Chilean sea bass, rice mix, and broccoli. 12/9/20

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Beebamom

Chilean sea bass with parsley tartar sauce, rice mix, and broccoli

It is back to basics today after my birthday celebration. My week has gotten entirely off the menu I had planned so I am just going to make bits and pieces from the plan and push some of the dinners to next week.

John roasted the fish in the oven and I made a loose parsley tartar sauce to go with it. The rice is a mix of long grained white rice and cauliflower rice. The broccoli I simply steamed. Although it looks like a pretty no frills kind of dinner, the Chilean sea bass is so delicious that it makes any dinner special (and easy!)

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Sushi and coffee cake. 12/8/20

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Beebamom

Weird combination for dinner no doubt. Tuesday was my birthday and the eating went all askew. I was supposed to be having a drinks and munch Zoom with my sisters but neither of them showed up with a drink or a munch. In the meantime John had gone out to buy a bunch of sushi for the event and for hors d’oeuvres for us. He went way overboard and bought a lot so we pitched our dinner plan and had sushi instead.

One of my platesful of sushi

This was followed by a special childhood favorite. I had told my daughter that when I was a kid we had a bakery guy who came door to door a couple of times a week delivering bread and confections. There was a coffee cake which was full of almonds, raisins, and almond paste and coated in sugar that I loved but also that my father loved. Needless to say I did not get much of the coffee cake when my mom bought it. My daughter searched on line for a close substitute and came up with a recipe for a Swedish tea ring that approximated my childhood fav.

Swedish tea ring

When I used to work in the diet industry I used to tell the people I coached that you are not overweight because you eat cake on your birthday but because you eat cake all the other days. Keeping this in mind I ate at least one third of the cake on my birthday knowing that I would not eat any for the rest of the year. It was spectacularly good especially with an after dinner drink.

Now back on the diet…

Posted in Desserts, Fish, Healthy tips, Holidays, Japanese, pescatarian, rice, Vegetables | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Penne with vegetables. 12/7/20

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Beebamom

Whole grain penne with mixed vegetables

Looking for a way to use up vegetables that have spent too much time in the crisper? An easy and tasty way to incorporate them into a meal is via a vegetable sauce for pasta. I used fresh broccoli, mushrooms, parsley, onions, garlic, and snow peas, plus edamame and corn from the freezer. While your pasta water is heating up and the pasta is cooking, sauté your vegetables in a little olive oil. Then add the cooked pasta and some of the cooking water and your dinner is done!

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Breakfast for Dinner. 12/6/20

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Beebamom

I am always trying to think of something new to do with my BFD each week. The result is not always photogenic but is usually tasty. This week I made a sort of open faced omelet. Along with the eggs are mushrooms, spinach, crumbled breakfast patty, onion, and garlic. I also ate a pita half, toasted and cut in thirds. Monday morning is our official weigh-in day and it is important that we eat super-sensibly on Sunday night.

(Since I am writing this Monday morning I can report that since I hit my goal on November 2, 2020 I have remained within one pound over or under my goal. Today I was about one half pound under. Yay!)

Open-faced omelet

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Birthday week menu. December 7 – 12, 2012

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Beebamom

There are two new dish dinners this week, a fancy birthday dinner, plus the usual LFD and BFD to end the week. Enjoy!

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LFD: Everything soup. 12/5/20

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Beebamom

Saturday’s LFD (Leftovers For Dinner) started with a base of the soup we had on Thursday. Somehow I forgot to post it. The kale, cabbage, and white bean soup with a little chopped up smoked turkey sausage was delicious. Here is a picture of it.

Pinto bean, kale, and cabbage soup

Anyway, we had not quite enough of it leftover for another dinner so I took most of the vegetables I had left in the refrigerator (mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, celery, and more carrots), sautéed them, and added “everything” to the pot along with some additional chicken stock. To serve I toasted a piece of rustic rye bread that our son made and floated it on top with a few fresh cherry tomatoes. What resulted was an easy, economical, healthy, filling dinner that we both enjoyed.

Everything soup

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Seared scallops, new potatoes, green beans. 12/4/20

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Beebamom

Pan-seared scallops, steamed new potatoes, and grren beans with mushrooms

This is a pretty fancy dinner for a weeknight but I am within a week of my birthday and everything needs to be special but also mindful. I have already planned out my meals through my birthday which is on Tuesday. So this is going to be a week where I need to be especially careful so I don’t gain too much weight by treating myself to baked goods or wine. One of the best ways to do this is to eat fish and shellfish and lots of vegetables.

The lemon plays an important role in this dish. Not only is it good on the scallops but also on the potatoes. Using lemon on potatoes is a Spanish take on the vegetable. So instead of loading more calories on the potatoes by slathering on butter, I chose lemon and some salt. Parsley would be good on them as well.

I did use a little faux butter on the beans and decided to jazz them up with mushrooms as well since the beans were looking a little past their peak. The vegetables scored accolades from John which always makes me happy.

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Salmon with a dill sauce. 12/2/20

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Beebamom

Pan-seared salmon, dill sauce, asparagus, and rice

This dinner was as delicious as it looks! John, my fish and meat cook, did a superb job seasoning and cooking the salmon. I threw together a really tasty dill sauce by combining mayonnaise, yellow mustard, parsley, dill, capers, a splash of water, lemon juice, garlic powder, sriracha, and salt. My method is to taste and add more of something or figure out what is missing. John also made the rice earlier in the day and I steamed the asparagus while the salmon cooked. Dinner win!

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Memories of Bari, Italy. 12/1/20

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Beebamom

Along with my food blog I have another blog which chronicles our travels and important moments in our lives. We were scrolling through the various entries and came upon a trip that included an unplanned stop in Bari in October, 2011. (This is the place we were supposed to visit with our daughter this year to celebrate her birthday. Sigh.) Included in the pictures is a dish I had at one of our favorite restaurants, Giampolo. It is orecchiette with turnip greens and stems. Here is the picture I took of it.

Orecchiette with turnip greens and stems

You can find versions of this dish all over southern Italy. The orecchiette is always the pasta but the vegetable changes. It is usually some sort of bitter green. The version I made has broccolini, a lot less olive oil, and cremini mushrooms to make it hardier.

Orecchiette with broccolini and mushrooms

Even though we have not been able to travel this year, it is nice to eat this pasta dish which evokes such fond memories.

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Shrimp biryani, basmati rice, broccoli. 11/30/20

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Beebamom

Shrimp biryani, basmati rice, and broccoli

John and I (mostly John) have not made this dish lately. John was looking through the freezer and happened upon a bag of curry leaves. We decided that I had gotten them from the Asian grocery before the pandemic and that we had them for shrimp biryani.

The original recipe makes this in the Instant Pot with ginormous shrimp. It is at pressure for only three minutes but it was too long for our 21-25 shrimp. So John decided to just cook the whole thing on the stovetop. First he sautéed the vegetables and spices followed by a quick sear on the shrimp. Then the rice, water, and tomatoes go in for 20 or so minutes and then the shrimp on top for a couple of minutes to finishing cooking.

I microwaved some cauliflower rice so I could mix it in with basmati rice for a bigger portion. I also sautéed the broccoli with a little faux butter.

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