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Grilled shrimp, new potatoes, broccoli. 4/18/20
Grilled shrimp, new potatoes, broccoli
I put the potatoes on to steam and when they were half done (ten minutes) John lit the grill. The potatoes were finished by the time the grill was hot. While John cooked the shrimp, I took the potatoes off the heat and then used the same pan to cook the broccoli. I cut open the potatoes and plated them along with the broccoli and shrimp. A healthy squeeze of lemon went over everything. Lemon juice is surprisingly good on potatoes! This was definitely a half an hour meal from beginning to end. 
Red lentils, brown rice, and zucchini. 4/17/20
Following up on last night’s vegetarian/vegan dinner, here is another main course that can be totally vegan or vegetarian depending on your enhancements. I used light butter with canola oil to round out the flavors but you could use olive oil and I topped the lentils with yogurt which is easily omitted. Red lentils which are actually kind of coral colored cook through to a warm yellow in about 15 minutes. The lentils along with garlic, onion, ginger, and spiced with turmeric, cumin, and cayenne cook in chicken or vegetable stock and are finished with a little lemon juice and salt to taste. The resulting dish has the consistency of a thick soup. To go along with our lentils we had some leftover brown rice and I made zucchini with onions, garlic, and celery.
Red lentils, brown rice, and zucchini
Posted in Afghan, Easy, leftovers, Legumes, rice, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged lentils
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Leftovers For Dinner. 12/17/20
It is one of those weeks where you become so busy that just grabbing something out of the fridge seems like the best way to get dinner on the table. Luckily we have a lot of leftovers this week, enough for LFD on Thursday and more LFD on Saturday.
Lentil and chickpea soup
This is a combination of Chana dal from Monday which was pretty soupy to begin with and the lentils and turkey sausage from Wednesday. It is not pretty but it was tasty and filling. I thought it was a bit too sweet so I fixed it by using one of my secret weaopons, fish sauce. Salty and bitter, fish sauce fixes too-sweet in a few drops along with giving the whole dish a depth of flavor. Don’t go over board with it, though, or else your dinner will end up smelling like fish!
We have defrosted the shrimp so we are going to have to use them on Friday in Shrimp Scampi and omit the salmon for this week. As we get closer to Christmas I imagine that there will be a lot of re-jiggering the menu as I am busily wrapping presents and do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
Posted in Easy, Kitchen tips, leftovers, Legumes, soup, Vegetables
Tagged chickpeas, lentils
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Whole grain penne with asparagus. 4/16/20
We had penne with asparagus for dinner on Thursday and, boy, was it good! Here is a tip to make preparation super easy. While your salted pasta water is coming up to a boil, snap the ends off the asparagus (if you are being fancy you can peel the asparagus first for a slightly higher yield), cut the stalks at an angle about the same size as your penne, and leave the tips separated. With two minutes left on your pasta toss all the pieces into the boiling water except for the tips. Reserve a cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta and asparagus when the pasta is ready and throw in the tips. The heat of the pasta, asparagus, and some of the reserved pasta water is enough to cook the tips. Stir the pasta, asparagus, and enough reserved pasta water to make a thin sauce. Put in bowls with a drizzle of good olive oil and some grated Parmesan cheese if using.
One pot, super easy, simply delicious!
Whole grain penne with asparagus
Posted in American, Easy, Italian, Kitchen tips, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged asparagus, penne
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Tarragon chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli. 4/15/20
We had a small change-up to our classic chicken dinner this week. Our daughter has tarragon growing in her garden and we asked her to bring some home. When John sous vide the chicken breast he added some leaves of tarragon, some olive oil, and a bay leaf in the vacuum sealed bag and set the circulator for 160F. We let it cook at that temperature for around 1.5-2 hours. It came out with a mild tarragon flavor and we also used the tarragon-y juice from the chicken with some additional stock as a gravy. It was great on the mashed potatoes which were leftover from last week. Basically all I had to do was cook the broccoli which only took a few minutes. Easy dinner for me!
Tarragon chicken with mashed potatoes and broccoli
Posted in American, Easy, leftovers, Poultry, sous vide, Vegetables
Tagged chicken breast
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Red bell pepper stuffed with brown rice and ground beef. 4/14/20
Back at the beginning of the lockdown due to the pandemic, we bought some ground beef and portioned out into 5 ounce servings. That is enough for one hamburger or enough as a flavoring in a larger dish. So on Tuesday I defrosted one portion and made a stuffed pepper that contained a mixture of brown rice, onions, mushrooms, and the 5 ounces of beef. That equals about one-ish ounce of beef in each pepper half that I filled. I made my own tomato sauce so I could control what went in it and we each enjoyed one half of a pepper. It has been sometime since I made stuffed peppers this way and it was a streamlined comfort meal for me.
Half of a red bell pepper stuffed with ground beef, brown rice, onions, and mushrooms served with tomato sauce
🥬 Portobello burger with slaw and bean salad. 4/13/20
John marinated and then grilled a couple of portobello mushrooms for our dinner. I made my light cole slaw using non-fat Greek yogurt, light mayo, yellow mustard, cider vinegar, celery seed, and salt. In addition I made a cannellini bean, edamame, cherry tomato salad – colors of the Italian flag!
Portobello burger with salads
Posted in American, Easy, Grilling, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged Portobello mushroom
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🥬 Breakfast for dinner. 4/12/20
It is Sunday so it must be breakfast for dinner! In addition to a salad I made myself kind of an omelet taco. I sautéed up some onions and mushrooms, added a crumbled veg patty, and then put the eggs in the pan. The corn tortilla was toasted over an open flame. Although I made the eggs more like a scramble they ended up looking omelet-y once l put them in the tortilla. A little sriracha on top gave it some zing!
Omelet taco and salad
Tomorrow night – grilled portobello mushroom, cole slaw, and a new salad that is reminiscent of the Italian flag!
😷 Weekly menu April 12-18, 2020
This week I am hoping to do a little better with following both my menu and my diet. I realize that I need to be more stringent in regards to my diet as I have put on a couple of pounds this week and I certainly do not want to undo all the hard work I have put in.
We are entering our fifth week of sheltering in place. We do not accomplish much although I have become an expert napper. In addition to following the menu plan I also want to have another clean the house day and a project day. I have not decided on what my project will be. Could be make another mask, work on my garden, or put some time in entering pictures in another blog I have. I need to have a purpose this week.
Also for your enjoyment, a look at our daughter’s garden before she pulls out all the self-seeding poppies and plants her vegetables.
Irises and poppies
Posted in Weekly menu
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Omnivore 