Chicken Kebabs with Orange-Ginger Carrots and Carrot-Cabbage Salad

Mommy is a food nerd!

We had a bag of carrots and half a head of Napa cabbage rolling around in our vegetable bin this weekend and I was dead set on using them up for dinner.  I hate wasting food, even when it's something cheap like carrots and cabbage.  So I flipped through my favorite cookbook and miraculously not only found recipes that would use up those lingering vegetables, but the recipes actually worked together to create a cohesive meal.  Wha?

You see, usually I have no problem finding good recipes, but when it comes to putting a few together to make a meal that makes sense, well, I struggle.  This is because my idea of a great main dish (and the majority of my bookmarked recipes) is usually something vegetable-centered (a quiche! pasta! samosas!), while my husband usually requests meat.  So meat it is, if the weather is nice enough for grilling.  From there, my creativity seems to disappear.  Ok, for a side...how about potatoes?  And a side Caesar salad?  Gah, how boring. 

But THIS meal... this was so refreshing, so different from our usual dinner formula.  The chicken thighs came together so easily (even though they were a bit tricky to skewer), and the carrots were great with the ginger and orange juice.  I'm still sort of giddy about how well this meal came together and that I was able to use up the stuff in our fridge (and even more excited that I brought the leftovers for lunch today).  Does that make me a nerd?  Probably.  

Bittman doesn't have the salad recipe posted, so here is my loose recipe below:

Carrot and Cabbage salad

- (2) carrots, grated

- one head Napa cabbage, shredded

- (3) scallions, chopped

- salt and pepper to taste

- soy sauce (I used about 1-1/2 or 2 tsp)

- lime juice (to taste, I used about 1 tbsp)

- 1/4 cup of peanut or other oil

Mix the vegetables together in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.  Mix the soy sauce, lime juice, and oil together in small bowl and right before serving, drizzle it over the vegetables.