Orecchiette with broccoli and mushrooms. 6/6/20

Posted on June 6, 2020 by Beebamom

While the water was heating up I cooked the mushrooms until they were browned and then added some garlic and onion to the sauté. When the onions had softened I turned the flame to low and waited until the pasta had about 4 minutes to go. At that point I added the broccoli and cooked them with a little pasta water. John dumped the orecchiette into the mushroom mixture and I stirred all together along with some additional reservation pasta water for a moment or two. At that point we filled our bowls and sat down to enjoy a delicious dinner.

Orecchiette with broccoli and mushrooms

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Red lentils with brown rice. 6/5/20

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Beebamom

I love this combination of red lentils, onion, garlic, ginger, and spices cooked together in a vegetable stock. I found the recipe on an Afghani site and tweaked it to make it my own. John sautéed the onions and spices while I finished the cutting up. Once you put the lentils and broth in, it only needs to cook another twenty minutes. We had the brown rice left over from last week’s un-chiladas and I whipped a Greek salad to round our dinner out.

Red lentils with brown rice and Greek salad

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Vegan creamy broccoli soup and tuna salad. 6/4/20

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Beebamom

It was hot again tonight and none of my choices from this week’s menu seemed good for preparing in a hot kitchen. I had whipped up some creamy broccoli soup last week and decided on that for dinner along with tuna salad on a bed of spinach.

Creamy vegan broccoli soup and tuna salad with spinach

The soup gets its creaminess from purée-ing the cooked vegetables which include a medium thin skinned potato. There are no dairy products involved. My soup was a combination of part of a head of cauliflower, a lot of broccoli stems I have been saving, the end of a celery bunch, the aforementioned potato, some onion, salt, and 3 cups of vegetable stock. Cook until the vegetables are soft and purée in a blender. The more vegetables you use, the thicker the soup. When I heated it up tonight, I added some broccoli florets. I finished my bowl with a drizzle of our good olive oil.

 

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Shrimp Thai salad. 6/3/20

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Beebamom

With temperatures in the upper 90’s I have thrown out my menu for the week and am looking to make dishes that involve minimal cooking. This Thai salad is a riff on the Spicy Pork Thai salad I made a couple of weeks ago. The marinade and dressing for the shrimp and salad is basically nuoc cham with added fresno chile, cilantro, oil, soy sauce, and shallots. Use about a quarter for the marinade and the rest as a dressing for the salad. The shrimp needs only a half hour’s worth of marinating and then a quick cook in a pan or on a grill. The salad is cabbage, herbs, shallots, cucumber, and red bell pepper. This is a spicy dish to cool you off on a hot night!

Shrimp Thai salad

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Instant Pot beef stew. 6/2/20

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Beebamom

Usually you would not think of having beef stew in the summer but we had a piece of beef chuck in the freezer that needed using and John was in a beefy mood. We decided to do the cooking in the morning and then reheat later. John browned the meat and mushrooms while I cut up the carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, and parsley. We cooked the stew in a bath of red wine and beef stock for 18 minutes on high pressure and then let it cool down on its own.

Next time I think we will do a quicker cool down Because the vegetables were very soft and the meat was a little dry. I also made a side of broccoli for some green on the plate

Beef stew and broccoli

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Weekly Menu. 5/31 – 6/6/20

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Beebamom

I am a little late with the menu this week which probably drove us into eating evil snacks and leftovers on Monday. We are back on track today with a classic menu of favorites for the rest of the week.

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Chickpea, vegetable, and pasta stew. 5/30/20

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Beebamom

We have not made chickpea stew in a while and I forget how wonderful all the vegetables look and taste in the bowl. And then, there they are with all their beautiful colors and textures. The combination of the vegetables, chickpeas, ditalini, and stock make for a delicious and nutritious dinner.

For a vegan dish be sure to use vegetable stock and forgo the Parmesan cheese. Top dress with your best olive oil.

Chickpea stew

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Un-chiladas . 5/29/20

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Beebamom

I came up with the idea for this dinner. I said, “How about we have chicken breast with salsa verde, brown rice, and spicy black beans?” John said, “No tortillas? That would be like having un-chiladas!” And so out of my wanting to save some tortilla calories, un-chiladas were born.

John sous vide the boneless, skinless chicken breast and I made the spicy black beans from a can of beans, part of a can of tomatoes with chiles, cumin, and cilantro. The rice was made on Wednesday and we just heated that up. We had a jar of Herdez fire-roasted salsa verde to put on the chicken. This dinner was really tasty and easy-peasy.

Un-chiladas, chicken breast with salsa verde, spicy black beans, and brown rice

Posted in American, Easy, Mexican, Poultry, rice, sous vide, Vegetables | Leave a comment

New! Shrimp with citrus/Sambal dressing. 5/28/20

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Beebamom

Shrimp with citrus/Sambal dressing is a quick and relatively easy dinner. I made the brown rice in the oven early in the morning to keep from overheating the kitchen so all I needed to do was make the dressing and slice up the cucumbers and red bell pepper  on the mandolin. John was in charge of cooking the shrimp which he did in our cast iron pan rather than on the grill.

The dressing had as usual too much oil and sugar for us but after we dealt with cutting back on those components, the sauce seemed rather lifeless. We put in more citrus juice, some soy sauce, a little fish sauce, and a sprinkle of sweetener and that did the trick. The original recipe comes from Food and Wine and is here.

Shrimp with a citrus and Sambal dressing served with brown rice and a cucumber, bell pepper, scallion salad

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New! Spicy Thai Pork Tenderloin Salad. 5/27/20

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Beebamom

This delicious salad comes from the NYTimes Cooking site. The site is not free but you can buy it separately from the newspaper. There are myriad recipes plus newsletters to subscribe to. You can upload recipes from other sites into your own recipe box and keep them in one place. I recommend it.

John grilled our small pork tenderloin tails on a skewer after placing them for a few hours in the Thai marinade. The salad is made of sturdy napa cabbage with peppers, scallions, and plenty of herbs. The dressing is made from the same components as the marinade and hits all the Thai high points, salty, sweet, spicy, sour, and umami. Yum!

Spicy Thai pork tenderloin salad

Posted in Grilling, omnivore, Pork, Thai, Vegetables | Tagged , | 1 Comment