Afghani dal with lacinato kale. 4/14/21

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Beebamom

Afghani style red lentils over lacinato kale with pita

For as quick and easy vegan dish it is hard to beat these fast-cooking red lentils. Here is the recipe –

Afghani Dal

2 tsp. olive oil

1 finely chopped medium onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1/2 tbsp. fincely 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 turmeric, cumin, cayenne, 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 salt. Serve with a spoonful of plain yogurt (or not) and warm pita or nan bread.

I like to serve this over some sort of greens and with a little sriracha for extra zing.

Posted in Afghan, Easy, Kitchen tips, Legumes, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sous vide chicken breast. 4/13/21

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Beebamom

Sous vide chicken breast with gravy, rutabagas, broccoli

Tonight John cooked our chicken breast using our immersion circulator set to 159F. The constant temperature of the circulating water means that you cannot overcook the chicken. He sealed the chicken in a plastic bag with a sprig of thyme. Now all we needed to do was wait for me to cook the vegetables.

I cooked the rutabagas in the Instant Pot for 15 minutes. An observation about rutabagas, we get unwaxed ones out here in California but they are not nearly as sweet and delicious as the big waxed ones. Occasionally we find waxed ones at Walmart and the difference is amazing. I guess the sugars in the rutabagas must develop during storage. Tonight’s rutabagas were quite bitter. I tempered the strong flavor by mashing them with a little butter.

After taking the steamer basket out of the Instant Pot I dumped the rutabagas in a bowl and put the broccoli in the basket and back over the hot water in the Pot. I set the function to “sauté” and loosely covered the Instant Pot with a pot lid. The broccoli steamed quickly and I eliminated using an extra pot!

John heated up our packet chicken gravy and sliced the chicken breast and we were ready to sit down to dinner. Classic chicken dinner is always a winner at our house.

Posted in American, Instant Pot, Kitchen tips, Poultry, sous vide, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Linguine with Mushroom Bolognese. 4/12/21

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Beebamom

Monday’s whole grain linguine was topped with a Bolognese which was vegan/vegetarian and sat on a bed of raw Lacinato kale.

Whole grain linguine with Mushroom Bolognese

Mushroom Bolognese is a delicious vegetable based spaghetti sauce. I posted a lengthy discussion and recipe back in February. You can find it here. One thing I did differently was to add the chopped kale stems to the sauce when I was cooking the mushrooms and onions. The bitterness of the kale helped to tone down the sweetness of the carrot and the brightness of the tomatoes.

Using the food processor to chop the vegetables is a real time saver. It makes me think that I ought to use it more often.

This is a very enjoyable dinner and having the lacinato kale under the pasta really makes it a filling dish.

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

Cabbage, mushroom, and egg frittata BFD. 4/11/21

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Beebamom

Tonight’s Breakfast For Dinner (BFD) was actually more like dinner than breakfast. I needed to use a piece of a cabbage and entered “egg cabbage” into Google. What I got among other things was a recipe from the Egg Board that I felt I could adapt.

Cabbage and egg frittata with mushrooms, green onions, and farro

First I scaled down the recipe to two eggs and changed all the other ingredients to 1/3 of the recipe. My main departure, though, was to use 1/2 cup of my leftover farro and mix it into the eggs before I put them in the pan. I dressed the frittata with some additional soy sauce and garnished with black sesame seeds. I had to skip the furikake because we do not have any.

The entire frittata was supposed to slip out of the pan in tact and, well, that did not happen. I think my spritz of olive oil spray was not enough to keep the eggs from sticking a bit. Probably at least a tablespoon of oil would have worked better.

What did I learn from this experiment? I learned if you put in almost any combination of food into Google that someone out there has made it into a dish and posted the recipe!

Posted in American, Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, Grains, Kitchen tips, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Partial week’s Menu. April 12 – 14, 2021

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Beebamom

Only a partial menu this week as we will not be cooking every day.

Weekly Menu April 12 – April 14, 2021

Monday
Whole grain penne
Mushroom Bolognese, lacinato kale

Tuesday
Classic chicken dinner
Broccoli, rutabagas

Wednesday
Afghani dal
Rice, greens

Posted in Weekly menu | Leave a comment

Grilled harissa chicken with farro and spiced cauliflower (LFD) 4/10/21

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Beebamom

The leftover part of our Leftovers For Dinner (LFD) this week consisted of farro that I made extra of on Friday and half of a head of cauliflower.

Grilled harissa chicken thighs with farro and spiced cauliflower

John marinated the boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the harissa (store-bought jar) and then grilled them outside. My job was to nuke the farro and steam the cauliflower. I had time to kill so I sauteéd some red onion and garlic and then added the cauliflower. Since that did not seem exciting enough I then added capers, roasted red peppers, and a touch of red wine vinegar. To have some sort of sauce I used chicken broth as well. My melange of random ingredients ended up tasting really good!

Posted in Easy, Grilling, Kitchen tips, leftovers, Leftovers For Dinner, North African, Poultry, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Farro vegetable bowl with nuoc cham 4/9/21

Posted on April 10, 2021 by Beebamom

After the heft of our dining-out experience on Thursday we decided on much lighter fare for Friday.

Sheet pan roasted vegetables over baked farro with nuoc cham

Baking the farro in a 9 x 9 inch glass baking dish is a simple but delicious way to cook farro.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Oven baked farro

1 1/2 cups rinsed farro
2 1/3 cups boiling or very hot water
1 tsp salt or salt to your taste
olive oil spray or butter

Preheat oven to 375F. Spray 9×9″ glass baking dish thoroughly with olive oil spray or butter baking dish. To the dish add the farro, hot water, and salt. Cover tightly with foil. Bake one hour. Remove from oven and fluff making sure to loosen farro from sides and bottom of dish. Re-cover and let stand five minutes.

(This technique also works perfectly with brown rice.)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

At this point your oven is already hot so crank it up to 400F and cook a variety of oiled and salted vegetables on a sheet pan until tender and browned, about 20 minutes. I used carrots, red onion, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. To be honest my veggies look a little pale so I sould have left them in a little longer.

Serve the vegetables and farro with a dressing of your choice. The recipe I was sort of following suggested a ranch style dressing but I liked the flavor of nuoc cham with its spicy, umami flavor.

Close-up showing farro underneath vegetables

Posted in American, Easy, Grains, Kitchen tips, Recipes, Sheet pan, Thai, Vegetables | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Dining out for the first time in 13 months! 4/8/21

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Beebamom

John and I planned a treat for ourselves and went out to lunch, dinner, and stayed over at hotel for the first time since February, 2020. I have to admit that not being able to go to restaurants for over a year probably helped a lot with staying on a diet but now that we are semi-free to do so, I have to figure out strategies to make good choices.

For lunch I ordered mussels and John ordered octopus. Seafood, as a long as it is not fried, is always a good choice. Giving John my bread is also a successful strategy for me but probably not for him.

Roasted mussels in a saffron broth

Marinated grilled octopus

For dinner we employed a similar technique which had us eating hamachi, a salad, and halibut. Of course these were not simply the item on a plate but each course was carefully prepared with delicious accompaniments.

Hamachi crudo, sweet potato, crispy shallots, escabeche tiger’s milk

Seared Alaskan halibut, peas, carrots, wild onion soubise, sorrel sauce

Of course we are not going to eat like this very often and I have not stepped on the scale to see what damage has been done but I am confident that if I go back to my usual at-home diet that no significant weight gain will have occurred.

It was so great to go out again. John and I are planning a little getaway soon but we definitely will not be dining like this! I will have to figure out how to eat reasonably before we go. A conscious effort to exercise and make good choices has to be a major part of the equation.

Posted in American, Dining out, Fish, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Wednesday is Pasta Day! 4/7/21

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Beebamom

I am officially declaring Wednesday Pasta Day. What other food is more perfect than pasta to get you over the hump of the weekdays and sliding on into the weekend. Plus noodles of one sort or another are in almost every cuisine.

Orecchiette with mushrooms and kale

This Wednesday’s offering is orecchiette with mushrooms, onions, garlic, chopped kale stems and kale leaves. There is a little prep with chopping up the components but the cooking goes quickly. While the water comes to a boil sauté the mushrooms, onions, garlic, and stems in a little olive oil. When the orecchiette goes into the water to boil add the kale leaves to the other vegetables. Before draining the pasta (orecchiette takes about 10 minutes) reserve at least a cup of pasta water. Put the drained pasta into the vegetables and add enough of the pasta water to make a sauce along with another teaspoon of olive oil. Serve garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and some optional grated parmesan.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Roasted sea bass with new potatoes and broccoli. 4/6/21

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Beebamom

Since yesterday was a salt extravaganza we decided that a less sodium packed meal would be the right choice. We finished up our pack of frozen Chilean bass by having a little extra in the shape of a much thinner third piece of fish (the piece on the left in the picture below) that John folded in half so it would cook at the same rate as the other pieces. The uniforms thickness translated into all the pieces being done in 14 minutes at 400F.

I started to steam the new potatoes a little ahead of the fish going in the oven. There were some bigger potatoes that ended up on John’s plate and I knew that they would take about 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, even if I had to hold them for 5 minutes or so, I knew that they would stay warm.

The broccoli took about 8 minutes and I made a lot of it. Unsurprisingly we ate it all.

I was very sparing with the salt in this meal. Using lemon as a seasoning helped out with my usual salt craving.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Healthy tips, Kitchen tips, pescatarian, Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment