Mac ‘n cheese with coleslaw. 3/6/23

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Beebamom
Macaroni and cheese with broccoli, homemade coleslaw

As I mentioned earlier I am taking a break until the end of March so this will be my last post until then. I may write something occasionally if we have an especially interesting dinner.

Monday’s dinner was like a throwback to childhood with a couple of adult twists. The mac ‘n cheese was from the Kraft blue box. It was definitely sweeter than I remember. I added a bunch of broccoli to it which I dropped in with the boiling noodles when they had two minutes left on their timer. John sautéed up some mushrooms and onion to add. These additions plus some shredded parm helped with the sweetness level. (I am totally adverse to sweet flavors. No one else here commented on it tasting sweet.)

I made the coleslaw myself, shredding cabbage, carrot and onion. The saucy part was a combo of mayonnaise, rice wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, celery seed, and salt.

John, our daughter, and I really enjoyed this retro dinner. It was definitely our kind of comfort food!

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Pasta, Salad, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Chilean sea bass, new potatoes, glazed carrots. 3/5/23

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Beebamom
Roasted Chilean sea bass, steamed new potatoes, and glazed carrots

A no-egg Sunday! Instead we made delicious Chilean sea bass. Actually John made the fish and I made the vegetables, our usual division of meal prep. He cooked the fish for about 14 minutes in a 400F oven It came out moist and unctuous. I would love to eat it more often but it is so darned expensive.

For my part I steamed new potatoes and glazed some carrots. The potatoes were bigger than usual and took about 25 minutes. I had to add additional water to keep the pan from drying out. The carrots cooked in a little water with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar for fifteen minutes. I took them out of the pan, dumped out the remaining water and made a glaze. This consisted of another tablespoon of sherry vinegar, some minced onion, thyme leaves and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Then I returned the carrots to the pan to glaze them.

We opened a bottle of Imagery White Burgundy to complete our dinner. Sometimes it is fun to have a celebratory dinner for no reason at all!

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Methods, pescatarian, Special occasion, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Turkey sausage and vegetable soup or stew? 3/4/23

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Beebamom
Turkey sausage and vegetable soup or stew

John and I are a match made in heaven. He likes chicken drumettes and I like the flats when it comes to chicken wings. He likes dark meat and I like white meat. And he likes soup and I like stew. This means whenever I make soup I can take as many vegetables as I like and as little broth as I want and he can have his vegetables swimming around in a bunch of broth. It works out perfectly!

Dinner was a kind of clean out the refrigerator kind of meal. I had four ounces of turkey sausage, some new potatoes, as well as onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, and mushrooms I needed to use. I started by sautéing the mushrooms onions, and half of the sausage pieces in a little oil. Then I added chicken stock and the rest of the vegetables. Towards the end of the cooking I added the rest of the sausage and some parsley. The whole thing took about 25 minutes.

My serving look like stew. Just the way I like it. John’s definitely looked like soup. The best part is that I did not have to feel guilty for eating the majority of the vegetables!

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Poultry, soup, stew, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sheet pan root veg with turkey sausage. 3/3/23

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Beebamom
Sheet pan root veg with turkey sausage and mustards

What is easier than a sheet pan dinner?! I cut up carrots, celery, onion, butternut squash, and cabbage. I tossed all the vegetable components in olive oil and salt and then spread them out on a foil-lined sheet pan. They went into a 425F oven for 30 minutes. At the 15 minute mark I added the sausage. I served the vegetables and turkey sausage with two mustards.

Not only is the cooking a snap, the clean-up is minimal too!

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Poultry, Sheet pan, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Grilled hamburgers with salad 3/2/23

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger on pretzel roll with salad

John did his usual great job grilling the hamburgers. I added a slice of onion, some lettuce and tomato on mine along with ketchup on top and mayo on the bottom. This is the first time using pretzel rolls and the verdict was six thumbs up. I ate my burger with a knife and fork. It was just too slippery to try to hold it in my hand and it would have been gone too fast! Eating finger or hand-held food with a knife and fork is a great diet tip. If you slow down your eating, you will notice that you are getting full and maybe do not need to vacuum up everything on your plate. I often use this technique with tacos. Two open faced tacos are way more filling than two hand-held ones!

Our daughter had some bacon ends in the freezer and I defrosted a small handful and put them into our salad along with tomatoes. The rest of the salad came from a package. Terrible to say but I am much more likely to eat salad if I don’t have to wash, spin, and cut up the lettuce. It is not economic but it is certainly easier.

Posted in American, Easy, Grilling, Healthy tips, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Afghani dal with collard greens. 3/1/23

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Beebamom
Red lentil stew over a chiffonade of collard greens

Red lentils turn bright yellow when you cook them. They are quicker cooking than brown lentils and really take on the flavors of the spices. They also tend to break down a little. In Wednesday’s quick and easy vegan dish we added chopped collard green stems while the lentils were cooking. I made a chiffonade of the collard leaves and served them raw under the lentils. The greens were dressed with a little olive oil and seasoned with salt. For a heartier dish serve the lentils over rice.

Posted in Afghan, Easy, Legumes, Recipes, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicken with squash, and asparagus. 2/28/23

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Beebamom
Chicken, butternut squash, and asparagus with mushroom gravy

Tuesday’s dinner was a spin on what I usually call classic chicken dinner. We used rotisserie chicken that John gently warmed up in some packet chicken gravy that had the addition of sautéed mushrooms.

I steamed the butternut squash. It only took about 25 minutes. Sometimes I make it in the Instant Pot but today I was aiming for fewer pots and pans to clean up. I transferred the cooked squash into a bowl and mashed it up with a little butter and salt. I warmed it up in the microwave right before dinner.

Asparagus was $1.77 at Lucky’s California this week! These days I am always looking for good sale prices. It helps to make up for the still too expensive eggs! I cooked the asparagus in the previously used squash steaming pan in a little water until they were tender.

At the 6 o’clock position on my plate is a little blob of polenta left over from last night. It tasted good with chicken gravy too! Waste not, want not.

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Shrimp and polenta with broccoli. 2/27/23

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Beebamom
Shrimp and polenta with broccoli

I suppose that this is pretty much shrimp and grits except I think of grits as being whiter and the Bob’s Red Mill package says it’s polenta. Having lived in North Carolina twice you would think I would be an old hand at grits but actually I never ate them while I was there. John used to eat grits with red-eye gravy but it never appealed to me.

Well, so much for my history with grits, John made our polenta with a ratio of one part polenta to six parts salted water, 2 bay leaves, and 2 garlic cloves. We took turns stirring and cooked it for twenty minutes. In the last 10 minutes we heated up two pans and cooked the shrimp and broccoli.

I really like this easy meal! The polenta acts as a kind of sauce for the broccoli and shrimp. I wonder what other protein you could serve like this. Chicken?

Posted in American, Easy, Grains, Methods, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Spicy vegetables with scrambled eggs. 2/26/23

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Beebamom
Spicy vegetables with scrambled eggs

My Breakfast for Dinner this Sunday was kind of like a deconstructed shakshuka with scrambled rather than poached eggs. I started by stir-frying mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots, and broccoli stems. Then I added a can of Rotel (spicy tomatoes). I finished off the vegetables by adding kale and the broccoli tops. In another pan I scrambled two eggs and laid them atop the vegetables. A drizzle of olive oil finished my dish.

This was way too much for me to eat for dinner! I ate about half the vegetables and all of the eggs. I saved the rest of the vegetables to put into a spicy vegetable-tomato soup on Monday for lunch. Clever me!

Posted in American, Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, Methods, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 3 Comments

Weekly menu. February 27-March 6, 2023

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Beebamom

This week’s menu includes a couple of things that I did not get around to last week. This week I am sticking to the menu for sure (famous last words!) Also you will see the inclusion of an extra day. This is because I am taking some time off from every day blog writing until April. I may post occasionally if I come up with a dinner that is new or special but I will definitely be posting again regularly starting the week of April 2nd.

Posted in Weekly menu | Leave a comment