it works.
Tofu “Larb”
Though it’s from Laos, larb is probably most often eaten in Thai restaurants. (Shout out to the amazing Thai Market on NYC’s Upper West Side, which was introduced to me by my friend Earlene — if you can get there, do.) The salad is typically made from an irresistible combo of ground meat, chiles, lime juice, fish sauce, and herbs: Please note that we’d never call what we have here authentic, but rather an homage to a more traditional majestic larb — in big part because there’s no meat in it. I like to think that the flavors here honor the original while allowing vegans to partake. — Kate
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