Always in the top ten meals at our house. 6/26/19

Posted on June 27, 2019 by Beebamom

What is my favorite thing to make and eat? It might be eggplant parmesan or maybe fried scallops. I really liked the gazpacho and avocado toast I made last week. But for ease of preparation and comfort whole wheat spaghetti with a ground beef ragu is near the top. The last time I made the sauce I made a large batch and froze four containers of it. So last night’s meal prep consisted of defrosting and heating up the sauce and boiling water for the pasta.

No doubt it is possible to screw this up. You could forget to salt the pasta water or overcook the spaghetti. Luckily none of that happened last night. And it was so good!

Whole wheat spaghetti with ground beef and tomato ragu

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Oops.

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Beebamom

Did the links incorrectly on my previous post so they are not working. In any case the two dinners I referred to are Chilling and Grilling  and Clam Chowder on Toast.

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More vegan summer fare. 6/25/19

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Beebamom

I am a little late getting this posted today. My daughter and I spent the morning and early afternoon buying supplies for our Summer Solstice (Christmas in June) celebration.

On Tuesday we had such a tasty summer vegan meal. I had some vegetables left over from clam chowder on toast night and the lamb chop and tabbouleh dinner and turned the potato, leek, and parsley into a green vichyssoise (that’s cold potato and leek soup with parsley.) I cooked the three ingredients in some olive oil and vegetable stock and liquified the results in the blender. After some chill time in the refrigerator it was ready for dinner garnished with our “good” olive oil and some basil.

Cold potato, leek, and parsley soup

With our soup we had crostini fresh from the garden. I topped our toasts with my first tomato from my Early Girl tomato plant and some of my daughter’s golden cherry tomatoes from her plot at the Community Garden. In addition the basil was from the pot I have sitting on our patio.  The onions were from the grocery store along with the garlic that I rubbed on the toast. A drizzle of olive oil, some salt and it was perfect.

Summer crostini

I am really enjoying making these cold summer soups. I will definitely have to find a new one for next week!

 

Posted in Easy, French, Italian, leftovers, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Southwest salad and a chipotle bean burger. 6/24/19

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Beebamom

We eat our dinner in two courses tonight starting with a vibrant summer-y Southwest salad. I charred some corn kernels and macerated them along with a small dice of onion and cumin in lime juice and olive oil. This would be my dressing over a composed plate of Romaine, avocado, mint, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and radishes – beautiful and tasty!

Summer Southwest salad

John cooked up some frozen Morningstar Chipotle Bean Burgers first by a quick microwaving and then a sear in a hot skillet to give the exterior a little crunch. John eats his with some onion and BBQ sauce while I go the California burger route with ketchup and onion on one side and mayo, lettuce, and tomato on the other.

California style chipotle bean burger

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Weekly menu

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Beebamom

I see that my views are falling off when I cook something that is not vegan or vegetarian.  I want to make more veg dishes but I do have to cater to both John and my dinner desires. This week I have three vegan or vegetarian dishes, one seafood, one chicken, and two meat dishes. In one of the meat dishes, spaghetti with beef ragu, the meat is a bit player. 
*We are having our Christmas, 2018 celebration in June because we were away at Christmas. It’s been a while since the kids have had presents so having summer Christmas is exciting to them.

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Leftovers – Curried rice with chicken and carrots

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Beebamom

The chicken that I bought at Costco is the focus of Saturday’s debate about what to eat for dinner. We still have half of it left. I am not feeling like chicken salad. John is not feeling like chicken with pasta and peanut sauce. We decide on our version of curry.

John sautes the spices while I cut up the onions, garlic, and carrots. In his mix he has some cayenne pepper and fresh ginger for some spiciness as well as curry powder. He adds the rice, carrots, and some raisins for sweetness. I shred up all the chicken dark meat along with part of the white meat. (Curses! We still have left over chicken!) In the last few minutes of cooking we add the chicken and have it warm through.

Okay, dinner is fine but I am chickened out and there is still a bunch left. Now the question is – what are we going to do with the rest of the chicken!? On Sunday I think we will have to have a his and hers dinner. Maybe chicken quesadillas for John and something vegetarian for me. We’ll see.

Curried rice with chicken, raisins, and carrots

Costco rotisserie chicken may be a great buy. But it is too much chicken for the two of us!

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Grilling and chilling

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Beebamom

Here in Northern California our weather runs in 3 to 4 day cycles. We will have a few days of glorious weather with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s and then a heating trend where for 3 or 4 days the highs are in the 90s to 100F with lows in the 60s. Even when it is hot the humidity is low so it is not terribly uncomfortable but I like to keep the house as cool as possible to cut down on the air conditioning. Thus, we had a dinner of grilling and chilling.

The grilling refers to the lamb chops which were sous vide and then grilled outside and the sweet potato which was microwaved and then also grilled. Except for the hot water from the immersion circulator (132.5F) everything stayed pretty cool. For the chilling portion of dinner instead of making a cooked vegetable I opted for a very lemony, minty tabbouleh which paired nicely with the lamb.

Grilled lamb chop with grilled sweet potato and tabbouleh

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Clam chowder on toast. 6/20/19

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Beebamom

John and I tried this new recipe for clam chowder on toast by chef Gabrielle Hamilton and, boy, was it good! The recipe was sort of long and complicated so we used some convenience products and also lightened it up by using less cream. The recipe is from the NYTimes Cooking site which is behind a paywall 😦 .

It is a light cream broth with clams, leeks, celery, onions, and potatoes. She used actual clams and their liquid. We used canned clams, the liquid they were packed in and a bottle of clam juice. The recipe calls for three cups of cream. We cut it to two and some water. It could probably be cut down a little more and some low fat milk added. The recipe calls for guanciale but we had pancetta on hand. Do not add salt until all the ingredients are cooked together or it may end up over-salted.

While John manned the stove, I did the mise en place. Good thing I love to chop things up! Cheat confession, I used a mandoline to slice the leeks.

Mise en place for clam chowder

When the soup is finished you serve it over a piece of hearty toast. This is so not like the gloppy, thick New England clam chowder you are probably familiar with. It is light but creamy with the flavor of the vegetables and clams coming through.

Clam chowder on toast (the veg that looks like sauerkraut are leeks)

We started cooking around 6 PM and had dinner shortly after 7 PM. Around 7:30 our daughter started in on her dinner preparations. Our kitchen is a busy place! She made her own dreamt up recipe of elbow macaroni with ground pork, gorgonzola, berbere, and fava beans. John did not finish cleaning up the kitchen until 10:30PM! New plan as of tomorrow – Start dinner prep earlier!

Daughter’s mac ‘n cheese – macaroni, ground pork, Gorgonzola, berbere, and home-grown fava beans

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Chicken enchiladas with spicy black beans. 6/19/19

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Beebamom

I am really enjoying making and eating the meals we selected for this week. Each day is so different from the other and the dishes have been easy to prepare and delicious!

On Wednesday we went to Costco and in addition to refurbishing ourselves with paper towels and garbanzo beans, we bought one of their large, inexpensive rotisserie chickens. Upon getting it home I disassembled half the chicken and shredded the meat. This is always more easily done when the chicken is still warm.

Later when John and I were assembling the enchiladas, all I had to do was mix my shredded chicken with some some Herdez salsa verde, cilantro, and a bit of cheese and roll them up in the tortillas that John had given a quick bath in hot vegetable oil to make them pliable. I spread some more sauce and feta cheese over the top and baked them for 15-20 minutes at 375F.

Chicken enchiladas with spicy black beans

The spicy black beans are just a can of black beans mixed with half a can of Rotele, some cilantro, cumin, and hot sauce. I served them on a Romaine leaf to make it look extra fancy.

We made ten. I had two, John ate a bunch of them and our daughter stopped by the kitchen later and had two so there are only two left which I imagine will be John’s lunch today!

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Vegan Tuesday: Gazpacho and avocado toast. 6/18/19

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Beebamom

Weather forecast on Tuesday was for warm-ish weather so I thought, cool-ish dinner. This no-cooking dinner with a spicy gazpacho and a creamy avocado toast hit the spot.

My gazpacho contains a 14 oz. can of tomatoes and a little over a pound of fresh, cored tomatoes (I leave the seeds and skin on), 6 inches of seeded cucumber, a whole seeded poblano pepper, 2 cloves of garlic, half an onion, 1 1/2 T sherry vinegar, and 1/3 cup olive oil. Season with a teaspoon of kosher salt. Whiz it up in the blender. Taste. Adjust salt and add part of a jalapeño for back of the throat spiciness and several shakes of hot sauce for front of the mouth spiciness. Blend and taste again. Adjust again if needed. Refrigerate until dinner. You might want to spin it once more before serving.

Gazpacho chilling in the refrigerator

This was my first go at avocado toast which has been trendy for a while. It is so simple. Here is what I did. Toast “good” bread. Scrape toast with garlic clove. Put mashed up avocado on top. The garnish is up to you. I added some scallion, fava beans, and basil. A drizzle of olive oil might be good although the avocado is full of good oils itself.

Gazpacho and avocado toast with fava beans

Wow, talk about easy, colorful, super healthy, and delicious! I think I will plan at least one meal a week based on a cold soup and a bruschetta of some sort during the summer!

Posted in Easy, Kitchen tips, Legumes, Mediterranean, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment