Chicken and shallots in a mustard jus. 9/22/20

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Beebamom

Costco chicken with shallots and tomatoes in a mustard jus over rice with cauliflower

We tried to do something new with the thighs and drumsticks from a Costco rotisserie chicken. If you have not bought a Costco chicken, it is twice the chicken for half the price of a grocery store rotisserie chicken. (And the best part is picking at all the bits as you dismantle the chicken!)

This is the real deal recipe by Rishia Zimmern, former wife of Andrew Zimmern. We, of course, slimmed it down and used our pre-cooked chicken.

Not cooking the chicken in the mustard sauce made the sauce a little thin but nonetheless tasty. You start by sauteéing the shallots in a little fat. We used two teaspoons of olive oil. When the shallots have softened a bit you add chicken stock, white wine, and Dijon style mustard. We also added some whole grain mustard. Then the cherry tomatoes go in and you cook them a bit until they burst. (We also added some cauliflower at this point to bulk up the dish with additional vegetables.) Finally we laid in the chicken pieces to warm up. No doubt our naked chicken would have looked better with its skin on.

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Eat more fish! It is good for you! 9/21/20

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Beebamom

Pan seared Coho salmon with mango salsa, rice, and snow peas

Since I have lost over 50 lbs. my overall cholesterol is great. One thing that is not so great is my HDL (good cholesterol) reading. It is lower than it should be. My doctor told me to eat less fat and I countered that I could not eat less fat than I am already. She then recommended more fish high in Omega-3 and fish oil capsules so I am trying to include salmon in our diets about every two weeks plus we take the fish oil capsules. (They are huge!!!)

I brightened up our salmon with a very tasty mango salsa. I had bought the mango last week when I first planned this dinner but it just did not ripen fast enough. By Monday it was ready to go. Mangoes are hard to cut up because they are slippery and have an enormous pit in the center but they are so delicious and worth the effort. I mixed together the cut up mango, some minced onion and red bell pepper, half a jalapeño, cilantro, and added in Trader Joe’s Chili Lime Sprinkle. After giving it a taste I decided it needed more salt and more acid which came from rice wine vinegar. The delicious salsa really elevated the salmon. As sides I had my cauliflower rice and rice mix and sauteed snow peas. This was a successful, delicious, and healthy dinner.

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Weekly Menu September 21 -September 27, 2020

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Beebamom

This week’s menu includes using your rotisserie Costco chicken two ways, three vegetarian/vegan dishes, and two seafood entrees. I hope this inspires you to do some cooking this week.

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Rosh Hashanah dinner. 9/19/20

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Beebamom

Note: Eek, I wrote this post on Saturday and then forgot to post it! Sorry.

Although we are not religious, we still like to celebrate the holidays of both our faiths. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year and begins the Ten Days of Awe which end up on Yom Kippur. As with all good holidays, the emphasis is on food.

I discovered a few years ago that in the Sephardic tradition there are foods that have special meaning on the holiday. So we no longer just have apples and honey but also beans, gourds, “head” of garlic, beets, dates, and several more. Plus, you are supposed to make puns out of the food names! What fun! John is our leader, our son came over to join in the festivities, and our daughter made a round challah (an egg bread.)

The beautiful challah our daughter made

After sampling and discussing all the symbolic foods and making quite a few puns, we ate our dinner. Our autumn soup included the holiday foods of carrots, apples, pomegranate, and butternut squash (gourd.)

Autumn soup

We also had a salad which included roasted golden beets and pine nuts (seeds.)

Hearty greens salad with roasted golden beets, pine nuts, and oranges.

During these days of stay-at-home it is nice to have a reason to celebrate and to raise our glasses in hopes for a better new year.

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Shrimp in a Pernod cream sauce. 9/17/20

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Beebamom

Shrimp in a Pernod cream sauce

This is a pretty fancy dinner for an ordinary weeknight. We have had this before and I posted the recipe here. John did the cooking and I did the chopping for this dish. We served it with rice and finished up the bottle of Albariño that we cooked with.

It seems this week is full of fancy dinner celebrations!

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Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 9/16/20

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Beebamom

September 16 is a celebration day for John and me. It is the day he retired from full-time work in 2002. He has been retired for 18 years! We have had a wonderful time being with each other doing so many exciting things. Until the pandemic he was still “working” but he has been doing the kind of part-time work that makes him happy and keeps his stress level low. Happy Retirement, John!

In addition we are celebrating having reached our weight loss goals. John and I have each lost about 50 lbs. on our diet that we started exactly one year ago. So it is a double celebration day.  Our treat-yourself dinner is delicious sous vide chicken breast, with mushroom gravy, rice, and broccoli. It tastes great and is part of our healthy eating plan.

Sous vide chicken breast with mushroom gravy, rice, and broccoli

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Kale and white bean vegetable soup. 9/15/20

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Beebamom

Kale and white bean vegetable soup

The soup I made the other day and had for lunch transformed itself into dinner. I added more vegetable stock to it which made it soupier and less stew-like. All the vegetables in it are things you probably have in your refrigerator – carrots, onions, potatoes, celery, white beans and tomatoes from the pantry, and any sort of greens. I added some Parmesan on mine at the end but without the cheese it would be a fine vegan dinner. I still have a quart left and I am trying to decide whether to freeze it or have it for lunch tomorrow.

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John’s birthday dinner. 9/14/20

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Beebamom

Because of the pandemic this year instead of going out for John’s birthday we cooked his requested favorite meal. He chose popcorn before-sies, sushi appetizer, and fried scallops with collards and corn for the main.

Fried scallops with tartar sauce and collard greens with corn

We bought the sushi at Safeway and I do not think I would get theirs again. As it turned out all the interiors were like a California roll and what differentiated this combo pack was a very thin slice of tuna or eel on top. I want the fish inside!

I made the collards and corn. I started out by cooking onions and sliced garlic and then removed them from the pan. Next I steamed the cut up stems. At the end I put everything back in the pan with a little butter, sugar, and salt and tossed the chiffonaded leaves with the rest. It was pretty yummy.

John dredged the scallops and coated with them with seasoned panko breadcrumbs. Then he deep fried them in our electric wok. He does this outside on the patio so the house is not filled with aerosolized grease. I made some tartar sauce to go along with the scallops.

With all that we had eaten and drunk (a very nice bottle of Chardonnay) we had no need for dessert. It was a very fine birthday celebration.

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Breakfast for dinner. 9/13/20

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Beebamom

Mushroom and Swiss cheese omelet, Romaine and kale salad with tomatoes and mushrooms

I enjoyed my omelet this week which I pared down to just three ingredients eggs, mushrooms and Swiss cheese. I hardly ever eat cheese so a slice of ultra-thin Swiss cheese is a special treat. I stayed with the mushroom theme with my salad and used one of our daughter’s waning supply of tomatoes as well. It will be sad when the tomatoes are gone and we have to go back to the grocery store ones.

Tomorrow is John’s birthday when he catches up to me age-wise for the last 3 1/2 months of the year. Since all celebrations in our house are food-centric we are starting off the day with home-made pretzel rolls from our daughter and finishing the day with sushi and fried scallops. Yum! Then I will have to spend most of the rest of the week strictly following my diet. Boo!

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Weekly Menu. September 14 – 20, 2020

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Beebamom

This week we are celebrating two special occasions, John’s birthday and Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. Usually John and I would be going out to dinner with friends for his big day but not this year. We will cook at home and just enjoy each other’s company. On Saturday our son is coming over for a Jewish new year celebration with the three of us. We will eat some traditional foods and wish each other a healthy and prosperous new year.

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