Since I have been super serious about staying on my diet this past week, I have gotten back and a little below my goal weight. This is a reason for celebration! Wait, hold on, Beebamom, don’t undo all the good you have done this week, just make the meals a little more exciting.
Presenting my “a little more exciting” weekly menu!
Since Saturday dinner is usually leftovers I used our leftover rice from Friday and stretched it by adding an equal amount of cauliflower rice and then enhancing it with red bell pepper, onions, garlic, jalapeño, and a little spicy salsa. It turned out really well and tasted mostly like rice and less like cauliflower. John cooked the shrimp in a lightly oiled pan for 3 minutes on the first side and then turned the heat to low and cooked the other side for around 2 minutes. It is important not to overcook your shrimp! While he was spending 5 minutes cooking the shrimp I took care of the snow peas. I cooked them briefly in a smidge of butter and a little water, covered for the first two minutes and then uncovered for the other three.
John said the snow peas were quite the star of the dinner. (I think that it was because i used that smidge of butter.) Everything was really tasty, though, and I really could have eaten twice as much. Since portion size is always my problem it is best if we do not make too much!!
On Friday we used Tuscan kale grown by our daughter in the community garden as a base for our delicious Afghani red lentils. This simple and homey dish cooks in about 15 minutes and is tasty and nutritious. I garnished mine with a dollop of non-fat Greek yogurt and sriracha but to keep it vegan skip the yogurt.
Afghani Dahl
2 tsp. olive oil
1 finely chopped medium onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tbsp. finely minced fresh ginger
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground cayenne
1 cup red lentils
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. kosher salt
Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a medium sauce pan. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the salt, turmeric, cumin, cayenne and let them cook in the pan briefly and then add the lentils and broth, stir and turn the heat up to high. When the liquid boils, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover and cook until the lentils are very tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice and adjust salt if needed Serve with a spoonful of plain yogurt (or not) and rice, greens,warm pita or nan bread.
John bought some bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs to grill and I decided that I would be better off with some of my Costco precooked chicken breast warmed through with a little BBQ sauce. I laid my slices on cauliflower rice. With the oven at 425F convect I cooked all the vegetables on a sheet pan for 25 minutes. They were simply seasoned with olive oil and salt. The vegetables were delicious and the chicken was fine. John’s grilled chicken thighs looked pretty spectacular but I was totally happy with my dinner.
Pasta Wednesday is one of my favorite dinner nights. We usually make vegetarian or vegan pasta. Sometimes it’s pasta and greens, or broccolini, or broccoli like tonight’s. It almost always includes mushrooms, onions, and garlic. The sauce is a little pasta water and a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Simple, quick, delicious.
For Taco Tuesday John pan-roasted some Pacific cod with a dusting of spices, we heated up a can of black beans with some spicy salsa, and I cut up a mango and made a watermelon, mint, cucumber, red onion, and feta salad with a lime juice/olive oil dressing. Between the garnish of cilantro on the tacos and the mint in the salad, our dinner was kind of a Mexican-Greek combination. This was plenty of healthy food for a small investment of time and calories.
This is actually a plate of leftovers from our Memorial Day cookout with the family. John divided a 6 lb. boneless leg of lamb into several pieces and then cooked it to various degrees of doneness so that there was some slice that would appeal to everybody there. On Sunday we served it with pita pockets but John and I just ate it un-sandwiched with the tzaziki that I made.
I also made the lemony potato salad. It is basically steamed new potatoes that you cut up while they are still hot and plunge into a dressing of lemon and olive oil with salt, pepper, and mint. The potatoes slurp up the dressing.
Our daughter made the vegetable salad which is a combo of summer vegetables in a vinaigrette with herbs. Since we are still just in spring I am looking forward to the salads she makes with her own produce from the community garden. The grocery store has pretty looking vegetables but cannot beat the taste of the ones fresh from the ground.
Now that most of our leftover have been eaten, John and I are looking forward to getting back to our regular healthy eating plan. Tomorrow for taco Tuesday we will be making fish tacos and spicy beans!
We had a fabulous cookout on Sunday, May 30 with all the family and no masks! All the adults are totally vaccinated and our two grandkids have received their first dose. There were giant hugs all around. Of course we ate a lot and had some yummy wine and even dessert! This week is back to basics to lose the couple of pounds acquired on Sunday.
We made Chana dal (dried chickpea stew) on Friday and then had it for leftovers on Saturday. On Friday we ate it on top of raw kale and rice with a garnish of mango salsa, cilantro, and sriracha.
On Saturday we made a mixture of leftover rice and Chana dal with kale stems and heated the whole thing together in the microwave which wilted the kale underneath. I love the color of the wilted kale and actually liked it better than the raw. It only took a minute in microwave to wilt the kale.
Usually I try to place the leftovers I am going to eat on Saturday a little further away from its original day. I like Chana dal so much, though, that having it two days in a row was a bonus rather than a hardship.
This colorful plate was as good as it looks. The real stars were the mango salsa and the perfectly cooked salmon.
John brined the salmon in 1 quart of water with 2 tablespoon of salt that was stirred thoroughly to dissolve it. He sprinkled the bottom of a non-stick skillet with kosher salt and ground pepper. Next he dried the fish and put it in the pan skin side down on medium low. John cooked the salmon without moving it for 8 minutes (depends on the thickness of the fish) and then turned it over and cooked it for two minutes more. Before serving he removed the skin which slid off easily.
I made the mango salsa. It consisted of two mangoes, peeled and chopped up, the zest and juice of one lime., 1/4 chopped red onion, 1/4 cup chopped mint, and a half of a jalapeño, minced. It came out great!
John made the rice in his painstaking manner which includes a lot of steps that I never bother with. I am a put it in the pot with some salt and maybe oil, boil it for 20 minutes, and the end product is cooked rice. But John’s rice turns out great and he likes to do it so I am all okay with that.
I cooked the asparagus in a little water probably too long. I guess I thought the fish would be quicker. I added a teaspoon of butter at the end and the stalks tasted good but could have used a little texture.
In other news, yesterday was cookie making day with our daughter as baker. She is having a get-together with her friends to celebrate Christmas that everyone was home-bound for due to the pandemic. Our kitchen is awash with cookies that she gives as gifts. I can resist them when I just look at them but the aroma is too tantalizing for me to pass up. I ate too many cookies yesterday which is no good for my diet!
Omnivore 