Null soup with chickpeas. 2/26/22

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Beebamom
Null (vegetable) soup with chickpeas

As I have written before null soup is a concoction I make which counts for nothing on my food plan. It is myriad vegetables in either chicken or vegetable stock. I usually add some sort of low calorie protein like chicken or beans or in today’s soup, chickpeas.

The vegetables in today’s null soup are onions, broccoli, carrots, celery, turnips, kale, parsley, and mushrooms plus chickpeas. In order to make chopping all these vegetables worthwhile, I make A LOT of soup! Now I have 4 days of lunches waiting for me in the fridge to pop in the microwave. Planning ahead, it works!

Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Lunch, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Salmon with mustard sauce with sheet pan sprouts and squash. 2/25/22

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Beebamom
Salmon with whole grain mustard sauce and sheet pan roasted Brussels sprouts and butternut squash

Surprisingly quick and easy dinner tonight! John did a quick brine and then a 95% cook on one side of the salmon over a low burner followed by a quick flip that only took about 20 minutes of cooking time. I helped myself out with the vegetables by buying pre-peeled and chunked butternut squash and slicing up the sprouts earlier in the day. While the fish was cooking the vegetables were roasting on a sheet pan in a 425F oven after having been tossed in a little olive oil and salt.

The mustard sauce was made by combining some Skinny Girl buttermilk dressing, a tablespoon each of light mayo and non-fat plain yogurt, a couple of tablespoons of whole grain mustard, and a squirt of yellow mustard.

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

Chana dal. 2/24/22

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Beebamom
Dried split chickpeas (Chana dal) on white rice/cauliflower rice over raw kale

This is a pretty easy Instant Pot meal. I used my mini-prep to make short work of chopping the ginger, garlic, and onions. John measured out the spices and cooked the spices in a little oil to bloom them and then added in the onions, garlic, and ginger.When they were limp in went a can of diced tomatoes, a can of Rotel, some water, the dal and the whole thing cooked under pressure for around 15 minutes.

I served my heaping helping over raw kale and a cauliflower rice/white rice mix and sprinkled some cilantro on top. Delicious!

Posted in Easy, Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, Mexican, rice, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fusilli in arrabbiata sauce with mushrooms and kale. 2/23/22

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Beebamom
Fusilli in arrabbiata sauce with mushrooms over kale

If you are like me you want a large helping of pasta. And by large I mean larger than 3 ounces. The way to stretch your pasta is by adding vegetables to your sauce and to your bowl. In this case I added mushrooms to the sauce and kale to the bottom of the bowl. It was all so tasty and filling!

Arrabiata means “angry” in Italian. It comes from Rome and has also the meaning of something to excess. In this case it is the spiciness of the dish that is the excess. The recipe I used is basically called arrabbiata as hot as you can stand it. For the heat I used 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a few shakes of hot sauce, and 2 healthy squirts of sriracha. It was spicy but in a nice way.

The sauce itself is just canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and parsley. It comes together quickly and along with some pasta water makes a fine sauce. Usually penne is the shape of choice but fusilli worked just fine. For a vegan presentation omit the cheese.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Turkey sausage dog with sauerkraut. 2/22/22

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Beebamom
Turkey sausage dog with sauerkraut

Got to admit it, I just did not feel like cooking last night. So we opted for something easy. Toast the bread, cut it like a hotdog roll, microwave the sausage and sauerkraut and we were done. Sometimes you just need a night off.

Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment

Mahi mahi tacos and spicy black beans. 2/21/22

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Beebamom
Mahi mahi tacos with crema, salsa, cilantro, onions, and avocado, spicy black beans

Having made a menu for the week the first thing I do is switch it all around because the avocados have ripened! I expected them to be like the last two I bought which took the better part of a week to become useable. So tacos it is tonight.

John sautéed the fish and toasted the tortillas in the oven while I prepared the rest of the “fixins’” and the black beans. The black beans were simply two cans of beans and one of Rotel with the addition of a little cumin. I set up a taco bar where we could each make our tacos exactly the way we wanted. Taco night is always a fun and yummy experience.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Mexican, pescatarian, Southwest U.S., Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sautéed veg with frambled egg 2/20/22

Posted on February 21, 2022 by Beebamom
Sautéed vegetables over kale and cauliflower rice topped with a frambled egg

What, you may ask, is a frambled egg? I just saw the term, frambled, in a cooking email yesterday. It’s an egg that you don’t start scrambling until it is somewhat set like a fried egg thus the portmanteau, frambled. Actually taste-wise it is pretty much the same as a soft scrambled egg.

I put down a layer of raw kale followed by some microwaved cauliflower rice sprinkled with sriracha. On top of that came the sautéed mushrooms, scallions, carrots, and broccoli seasoned with salt, pepper, rogan josh, and garlic powder. Finally the egg topped the dish. The only tricky part is working fast enough so that everything is still warm when all the components are cooked!

Posted in Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, Methods, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | 1 Comment

Weekly Menu February 21-27, 2022

Posted on February 20, 2022 by Beebamom

This week we are having some of our favorites. It is going to be cold here (for Nothern California) this week and most of our menu ideas are warm and comforting. Plus there is the added bonus of making a couple of stews that we can eat the leftovers of for lunch!

Weekly Menu February 21-27, 2022 

Monday – Chana dal, greens and rice

Tuesday – Pan roasted salmon with mustard sauce, B. sprouts, rice

Wednesday – Fusilli arrabbiata, greens

Thursday – Fish tacos, taco fixings, spicy black beans

Friday – Moroccan chickpeas, chard, turnips, fennel

Saturday – Chicken Marsala, butternut squash, broccoli

Sunday – Breakfast for Dinner, eggs, vegetables

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Lightened New England clam chowder. 2/19/22

Posted on February 20, 2022 by Beebamom
New England clam chowder

When I first looked at the recipe for New England clam chowder I was taken aback by the amount of fat (olive oil plus grease from guanchiale and canola oil) and three cups of heavy cream for 6 servings. Certainly there must be a lighter way to make this soup!? So John and I set about making a lighter version of this New England classic. Here is the recipe we came up with.

To be honest I do not bother with picking the leaves off the thyme and just throw a large sprig in and let the leaves fall off on their own while they cook and last night I did not have tarragon so I just left it off. I also tend not to toast the bread and put it in the bottom of the bowl because I like to control the amount of soup that it is sopping up. Last night we had probably a quarter of a cup of cream left in the container and I used all of it. But, still, 1/4 cup in a dish for the two of us works out to 2 tablespoons each and that is not accounting for the fact that we have leftovers. The originally recipe would have had you eating 1/2 cup per person!

As written this is a delicious rendition of New England clam chowder that makes a filling dinner. I lived in New England for about 13 years and there are many ways to serve chowder from thick and starchy to super creamy to a thin broth consistency. I like my take on it!

Posted in American, Healthy tips, pescatarian, Recipes, Shellfish, soup, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicken piccata with broccoli and butternut squash 2/18/22

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Beebamom
Chicken piccata with steamed broccoli and mashed butternut squash

Tonight we were going for ease so we used rotisserie chicken and pre-peeled, seeded, and chopped butternut squash. First John made a sauce with lemons, white wine, shallot, chicken stock, mushrooms, and capers. When I was almost finished mashing the squash and steaming the broccoli, he added some chicken pieces to the sauce and basted them to warm the chicken through.

Our super easy, quick dinner was not only really tasty but felt fancy too!

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