Hawaiian Loco Moco

 I hadn't heard of Hawaiian Loco Moco until recently. I'm not sure why that is and I'm not sure why I waited over 50 years to taste it, but this recipe will be going into our regular rotation. There are 4 components: the base of steamed rice, the burger patty, the gravy and the sunny side egg that goes on the top. It's delicious! It's economical. It's very filling and, the best part is that you only need 1/2 pound of ground beef for 2 servings.

I did serve this with Hawaiian Mac Salad.

 Very quickly, the the ingredients for this salad are:
Salad macaroni
Grated carrot
Minced onion
Finely diced red bell pepper
Cubed cheddar cheese

The dressing is:
Mayonnaise
Milk
Apple Cider Vinegar
Sugar
Salt & pepper, to taste

It's very simple. I can't give you measurements because I don't measure.

Now, back to the scheduled program of Loco Moco.

This is absolutely delicious! You have to put a crispy edged sunny side up egg on the top. The yolk mixes with the gravy on the ground beef patty and makes this delectable, silky sauce.

Hawaiian Loco Moco
2 servings

Prepare 1 cup of rice. You can use jasmine, basmati or just regular white rice. It's up to you. Rice is cooked using a 2:1 ratio. That means for every 1 cup of rice, use 2 cups of water. You don't even need a measuring cup. You can use whatever vessel you have on hand. Just use 2 water to every 1 rice. Rice cooks, covered for 20 minutes.

1/2 pound 93% lean ground beef
2 or 3 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder


Mix together in a bowl and form into 2 patties. Cook in a heavy bottomed skillet (we used cast iron) until desired internal temperature is reached. I prefer my burgers to have no pink. Remove from the skillet, tent with foil to keep warm, and set aside.
In the meantime, make the gravy.

For the gravy:

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium onion, diced
1-2 mushrooms, sliced (I diced mine as my husband has difficulties eating some food unless it's finely diced)
3/4 cup beef broth
2 teaspoons shoyu soy sauce (use regular if you don't have shoyu, it's perfectly fine)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ketchup
2-1/2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with a bit of water to make a slurry

Cook the onions and mushrooms, in the butter,  in the same skillet that you cooked the burgers in, making sure to scrape up the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Once everything is cooked down, about 5 minutes or so over medium heat, add the rest of the ingredients except the cornstarch. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer 3-5 minutes. Add the cornstarch slurry, bring back to a boil, whisking continually, until thickened. Remove from heat, cover and let set for a few minutes while you make 2 sunny side up eggs.

You will also want to slice up a green onion to use as garnish.

On a plate, add a mound of steamed rice, top with a burger patty, top that with gravy, top all with a sunny side up egg and garnish with green onions.

Enjoy!

Cowboy Calico Beans

 Bob and I are trying something a bit different this month. I found a menu template and I sat down and figured out 31 main dishes for dinner. I filled it in with all sorts of different ideas. I put in everything from Cod Mappas to breakfast for dinner. I let Bob choose what he wants for dinner the following day.

He chose Cowboy Calico Beans.

I've made this recipe multiple times since we moved out here into the country. It's become a favorite.

All good recipes, in my opinion, start out with a chopped onion. This was no exception.

I used 1/2 of a green bell and 1/2 of a red bell. Color is a great thing in recipes as you eat with your eyes first.

This recipe contains four different types of beans. I ordered a case of butter beans from Amazon so that I could have them on hand. That's how much we like this recipe. Butter beans are hard to find here locally.

Everything cooks together, slowly, for 45 minutes to an hour.

This is a perfect ending to a cool and blustery day.


Cowboy Calico Beans

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons yellow prepared mustard
1 15-oz. can butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. can lima beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. can pork and beans

Cook beef with onion and bell peppers until cooked through and no pink remains. Drain. Add to a large pot with all the other ingredients. Cook, covered, over low heat for 45-60 minutes until everything has melded together. Make sure to stir every now and then to stop from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

**You can also add all the ingredients to a slow cooker and cook on low temperature 8 or so hours.

Braised Potatoes & Chicken Thighs With Scallion Butter Sauce

 It appears that we got through that atmospheric river with minimal damage. I think we sustained a knocked over trellising pole that is cemented into a 5 gallon bucket and our arch blew over.

We will rebuild.

I did get potatoes planted and I planted out some of my old wooden raised beds with spring greens, radishes and turnips. I planted various types. I am going to stagger planting and I'll seed more stuff in 2 weeks from now...fill in the blanks, so to speak. I do love to practice the art of cramscaping!

In the meantime, I needed to figure out what to make for dinner tonight. I had originally thought about making Chicken Cacciatore but, over the years, I've had that so many times that I'm, quite frankly, rather bored with that recipe. I knew I wanted a braised dish but I didn't want to use canned tomatoes. I can only eat so much citrus because I have a sensitivity to citrus and I've been eating oranges like crazy.

This recipe evolved from there.

I even dug out my cast iron skillet so that I could properly braise in it. I have a small 8-inch skillet and it works perfectly for portion control for the 2 of us. With this recipe, you'll definitely need portion control. It's that friggin' delicious!

I prepped everything ahead of time. There's bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, diced red onion, sliced lemon, lemon juice, butter, garlic and scallion. You'll also need to peel up a large baking potato, as well. You're going to boil the potato until it's barely fork tender. 

The thighs get browned up in a cast iron skillet (use one that can go into the oven). Brown for 5 minutes on one side, turn them over and cook for 5 minutes on the other side. By this time, your potato should be cooked. Just drain it and set aside to cool just a bit.

Don't rush it. Let them brown. You'll thank me later when you taste them. 

Once the chicken is nicely browned, add in the other ingredients and pour in the chicken broth. Don't add the lemon juice or butter yet. Reserve those. 

I covered my skillet with foil and popped it into a preheated 400 degree oven. I set a timer for 35 minutes. The timing made perfectly cooked, tender, fall apart chicken.

Melt the butter in the hot skillet once it comes out of the oven and drizzle with lemon juice. Enjoy!

Braised Potatoes & Chicken Thighs With Scallion Butter Sauce

Serves 2

4 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large russet baking size potato, peeled and cut into 8 pieces
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small red onion, diced
French grey salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chicken broth
Juice of half of a lemon and the other half sliced thinly
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 thinly sliced scallions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Boil potato until barely fork tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet that can also go into the oven. Season chicken on both sides, to taste, with freshly cracked black pepper and French grey salt. Brown chicken, skin side down,  in skillet, for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn over and brown the other side.
Once chicken is golden brown, nestle the potato pieces in with the chicken, sprinkle the onions, garlic and lemon slices over the top. Add 1/4 cup chicken broth. Bring to a simmer, cover skillet and put in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until chicken is 165 degrees on a food thermometer.
Remove skillet from oven. Remove foil cover. Gently lift a piece of chicken up and add the butter and very gently move butter around until it is melted. Drizzle lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with scallions.
Serve.

Cod Mappas & A Bonus Tikka Curry Paste Recipe

 We're getting yet another atmospheric river. We ran into the laundromat to get that weekly chore done and out of the way and I stopped by the store on the way home. It was sunny when we walked in and raining when we walked out. We weren't in there very long, either. Anyhow, it's supposed to be rainy and windy for the next few days, at least. I figured it would be a good day for a lighter fish dinner. I had a nice filet of cod and this recipe just fit the bill nicely.

This dish gets served over Basmati rice. You could do this with halibut, too. It would be delicious!

First, before you do anything, make the Tikka Curry Paste. This is super simple and it blitzes up in a few seconds in a food processor.

Tikka Curry Paste

2 cloves garlic
1 red chili pepper with seeds removed
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro
Pinch of sea salt

Process all in food processor until everything is smooth and no big pieces remain.

You'll want to set this aside until the recipe calls for it.

You'll want to baby the onions along until they get some really great golden color on them. This part, you can't rush it. It takes time.

It really starts to turn into something special once you add in the Tikka Masala Paste.

Then it gets hit with coconut milk. I let it simmer for a bit. 

Once it simmers for a few minutes, I added in the cod chunks. These simmer for about 5 minutes or so, until they are cooked through.

This is what it looks like before you garnish with some chopped fresh cilantro. 

Cod Mappas
Serves 2

1 tablespoon avocado oil
2 small red onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound (2 large) roma tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoon Tikka Masala Sauce (see recipe above)
1 (15 ounce) can coconut milk
1 pound cod, cut into bite-sized chunks
Chopped cilantro

In a skillet, over low heat, cook onions in avocado oil, until very soft and golden brown. This will take quite a while. Add garlic and tomatoes. Cook about 5 minutes. Add Tikka Curry Paste and cook for 4-5 more minutes. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil.
Add fish and gently simmer for 5-8 minutes or until  fish is  cooked through. Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve over Basmati rice.

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

 Bob has an upcoming medical procedure that I won't go into on a cooking blog. Anyhow, tonight is the last night he can eat a regular diet. After this, for a few days, he goes on a low fiber diet and then a straight liquid diet. Anyhow, he shoveled a yard and a half of soil for me today and filled several raised beds. He deserves a tasty dinner on his last night of normal food for a while.

I ordered the shoyu sauce from Amazon. Here is what I ordered. It's not the cheapest stuff on the planet, but I don't think you could really make Shoyu Chicken without it.

 

This recipe is made using skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces. You'll want roughly 2 pounds. What pieces you use is entirely up to you. I chose thighs. I'd make this recipe using wings, too.
You want to brown them in a tablespoon of oil. I use canola as it is a heart healthy neutral flavored oil. Again, in your kitchen, use what you want. I probably wouldn't use olive oil, though. Thoroughly brown the chicken on both sides.

While the chicken is browning, mix up the sauce (see recipe below) and prep the ginger and the garlic. 

Definitely make sure the chicken is browned. It will make a difference later on. Be patient. Don't rush it.

After the chicken is uniformly golden color, add the sauce, ginger and garlic. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn each piece over, cover, simmer another 10 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, the chicken will be a dark brown color. This is when you remove the lid and turn up the heat a bit and start cooking down the sauce. 

As the sauce reduces, it coats the chicken pieces and turns them mahogany. Keep boiling until you have a sauce that is the consistency of syrup.

This is just damn delicious, no matter how you want to look at it.

I served this with some coconut rice and some Hawaiian Mac Salad.

Aloha!

Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

2 pounds chicken pieces
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup shoyu soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Brown chicken in a skillet, over medium heat, in a tablespoon of oil. In the meantime, in a medium bowl, whisk together shoyu sauce, water and sugar. Set aside.
When chicken is golden brown, add the sauce mixture along with the garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn chicken over and repeat.
When chicken has simmered for 20 minutes, remove lid and turn heat to medium-high and reduce sauce until it is the consistency of syrup, continually basting and turning the chicken pieces to coat.
Serve with rice.

Belgian Fried Chicken

 We're all moved! We moved exactly a month ago. A lot has happened. We went through a pretty bad flood just before we moved. Bob's car got flooded. Our insurance totaled it. Ten days later, we were fully moved out of the RV park. Good riddance to the drama and other nonsense. It's so peaceful up here and we're thoroughly enjoying it.
Here are some of the flood photos. We are sitting up on a bluff, 260 feet above a creek. I don't ever have to worry about going through a flood, like this, again. 

The water came up and receded all within an 18 hour time frame. I have never went through anything like that before and I hope I never go through anything like that again.

 
I'm not going to miss this at all. Nope. Never again.

Now, without further adieu, coming to you from Kelpie Kapers Farm, I bring you one of our most favorite chicken recipes called Belgian Fried Chicken.
First off, this is not a diet friendly recipe. If you're looking for something healthy, you'll want to cruise on past. We don't eat this all that often, maybe 2 or 3 times per year. If you can use decadent to describe a chicken dish, this one would fit the bill. 

First off, there's not really any measurements for this recipe. The only thing I really measure, and it's haphazard at that, is the butter. I just use 1/2 a stick of unsalted butter and it doesn't matter how many pieces of chicken I plan on making. Just know that you're going to be frying chicken, over a low heat, for a long time, in butter.
Do I have your attention yet?

You simply salt and pepper your chicken pieces generously. Then you shake in plain ol' flour. Don't add anything to it, just leave it plain.
You won't believe how tasty this is with such minimal seasoning. There's no herbs or spices in this besides salt and pepper. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

This is why I call this "Belgian" fried chicken. This is a sliced up Belgian endive. If you don't want to use an endive, you could slice up some mushrooms or whatever vegetable you like. I've done this with just onions and parsley and it was delicious.

After the chicken browns, slowly, over low heat, for 15 minutes on each side (a total of 30 minutes), covered, you scatter the endive around the pan, put the lid on and let it go for another 15 minutes. So, yes, 45 minutes being fried in butter. 

The endive cooks way down and the chicken gets really brown. This is when it gets hit with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. So, now, it's being fried in lemon butter. Let that cook for just a few minutes. And pour in roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream, depending on how many chicken pieces you're making. 

Delicious!

Belgian Fried Chicken
*serves 2

4 pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken
1/2 cup flour
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Belgian endive sliced
1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces generously. Coat each piece in plain white flour.
Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Fry the chicken, in the butter, for 15 minutes, covered. Turn the chicken over, cover, and fry another 15 minutes. Add endive, cover, fry for another 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and zest and cook for 3-5 minutes more. Add heavy cream and flip the chicken pieces around so that they are coated in the sauce and the heavy cream mixes in.

I turned these into bowls with rice and boiled asparagus. Bob really enjoyed these. He gets his final set of impressions tomorrow, so, hopefully, I can make something crunchy for dinner soon. Korean Honey Butter Chicken is on the top of my list!
Anyhow, if you need some comfort food, this Belgian Fried Chicken will fit that ticket, for sure.
Enjoy!

Smoked Bleu Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon

 Last week, I wound up buying a container of smoked bleu cheese. I had initially thought that I would include this on Bob's requested charcuterie board for Thanksgiving, but I thought there was more than plenty to remake one of my published recipes on allrecipes.com, Gorgonzola Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon. I used to prepare this recipe quite often, several years ago, but had gotten away from it. It's always nice to revisit (and revamp) one of your highest rated recipes, I think.

I got away from adding anything to the bleu cheese. I figured with the smoke flavor, it didn't need any added ingredients, like shallot or parsley. Also, with the bacon and the cheese, this definitely did not need any added salt.

This also differs from the original recipe in that I baked these on a rack this time.

I baked these on a lower temperature than I did with the original recipe. I found that lowering the temp, even though I had them in the oven for over an hour, resulted in a much juicier version. These were not dried out at all.

Dinner, last night, was a sheer pleasure.


Smoked Bleu Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped In Bacon

 

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup smoked bleu cheese
4 slices of pepper bacon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Penzeys Spices Parisien Bonnes Herbes blend
Cracked black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a pocket into each chicken breast, without cutting all the way through. Stuff 2 tablespoons of smoked bleu cheese into each pocket. Wrap each breast with 2 slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, if necessary. Sprinkle each breast with 1/2 teaspoon of Parisien Bonnes Herbes blend. Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper.
Place in oven and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F on a food thermometer. Let stand for 10 minutes, remove wooden picks and serve.

Chicken-Green Chili Enchiladas

 Since Bob had all of his teeth pulled, it's been a struggle to find foods that he can eat because he has the added problem of having scar tissue in his throat, from the radiation treatments when he had throat cancer. He has to eat softer foods because he can't chew it up and certain things will hang up on that scar tissue and choke him. His medications do that to him all the time.
Anyhow, I digress.

We ordered some Mexican delivery for dinner the other night and Bob decided to give enchiladas a whirl. He ate them. He enjoyed them. I'll make enchiladas for him.

One thing that I think we're going to do more of, simply because it's cheaper for us to do so, is buying rotisserie chickens from the supermarket. There is a supermarket, here in town where the majority of the shoppers wear masks, that I will venture into. They sell their rotisserie chickens for like $6.50 or something. I cannot buy a whole chicken for that price very often. This week is one of those weeks, but I haven't placed my grocery order yet. I sent Bob for a chicken and some corn tortillas. 

Now, this rotisserie chicken is going to make 4 meals for us, 2 meals of enchiladas and 2 meals of what I'm going to make a blog post about tomorrow...5 if you count the chicken stock that I'll cook down, but I'm using that for meals 3 and 4, so I'm not counting it. We'll have enchiladas again on Sunday.
I pulled the meat off half of the chicken and cut it all super small for Bob. Next, it's as easy as opening a can of enchilada sauce, a can of green chilis and opening up a package of shredded Mexican blend cheese. 

Now before anyone goes off about these not being "from scratch", let me just say that I realize that. I'm working with a food budget and I try to stretch my dollars so that I can get a bit more of food put up so that we can enjoy the summer flavors this winter. My thinking is that the more economical I can make our dinners, the more of my budget I can spend on fruits and veggies to can up. I am tossing all of my previously canned up goods. Our shed had gotten rats in it and with those boxes of jars stacked on each other, I don't feel safe consuming any of it.

But I did feel entirely safe consuming these! Bob bought the street taco sized tortillas. At first, I thought that they would be WAY too small, but they were perfect sized. I made us each 3 enchiladas. I have enough filling, cheese and tortillas for another batch on Sunday and all we need to purchase is a 15-ounce can of enchilada sauce.

So, this may not be all from scratch, but it is delicious and it's economical and, all together, it will make 4 servings of 3 enchiladas each. 

Chicken-Green Chili Enchiladas
Makes 4 servings

1/2 of rotisserie chicken, chopped
2 tablespoons minced sweet onion
1 4-oz. can mild green chilis, drained
1 15-oz. can red enchilada sauce, use 1/4 cup on a deep plate to dip tortillas in, use 1/3 cup in the chicken mixture and use the rest add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom of the baking dish and to pour over the top of the enchiladas
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese (or cheddar)
2 green onions, chopped
12 street taco size corn tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Shred chicken, put in a bowl and mix with onion, chilis, sour cream and 1/3 cup enchilada sauce.
Pour 1/4 cup enchilada sauce into a deep plate or pie dish. Dip each tortilla into the sauce, coating both sides, sprinkle a small pinch of cheese down the center of the tortilla, add a few spoonfuls of the chicken-green chili filling, top with another pinch of cheese, roll up and put in a baking dish that has a thin layer of enchilada sauce in the bottom. Place seam-side down.  Repeat for all the tortillas.
Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the enchiladas in the baking dish. Top with remaining cheese and green onions.
Bake 30 minutes, uncovered.
Remove from oven, let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

*You can assemble these and freeze. Use within 3 months. The leftover filling will last for 3 days in the refrigerator.
*I wore disposable gloves while I assembled this dish.

Shakshuka

 If you're ever stuck as to what to fix for dinner and you don't have a lot of time, Shakshuka is right up your alley. This meal comes together in under 30 minutes and you can adapt to use whatever garden vegetables you have on hand. 

I started out by sauteing diced bell peppers (one of our local stores had an amazing deal on bell peppers, so I picked up all colors of them, diced them all up, put a quart up in the freezer and have half a quart to use up in recipes. I also used half of a peeled zucchini and a quarter of a Walla Walla sweet onion. There's also a couple of cloves of minced garlic in there, too. 

Now, why am I mincing everything up so finely and peeling the zucchini? My husband has had all of his teeth removed and will be getting dentures. He's been dealing with the after effects of having radiation treatments for throat cancer over 10 years ago. There's a spot in his throat that the muscle just doesn't work and food hangs up there and it chokes him. Pair that issue with the fact that radiation treatment wiped his teeth out and he didn't have any molars to properly chew food, well...you get the idea. Cooking has been a challenge, to say the least.
I only have a few more months and he'll have dentures and he'll be able to eat proper food again. First on his list, I'm sure, is a steak and a salad.

Here is my spice blend that I used. It contains paprika, chili powder, ground cumin, basil, oregano and some palm sugar (just a pinch). 

I use 2 eggs per person for this recipe. If you only want one per person, that's fine. Eggs are completely subjective in this recipe.

Now, with the tomatoes, you can either use a can of tomatoes or you can use fresh. It's all up to you. I didn't have enough ripe tomatoes, so I opted to use a can of diced. If you used canned tomatoes, you can use pureed, diced, whole, stewed, it doesn't matter. Since I used canned tomatoes, I used a pinch of palm sugar to take the tin taste out of them. This is when all the vegetables get cooked down into a homogeneous pan full of deliciousness.
This is a different type of cooking for me. Usually, I like my vegetables to retain some of their texture. For Bob, they have to be cooked super soft. Last night, I didn't quite achieve that with the bell peppers. Next time, I will.
Let this stew, over low heat, until the vegetables are done to your taste preference.

Once the tomatoes and vegetables have cooked to your liking, make a well with a spatula and crack an egg into. Continue to cook, over low heat, covered, until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny. 

You can serve this dish over rice or with toasted bread. I actually put it over mashed potatoes so that Bob could get some substance in him.

Shakshuka
2 servings

 

1 tablespoon avocado oil
1/2 small zucchini, diced (you can peel, if desired)
1/4 small Walla Walla sweet onion
1/3 cup finely diced bell pepper (whatever colors you like, or a mix of colors)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon palm sugar
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
4 eggs
Salt and pepper, to taste

In large skillet, over low heat, cook all vegetables, except for canned tomatoes, and garlic until very soft, about 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix all spices together, with palm sugar, and set aside. Once the veg is cooked, sprinkle the spice mixture over evenly and cook for about 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Let heat until simmering. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Make a well in the sauce, with a spatula, and crack an egg into it. Repeat for all eggs. Cover, and continue to simmer over very low heat until the egg whites are set but the yolk is still runny. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes or serve with toasted bread.