Pasta with tuna, snow peas, and parsley. 6/8/19

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Beebamom

Today, for my half birthday celebration (what? you don’t celebrate your half birthdays?!) I made campanelle with a lot of snow peas and parsley plus a can of tuna. I sautéed a little onion and garlic and then, when the pasta was ready, I added it along with the tuna, parsley, and snow peas to the onions and garlic. The heat of the pasta warmed up the veg and tuna. The sauce was basically just some pasta water and EVOO. It probably could have benefited from a little acid like some lemon juice or a handful of cherry tomatoes. I will have to remember that for next time.

P.S. Always de-string your snow peas or they will be unpleasant to eat!

Campanelle with tuna, snow peas, and parsley

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Working with take-out. 6/7/19

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Beebamom

Apparently I have thrown my menu out the window. Being short of prep time yesterday, I froze the chicken we were supposed to have and John ran out to the store to pick up something pre-prepared. He chose ribs, potato salad, and cole slaw. I was thinking of just not posting these two days due to embarrassment over what we have consumed. But this blog is supposed to be “It’s what I eat!” So here it is.

We ate some of ribs and salads on Thursday and the rest of it  on Friday. Since there was only a tiny bit of coleslaw left, I augmented it tonight with more cabbage, onions, mayo, vinegar, and celery seed. Seriously there was a time when we would have polished the whole thing off in one night. I think eating it over two days shows personal growth!

St. Louis style ribs with potato salad and coleslaw

Now we have a ton of veg left in the refrigerator that has gone uneaten. So I imagine this will be a fairly vegetable intensive weekend.

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New vegan recipe! Chana Dal with brown rice, tabbouleh, and pita

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Beebamom

New recipe tonight! Chana dal is a stew made from split chickpeas seasoned with cumin seeds, chili powder, turmeric, and tomatoes. This is a snap to make with your Instant Pot. I found this super easy recipe at Piping Pot Curry. I paired the Chana dal with brown rice that I also made in the Instant Pot. Use twice, wash once!

I had lunch with our daughter at a new Mediterranean place and got a big plateful of falafel, hummus with pita, and tabbouleh. It was way too much for one person to eat so I took most of it home and repurposed the tabbouleh and the pita for tonight’s dinner. John and daughter munched up the rest of my lunch plate before dinner!

My enormous lunch of falafel, hummus with pita, and tabbouleh

After the split chickpeas have a 30 minute soak, they cook in the Instant Pot under high pressure for 15 minutes and then a natural cool down which took about 20 minutes.  But it is totally hands off once you get the onions, garlic, and ginger sautéed. The turmeric gives it a nice yellow color.

Chana dal with brown rice, tabbouleh, and pita

So I had a totally vegan day and enjoyed cooking this meal while John was at work. I hope it balances out the steak from yesterday!

Posted in Easy, Grains, Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, Mediterranean, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sous vide ribeye steak, grilled potato, broccoli and fava beans. 6/4/19

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Beebamom

Today’s division of labor was like every other day, John cooks meat and grills and I do vegetable prep and cooking. John gave the steak a 2 hour immersion circulator bath at 130F and then seared the steak on the grill along with the Russet potato that I seasoned and cooked inside and then had him put some grill marks on. The broccoli was cooked in a little water and finished with some of our daughter’s wonderful fava beans and butter.

A note about broccoli – if you peel or cut off the outer layer of stem the inside is totally edible. Don’t throw away good broccoli or shy away from buying stalks as opposed to crowns. Usually the whole stalks are much more economical.

Broccoli florets and stems

This was a really good dinner with which we opened a very nice bottle of red wine. No reason not to celebrate a Tuesday. (Especially when Roger Federer won his match against Stan Wawrinka. Federer is an amazing tennis player especially for someone so old. 37!! LOL) This was too filling for me, though, and I ended up giving half my meat and potato to John.

Steak, grilled potato, and broccoli with fava beans

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BFD (Breakfast for Dinner). 6/3/19

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Beebamom

Today we had a little outing to Sonoma County Wine Country which is about one and a half hours away. Our plan is to pick up our wine club selections and treat ourselves to a nice lunch. There are not very many restaurants in the area and we choose to go to Salt and Stone, a restaurant we have been to once before. I order bouillabaisse. It has salmon, mussels, scallops, shrimp, and calamari in it. Toast with roue tops the dish. It is pretty good although I don’t think I will order it again. I let John mop up the broth with the bread.

Bouillabaisse

So for dinner we are not planning on eating too much. An easy dinner is breakfast for dinner. I make myself a couple of scrambled eggs and put them on an English muffin. I also prepare a vegetarian sausage and split it horizontally so there is a half for each muffin. This is actually quite a filling dinner for less than 400 calories.

Scrambled eggs on an English muffin with a vegetarian sausage

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Weekly Menu. 6/2/19

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Beebamom

Since our Sunday dinner was frozen eggplant Parmesan (again? They come in packs of two at Costco!), I am just offering up a menu for the week. Hopefully we will be able to stick to it. Since we are going up to Sonoma Wine Country on Monday and eating lunch out, Monday dinner will be BFD (breakfast for dinner.) On Wednesday I’ll be trying something new, Chana Dal. It is like lentil dal it made with split chickpeas. I think I will have to shop at an Indian grocery! And on Friday I’ll use my plan-ahead spaghetti sauce that is in the freezer.

Happy Week!

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Home grown. 6/1/19

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Beebamom

Last night’s dinner was all leftovers, a veritable smorgasbord of American, Italian, and Mexican delights from this week.  Since I have nothing new to say about what I have cooked I thought I would show what is going on with our backyard produce.

First, here is an overall look at what we have to work with, almost no space and no sun to speak of.

No space and no sun for growing much

So we can only grow plants which are happy in the shade or spend the day moving plants around trying to find a patch of sun. I have an Early Girl tomato plant and a pot of basil and one of parsley that get the move-around treatment. I have another tomato plant which is planted in the ground. You can see the difference.

Tomato plant on wheels

Sad tomato plant that doesn’t get much sun (also bumper crop of oregano)

Some of my Early Girl tomatoes are beginning to ripen which is very exciting. Most of the tomatoes we will get this summer will come from our daughter’s plot in the Community Garden.

Ripening Early Girl tomato

Daughter’s Community Garden plot – tomato plants in the cages, fava beans along the left side, some peppers in the middle, and clumps of poppies, the California state flower

Another view of her garden – amazing what good soil and sun will do! All her plants were started from seeds.

Other things we grow in our little backyard are chives, thyme, mint, basil, parsley, and oranges.

Chives, mint, and thyme

Basil in a pot keeps the slugs away

Tiny oranges, the most we have ever had is two

Around the corner in the backyard I have a 25 year old rose bush which we cannot see from the house or when we are in the backyard, unfortunately. But it makes it easier to cut the flowers and bring them into the house.

Rose bush, Don Juan

So that is a tour of our little backyard, nice to sit in but hard to grow anything in. Our front yard is in the shade as well with just a little sun first thing in the morning. It is a joy, though, to go outside and pick fresh herbs and I cannot wait to taste my first tomato!

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Skirt steak fajitas. 5/31/19

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Beebamom

John and I went back and forth over whether we would be making tacos (me) or fajitas (John).  In the end we decided on fajitas since we have not had them recently. We found a recipe for fajita seasoning (there are plenty on the internet) which tasted non-standard to me. I think it was because it had Worcestershire sauce in it. I am more a fan of the McCormack packet flavor.  As usual I cooked the vegetables (onions and bell peppers) and John cooked the meat and we served the fajitas with some cilantro, lime, and a dollop of sour cream.

Skirt steak fajitas

When serving it is important to remember to cut the skirt steak against the grain. Otherwise it will be tough. John cut the long strip of skirt steak into four pieces of about 5 inches and then  I cut them into strips against the grain after they were cooked.

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Sweet Italian sausage with polenta and salad. 5/30/19

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Beebamom

I started out by cutting the onions and bell peppers for tonight’s dinner plus enough for use in the fajitas we are having tomorrow night – two birds with one stone! Next I prepared the vegetables for the salad. I have a small hand-held mandoline  that I have started using for these tasks which makes the prep easy and the slices consistent.

Oxo hand-held mandoline

So along with my salad greens I had tomatoes, scallions, cucumber, radishes, and mushrooms. Definitely a pretty salad makes it more appealing.

Green salad with garnish

John started the sausages in a little water and then when they were cooked through and the water had evaporated, he browned them. He was also in charge of the polenta which he makes with a ratio of 5 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup polenta, a little olive oil, and fresh oregano. The high ratio of water to polenta makes it super creamy.

Sweet Italian sausage, bell peppers, and onions on creamy polenta with crisp tossed salad

As usual, working together, John and I made a delicious dinner in almost no time at all!

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Instant Pot rice biryani with shrimp. 5/29/19

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Beebamom

Before discussing our dinner, here is an update on our daughter’s plot in the community garden. With the exception of a few tiny strawberries this is the first harvest, fava beans! She and I shucked a bagful out of their large cottony pods which is the first step with fava beans.

Shucked fava beans

Next step is to blanch the beans so you can remove the outer shell.  You end up with a tender, bright green bean. We ate a bunch of them newly peeled with a little salt. They were delicious. She says I can use some of the remaining beans so maybe I will put them in a salad on Thursday.

Unpeeled fava beans on the left and bright green peeled ones on the right

For dinner we made shrimp biryani by making the rice with its tomatoes and seasonings in the Instant Pot set on the rice setting and cooking seasoned shrimp separately on the stove top. We have tried putting the shrimp in the Instant Pot with the rice but the pressure cooking is too much for them and they come out overcooked. It means we dirty an extra pan but the results are much better.

Shrimp biryani with basil garnish

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