Carba-nada fettuccine with mushrooms and kale. 1/5/22

Posted on January 6, 2022 by Beebamom
Fettuccine with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and kale

I am so loving this carba-nada pasta. We have been eating the fusilli and have now tried the fettuccine. It cooks in about three minutes and you can have quite a bit since it has lower calories and carbs. In fact I considered not eating my whole bowlful because I was full. (I did, however, power through and eat the whole thing! Will I never learn!?)

I have recently been buying the shredded kale from Trader Joe’s. I really like it in salads, soups, and main dishes. The mouthfuls are smaller than with regular prepackaged kale and there are almost no annoying stems.

For WW folks, you can have 3 ounces for 4 PP. That is a far cry from the 9 PP that regular pasta would cost. Plus it tastes good! Today I made my null soup for lunch which is all vegetables and chicken breast meat in chicken stock. I added 1 ounce of the fettuccine which really bulked up the soup and added only 1PP which was negated by the ton of vegetables. Another win!

Posted in Easy, Healthy tips, Italian, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, WW points | Leave a comment

Light clam chowder. 1/4/22

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Beebamom
Light clam chowder

Winter seems like the perfect time for hearty soups. I love clam chowder but not all the cream! The clam chowder we make gets its liquid from two bottles of clam juice and the liquid from two cans of minced clams. At the end of cooking only 2 tablespoons of heavy cream are added for creaminess. It is packed full of celery, leeks, and onions and has only 10 oz. of potatoes. John and I can split the whole pot and not feel guilty afterwards.

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

Seared scallops, new potatoes, green beans. 1/3/22

Posted on January 4, 2022 by Beebamom
Seared scallops, steamed new potatoes, green beans

John did a really nice job searing these scallops. They were the ends of two bags of scallops so they were a little small and mis-shaped. I picked out the smallest of the potatoes to mimic the size of the scallops. Since the potatoes were so small it only took about 15 minutes to cook them through. At this point John cooked the scallops while I cooked the green beans. I was not totally happy with the green beans because they looked great in the package but were actually tough and stringy. I added a little faux butter to help them along. The mustardy tartar sauce is from the salmon with sheet pan vegetables that I made about 10 days ago. It was really good with the potatoes.

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Curried vegetables with scrambled eggs. 1/2/22

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Beebamom
Curried stir-fry vegetables over raw kale and topped with scrambled eggs

When I was thinking about my BFD (Breakfast For Dinner) dish I decided that an egg or two on a plate with a piece of toast just was not going to do it for me. I need food that will take me a while to eat. But I did not want to do a regular stir-fry with soy sauce and other salty ingredients. I settled on using curry powder as my flavoring of the dish.

Since I did not want my dinner full of gritty, raw curry powder I took the time to bloom the spice in a little olive oil. In addition to the raw kale which I used as my bottom layer, I stir-fried onion, carrot, cabbage, broccolini, and mushrooms. I put the hot vegetables on top of the kale to wilt it a bit while I soft-scrambled a couple of eggs.

This concoction certainly took more time but was way more satisfying than just a simple egg on a plate. No doubt I will try making this again next Sunday but I will look into my spice cabinet for a new flavor combination.

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

Weekly Menu January 3 – 9, 2022

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Beebamom

Getting back to basics this week. It is definitely time to stop celebrating. Thanksgiving, my birthday, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s have taken its toll. This week’s menu consists of three vegan/vegetarian meals, three seafood meals, and one chicken meal. I hope this helps with your menu planning!

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Potstickers with bok choy in oyster sauce. 1/1/22

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Beebamom

Happy New Year’s Day, 2022! I have now been writing this blog for over 10 years. During this time I have been at a good weight, at a bad weight, and at a good weight again. The cycles of dieting seem endless. I think I have it all taken care of and then it creeps up again. I am currently in the upward creep and I vow not to let it happen again.

I guess that is sort of a resolution. I am going to try to follow my healthy lifestyle again, participate in Dryuary (no alcohol for January), exercise, and eat more plant-based meals. Actually I have been exercising pretty regularly and eating plant-based meals two or three times a week so I just need to continue these good habits.

Potstickers and bok choy with an oyster sauce based dip

To celebrate the first day of the year and to bring ourselves good luck we made potstickers. (And by made I mean we took them out of a bag in the freezer and followed the directions on the package.) Potstickers are supposed to be reminiscent of gold ingots and the bok choy is supposed to look like paper money. So we have the whole financial outlook covered.

In other good luck news, Japanese people have a calendar where they rank the luckiest birthdays of the year down to the most unlucky. My birthday came in number 1!!! And John’s came in number 4!!! So this should be a financially sound and very lucky year for us. Now if only this pandemic would abate!

I hope you are resolute and lucky this year and thank you for following by blog.

Posted in Chinese, Easy, Holidays, Pork, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Lasagna. 12/31/21

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Beebamom
Lasagna

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our daughter made lasagna to help us ring out the old year. She uses Ronzoni oven-ready noodles and follows the package instructions. I made my cornmeal and molasses pudding for dessert. It is actually hasty pudding adapted for new world ingredients. We served it warm with vanilla ice cream. Of course I was so excited to eat it that I forgot to take a picture. Here is one from the internet. It is not a pretty dessert but it is so yummy!

Cornmeal molasses pudding (AKA Indian pudding)
Posted in American, Desserts, Holidays, Italian, Pasta, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicken enchiladas with salsa slaw. 12/30/21

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Beebamom
Chicken enchiladas with salsa verde and spicy cabbage, carrot, and cabbage slaw

Chicken enchiladas are a real favorite at our house. Most of what needs to be done is prep and assembly. I shred rotisserie chicken and lay down a line in a tortilla that has been softened in the oven. To that I add a little cheese, onion, and salsa verde. I buy the salsa verde in a jar. It covers the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish, I put it in each enchilada, and top the whole dish of 12 enchiladas with a layer of salsa verde. The enchilada casserole goes into a 350F oven for about 20 minutes until all components are warmed through and the cheese melts.

As a side I made a slaw which has a dressing of light mayonnaise and spicy tomato salsa. Since I did not have quite enough cabbage, I also used some shredded kale (from Trader Joe’s) onions, and carrots. It is surprisingly good and goes well with the enchiladas.

Posted in Easy, Methods, Mexican, Poultry, Southwest U.S., Vegetables | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Vegan! Pasta with onions, mushrooms, and broccolini. 12/29/21

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Beebamom
Fusilli with onions, mushrooms, and broccolini

For our usual Wednesday night meal we had fusilli with onions, garlic, mushrooms, oregano, and broccolini. We used salted water to cook the pasta and reserved about a cup of the water to make a sauce. While the pasta was cooking I sauteed the mushrooms, onions, garlic, and oregano in 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Shortly before the pasta was done I added the stems of the broccolini and then the florets when the pasta was ready to be added to the pan. I cooked the whole dish together for a couple of minutes over medium/high heat and added about a cup of the pasta water.

Our Wednesday night pasta always includes mushrooms, garlic, onions, and oregano. Sometimes we add a different green such as kale, chard, or collards. Sometimes we add tomatoes or when we make puttanesca the method includes capers, tomatoes, and olives. The variations make our dinners seem fresh and new even when they are only tweaks to our regular recipe.

Posted in American, Easy, Italian, Kitchen tips, Methods, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vegan! Lentils with kale and roasted vegetables. 2/28/21

Posted on December 29, 2021 by Beebamom
Lentils with kale and roasted vegetables

Doesn’t that look good!? Our vegan dinner tonight consisted of lentils simmered with garlic and onions with a bay leaf. While the lentils were cooking I made up two sheet pans. One consisted of potatoes and butternut squash which I tossed with olive oil and salt and put in a 425F oven 15 minutes ahead of the other pan with the red onion, carrots, mushrooms, and cauliflower. Total time was about 40 minutes in the oven.

My giant bowl of goodness started with a layer of raw kale, then the lentils, and finally the roasted vegetables ringing the bowl. Our daughter ate the same dinner except added rice and some cut up pork ribs meat which we still have left over from Christmas Eve. It is a happy achievement to cook a meal that everyone can adapt to their own tastes.

Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Legumes, Sheet pan, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment