Instant Pot beef stew. 4/27/20

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Beebamom

Take your favorite beef stew recipe. Set the Instant Pot on sauté and brown your meat. We used half of a chuck steak. Add your vegetables, add liquid, and herbs and seasoning. Change the setting to pressure cook and the time for 18 minutes. When the cook time is done let the pressure reduce on its own for at least 10 minutes. Release the rest of the pressure. Open the Instant Pot and add a thickening agent so your gravy has a nice viscosity, adjust the seasoning, and enjoy!

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Vegetarian/vegan chili. 4/25/20

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Beebamom

I am always on the lookout for a good vegetarian chili recipe.  The mushrooms give this chili umami and texture and the bulgur thickens it up. We ended up using salsa verde because we did not have any cilantro and we needed more liquid. As it started to cook, the colors were very inviting.

Chopped vegetables for the chili cooking

After the bulgur cooks up the chili has a pleasing thickness and it is ready for a dollop of optional Greek yogurt with salt and cumin.

Vegetarian chili with Greek yogurt

Posted in American, Grains, Mexican, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Scrambled eggs, veggie patty, tomatoes, toast. 4/26/20

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Beebamom

Yes! You can eat breakfast for dinner! I usually have BFD every Sunday. It gives me a day off from actual cooking. John and I each make our own meals. His is usually some sort of fancy omelet while I am a plain scrambled egg kind of person. I have tried making omelets and over easys, and even exotic scrambles but what I like best is just a humble scrambled egg. Last night I took a little egg-tra care and tried to cook my eggs soft with small curds but usually I am in too much of a hurry to worry about them being perfect.

Soft scrambled eggs, rye toast, veggie patty, and tomatoes

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Weekly menu. April 26-May 2, 2020

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Beebamom

This is our weekly menu for this seventh week of lockdown. These menus help me keep shopping to a minimum. Since I know what I will need for dinner, I merely flesh out my shopping list with household and kitchen essentials and go to the store once a week. In the old days (pre-pandemic) I would go grocery shopping a lot. It was one of my favorite things to do. Now it is filled with stress due to potential exposure.

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Shrimp in a Pernod cream sauce. 4/24/20

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Beebamom

Fancy dinner tonight! This meal is based on a dish from the now defunct Kenwood Grill in Sonoma Valley. It was always a great place to have lunch before or after wine tasting. Although the sauce calls for a lot of heavy cream we streamline it into 1/4 cup cream and make up the difference with shrimp stock. John does an expert job cooking the shrimp and making the sauce while I brunoise the vegetables, cook the spinach, and reheat some rice. Teamwork!

Shrimp in a Pernod/white wine cream sauce with spinach and rice

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Orecchiette with Lacinato kale. 4/23/20

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Beebamom

Today we were taking a culinary trip down memory lane. On October 29, 2011, John and I had lunch in Bari, Italy at Giampaolo. This has become a favorite city and favorite restaurant of our family over the years since. In fact we had reservations there for our daughter’s birthday this year. Alas, we were unable to go due to the pandemic. My first course was orecchiette with mustard greens, a regional dish.

Orecchiette with mustard greens from Giampaolo in Bari, Italy

I made orecchiette with Lacinato kale for dinner last night.  I blanched chopped up kale stem pieces (in the pasta water) and then cooked them with onions and garlic. When the pasta was nearly ready I added the leafy greens and let them wilt. Then came the orecchiette with some reserved pasta water. The greens were pretty bitter so I added a dash of sugar and a teaspoon of olive oil, not nearly as much as my Giampaolo dish! A sprinkling of parmesan (If you are not vegan) and a drizzle of good olive oil finished the dish.

My orecchiette with Lacinato kale

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Classic chicken dinner. 4/22/20

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Beebamom

What can I say? We are having a sous vide chicken breast again. And our sides are the usual Instant Pot cooked rutabagas plus sautéed broccoli with a little cauliflower. It may not be original or exotic but we have been eating chicken about once a week since we got married. My son makes chicken for his family once a week. Maybe I can think of something different to do with a chicken breast next week. But maybe not.

Sous vide chicken breast au jus with rutabagas and broccoli (and a little cauliflower)

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Chana Dal with zucchini and cabbage. 4/21/20

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Beebamom

Chana dal is made with dried split chickpea in a pressure cooker or Instant Pot. I do not know which of my dals I like better Chana dal or Afghani dal. They are both delicious. Chana dal is a little more time consuming but not much. This time I had bought a can of petite diced tomatoes with jalapeños by accident. It was a very happy accident as it gave our meal a little more spiciness. I think I’ll add my mistake in the future!

Chana dal on rice with zucchini and cabbage

Chana Dal

Ingredients
1 cup Split Chickpeas
2 cups Water for soaking
2 tsp. Oil
1 tsp Cumin seeds
3/4 cup Onion diced
1/2 tbsp Ginger minced
3 cloves Garlic minced
1 can petite diced tomatoes with jalapeños (or plain)
1.5 cups Water for cooking
1 tbsp Lime juice
Spices
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Ground Turmeric
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
Cilantro

Instructions
Soak split chickpeas in the water for soaking for 30 minutes.
Start the instant pot in sauté mode and heat oil in it. Add cumin seeds.
Once the cumin seeds start to change color, add the onions, garlic, ginger and saute for 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes and spices and stir them well. Drain split chickpeas and add along with water for cooking. Stir it all up. Set to pressure cook for 15 minutes and close the lid with vent in sealing position.
After the instant pot beeps, let the pressure release naturally. Add lime juice and give a good stir.
Garnish with cilantro and serve over rice.

Posted in Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Sheet pan turkey sausage. 4/20/20

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Beebamom

The other day the NYTimes Cooking site had a recipe for sheet pan sausage and vegetables with a mustard sauce. I thought it looked easy and could be adapted to our personal style of eating so I decided to give it a try. In my rendition I used much lower calorie smoked turkey sausage and cut down the amount of oil. Turns out this is a dead easy way to cook a bunch of food and you just need to know about how long each of your ingredients take and thus stagger putting items on the sheet pan. I learned this by totally burning the garlic which was supposed to be on the sheet pan for at least 30 minutes and was burnt after 15 minutes. Maybe a whole bulb of garlic is a better way to go.

For my sheet pan for two people I used about 5oz. of smoked turkey sausage, 7 new potatoes, a large onion cut into 8 pieces, part of a head of cabbage, and 2 carrots. It cooked for about 20 minutes at 425F.  I served it with a mustard sauce made of Dijon mustard, lemon juice, parsley, and diced onion thinned out with a couple tablespoons of water.

Sheet pan rutkey sausage with vegetables

Most any type of vegetable that you happen to have could be used. Just watch out for the cooking times as noted above. Also I think that tofu, chicken or especially salmon would be good as a substitute for sausage.

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Tired veggies soup. 4/20/20

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Beebamom

This is a super simple delicious vegan soup you can make out of bits and pieces of vegetables in your refrigerator.

Celery/broccoli/potato soup

Ingredients:
Half of an onion, roughly chopped
Clove of garlic, smashed
1 medium to large waxy potato, chopped
Half of a bunch of celery, roughly chopped
Stalks of three broccolis, roughly chopped
3 cups of vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
An herb (I used thyme)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for garnishing
Celery leaves for garnishing

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil spray. Add the vegetables, herb, and the stock. Simmer for 20 minutes ( or until everything is cooked through.) Put in blender and purée. Adjust seasoning. Serve with garnish. Can be eaten warm, room temperature, or cold.

Really you can do this with any vegetables you have getting old in the refrigerator but you do need the potato for a creamy texture.

Easy and delicious!

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