No posts over the weekend due to eating leftovers on Saturday and going out to dinner with the whole family in celebration of our granddaughter’s 16th birthday
Kind of quiet food week coming up. I decided I always eat too much when I make a giant pot of food. It always turns into a giant bowl of food for me. So I am having more portioned entrees this week. We are going on a cruise next month and I need to have some wiggle room weight-wise!
We used to make this dish as lentils, turkey sausage, and carrots but decided to up the vegetable ante to include celery, mushrooms, and kale to make it more nutritious and filling. I start my lentil stew by sautéing the turkey sausage in a little olive oil and then removing the slightly browned pieces and adding the mushrooms, onions, and garlic to the oil which is now flavored by the sausage. Once they are cooked I add the lentils and the rest of the vegetables with chicken stock to cover. Towards the end of cooking I add the turkey sausage back in. Along with salt I used chipotle powder, smoked paprika, and sriracha to season and spice things up. I was aiming for a spicy, smoky outcome.
The lentils need about 20-30 minutes to become tender. I served it over raw kale but it would be good over rice or even just as is.
We buy frozen Chilean sea bass from Costco. Unfortunately when we got to the end of the bag there were three equal sized pieces, one thicker piece, and one oddly shaped piece with thick and thin parts. Since our daughter always opts in for Chilean sea bass, we had to apportion these five pieces among three people. We ended up getting three pieces each of differing sizes. Luckily Chilean sea bass is very forgiving when you cook it so even the thinner pieces tasted great.
John roasted the fish with just a little oil, seasoning, and thyme. I steamed the potatoes and kept them warm while I used the same pan to sauté the green beans. I am not a big fan of big green beans. I much prefer the thinner French ones but these were okay. (Actually I really wanted to “French” them with a little tool I have but John likes these big, stringier ones.)
Here’s a way to cut down on potato carbs. I shook 18 new potatoes out of their bag. They were assorted sizes. We each got 6. I took the smallest 6 potatoes and left the rest for John and our daughter. Although the 18 potatoes weighed 15 oz., my portion of 6 weighed in at around 4 ounces. Mind games!
Is it a bowl of pasta or a bowl of vegetables? I would say it is about 50/50. By using a lot of mushrooms and broccoli in my pasta bowl, I created a satisfying dinner using less than 3 ounces of pasta.
While the salted water was coming to a boil, I sauteed the mushrooms, onions, and garlic in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. I seasoned the vegetables with salt, oregano, and red pepper flakes. While the pasta was cooking I added the stem pieces of broccoli and a little pasta water. When the pasta was almost al dente I added the florets. Then the drained pasta along with a half cup of the pasta water went into the sauce and cooked together for a couple of minutes. A little olive oil on top and dinner was ready.
These lamb chops are part of the pack we bought at Costco for Valentine’s Day. Once again John did a super job grilling them. I am pretty happy with the vegetable side dish I concocted as well. After thinly slicing a leek, a fennel bulb, and some new potatoes I sautéed them in a little olive oil first and then braised them in chicken stock. They were seasoned with salt, pepper, chile flakes, and thyme. It took about 25 minutes to cook the whole dinner and we enjoyed a bottle of Merlot with it.
This vegan dinner entree is a delicious combination of spices, vegetables, and preserved lemon. There is a bunch of chopping up to do but the cooking is mostly hands off. To make it simpler I used a can of drained chickpeas rather than soaking and cooking them. Here is a link to how I adapted the recipe from February 9, 2022. https://dininglite.blog/2022/02/10/moroccan-chickpeas-with-chard-turnips-carrots-and-fennel-2-9-221/
We are starting off this week with Moroccan chickpeas which got pushed from last week due to laziness on the part of the cook. We are also having the rest of the lamb chops from our Costco sized pack that we bought for Valentine’s Day. I am looking forward to everything on this week’s menu!
Nothing fancy this Sunday, just a straight-forward breakfast with the addition of a small salad. Alternating bites and combinations keeps the eating experience interesting and knowing that every Sunday is a minimal work in the kitchen day makes me happy. BTW John ate an omelette for at least the 100th Sunday in a row (excluding vacations and holidays.)
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!
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.
Omnivore 