🐟🐓 Trying to lose weight while vacationing? 2/12/20

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Beebamom

If you are trying to lose weight while vacationing, you probably should not be vacationing. What I always aim for is to try not to gain weight. This goal is doable if you are aware of what your choices will be ahead of time and make the best choice. These days we have an advantage since most menus are on line. You will still get sabotaged sometimes but you will not be total undermined.

I have lost 27 pounds since I started on my weight loss campaign in mid-September. During that time I have been on a two week cruise, had my sister come for a week’s visit, spent five days with my best friend in San Antonio, and celebrated Christmas and my birthday. So I am pretty pleased with myself.

John and I are on a little road trip currently. Here are a couple of good choices I have made.

A bowl of chicken pho. I found a Vietnamese restaurant in Albany, OR on Yelp while riding along in the car.

Seafood is usually a good choice. All I had to do is not eat all of the giant pile of rice! (And try to avoid the sauce)

Granted this is a fried dish but it is lightly breaded razor clams, a delicacy that you can only get during their short season. Also green beans, and the potatoes that I only ate part of.

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đŸ€ Shrimp, rice, and broccoli with oyster sauce. 2/7/20

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Beebamom

Friday was my last cooked meal for the week. On Saturday we are going out to dinner to celebrate our son’s birthday and on Sunday is our usual, “breakfast for dinner.” Next week John and I are going on a little road trip up to the Pacific Northwest—Portland, Oregon to be exact. I will try to post a couple of dinners. I am hoping for razor clams!

But back to Friday and we had some sautéed shrimp, rice, and broccoli. I made the oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and a pinch of sugar concoction that I made for the bok choy a week or so ago.  It went well with the rice and broccoli and even the shrimp!

Shrimp, rice, and broccoli with an oyster/soy sauce

Posted in American, Easy, rice, Shellfish, Vegetables | Leave a comment

🐓 Chicken cacciatore. 2/6/20

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Beebamom

Chicken cacciatore means chicken “hunter style.” The chicken is usually braised with onions, herbs, tomatoes, and bell peppers. The other day I bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco so the chicken part was already cooked and we just heated it up in the oven slowly so it would not dry out.  While that was going on I made the “hunter” sauce. Because I wanted to make the dish more filling i.e., more vegetables, less meat, I used pearl onions (frozen), peppedew peppers, garlic, fennel, bell pepper, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, fresh oregano, and chicken stock. The whole thing bubbled together for about fifteen minutes. I served this with a little rice and the warmed chicken breast. Even though I pared down the calories, it was still very good.

Note: Sometimes you can find peppedew peppers in a store’s salad bar. They add a sweet, pickled flavor to the dish.

Chicken cacciatore served over rice

 

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đŸ„Ź Red lentils with rice and salad. 2/5/20

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Beebamom

Red lentils are quick to prepare and delicious to eat! After sautéing onions, garlic, and ginger you add spices and stock. Then you add the picked over and rinsed lentils. Bring the pot to a boil and in 15 minutes your dish is cooked. All that is left to do is to add lemon juice, correct the seasoning if needed, and serve with a dollop of yogurt. (Omit dairy yogurt for a vegan version.) We made some rice and a salad to go along but having pita with the lentils is good too and even less work!

Red lentils with rice and salad

Posted in Afghan, Easy, Legumes, Mediterranean, rice, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , | 3 Comments

🐟 Insulated fish with collards and corn. 2/4/20

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Beebamom

What is that thing that looks like an ice cream sandwich doing on a plate with collard greens you might ask! The ice cream sandwich is a piece of Chilean sea bass sandwiched between coatings of mushroom duxelles. And it is delicious! John whizzed up some cremini mushrooms, carrot, onion, parsley, and breadcrumbs in the food processor to almost a paste and then cooked it to drive the excess water out. Next he divided the mushroom mixture into four portions and coated it on the top and bottom of two pieces of fish. This “insulation” keeps the fish from drying out during its bake in the oven.

My contribution to dinner was smaller. I chiffonaded some collard greens and quick sautéed them in olive oil with corn , garlic slices, a pinch of sugar, salt, and a splash of rice vinegar.

This was a terrific meal which was enhanced by a bottle of Stonestreet Upper Barn Chardonnay—truly a Tuesday dinner worth remembering.

Insulated Chilean sea bass with collard greens and corn

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đŸ„Ź Pinto bean and vegetable stew over rice. 2/3/20

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Beebamom

First, I missed posting our Sunday dinner because I was busy getting another blog I have up to date. Sunday’s dinner is our usual BFD or breakfast for dinner. It is the one night of the week where I don’t have to think much about meal prep. I make a breakfast that I like and John makes one that he likes and it is all sort of minimalist. This Sunday I made a bonus salad since I had an avocado that needed using.

Green salad with tomatoes, pepitas, and avocado

My BDF consisted of two eggs scrambled, a veggie breakfast patty, and toast. John made himself an omelet which I never saw since a lot of times he will eat a quick dinner like this standing up in the kitchen.

Scrambled eggs, veggie patty, and toast

Now on to the main event for Meatless Monday. Originally we were going to have a chickpea stew but I am bored with that and I wanted to use up some leftover rice from last week. My first thought was to use cannellini beans but I apparently ate the last can we had in three of my lunches last week. My bad.

So I switched to pinto beans with a bunch of sautéed vegetables, some vegetable stock, and   a half container of spinach and arugula. It actually came out quite well! The beans thickened up the stock, the vegetables were just cooked through, and there was a sweetness from the carrots which balanced nicely with the bitterness of the arugula. My no-recipe recipe turned out really well and I am sure I will make this again.

Pinto bean stew over rice

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Weekly menu. 2/2-8/20

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Beebamom

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🐓 Chicken Monday on a Saturday night. 2/1/20

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Beebamom

Even when the children were small, Monday dinners were known as chicken Monday. As my daughter grew up I let her choose what spices would go on the chicken. One time we had “Chicken with 17 Spices.” Now she doesn’t eat with us often because our food is too boring. She makes wild concoctions of pasta, sausage, and blue cheese crumbles which smell awfully good but do not fit into our healthy eating plan. (BTW I have lost over 25lbs! So here is our dearly beloved, boring Chicken Monday on a Saturday. It is a pan roasted chicken breast, rutabagas made in the Instant Pot mashed with a little bit of light Canola oil butter, and broccoli.

Pan roasted chicken breast, mashed rutabagas, broccoli

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⚓ Seared scallops. 1/31/20

Posted on February 1, 2020 by Beebamom

Scallops are my favorite protein. We get the scallops at Costco where they are reasonably priced, flash frozen, and packed with no chemicals. John defrosts them ten at a time and sears them in our cast iron frying pan. I make new potatoes, a mixed vegetable of snow peas, carrots, and celery, plus tartar sauce. This dinner makes an ordinary day an occasion!

Scallops, new potatoes, mixed vegetables

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🐂 Tex-Mex-Grex. 1/30/20

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Beebamom

A few weeks ago we bought a flank steak and used half of it grilled. Tonight with the other half we made steak fajitas. This entree was accompanied by a salad. Our daughter came into the kitchen and said, “Why are you having a Greek salad with TexMex?” And so Tex-Mex-Grex was born.

Greek salad

John made some fajita seasoning and rubbed the steak with it and also gave me some to season the onion, bell pepper, and jalapeño. While he grilled the steak, I sautéed the vegetables and made the Greek salad. We charred the tortillas and it was time to eat.

Steak fajitas with Greek salad

Posted in American, Beef, Grilling, Mexican, omnivore, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment