Fishawarma. 10/19/19

Posted on October 20, 2019 by Beebamom

This combination of Chilean sea bass with the spices of the Roasted Chicken Shawarma that I made about 10 days ago turned out delicious! John marinated the fish briefly in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon and red pepper flakes. Instead of lemon juice he used lemon zest so the fish would not cook in the acid. The lemon juice he added to the part of the marinade that the vegetables, red onion, tomatoes, and broccoli, cooked in.

The vegetables started first on a sheet pan in a 425F oven. After about 15 minutes we added the fish for another 12 minutes. When the fish was done everything came out. The broccoli got a bit over-roasted but the sea bass, tomatoes, and red onion were wonderful. Yay for fishawarma!

Fish in shawarma spices =
Fishawarma!

 

 

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Chicken chili. 10/18/19

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Beebamom

This week instead of making up a menu and assigning a different meal to each day, I merely made a menu with seven different meals. This way I had an idea of what I needed to shop for but the freedom to choose whatever meal I felt like for that day. It seems to be working out since I have pretty much stuck to my proposed meals.

On Friday we made chicken chili using up some leftovers we had in the fridge such as half a can of fat free refried beans and part of a jar of salsa verde.  Now we have a whole new set of leftovers! There are containers of basmati rice and chili as well as part of a rotisserie chicken. I’ll have to encourage John to be inventive with his breakfasts and lunches!

Chicken chili

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Shrimp biryani. 10/17/19

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Beebamom

The recipe I followed for this was supposed to be totally an Instant Pot meal. But when we tried it all in the Instant Pot the shrimp was totally overcooked. So we made this dish in two pots – the Instant Pot for the rice and vegetables and a saute pan for the shrimp.

This is a semi-spicy dish with lots of complex flavors from the variety of spices. We added zucchini this time to make it more vegetable forward.

Shrimp biryani

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Red lentils with ginger. 10/16/19

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Beebamom

So easy, so quick, so healthy, so delicious! Fresh ginger, onions, and garlic. Turmeric, cumin, cayenne. Sauté in a little oil. Add stock and red lentils. Cook 15 minutes. Top with yogurt and sumac. Yum!

Note: For vegan dish omit yogurt and feta.

Red lentils with ginger, Mediterranean salad, pita

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Linguine with green tomato sauce. 10/14/19

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Beebamom

Note: For a vegan dish omit parmesan cheese

This dinner featured a pasta sauce that I made in August from some fully ripe green tomatoes. Our daughter had two Aunt Ruby’s German Green tomato plants at her plot in the community garden and for a while we were awash in green tomatoes. I cooked several of them down with garlic and onion and made this sauce. It started out brilliant green but the cooking turned the color to this khaki green color. But it really tasted of tomatoes fresh from the garden.

I heated the sauce up and John boiled the linguine. We put the linguine into the sauce and cooked it together.  Be sure to liberally salt your pasta water. It makes al the difference. We finished our plates with a dusting of Parmesan cheese.

WW points – 12

Linguine with green tomato sauce

I have been on my diet now for a month. Every night you have seen exactly what I eat. I also eat breakfast and lunch and have popcorn as a pre-dinner snack every day. I have lost almost 10.5 pounds. Go, me!

 

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Easy sandwich and a side dinner. 10/13/19

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Beebamom

We have been having a lot of easy dinners lately. Probably I just need a breather from all the cooking. However, even though this was just a sandwich and a side I did make both the tuna salad and the cole slaw. I put the tuna salad on rye bread and covered it with an ultra then slice of cheddar cheese. John grilled it in our cast iron frying pan pressing it down so it came out panini-style. The cole slaw was made from cabbage, carrorts, and onions. The dressing consisted mainly of some light mayo, some non-fat plain yogurt, mustard, lemon juice, and celery seed.

WW points -7

Tuna melt, cole slaw and pickles with iced tea

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All-week Soup 10/12/19

Posted on October 13, 2019 by Beebamom

Back at the beginning of the week I made what I called a last salute to summer-fresh vegetables with garbanzo beans and soup pasta. We had quite a bit leftover so during the week John ate it for lunch a couple of times. Yesterday there was about an inch left in the bottom, mostly vegetables.

Also during the week for lunch I made my famous null soup. It’s a soup that has no points on the WW scale back in the days when most foods carried points. I eat it to get filled up. There was maybe an inch of that left too.

Add those two soups together. Add a little vegetable or chicken stock, the three pieces of deli ham moldering in the cold cut drawer, and a teaspoon of harissa and it’s another whole dinner! The combination was more than the sum of its parts.

All-week soup

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Chicken shawarma? 10/11/19

Posted on October 12, 2019 by Beebamom

I got this recipe for oven roasted chicken shawarma from the NYTimes Cooking site. If you have a subscription you can look it up. The chicken is marinated for an hour or so in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon and red pepper flakes and then baked on a sheet pan with red onions and I added tomatoes. The recipe calls for chicken thighs but because of my diet I used a chicken breast.

It is shawarma? No idea. I should have sliced it up to look more authentic but I was in a hurry to get dinner on the table. It definitely is tasty, especially the vegetables. I can see doing this recipe with firm white fish or maybe tofu. I served it with parsley, crumbled feta, and pita, plus harissa for some hot spice and some tzatziki to cool it down.

WW- 5 points if you use chicken breast and cut the olive oil down to one teaspoon per person

Oven roasted chicken shawarma with pita, parsley, harissa and tzatziki

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Mushroom burgers. 10/10/19

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Beebamom

Some good grilling from John tonight. After marinating the portobello mushrooms in some of our lo-cal dressing, salt, pepper and olive oil spray, he put them on the grill for about eight minutes on each side. I made broccoli salad with a sweet, celery seed dressing and we were good to go.

Portobello mushroom burger with caramelized onions, tomato slices, feta cheese, and spinach served with broccoli salad

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Dinner ideas. 10/9/19

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Beebamom

Here are a couple of dinner ideas from the past week.

The first picture is of chicken chili. I used my version (lower in fat) of the Neelys from Food Network’s recipe. One thing that I discovered is that using fat free refried beans makes a great thickener.

Chicken chili

We also had a last fling of summer vegetables. Carrots, celery, onions, zucchini, kale, and tomatoes make this homey stew of garbanzo beans and pasta super inviting.

Vegetable, pasta, and bean stew

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