Creamy vegan celery and potato soup. 10/23/18

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Beebamom

Here is an easy soup to make with your new or leftover veggies. In my case my soup pot is filled with a roughly chopped entire head or stalk of celery. (One piece of celery is a rib. A stalk is a bunch like you buy at the store.) Reserve the leaves for garnish. Then a roughly chopped largish potato or several small ones are added. I have Yukon golds and I do not even peel them. I also stick in a chopped onion and whole garlic cloves (2 or 3). Salt. Use a glug of olive oil to get things sizzling. When the onion wilts add 3 cups of vegetable or chicken stock or enough to cover. Simmer until everything is soft.  Whiz it up in a blender when it has cooled down a bit. Correct the seasoning.

You can add some cream to finish or just leave it the way it is and drizzle a little olive oil over the top and garnish with the celery leaves.  You can actually do this with pretty much any vegetables you have.

Celery and potato soup

 

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Tiny steak, half potato, and the rest of the asparagus. 10/23/18

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Beebamom

Eat down is in full swing now. We have had this little steak piece moldering away in the freezer for quite a while so it is time to use it.  One potato is enough for two people. And this is the third time I am using the asparagus I bought last week – one time with classic chicken, once as a pasta sauce, and tonight cut up so the six spears I have left look more substantial. I make a chimichurri sauce to use up a piece of shallot, leftover parsley, two garlic cloves, and half of an old lemon plus my everyday olive oil.

Steak, grilled potato, asparagus

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Chicken Parmesan, linguine, salad. 10/22/18

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Beebamom

There is no menu this week since we are half the week in California and half the week in Utah.  In California we will be in eat-down mode and in Utah we will be needing to see what we have in the refrigerator and freezer and going to the store. It is a fun problem to have.

Chicken Parmesan is a good eat-down food for us because we get to use up the spaghetti sauce that our daughter made from her copious tomatoes plus we get to eat some lingering salad greens with more tomatoes!

We do not bread and fry our chicken to cut down on calories. Our dish is sauteed chicken breast which we finish under the broiler with some mozzarella. We boil up some whole wheat linguine, and toss together a salad. Except for too many pots and pans to wash, this is a pretty simple but tasty dinner.

Chicken Parmesan with linguine and salad

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Spicy Thai basil eggplant with tofu. 10/21/18

Posted on October 21, 2018 by Beebamom

This is the third time we have made this dish and the best so far.  It is a combination of Chinese eggplant and extra firm tofu stir-fried together with onions, red bell pepper, and garlic. At the end you toss in a sauce made of soy sauce, fish sauce, water, red pepper flakes, and brown sugar. Finally you add a bunch of basil. I did not have Thai basil so I just used regular basil. This would be vegan except for the fish sauce but I do not know what the substitution for fish sauce is.

  • Spicy Thai basil eggplant with tofu and jasmine rice
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Why not eat breakfast for dinner? 10/19/18

Posted on October 20, 2018 by Beebamom

I make such a delicious breakfast for dinner. I take more time and care with it than I do in the morning when there is so much else to do. My dinner breakfast has carbs, protein, and vegetable. The green tomatoes I sort of fried are not the unripe type. These are fully ripe but green and come from my daughter’s garden. Their name is Aunt Ruby’s German Greens. While I am eating my yummy dinner breakfast John is preparing an omelet for himself. It’s a fine dinner. You should try it especially if you are in a hurry or super busy. Dinner in 5 minutes!

Scrambled eggs with chorizo, fried tomatoes, toast
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A swing and a miss. 10/18/18

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Beebamom

Sautéed cod with potatoes in a mussel-chorizo broth sounds pretty tasty. I found this recipe on the NYT Cooking site and the remarks said that the dish was an adaptation of one made by Eric Ripert, the famous NYC chef. It has a lot of steps. You have to prepare garlic roasted, sliced, and minced. There is a lot of cooking bits and setting aside while you cook the next bit. We do it all. I am chopping and mincing and slicing, peeling and mashing potatoes and John is sautéing and setting aside. Here is the finished dish.

Cod with potatoes in a mussel-chorizo broth

Close-up

But here is the problem. Those little pieces of chorizo take over the whole dish. The broth tastes like chorizo. The mussels taste like chorizo. So do the potatoes and the beautiful cod. We might as well have spent way less time and effort and just made chorizo broth and served it over potatoes or rice. What a disappointment!

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Vegan penne and asparagus 10/17/18

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Beebamom
We try to prepare one or two vegan or vegetarian meals a week. Penne with asparagus is one of our favorites. You could do this with any vegetable, really, but the shape of the cut asparagus mimics the shape of the penne and makes an attractive dish. The ingredients for tonight’s dinner are garlic, onion, asparagus, penne, and pasta water. That’s it. You can add Parmesan for a vegetarian dish or some sausage if you like.
  • Penne with asparagus
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Shrimp biryani. 10/16/18

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Beebamom

Originally this recipe for shrimp biryani was supposed to be made entirely in an Instant Pot. Since to use pressure cooking in cooking the shrimp needed jumbo shrimp and we only had smaller shrimp, we decide to cook the shrimp separately and just make the flavorful rice in the Instant Pot.

When we put it all together the dish is delicious! First we soak the basmati rice for 20 minutes and then drain. I cut up onion, garlic, ginger, and the curry leaves which I found at Ranch 99, a local Asian supermarket. John sautes the vegetables in the Instant Pot along with a bunch of spices. Then he adds the drained rice, tomatoes, and shrimp stock made from the shrimp tails. Cook on high for three minutes. Let steam off immediately and add the cooked shrimp and let the whole thing sit for  a few minutes under a kitchen towel.

Shrimp biryani

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Comforting chicken dinner. 10/15/18

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Beebamom
Even though it continues to be around 80F for a high, the mornings have gotten very cool and the house stays chilly throughout the day. I feel like it is okay to turn the oven on again! Monday is a comfort food, grounding day. Classic chicken dinner is definitely my go-to. John sous vides chicken breasts. I roast a butternut squash and quick-cook some asparagus. (Asparagus is on sale this week. It must be spring in South America!) A lot of times when planning this dinner I think, Boring! But then when I eat it I think, Ahh!

Chicken breast with gravy, roasted butternut squash, asparagus

 
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Weekly Menu 10/15-22/18

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Beebamom

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