Linguine with meat sauce. 3/1/19

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Beebamom

I have some leftover marinara sauce from the eggplant Parmesan on Valentine’s Day and I also have the remainder of the package of ground beef that I bought for the hamburgers last night. So I brown the meat hard with plenty of salt and then add the sauce. I let the combination simmer for a while.

Whole grain linguine with meat sauce and Parmesan cheese

John boils up some water and cooks the whole grain linguine until just al dente. He adds it to my sauce and I cook the two together adding some of the pasta water to loosen it up. I love pasta in any form but this is especially good!

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Simply a hamburger and a salad. 2/28/19

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Beebamom

This week’s menu has gone all topsy-turvy but we are actually eating what was originally on it, just on different days. I am glad because tonight and tomorrow night are two of my favorites – hamburgers and pasta.

So for this last day of February the rain has stopped and grilling outside is a possibility. While the grill heats up we have a salad. I have bought a packaged Italian salad mix from Taylor Farms, a brand I like because the dressing is not sweet. It comes with little pieces of salami and cheese. I add some sliced cherry tomatoes.

Italian chopped salad by Taylor Farms (tomatoes added)

John cooks my hamburger to medium which is the way I have been liking it lately. A little mayo underneath to keep the roll from getting soggy and some ketchup on top and a sliced raw onion and, yum, I am totally happy.

Grilled hamburger with sliced onion on a sesame seed bun

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Curry with protein and carrots. 2/27/19

Posted on February 28, 2019 by Beebamom

This curry flavored dish can be made with pork, firm tofu, all vegetables, chickpeas, or as we made it with chicken. While John is at work I do my part – cut up the chicken into bite size pieces, and chop up a medium onion, garlic, a couple of carrots, and ginger.

When he gets home John makes up a curry spice blend and cooks it in some oil/butter until fragrant. He then adds the onions. After they are translucent in go the garlic, ginger, and chicken. Lastly he adds the carrots, a handful of raisins, a cup of rice (we use brown rice) and 2+ cups of stock. It all simmers for 45 minutes or so until the rice is cooked.

Curry with chicken, brown rice, carrots, and raisins

For me it is a little sweet so I add a dollop of yogurt. I think the raisins and carrots make it too sweet but that is just me. Sweet along with savory just does not rock my world. But this is John’s creation and I do not want to be critical. I really appreciate all the cooking he does.

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Bad choice. 2/26/19

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Beebamom

Last night was supposed to be vegetarian taco night. I had it all planned-soft tacos with black beans, charred corn, shredded cabbage and cheese, and salsa. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But John said he didn’t feel like eating my plan so I said what do you want? He said, pizza. Pizza is easy. You just call someone and pizza arrives at your door a short time later. Plus I really like pizza and rarely manage to eat a reasonable portion. So we ordered pizza, I ate too much, and now I feel guilty. Bad choices result in unwanted consequences.

Pizza

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Vegan/vegetarian soup and sandwich. 2/25/19

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Beebamom

This is a no recipe week. We are just eating things that we know how to make. Tonight’s vegan/vegetarian meal is a simple homemade soup and a pita sandwich.

Celery soup is a whole head of roughly chopped celery cooked with a medium onion and a potato (both also roughly chopped) in some stock. In fact I am short on stock tonight so it is mostly water which is well-seasoned with salt, pepper, and whatever herb you have handy. I happen to have thyme in the refrigerator so in it goes. Once the vegetables are soft purée them in a blender, food processor, or with a stick blender. At this point you can add a little cream if you want but it is not necessary. I top my bowl with a few celery leaves and a drizzle of olive oil. You can add a dollop of plain yogurt or not.

Celery soup

For the pita sandwiches I spin a some canned chickpeas which have been rinsed and drained in the food processor for a few pulses with some celery, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I have the food processor out so I may as well use it for both dishes. I stuff my pita with the chickpea mixture, some lettuce, and cherry tomatoes.

Soup and a sandwich. Good for lunch or dinner!

Chunky chickpea spread with lettuce and tomatoes in a whole wheat pita pocket

Posted in Easy, Healthy tips, Legumes, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Weekly menu. 2/25/19

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Beebamom

As usual we did not eat last week’s menu totally according to plan so we have the vegetarian tacos left over for this week and ended up eating the steak on Sunday. Not bad, though, we cooked almost everything we set out to do with just a slip for some takeout on Wednesday. This week coming up is a short week as we are going away for a long weekend. There should be something interesting to report foodwise from our adventures.

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Ribeye steak, baked potato, asparagus. 2/24/19

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Beebamom

John sous vide the steak at 125F and then hit it on the grill for about 3 minutes on each side. We agree this morning that it needed to be a touch more done and he will adjust the water temperature upward on our next steak foray. Nonetheless it was really good. Since we do not eat red meat very often splurging on prime beef from Costco is a pleasure we permit ourselves.

Sous vide and grilled rib eye steak, grilled potato, asparagus

For the potato, I split it in half, score it, and rub it with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder. After 6 minutes in the microwave, John cooks it on the grill with the steak for those nice grill marks. Asparagus was $2.47/lb. this week so I took advantage. I put this in a covered pan with a little water and a pat of butter. They are done when the water evaporates and the butter coats the spears.

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National Margarita Day. 2/22/19

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Beebamom

I bet you did not know that Friday was National Margarita Day. Neither did I until I received a helpful email in my inbox. Never to be ones to pass up an important holiday I called upon my personal mixologist to remedy the situation.

Margarita, Santitas tortilla chips, salsa

John makes an especially potent margarita. It is definitely not for the novice drinker. A long time ago when he was just a fledgling programmer at the dawn of the computer age (actually in the 70’s) we were invited to his boss’s house for a BBQ with some other folks. We were served what we now call the “Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita”.  Earl passed away way too young and we always toast him when we have a reason to make margaritas.

This is a drink best served in your own home where no driving will be involved. Be sure to have plenty of chips and salsa available plus some other hearty fare. Sip slowly. Never have more than one.

The Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita

3 parts tequila, 1 part Triple Sec, 1 part fresh lime juice – Serve over crushed ice. Salt optional

Drink responsibly.

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Spicy Thai eggplant and tofu with basil. 2/21/19

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Beebamom

I think this is the third time we have prepared this Thai dish and each time we are getting a little better at it. The local Thai restaurant that we go to has a really delicious rendition of it. We have not been able to find an exact recipe for it but have found two that are close and have combined them.

Spicy Thai eggplant and tofu with basil

As usual my job is to cut up all the ingredients and make the jasmine rice. I use the Instant Pot for the rice. So quick! First John cooks the tofu, then the eggplant. The onions, peppers, Serrano chiles, and garlic go in next and then the sauce which is thickened with cornstarch. The Thai basil goes on last.

We are still trying to find the right combination of fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and brown sugar. We keep cutting down on the fish sauce because it is too fishy. Also the vegetables were in the sauce a little too long and picked up a boiled taste and texture. But we are getting closer. The tofu and eggplant came out perfectly!

You would simply have to remove the fish sauce to make this a vegan or vegetarian dish. There are recipes on the internet for a vegan fish sauce substitute.

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Great pasta fagioli. 2/19/19

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Beebamom

Wow, did this turn out well! Our daughter who always looks askance at anything we cook gave it an A+. We followed Giada De Laurentiis’s recipe tweaking it to make it our own (and better!) While our recipe is for omnivores, this can easily be translated into a vegetarian recipe by using vegetable stock and by substituting a parmesan rind in the stock in place of the pancetta.

Pasta fagioli

As you can see I always write all over my recipes with changes I’ve made or how I might improve this dish the next time I make. The changes we make to Giada’s recipe are:

4 ounces of pancetta instead of 3, 1/2 water and 1/2 stock, 1 can of cannellini beans and 1 can reed kidney beans, ditalini instead of elbow macaroni, the addition of 1/2 cup diced carrots and 1/2 cup diced celery and 1 T tomato paste. When it came to purée the beans we took out 1 cup of white beans for the pureeing so that the soup would not look pink.

You should try this. It is so good especially with a drizzle of good olive oil and some parmesan cheese as garnish.

Posted in Italian, Kitchen tips, Legumes, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , | Leave a comment