I’ve been looking for fresh and easy dinner choices for a long time. Today the solution was delivered to my doorstep in a simple green box from Greenling, an Austin company that delivers local organic meats and produce to customers in Central Texas.

Greenling's Sausage and Pepper Sandwich with Cole Slaw

Quick and Easy Meal Kits

In addition to local boxes chocked full of local fruits and vegetables, Greenling offers a variety of 5-day meal kits. Each kit has everything you need to make a meal for 2 people, and best of all, everything is chopped and measured and ready to assemble and cook. The ingredients for each meal are bagged together and everything is labeled so you know what to use when you are ready to cook. There’s also a detailed recipe book with easy-to-follow instructions.

Best of all, the meals are easy to make and tasty!

Day 1 – Sausage and Pepper Sandwiches with Cole Slaw

This is really Day 2 of Greenling’s Meal Kit #2, but since I wanted to taste the beautiful baguettes, this was my Day 1.

Ingredients for Greenling's Sausage and Pepper Sandwich with Cole Slaw

All the ingredients were prepped, measured and ready to go. The sausages, onions and green peppers went into a skillet.

Ingredients for Sausage and Pepper Sandwich

The Sauce

The sauce was simple and only took a few minutes to simmer — organic crushed tomatoes, garlic, Italian spices, red pepper and lemon zest.

Sauce for Sausage and Pepper Sandwich

 Cole Slaw

This was without a doubt the best cole slaw I’ve ever eaten. It was not the mushy drippy cole slaw you get everywhere else. It was fresh cabbage, carrots and green onions tossed in a lemony dressing.

Cole slaw ingredients

Baguettes

Aren’t they beautiful?

Baguettes

What a wonderful Day 1 meal. I can’t wait until tomorow’s dinner.

Eating out and sticking to my diet is always a challenge. I usually try to find a restaurant that serves salads, but I recently discovered that Panda Express has entrees that are less than 250 calories. That’s great news to me because I absolutely love Chinese food.

The staff at the Panda Express on Parmer Lane was extremely helpful and patient with all my questions about the food. I chose the black pepper chicken with white rice. They were especially nice to give me some broccoli as a side from the broccoli beef entree. Everything tested fresh and cooked just right.

Black Pepper Chicken with broccoli and rice at Panda Express

About Panda Express

http://pandaexpress.com/

There’s a reason why Hill’s Cafe has been a south Austin institution since 1947 — and that reason is good food and a fun and friendly atmosphere.

Sweet potato fries with honey cream dip are a great way to start a meal at Hill’s.

The chicken fried chicken was very good, but the stars of my meal were the tomato pie (smothered in cheese) and the corn nuggets.

The peach cobbler topped with ice cream was so delicious, I’ll be going back just to order this treat.

Website: http://www.hillscafe.com/
4700 S Congress Ave
Austin, TX 78745

Update: Dot’s closed in February 2010. The line for the final day wrapped around the corner. Dorothy “Dot” Hewitt had been serving wonderful southern-style cooking for more than 30 years. A local paper joked that heart doctors in Austin could breathe a sigh of relief for the no-longer-to-be-clogged arteries. We’ll miss the food!

I have been a fan of Dot’s Place for years. When the original restaurant off of Howard Lane in Austin burned down, I cried for a week. I thought I’d never have their chicken with dumplings, catfish or cornbread again. Not so. Dot’s Place is now serving up heaps of comfort in Pflugerville.

Photo: tomato salad (sliced tomatoes marinated in Italian dressing), catfish, cabbage, broccoli cheese rice, yam pie and a dinner roll. Comfort food deluxe!

Old timers will remember that this location used to be Mr. Gatti’s Pizza.

Menu

For one low price, you get one meat and two vegetables. There is also a wide choice of salads and desserts.

Texas Monthly and Dot’s Place

In 2005, Texas Monthly rated comfort around the state. Here’s what they wrote about several items on the menu at Dot’s Place:

• Pie: It’s hard to obey the rule to never eat anything larger than your head when faced with the monumental dessert portions at Dot’s Place, including an irresistible yam pie and a deliriously sweet peach cobbler with a fabulous crust.
• Okra + greens: Greens always have an undercurrent of bitterness—that’s what makes them interesting. The yummy fresh collards at Dot’s Place balance the bitterness with salt. The humble spot’s stewed okra with juicy tomatoes gives that much-maligned vegetable a good name; the seasoning is Southern sweet, and there’s no hint of okra’s dreaded slime.
• Meat loaf: A near-Platonic meat loaf emerges from the to-go window of Dot’s Place; the beefy slices crumble as you cut into them, melding with the tomatoey topping to form a sort of glorious, Southern-style Bolognese sauce.
• Cornbread: The moist cornbread muffins at Dot’s Place walk the line between sweet and unsweet, so as not to offend patriots on either side of the great cornbread divide.
• Chicken and dumplings: Whoa! You don’t get just some stringy bits when you order chicken and dumplings at Dot’s Place; you get whole pieces of baked chicken. The dumplings, somehow fluffy and substantial at once, may be the world’s best use of white flour.

I totally agree with Texas Monthly. I’d add Dot’s catfish and chicken fried steak to this list because they are among my favorite comfort foods at Dot’s Place.

Photo: cucumber salad, beef tips on rice, okra and tomatoes, greens with cabbage and cornbread.

Dot’s Place
15803 Windermere Drive
Pflugerville, TX 78660
(512) 252-9300

Hours:
Monday – Friday 10:30-2:30 Lunch
Thursday and Friday 5:30-8:30 Dinner

Casa Colombia was a wonderful choice this year for Valentine’s Day. After an afternoon at the Arbor Cinema watching Slumdog Millionaire, the hubster and I decided to try some place different for dinner. Little did we know when we chose Casa Colombia what a wonderfully romantic evening and delicious meal we would have.

Casa Colombia is located in east Austin in a small building that looks like it used to be someone’s residence. There are two small dining rooms inside, which make for an intimate setting. We were seated in the front of the back dining room, next to the live musicians. I felt like we were having our own private concert!

Casa Colombia Ceviche

I spent my teenage and college summers studying in Mexico. One of the dishes I absolutely fell in love with was ceviche, fresh marinated fish.

Casa Colombia serves ceviche on weekends. If I could go there every weekend just to eat their version of this dish, I would. The marinade is tasty and tangy. I’ve tasted other ceviche in Austin and there seemed to be more onions than fish. Not at Casa Colombia where the appetizer is just about all fish. Plaintains are a perfect complement to the dish.

Casa Colombia Entrees

The food at Casa Colombia is innovative, fresh, delicious and beautifully plated.

I chose the Tamal valluno, corn masa stuffed with pork, beef, chicken and vegetables, wrapped in plantains leaves — served with rice, salad and green plantains. It was really delicious. To save room for dessert, I took half of the meal home. It was just as delicious the next day.

The hubster loved his Pechuga Rellena, grilled chicken breast stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, spinach and pico de gallo — served with mash potatoes, salad and black beans. The chicken was tender and the stuffing was fresh and flavorful.

Dessert at Casa Colombia

The creamy caramel flan was scrumptious and beautiful.

The tres leches cake was a perfect end to a perfect meal.

Website: http://www.casa-colombia.com/

1614 E 7th St
Austin, TX 78702
(512) 495-9425

Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday: 11 AM – 9 PM
Friday – Saturday: 11 AM – 10 PM
Sunday: 11 AM – 6 PM