Great vegetarian/vegan Greek dinner. 7/9/18

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Beebamom

Note: For a vegan meal omit or substitute feta

I am a little slow getting my post done today since I have been busy watching Wimbledon today. Ladies’ semi-finals! Mostly I am only interested in Roger Federer winning but I am willing to watch others give it their best. John and I are pretty avid tennis players although my knee injury of five years ago has really slowed me down.

Hummus with pita, tabbouleh and Greek salsa

Tonight’s Greek vegetarian dinner was really delicious and also did not heat up the kitchen at all. Along with some hummus and pita that we bought at the grocery store we had the leftovers of tabbouleh from the other night and some really delicious Greek salsa. I made this salsa the other day to have with our salmon and it seemed like a good choice to make with our dinner on Veg Monday.  The rendition tonight had the addition of feta cheese. The fresh combination of cucumber and tomatoes along with olives, feta, and pepperoncini with a lemon and olive oil dressing went really well with the hummus and pita.

It is a good idea to use ingredients from the grocery store on these hot days. The base of our dinner tonight was store bought hummus and pita. The tabbouleh was leftover from Saturday and the Greek salsa was a fresh comp9onent from today. There is no shame in using grocery ingredients and leftovers to craft a new meal.

 

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Wild card Sunday and new menu. 7/8/18

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Beebamom

I decided to give my days of the week new names like Veg Monday, Chicken Tuesday, Red meat Wednesday, etc.  We also decided we needed at least one day a week where we might get take-out or go out or whatever. After cooking for thirteen or so days we need a day off – so wild card Sunday.

For wild card Sunday yesterday we got take-out from our local Chinese restaurant. Our favorites are moo shu pork and Mongolian beef.

Moo shu pork

Here is our menu for this week. I have tried to include dishes that do not need a whole lot of kitchen cooking. It has been really hot here in Northern California and I do not want to heat the kitchen up. We will be using the outdoor grill, the immersion circulator, the microwave, lots of salads, and some prepared foods from the grocery store.

You see we have a Celebration Saturday. We are celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary with an overnight and a fancy dinner in Half Moon Bay. For us, cooking together has been part of the glue to our great marriage.

 

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Gazpacho! Tabbouleh! Veggie Burgers! 7/7/18

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Beebamom

Dinner on Saturday was a mostly non-cooked vegan feast. It has been in the upper 90’sF for the last few days and too hot to be heating up the kitchen by turning on the oven or using the cooktop!

Our first course was a delicious gazpacho. I got the base recipe, The Best Gazpacho, from New York Times Cooking but of course put my own spin on it since it was definitely not spicy enough. I did not have enough fresh tomatoes so I used canned. I also toasted some croutons and lemon thyme to put on top.

Gazpacho

This was followed up with Morningstar Chipotle Bean Burger served with tabbouleh. This Lebanese tabbouleh is heavy on the parsley and lighter on the bulgur wheat than most.

Morningstar Chipotle Bean Burger with tabbouleh

So while I did manage to avoid using the oven and cooktop, I did use the food processor, blender, microwave, and toaster!

 

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Fried scallops, collard greens and corn. 7/6/18 (a recipe included)

Posted on July 7, 2018 by Beebamom

Scallops with tartar and collard greens with corn

It is my favorite again! The scallops were a little smaller so we had more of them. The collard greens are chiffonaded and sauteed quickly. I toasted up the garlic pieces separately so they would not get burnt.

The tartar sauce is a recipe from the Fish Market, a local chain of fish restaurants. I asked them once what their recipe was for tartar sauce. They did not gave me any amounts but did tell me the ingredients.  The surprising ingredient is yellow mustard. Not fancy but it really makes a difference.

Fish Market Tartar Sauce (amounts approximate)

1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use light mayo)
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon sweet relish
1 teaspoon grated onion
1 teaspoon lemon juice
dash of garlic powder

Mix together.

 

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Not classic chicken dinner. 7/5/18 (a recipe included)

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Beebamom

According to my menu I was supposed to be making chicken breast, mashed potatoes, and a green vegetable. But I was just not feeling it.  Summer temperatures are just too warm for the classic. Plus I had left over salads from Fourth of July so I decided to go with chicken thighs on the grill again.

Grilled chicken with potato and broccoli salads

Mmm, doesn’t that look good. I added a little more broccoli and potatoes to the salads since there wasn’t quite enough to serve two people. Here’s the recipe for the broccoli salad.

Broccoli Salad

2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets and washed and dried thoroughly

For the dressing:

½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons celery seed
1½ teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons grated onion
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine the dressing ingredients in a blender, with a stick blender, or in a shaker jar.

Add to broccoli florets. Marinate for at least 2 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fourth of July grilling 7/4/18

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Beebamom

We had a small Fourth of July celebration. Our daughter-in-law is recovering from having her wisdom teeth extracted so there were no big party either at their house or at ours. Plus it is a little hard to get revved up when so much is going wrong (in our opinion) in the U.S. at the moment.

Happy Fourth of July hamburgers, potato salad, and broccoli salad

A few years ago our grandkids, our daughter, and I made a patriot tissue flower bouquet. I saved it and bring it out for July 4, Memorial Day, and Labor Day when we are apt to have grilling parties. We also play a mixtape that John made in 1984 of patriot and celebratory music. That year when the kids were 4 and 7 we organized a giant block party with games, swimming, and even a fire truck. It was great fun.

Our dinner consisted of grilled hamburgers, an olive oil rather than mayo potato salad and a sweet and tangy celery seed broccoli salad.

It was all good but I felt a little sad that the whole family had not gotten together. I guess it is up to me to make things happen. Sigh.

 

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Vegan pantry pasta dish! 7/3/18

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Beebamom

Spaghetti with tomatoes, capers, olives, and breadcrumbs

This is a super easy and delicious vegan pantry dish. The sauce is made up of a can of tomatoes, some capers and olives and garlic and onions. The topping consists of some toasted garlic and breadcrumbs with parsley. From start to finish with me cooking the sauce and topping and John cutting up the garlic, boiling the water and cooking the pasta, the dish took us around 35 minutes. We used a combination of regular and whole wheat pastas. This dish is definitely a keeper!

Nom, nom

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Salmon, salsa, beans, and potatoes. 7/2/18

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Beebamom

Finally found some decent salmon to buy to start in on our two pescatarian dinners this week.

Pan roasted salmon with Greek salsa, new potatoes, and green beans

John used the America’s Test Kitchen technique for cooking the salmon which starts with a quick brine and continues with beginning the cooking in a cold pan with a scattering of salt in the bottom. It came out quite well.

I had a lot of vegetation to deal with. I made a Greek salsa from cucumber, tomatoes, olives, capers, and onions in a vinaigrette. It was really tasty and when dinner was over I ate the rest of it! Since I could not find loose small new potatoes I opted for some larger ones and steamed them cut into quarters. I added some butter/olive oil and mint at the end. They were super good.

I continue to have problems with green beans. These were pretty mealy. I think that I need to buy them the day of a meal rather than when I am doing my weekly shopping. After two disappointing renditions I think I’ll give them a rest for a while.

 

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Grilled chicken with corn and slaw. 7/1/18

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Beebamom

We were originally supposed to have take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant but we had too many vegetables that needed eating so we opted to move our menu one day ahead.

Grilled chicken thighs, corn on the cob, and Brussels sprout slaw

Nothing says summer better than some chicken grilled out on the patio with corn on the cob and slaw. This was such a yummy dinner. John cooked the chicken thighs mostly on the cool side of the grill and then  at the end put them on the hot side with some BBQ sauce for that slightly charred taste. I cooked the corn in the microwave and then finished it on the grill. The slaw was made from shredded Brussels sprouts, carrots, and onion with caraway seeds and a sweet mustard vinaigrette.

A close-up of delicious summer eating!

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Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce. 6/30/18

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Beebamom

Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce

It has been over three weeks since we had spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner. That is way too long! I was looking around in the freezer and found a container of sauce already made. It was like the spaghetti sauce fairy had left me a gift. I was willing to boil a pot of water for pasta even though it hit 100F in our part of California. (That is too, too hot for here!) We poured a little vino and watched the Great British Baking Show while we slurped up our spaghetti. Bliss!

Yum-um!!

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