Red lentils and salad. 3/18/19

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Beebamom

I make this as a vegetarian dish by adding some dairy toppings. For a vegan dish omit the garnishes.

We start our dinner tonight with a Greek salad embellished with leftover tabbouleh and thinly sliced cucumber. The cheese on top is cotija, a salty Mexican cheese. It is standing in for feta. We have a hunk of it left from chicken enchiladas last week.

Greek salad with tabbouleh, cucumbers, and cotija cheese

Our main course is red lentils cooked in the Afghani style. I love how red lentils come out of their package as a pale salmon-y color and turn a vibrant yellow when you cook them. Afghani style lentils are cooked in a soupy mixture of vegetable broth, onions, garlic, ginger, and spices. It only takes about 15 minutes to cook. I serve it with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, a sprinkling of sumac, and pita.

Afghani red lentils with sumac, sour cream, and pita.

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St. Patrick’s Day Chili. 3/17/19

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Beebamom

Chili with chicken, cannellini beans, and poblano chiles

This is a quick chili that you can make with rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. It features white beans, poblano and jalapeño peppers, and plenty of lime. At our house we manage to eat the whole pot although that was not my original intention but John eats a couple of bowls and our daughter decides to have some too. There are no complaints. Follow the “chili” link above for the recipe.

 

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Weekly menu. 3/17/19

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Beebamom

A Persian New Year this week plus a couple of Italian dishes, our daugter’s birthday, and babysitting for the grandkids. Whew, seems like a busy week!

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Steak, grilled potato, asparagus. 3/16/19

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Beebamom

John sous vides the steak at 128F and then hits on the grill on both sides briefly. I cut a baking potato in half and microwave it. Then I rub it with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. John also grills the potato. The asparagus steams briefly. I make a sauce of mint, garlic, and onion in some butter to drizzle over everything.

Grilled ribeye steak cap, grilled baking potato, and asparagus with a mint, garlic, and onion butter sauce

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Ides of March vegan fare. 3/15/19

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Beebamom

Our daughter suggested I should carry on our silly themes by making an Ides of March Caesar salad and stick a knife in it. Pretty literal, I would say. I should have thought of these obscure not-quite-holidays when I was planning out everything last Sunday. But I have ingredients in the house and I must get back to the menu so I won’t be “killing” a Caesar salad. Et tu, Brute.

Tonight’s dinner of hummus, pita, and Lebanese tabbouleh is pretty easy although making the tabbouleh does involve soaking the bulgur wheat and using the food processor. I really like this parsley forward recipe for the tabbouleh. Unfortunately it is from the NYT Cooking site which is behind a pay wall. The hummus is Sahara brand. I add a little good olive oil and some sumac to it.

Hummus with pita and Lebanese tabbouleh

On Sunday for St. Patrick’s Day I am planning on chicken chili. I’ll put some green serrano  and poblano chiles in it for some Irish flair!

Posted in Easy, Grains, Legumes, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Pi Day. 3.14

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Beebamom

Since I did not happen to think about it when I was planning out the menu, I am taking a minor deviation from the plan to present our silliness on Pi Day.

Pepperoni pizza for Pi Day

This is a very difficult dinner (NOT)! Buy some pepperoni, call your local pizza place and order a cheese pizza for delivery, warm up the pepperoni, and put it on the pizza in the shape of pi. Important next step-before eating spread the pepperoni out so that everyone gets two to three pieces on their slice!

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Chicken enchiladas. 3/13/19

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Beebamom

Chicken enchiladas

Obviously this needs work. John says he loves chicken enchiladas and I see this recipe on the NYTimes cooking site that looks easy so I give it a go. It tastes okay but it needs more spice and more sauce. We also need to improve our tortilla cooking technique.

For the chicken I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store which, because it is warm, shreds easily. I also use a jar of salsa verde. I am sure that if I had made my own salsa verde it would have been better. I have only tried once many years ago to make something that had tomatillos in it and it was a total failure. So I am not so keen on making my own sauce.

The tortillas need to be cooked in oil because otherwise they disintegrate when it bakes according to notes appended to the recipe. Our tortillas were either too cooked and do not want to bend or just a soggy mess. We will have to think about how to do that better.

That all having been said it doesn’t taste bad and even our daughter ate two of them. John just said to me that he thinks they were good but we can make them great in the future. I am out so sure about that but I am willing to give it another go maybe with a different recipe.

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Roasted cod with chickpea purée and asparagus. 3/12/19

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Beebamom

This morning we went to Whole Foods where there was a sale on fresh Atlantic cod for $8.95 a pound. Combine that with the Amazon discount and we bought enough cod for dinner plus 2 bananas for $7.95.  What a deal!

John marinates the fish in some lemon zest, olive oil, bay leaves, rosemary, salt, paprika, and garlic powder for about a half an hour and then bakes it to perfect doneness in about 12 minutes in a 400F oven.

Baked cod with chickpea purée and asparagus

I make some chickpea purée by whizzing up a can of chickpeas (rinsed and drained) with a little olive oil, lemon juice, water, garlic, salt and pepper. The purée is then warmed up (no boiling!) on a low flame.

In another buy of the week asparagus is $1.99 so I buy a bundle and use half tonight and save half for our steak dinner over the weekend. I cut it up so it looks like more and steam it quickly.

This dinner is elegant enough for company but is quick enough to prepare for a weeknight dinner!

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Whole wheat linguine with meat sauce. 3/11/19

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Beebamom

We start off our dinner with a pre-made Italian salad from Turner Farms. I add some cherry tomatoes and extend the dressing with a little extra oil and vinegar. We are trying to eat salads or soups as a first course to cut down on pre-dinner snacking and the portion size of our main course.

Italian salad

I decide to take a shortcut and just doctor up some jarred spaghetti sauce – my mistake! The jarred sauce makes  the resulting sauce too sweet for my palate! And, seriously, after browning the meat, chopping up and sautéing the onions, red bell peppers, and garlic plus picking some fresh oregano and adding red wine and tomato paste, what kind of shortcut am I taking?! The sauce would have ended up tasting a lot better if I had just added a couple of cans of tomatoes and let it cook down. Lesson learned!

Whole wheat linguine with meat sauce

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Fried scallops with confetti rice, broccoli. 3/10/19

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Beebamom

We try something different with the breading on the fried scallops. I suggest we try fresh breadcrumbs instead of panko breadcrumbs. I also suggest we try shallow frying but I do not win on that one. I am not the animal protein cooker and I should just mind my own vegetable business. Anyway I figure using fresh breadcrumbs will mean fewer calories and carbs on the breading as well as a more delicate crunch.

While John is dealing with the scallops I take out the leftover rice from yesterday and cook it in a frying pan. I am trying to achieve the soccarat on the bottom of the rice that John likes so much. I think I achieve some crustiness and while the rice is cooking I steam some broccoli on top. One pan cooking!

Confetti rice achieving soccarat with steamed broccoli on top

The scallops get dark way faster with the fresh breadcrumbs and although they look a bit dark, they are cooked perfectly inside.

Fried scallops with rice and broccoli

Today for breakfast John made congee with the last bit of the confetti rice so no more rice reappearing this week!

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