A favorite. 11/4/18

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Beebamom

Whenever our son comes to visit he always requests his favorite. Surprisingly I do not recall making this for him when he was a kid.  This dish is actually just some of his favorite things – meatballs, noodles, gravy, and green beans. As usual we buy the frozen meatballs and jarred savory beef gravy. We add some red wine to the gravy to thin it out a bit. I have decided that the next time I make this for him I am making my own meatballs. I think it will make his favorite dish even more favorite.

Meatballs, gravy, noodles, and green beans

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Lasagna! 11/3/18

Posted on November 4, 2018 by Beebamom

 I do not make lasagna often but our son is arriving today for a week’s vacation and I want to make something that I can get most of the prep done ahead and then just pop it in the oven when we know what time we want to eat.

Lasagna

Gosh, doesn’t that look good! I use the Walmart brand of no-boil noodles and they work out fine. I had some frozen meat sauce which I defrost and sauté up some additional ground beef, onions, garlic, and tomatoes to augment. Our son helps by doing the vegetable chopping and John is relegated to cleanup.

I bake it at 425F for an hour, covered. Then I let it sit for 10 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered. It is delicious and I have enough leftover for plenty of lunches!

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A gemisch of cuisines. 11/2/18

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Beebamom

And by a gemisch I mean leftovers. I take the remnant of our Indian biryani and add some Mexican touches and serve it with the Vietnamese pork we had the other night. Result? Dinner is ready in about 15 minutes and there is now more space in my refrigerator. It tastes okay and is very filling.

Waste not, want not.

Mexican/Indian basmati rice with Vietnamese country-style boneless pork ribs

 

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Throwback Thursday. 11/1/18

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Beebamom

Since we decide that cooking fish in the house is a bad idea due to the fish smell and having people in to see our up-for-sale house, we are casting around for something else to eat. I look in the pantry and there is a box of taco shells. I bought this package and also some taco seasoning mix when the kids were visiting in June but I never got around to making the tacos. What fun, I think, we will have Taco Thursday.

Almost all of our tacos these days are shrimp or fish on soft corn tortillas. These, however, are definitely throwback with ground beef and bright orange shredded cheese. I make bowls of condiments and we enjoy a make-your-own taco night.

Tacos and condiments

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Sous vide and grilled boneless country-style pork ribs. 10/31/18

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Beebamom

Happy Halloween! We do not have any trick or treaters coming to our house so we can concentrate on making dinner. This week my menu has gotten scrambled because our realtor is having an open house for other realtors and I do not want the smell of fish in the house. Turns out people do not like the smell of my biryani either. I have been told to get an air freshener. I guess no one cooks anymore

Anyway tonight’s dinner we have made once before cooking it only on the grill. It did not get cooked through so we decide to sous vide it first and then cook it on the grill. John marinates and sous vides the pork in a combo of brown sugar, fish sauce, lime, and garlic. Then he cooks it on the grill for about a minute a side. We serve it on a bunch of hearty greens with grilled orange and lime plus some leftover rice. It turns out delicious!!

Sous vide and grilled boneless pork country style spare ribs with salad and rice

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Vegan Instant Pot Chickpea Biryani. 10/30/18

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Beebamom

If you own an Instant Pot, Chickpea Biryani is super fast and super easy. What takes the longest is soaking the rice for 20 minutes! My recipe is an adaptation of a NYTimes Cooking dish, Pressure Cooker Shrimp Biryani. I substituted chickpeas for shrimp.

The pressure cooking time is only 3 minutes and then it has a quick release. So you will be sitting down to dinner in no time at all!

Pressure cooker chickpea biryani and a green salad

Posted in Easy, Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, rice, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Kitchen picnic. 10/29/18

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Beebamom

Don’t like sitting on a blanket on the ground? Have a kitchen picnic.

For our kitchen picnic we have grilled chicken thighs with BBQ sauce. As accompaniments to John’s grilling, I spice up some baked beans and broccoli salad. We eat at the kitchen counter very informally and enjoy our kitchen picnic!

Grilled BBQ chicken thighs, baked beans, broccoli salad

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California burger in Utah 10/28/18

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Beebamom

When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey we used to go the Palace Diner occasionally. (New Jersey is the state for diners!) I would order a California burger. It seemed so exciting to be eating a hamburger in the style of a place as mythical as California to a small town east coast kid in the 60’s. Later I realized that what made it a California burger is that it had fresh vegetation on it! A slice of onion, tomato, lettuce and a smear of mayo must have seemed  pretty exotic back in those days.

Anyway, I still love a California burger even if I have been a Californian for the last 25 years. As sides we buy a kit to make coleslaw and some potato salad. Both need some fixing up to make them more palatable. Some celery seed and vinegar for both and some fish sauce to cut the awful sweetness of the coleslaw dressing.

Grilled California burger and store bought cole slaw and potato salad

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Weekly menu. 10/28-11/2/18

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Beebamom

Here is our weekly menu for our first week in Utah. Our son is joining us for the second week and part of our fun together is planning, shopping, and preparing the next week’s menu together.

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Delicious vegan pasta. 10/27/18

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Beebamom

Whole wheat spaghetti with olives, capers, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, parsley, and garlic

In the time it takes to boil water and cook spaghetti, I make a delicious vegan sauce for our pasta. Here’s all you need – thinly sliced garlic that you brown up in some olive oil, a can of small dice tomatoes, 12 pitted chopped olives, 2 tablespoons of capers, a handful of chopped parsley, and some toasted panko breadcrumbs. Also the all important cup of pasta water. Cook together the tomatoes, capers, and olives. Add the cooked pasta and enough pasta water to make it sauce-y. Top with parsley, toasted breadcrumbs, and browned garlic. Ta-da! You’re done!!

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