Our pasta dinner for this week was very satisfying with the addition of canned tuna. I put the tuna in just at the last minute and left it quite chunky. The furikake that I sprinkled over the top is ebi furikake which I find superior to the nori type. It gave the dish a nice crunch.
What a yummy lentil dish this is! The coral colored “red” lentils turn yellow during cooking and are spiced with fresh ginger, onions, garlic, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne. To keep this dish vegetarian/vegan use water or vegetable stock to cook the lentils in. If it doesn’t matter use chicken stock. It is quick cooking as the lentils will be softened after 20 minutes.
I like to serve the lentils on a bed of raw kale topped with a warmed up mixture of cauliflower rice and white rice, 50/50. For vegans use a plant base yogurt or regular plain yogurt if you are not. A sqeeze of lemon in the lentils and some sweet, spicy sriracha finishes the dish.
For the exact proportions, here is the recipe I use: https://www.afghancultureunveiled.com/humaira-ghilzai/afghancooking/2010/01/dal-afghan-soul-food.html-san92
We are home from vacation and planned a week of eating our healthy, normal dinners.
Last week I made a tasty meat sauce that was actually more mushrooms than meat and served it for three dinners and one lunch. Of course that was a lot of pasta to eat so I used some tricks to make a small amount of pasta go a long way.
Not only did I really stretch out this tasty and economical pasta dish, I never felt like I was “dieting” and I got the healthy benefit of green vegetables!
This fabulous dinner was prepared by our son as a thank you for our week together here in Utah.
We do not dine out much so it is always a treat to go out. Dining out in St. George, Utah has usually been an iffy thing but over the last 20 years it has certainly improved.
I almost always order some sort of seafood. Not only are such choices more apt to fit into my healthy eating plan but they are my favorite things to eat too! Last night I opted for Chilean sea bas which came with a little lobster sauce, some vegetables, and mashed potatoes.
John and our son ordered Hungarian goulash. The chef is Hungarian so it seemed like a good choice. But saucy beef and spaetzle is not on my plan. They both said it was good and cleaned their plates.
Critiquing my dinner I would say that the fish was cooked perfectly but was not as tasty as the Chilean sea bass we make at home. Plus, if you are going to serve me a fancy lemon, take the pits out!
On Wednesday I made a mushroom and beef sauce to dress our Carba-Nada fettuccine. Usually we just stick with vegetables for a sauce but since our son is with us we gave everyone a treat.
To make the sauce first I browned the meat and then took the cooked meat out of the pan. Next I sautéed mushrooms, onions, garlic, and tomato paste seasoning each ingredient as it went into the pan. Then red wine to deglaze, add the meat back in, and a large can of diced tomatoes and a standard size can of tomato sauce. The sauce simmered on the stove for an hour and then when we tasted it, we corrected the over-brightness with a little soy sauce and spiced it up with some hot sauce. Last to be added were several torn basil leaves.
I served our plates of pasta with a salad and some more torn basil and parmesan cheese over the top. It was really delicious!
We are on a week’s vacation with our son so we are making dinners that he likes. He and I go shopping every day for groceries for that night’s dinner. It is not an efficient way of buying groceries but we have been shopping together since he was a baby (he was 45 last week) and it is always a special time for us to be together. He is making a special dish for us on Friday and it will be wonderful!
This really tasty stew can be found here if you have a subscription to NYTimes Cooking https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017228-moroccan-chickpeas-with-chard?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share. This lively vegan dish is spiced up with plenty of garlic, ginger, jalapeño, turmeric, and preserved lemon. (I found preserved lemons in a jar at Lunardi’s, a local upscale supermarket chain.) In addition there are some unusual vegetables in it as well like turnips and fennel plus diced apricots.
I was not really sure how this was going to turn out since this is the first time I have made it. There is a lot of chopping involved but 1) I love to chop things up and 2) I have a mini food processor that made short work of the garlic, ginger, jalapeño, and onion.
If you can access the recipe I recommend giving this stew a try. I used canned chickpeas which cut the preparation time down by a lot. Since I did not have chard I used a bag of mixed baby chard, spinach, and kale. I am sure you could use any type of greens, though. I also used vegetable stock instead of plain water. I guess what I am saying is that you can mix and match some ingredients depending on what you have available.
Tonight I served sautéed shrimp with cabbage, avocado, and cucumber over rice with a ginger, soy, white vinegar, and vegetable oil sauce. The dish was topped with a sprinkle of furikake which gave it a nice crunch.
Omnivore 