Pan-roasted salmon, broccoli, salad. 6/15/22

Posted on June 16, 2022 by Beebamom
Pan-roasted salmon with mustard sauce, steamed broccoli, and tossed salad

My new lower carb way of eating is going quite successfully and I am not feeling deprived hardly at all. Being able to use olive oil more freely has made cooking easier and the results tastier.

John cooked the salmon after a 20 minute brine in a pan over very low heat. He cooked it for 20 minutes on one side and then flipped it over for an additional 2 minutes. The salmon came out perfectly.

I made a mustard sauce to go with the salmon. It consisted of a tablespoon each of Dijon mustard, whole grain mustard, mayonnaise and some water to thin it out to sauce consistency. I also put together a tossed salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar and steamed some broccoli.

Our tasty and satisfying dinner combined good-for-us vegetables, oil, and nutritious salmon. I will be featuring more meals like this in the weeks to come.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Healthy tips, Low carb meals, Methods, pescatarian, Salad, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hamburger with grilled cauliflower and coleslaw. 6/14/22

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger and cauliflower with cole slaw

A hot day calls for cooking outside. While I made a cool cole slaw indoors, John cooked the burgers and cauliflower on the grill. While John and our daughter had burgers on sesame buns, I had mine without the extra carbs. I loved the grilled cauliflower and the cole slaw worked out well too. I am thinking of more grilled vegetables this summer!

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Low carb meals, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chilean sea bass with salad and zucchini 6/13/22

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Beebamom

Today I started my low carb living with a delicious piece of Chilean sea bass with an accompanying salad and sautéed zucchini. We ate the salad as a first course dressed simply with olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Salad with greens, tomato, and shredded cheese dressed with oil and vinegar

It seems strange to be sprinkling some cheese on when I basically have not eaten cheese for 2 1/2 years. Cheese has next to no carbs but not so the tomato. It is like an upside-down world!

Whole Foods had a sale this week on Chilean sea bass so we got a couple of nice pieces for John and me. As usual he cooked the fish to perfection in a 400F oven for 16 minutes. I sautéed the zucchini and onions in a little olive oil. Both the vegetables, and especially the onion, have carbs but the oil does not. I will need to watch my portion sizes after being on a diet that let you eat vegetables unlimited.

Chilean sea bass with sautéed zucchini and onion

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Healthy tips, Low carb meals, Methods, pescatarian, Salad, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. June 13 – 19, 2022

Posted on June 13, 2022 by Beebamom

After following the WW food plan for 2 1/2 years, I am going to try something new. I have decided to experiment with low carb and see if I can get myself re-enthused by doing something new. I am also feeling that lowering my carbs will be beneficial to my health and easier to maintain when we go on our road trip in July. I am not going to try an extremely low amount of carbs. My plan is to keep them under 50 grams a day. This should allow me to eat all animal proteins, non-starchy vegetables, some fruits, legumes, and healthy fats.

My weekly menu planner has some options since John is not fully following this.

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Sushi. 6/11/22

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Beebamom
Tuna and salmon sushi

Since it has been so hot here we decided to pitch our previous plan of salmon with roasted cauliflower and keep the kitchen cool by buying take-out sushi. We get sushi from one of our local grocery stores and it is pretty good. I thought about making a salad to go with it but laziness overtook me and the sushi seemed filling enough.

Next week I am going to experiment with a low carb diet. I need a different way to achieve my goals and I have been reading a lot online recently that low carb is the way to go for lasting weight loss. I am not going to an extreme like doing keto but I am planning on keeping my carbs under 50 grams. I will be interested to see whether this kickstarts my desultory weight-loss attempts. I have already been doing low carb at breakfast and lunch so I am curious to see if I can manage it at dinner.

Posted in Easy, Fish, Hot weather meals, Japanese, pescatarian, rice, take-out | Tagged | Leave a comment

Southwest salad. 6/10/22

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Beebamom
Southwest salad (photo from Kim’s Cravings)

It was really hot here yesterday, in the upper 90s. So we scuttled our cooking plans and made a southwest salad. John and I used to buy this salad pre-made from Costco but, as it happens with many things we like, it was discontinued. Luckily I had most of the ingredients on hand so it was just a matter of cutting stuff up, jazzing up some bottled salad dressing, and making a buffet of ingredients.

I must have been pretty excited to eat my salad since I forgot to take a picture. This picture which I found on the website, Kim’s Cravings, is a pretty good representation of the salads we constructed. I did not use the pictured jicama since I think jicama is a crunchy no taste vegetable. Plus we had green onions instead of the red ones pictured and weirdly they were the consensus star of the salad.

It is going to be hot on Saturday as well. John has suggested take-out sushi. I am all in favor of his idea. A night off for the cooks!

Posted in American, Easy, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Poultry, Salad, Southwest U.S., Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment

Sesame shrimp bowl. 6/9/22

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Beebamom
Sesame shrimp bowl with cauliflower rice, edamame, cabbage, avocado, and cucumber

This is a good dinner if you do not want to heat up the kitchen too much. I used cauliflower rice that can be heated up in a microwave and the sautéed shrimp cook in minutes. There are so many good textures in the salad portion. The creaminess of the avocado is nicely offset by the crunchiness of cabbage and cucumbers. Edamame gives it a heartiness. The dressing is particularly yummy.

For the dressing, it is a combination of 1/2 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbl white vinegar, 2 Tbl of a neutral oil, 2 Tbl minced fresh ginger, and 2 Tbl of chopped scallions. We usually double the recipe.

Posted in Asian, Hot weather meals, Japanese, Legumes, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment

Fettuccine with arrabbiata sauce

Posted on June 9, 2022 by Beebamom
Fettuccine with arrabbiata sauce

It’s pasta Wednesday and we are finally getting around to having fettuccine arrabbiata! Arrabbiata sauce is a spicy tomato sauce. To make it spicy I used a can of Rotel, a minced jalapeño, red pepper flakes, and several squirts of sriracha. I added some mushrooms to give it some bulk and of course the usual onions, dried oregano, and garlic. Since I have oregano growing around the patio I also used some fresh leaves and the basil garnish comes from one of the two pots that I am tending in the backyard.

It was delicious and I wished I had divided the pasta equally between our bowl instead of giving John a bigger portion!

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | 1 Comment

Chilean sea bass, blistered cherry tomatoes, kale and corn 6/7/22

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Beebamom
Chilean sea bass, blistered tomatoes, kale and corn

As fabulous as Chilean sea bass is, the vegetables really stole the show for this dinner.

John roasted the Chilean sea bass in a 400F oven for 14 minutes. He seasoned it with salt, garlic powder, Old Bay, tarragon (from our patio pot!), and a little olive oil. It came out perfectly. We really like Chilean sea bass but it is really pricy even though we usually buy it frozen from Costco. I see it is available at our local Whole Foods this week for around $22 /lb. if you have Amazon Prime. We will need to take advantage of the sale price.

I have to pat myself on the back for how delicious the vegetables turned out. The bitterness of the kale was great against the sweetness of the corn and garlic. Blistering cherry tomatoes is something I have not done before. It is super easy. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and when it is hot put the tomatoes in. Let them just sit there for 2 minutes and then flip them over and add salt and minced garlic . Cook them another 2 minutes. Take them out and sprinkle on some shredded basil. Yum!

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

Chicken with rice mix and broccoli 6/6/22

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Beebamom
Chicken with gravy on a rice mix with broccoli

At our house we call this either Classic Chicken or Chicken Monday. When the kids were little I tended to make the same sort of dish on certain days of the week. Monday was always chicken. In fact it became so ingrained that our son still makes chicken on Monday for his family!

This Monday’s chicken is an easy prep using rotisserie chicken and packet gravy. The rice underneath is a combination of half the lentil, rice, farro, chickpea mix from the Egyptian koshari on Saturday and half cauliflower rice. The broccoli is simply steamed. The green sauce on top is some leftover parsley sauce from last week.

It is easy to make a quick, nutritious dinner using part convenience foods, part leftovers, and a fresh vegetable!

Posted in American, Easy, Grains, Kitchen tips, leftovers, Poultry, rice, Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment