Sunday evenings in our house tend to end up in a mad cooking frenzy–a desperate effort to get the fridge stocked with lunch and leftovers before the chao of the week descends upon us. Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of making a giant bowl of salad of some sort, which, in addition to making a quick and easily transportable lunch, gets *more* flavorful as the week wears on and the ingredients blend together.

Sunday Salad

This Sunday, the salad of choice was Food and Wine’s Chicken, Mango and Rice Salad, which, as the article says, makes a fairly hearty meal all by itself, especially for lunch. Not to mention the convenience factor: grill the chicken, cook the rice, chop the mango and the avocado, and assemble.

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups rice, preferably short grain
2. 1 1/3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4)
3. 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cooking oil
4. 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
5. 3/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
6. 3/4 cup chopped red onion
7. 1 mango, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
8. 1 avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
9. 3 1/2 tablespoons lime juice (from about 2 limes)
10. 3/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the rice until just done, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Drain thoroughly.
2. Coat the chicken with the 1 tablespoon oil. Season with 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Heat a grill pan over moderate heat. Cook the breasts until just done, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Alternatively, heat the tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan and season and cook the chicken as directed above. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut it into 1/2-inch dice.
3. Toss the rice with the chicken, onion, mango, avocado, the 1/3 cup oil, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, the lime juice, and cilantro.

Monday Muffins

I’d been planning on making these muffins for a week, and finally got round to it on Monday evening. Being the citrus junkie that I am (orange marmalade, lemon loaf etc.), I decided they needed more lemon-ness than the recipe called for, and so put in the zest of 2 lemons, and the juice of 1 1/2 lemons. The only difference was that I had to cook them for an extra couple of minutes (possibly because the batter was a bit on the moist side). The original recipe suggests icing them, but I left mine uniced, since they tend to keep better that way.

Ingredients

2/3 Cup Sugar
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 Cup Sour Cream
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Stick (8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, melted and cooled
2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds

For The Icing
1 Cup Confectioners’ Sugar, sifted
2 -3 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

Method

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400˚F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lemon strong. Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and melted butter together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough-a few lumps are better than over mixing the batter. Stir in the poppy seeds. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.