This week is a slight departure from our norm. After suggesting that planning for leftovers is a good idea, this week I did not do advance planning for Saturday. So by the time Saturday rolls around I will be checking the fridge for bits and pieces and if there are none, we’ll be having scallops. (I hope that there are no leftovers, LOL.)
Does this plate look familiar?
It looks familiar because this is the other half of the double portion of Chana dal we made on Monday. What a pleasure to know that Saturday night’s dinner only needs a reheat and a little time spent taking the stems off the kale and defrosting and microwaving the cauliflower rice.
Tonight’s Chana dal is a little softer and perhaps a little more flavorful since it has been absorbing its liquid and spices since Monday. There was quite a bit in our leftover portion and we both enjoyed a second helping. Instead of ordering in some expensive take-out we enjoyed our LFD which was way more nutritious and economical!
John and I kind of invented this dinner on the fly when we were thinking about our weekly menu. We talked about wanting to use tofu and farro and decided that a stuffed pepper would be a way to combine them both.
After using the food processor to chop up the mushrooms, onions, and garlic into equally sized pieces, I sauteed them. Earlier in the day I had made farro using the oven-method. I mixed the farro in and added very small cubed tofu, and some spices, a little tomato paste, and a can of diced tomatoes.
We microwaved the bell peppers until they were pliable and stuffed the farro mixture into them. I cooked the stuffed peppers at 350F for 35 minutes.
This was a tasty, inventive, and filling vegan dish.
Using this frozen Chilean sea bass from Costco makes a pricy fish affordable. We probably have some rendition of this dinner every two to three weeks. It definitely does not get old!
To keep the number of pots and pans down to a minimum we decided to sheet pan cook the potatoes and green beans. Normally I would have set the oven for 450F but because we were cooking the fish at 400F we cooked everything at a lower temperature. I think that is why the potatoes did not brown as much as I would have liked. But they tasted good and that is the main point.
I have always been a little fearful of cooking fish. Growing up we never ate fish. My father was forced by his parents to eat fish as a child and he hated it with a passion. Our poor cat, whose real name was Pixie but went by the moniker Old Kitty, was never allowed to eat any kind of cat food that had fish in it. There were no tuna sandwiches at our house. In fact, I really did not eat fish until I went away to college and fish was served on Fridays. Luckily for me, John has no problems cooking fish and I have no problems eating it.
This dinner was easy-peasy to make, a snap to clean up, and a delight to eat!
Tonight’s dinner is pasta puttanesca or pasta in the style of the prostitute. It is an odd name for a delicious dish. I used a can of tomatoes with chiles supplemented by part of a can of regular chopped tomatoes. I have included the recipe below.
Pasta Puttanesca with mushrooms. Adapted from a recipe by Mark Bittman
Serves 2
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons olive oil
6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
¼ large onion, chopped
2 or more cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon fish sauce* (optional)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with or without jalapeños
¼ cup sliced olives
2 tablespoons capers
Crushed red pepper flakes to taste (do not use if tomatoes have jalapeños)
6 oz. linguine or other long pasta
Chopped fresh parsley, oregano, marjoram or basil leaves for garnish, optional
1. Bring pot of salted water to boil while making the sauce. Put 2 teaspoons oil in high sided skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms. When mushrooms are starting to brown, add onions. Season with salt. When onions are translucent, add garlic in skillet. When garlic is fragrant (about one minute) move to next step.
2 . Add tomatoes and fish sauce*, if using. Raise heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes break down and mixture becomes saucy, about 10 minutes. Stir in olives, capers and red pepper flakes if you are not using spicy tomatoes. Simmer while pasta cooks.
3. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until it is al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain pasta and toss in with sauce which is still over heat. Stir in pasta water a little at a time until you get the consistency you like. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary, garnish with herbs, and serve.
*Note: For vegan/vegetarian preparation use a little soy sauce or instant coffee in place of the fish sauce
May the fourth (of good nutrition) be with you. I remember taking our son to see the movie in 1983 when he was six years old. He’s been a Star Wars fan since and his kids are too. Personally I am not so much of a sci-fi person although that is akin to blasphemy in this family.
And what has this got to do with a chicken dinner? Absolutely nothing.
John sous vide the chicken breast at 159F. After the water was at temperature, the chicken enjoyed its bath for 1.5 to 2 hours. During this time I Instant Potted the peeled and cut up rutabaga for 15 minutes with an instant release. John had been nice enough to do the peeling and cutting up of the rutabaga while our daughter and I went out to lunch. This rutabaga was the kind that has the waxed coating and it was as big as a bowling bowl! We now have leftover mash in the freezer for the next classic chicken night.
So nothing left to do at the last minute except for the broccoli which I steamed and added a dollop of faux butter to. I like my vegetables to be on the more cooked side and I do not think that it is the way John likes them but he does not complain.
Each time we have this old favorite dinner we always comment on how much we like it. If we added a little cranberry sauce it would be like a mini-Thanksgiving! I am afraid, though, as the weather gets hotter (and hotter) that classic chicken dinner will appear less and less. Who will want to heat up the kitchen with hot water and a steamy Instant Pot?!
This is one of my favorite meals and we made a double recipe so that we could have it again on Saturday, our Leftovers For Dinner (LFD) day. We used two cups of the Chana dal plus one half cup of toor dal for a creamy texture. It cooks in the Instant Pot under pressure for 15 minutes and then cools down for 10 minutes before releasing the pressure.
I also added kale stems to the Instant Pot, various spices, and a can of tomatoes with green chiles as well as the requisite water. On the bottom of the plate is cauliflower rice seasoned with salt and rogan josh, followed by raw kale leaves, and sriracha and cilantro leaves as a garnish. Yum!
Sunday is always Breakfast For Dinner day. John always makes some sort of omelet and I always make, well, a bunch of different things! Tonight my BFD was a stir-fry of mushrooms, onions, garlic, green beans, broccoli, carrots, and celery. At the end I made sort of a one egg omelet and tore it up to add to lay vegetables. Usually this stir-fry would be served over rice but I used cauliflower rice instead.
For seasonings, I salted each component as I cooked it and towards the end of cooking I added a little sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha, and cardamom. A sprinkling of black sesame seeds added a little crunch.
Once again I have to say what a pleasure it is to be eating in a healthy manner after being on our road trip for two weeks. I tried to make reasonable choices but sometimes there was just nothing on the menu that fit the description of healthy. Tomorrow night’s dinner is spicy Chana dal with kale and cauliflower rice. Can’t wait!
This week’s menu is pretty basic and leans heavily on plant-based dishes. I am hoping to get back to my goal weight in the next week so making easy dishes that taste great and have a lower calorie count will help me in my quest to lose vacation weight.
Happy May! And for me, happy to be home!! What a pleasure to be cooking in my own kitchen where I have everything I need close at hand.
John said he felt like pasta so while he heated up the water, I got the mushrooms cut up and in a sauté pan followed by some onion and garlic. When the pasta was getting close to done I added the stems of the broccolini. When John drained the pasta I put in the broccolini florets and then he dumped in the orecchiette. I made a sauce with some reserved pasta water and a little olive oil.
Usually I do not put cheese on my pasta and just keep it vegan but tonight I wanted parmesan strips on top. I feel like since yesterday was a travel day that it still counted as vacation and I could splurge a bit. But on Sunday it is back on the straight and narrow as I need to lose a few pounds gained over the last two weeks. I know it is never a good idea to let my weight go up even a few pounds without doing something about it. I am, after all, a serial dieter and I have been down this road too many times.
Omnivore 