👍 Weekly Menu March 1-7, 2020

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Beebamom

Here are eight ideas for your personal dinner menu this week. They are in no particular order and there are eight ideas for seven days so we can be flexible. There are 4 vegetarian meals a couple of which are vegan, 3 fish or seafood, and 1 chicken meal. My menu is especially good for dieters! We always start with breakfast for dinner on Sunday night. This week John made himself a fancy omelet while I stuck with over easy eggs on toast with a veggie breakfast patty and blueberries with plain yogurt for dessert. Enjoy!

 

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🐟 A pretty, perfect, lunch (or dinner) 2/29/20

Posted on February 29, 2020 by Beebamom

This is my second go at a Nicoise Salad. It is so colorful and a delight to eat. I subbed in black beans for a green vegetables and used spinach instead of traditional salad greens. John and I ate our lunch in the dining room with no cell phones (except for taking a picture) or iPads. Lovely.

Niçoise salad #2

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🥬 Farro with mushroom and leeks. 2/28/20

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Beebamom

Tonight we try a new recipe, farro with mushroom and leeks (other major players include yogurt, chives, and dill). After sautéing the mushrooms and leeks, John pops them in a low oven to keep them warm while cooking the farro. The farro cooks risotto-style adding a little warm stock at a time. Once the farro is cooked, the two components are put together along with the various garnishes.

Farro with mushrooms and leeks served with broccoli

Here is another picture where you can see the farro better.

John is pretty enthused about this dish. I am less so. I like using the oven method for the farro. It brings out the inherent nuttiness of the grain. Maybe we can find a way of combining oven-baked farro with mushrooms and leeks in the future.

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🐚+🐟 Scallops!

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Beebamom

Scallops are my favs and whenever we have them for dinner it is like we are having a celebration of a happy occasion. Easy and quick to fix, scallops are a bundle of goodness in a small package. We get ours from Costco where they are flash frozen with no additives and reasonably priced. They are for sale in the meat and fish counter and are not the ones you find in the frozen foods cases.

Seared scallops with snow peas and new potatoes

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🐓 White chicken chili. 2/25/20

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Beebamom

The recipe I use for white chicken chili is from Food Network. I make a few changes. Since there are only two of us I halve the ingredients. We still have plenty left over.  Instead of mashing some of the beans, I keep all the beans whole and add in half of a can of fat free refried beans. I also use half of a cup of salsa verde for more chili flavor.   I swap yogurt for sour cream and do not add chips on top.  This is a simple, quick way to make a white chili, with or without chicken.

White chicken chili

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🥬🐓🐚🐟 Weekly menu. February 23-29,2020

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Beebamom

This week we have a straggler from last week (chicken chili) and of course our Sunday night dinner, “breakfast for dinner.” On Thursday our son’s a capella rock band is giving a concert at a local brewery. There is no food sold there, only beer. We will have to bring along some sandwiches for that.

 

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🥬 Spicy red lentils with squash (masoor dal). 2/24/20

Posted on February 24, 2020 by Beebamom

This dish is similar to the split chickpea entree I made last week. Red lentils are quicker cooking than split chickpeas which I had to soak and then cook in my Instant Pot.
They both have onion, ginger, cloves, chili, coriander, cumin, and tomatoes but spiced red lentils have turmeric and a sweet potato! Since I did not have any sweet potatoes handy I used some frozen butternut squash which worked fine. At the end you whisk it together and the sweet potato or butternut squash sort of disintegrates. What looks like parmesan cheese in the picture is actually coconut so this is a vegan dinner. The inspiration for this dish is a recipe by Nigella Lawson on the NYTimes Cooking site.

Spiced red lentils with rice and broccoli

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🍤 Shrimp in a Pernod cream sauce. 2/22/20

Posted on February 22, 2020 by Beebamom

Here is a dish that George Washington could have enjoyed on his birthday! A melange of finely diced vegetables (fennel, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper), herbs, and spices (thyme, oregano, bay leaf, saffron, cayenne and salt) are sautéed until tender in a little  oil. A cup of white wine is added and cooked down until the pan is almost dry. A couple of tablespoons of Pernod are then flamed off.  Then add 3-4 tablespoons of heavy cream plus enough clam juice to equal one cup and bring to a simmer. Add shrimp and cook until just pink. Serve over rice. Garnish with fennel fronds.

Happy birthday, George!

Shrimp in a Pernod cream sauce

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🐟. Salade Niçoise. 2/21/20

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Beebamom

Salade Nicoise is a main course salad.  Mostly it is just an assembly of  component parts. I used the same pot of boiling water to cook the egg, blanch the snow peas, and boil the potatoes. I have a salad dressing that I make with a Good Seasons Italian dressing packet. In order to avoid using a half cup of oil, I make the whole packet with water taking the place of the water and the oil that it calls for. Plus I use 1/4 cup of vinegar. Then I add just one teaspoon of olive oil (it really makes such a difference!) and with my immersion blender on add in 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum. This last addition makes the emulsion stable and gives it the thickness of  salad dressing. An overnight in the refrigerator helps as well.

Salade Nicoise

There are various recipes for Salade Nicoise . It seems like after the tuna, tomatoes, and egg you can throw just about anything on the plate. As you can see along with salad greens my salad contains tomatoes, potatoes, tuna, a hard boiled egg, radishes, and snow peas. As much of a hassle as making salad is, this one is worth the effort!

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🥬 Resend of White beans in broth over toast 2/20/20

Posted on February 20, 2020 by Beebamom

Note: please excuse prior title-only post. I hit the publish key by accident.

This is a great, easy vegan or vegetarian supper. For a vegan version swap in some white miso paste for the parmesan rinds.

I hope everyone is saving their Parmesan rinds because the rinds cooked in the broth give this dish such a great flavor. Just store them in the freezer. I use three small pieces of rind in my broth.

White beans in broth over toast

My version of this dish is based on a recipe by Tejal Rao writing for The NY Times. That recipe is way more complicated than mine since it includes dried beans instead of cannellini beans out of a can.

First saute 1/2 cup of chopped onions and 2 minced garlic cloves in a teaspoon of oil. When the onion is translucent, add 4 cups of vegetable stock and three small pieces of parmesan rind (about 1.5” x 1.5”). Simmer for half an hour. Add one can of cannellini beans, liquid and all. Continue to simmer until the beans are warmed through. Before serving remove the parmesan rinds and add chopped parsley and oregano to the broth. Place a toasted piece of bread that has been scraped with the garlic clove in your soup bowl. Pour the broth and beans over it. Finish with additional herbs, grated parmesan cheese, and your good olive oil. Enjoy!

 

 

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