As promised I did not cook Saturday night. We ordered Chinese food. Here is our standard order.
Moo shu pork
Mongolian beef (extra spicy!)
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New recipe! Vegan red lentil chili. 5/11/18
I think I am cooked out for this week. Along with my weekly menu I have been making dishes for Mother’s Day with John’s help. We are having the whole gang over here on Sunday for a cookout so we’ve been busy with endless trips to the grocery store, planting plants and flowers in our yard, and general straightening up.
However, back to Thursday and our new recipe. This vegan chili has black beans, kidney beans, and red lentils as well as the usual array of mild and spicy peppers, onions, tomatoes, and spices. It calls for smoky sweet paprika which I could not find in my pantry (found it today) so I used a little chipotle powder in addition to regular paprika. I got the recipe from the Washington Post where it is available online. At the end of the stovetop instructions it said you could alternatively dump everything into a slow cooker and cook it on high for 3 hours. Since we had a ton of other stuff to do we stuck the ingredients in the slow cooker and let it rip (slowly).
Red lentil chili garnished with fresh tomatoes and green onions
Unfortunately our slow cooker only seems to know “high.” When we turned it down to “keep warm” it just kept perking along on high. Consequently the chili was a little dried out. I know the red lentils are in there but we could not discern their flavor. If we make this again I think we should use the stove top method and substitute brown lentils.
Posted in Legumes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged black beans, Chili, kidney beans, red lentils, smoked paprika, Vegan, vegetarian
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New recipe! 3 Cup Chicken. 5/10/18
I got this recipe from the recent Cook’s Illustrated magazine. It was their take on 3 Cup Chicken which I did not know was a thing. Apparently the original has a cup each of soy sauce, Chinese wine, and sesame oil. That would be awfully intense with all that sesame oil. The new recipe has 1/3 cup of the soy sauce and wine (I used dry sherry) and a tablespoon of sesame oil.
Whenever I make something new I always follow the recipe pretty much exactly and now having made this my notes include “less soy sauce” and “smaller pieces of chicken.” The recipe called for 2 inch pieces of chicken.
All that being said this was a pretty easy recipe and one that we will probably include in the chicken rotation. I think if you do not have a subscription to the Cook’s site that some recipes are available for a limited time.
“Not” 3 Cup Chicken
Posted in Kitchen tips, Poultry, rice, Vegetables
Tagged basil, chicken, dry sherry, green onions, rice, sesame oil, soy sauce
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Thali for lunch and spaghetti for dinner! 5/9/18
John has been working these last few days and getting home late so our dinner routine has been disrupted. On Tuesday we ended up not having dinner at all! My daughter and I have been making up for the missing dinner by going out for lunch. Here is what we shared-
Thali with pappadam and pouri
Thali consists of a bowl of rice, Indian breads, and a selection of condiments. It is all vegetarian and mostly quite spicy. I have to admit to my eyes tearing up and my nose running after a particularly spicy bite.
Later when John got home I heated up the spaghetti sauce I made yesterday and boiled up 6 ounces of spaghetti. My sauce still needs a little work but I did a great job cooking the spaghetti.
Spaghetti and meat sauce
Posted in Beef, Dining out, Pasta, rice, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged meat sauce, pappadam, rice, Spaghetti, thali
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Artichokes, scallops, and potatoes. 5/7/18
I got a coupon from our grocery for BOGO free artichokes. Normally I won’t spent $3.00 on an artichoke but two for $3.00 is a deal. Plus these were GIANT! I put the artichokes in a plastic bag one at a time and microwaved them. Normal sized ones take about six or seven minutes. These behemoths took at least twice that amount of time. We ate them separately as a first course.
Giant artichoke picture thanks to toravey.com
So that was our vegetable for dinner tonight. Artichokes are fun and delicious to eat. You should try them!
The rest of our dinner was our usual fried scallops and steamed new potatoes with tartar sauce. Without a vegetable on the plate it is a rather brown looking dinner!
Fried scallops and new potatoes with tartar sauce
Posted in Kitchen tips, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables
Tagged artichokes, new potatoes, scallops
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Good restaurant choices. 5/6/18
Dining out has its own set of challenges when it comes to eating sensibly. Whenever I am eating out I always look at the menu online first. It is at the time that I make dinner choices. It is so much easier knowing what you are going to order in advance and cuts way down on impulse ordering. Another way to keep things sane is to order from the appetizer section of the menu. The portions are smaller and are usually more interesting than the dinner portions.
Last night I chose to have two appetizers, a spicy poke tower which was served with tortilla chips and mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce. The mussels were served with bread. I ate a couple of chips and the tuna and also all the mussels with the bread. I am not saying this was low calorie but it was a lot better than a lot of choices I could have made.
Mussels in a white wine garlic sauce (Photo from restaurant website)
Posted in Dining out, Fish, Healthy tips, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables
Tagged avocado, Dining out, mussels, pescatarian, poke, tuna
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Vegan penne and asparagus with pine nuts. 5/5/18
I have to congratulate myself on using up all the asparagus I bought at $2.47/lb. First we had it as a side with salmon and then again with the lamb kabobs. Last night it played a starring role in a very delicious vegan dinner of penne and asparagus with toasted pine nuts.
This is an easy, easy dinner. The whole thing can be prepared while the pasta is cooking to al dente. First I toasted some pine nuts in a dry frying pan and set them aside. Using the same pan I added some olive oil and sauteed a little onion, garlic, and pepper flakes. Then I added the pieces of asparagus except for the tips. The tips went in just before the penne was done. Next add the almost cooked pasta to the asparagus making sure you have a cup of reserved salted pasta water. (Be sure to add plenty of salt to your water before you put the penne in to cook!) Cook the penne and asparagus mixture over medium/high heat adding some of the pasta water and a little more oil until the penne is cooked and there is a light sauce. Once plated add the toasted pine nuts, a drizzle of finishing olive oil, and some grated parmesan (if you are not eating this vegan.)
Penne and asparagus with pine nuts
Posted in Kitchen tips, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tagged asparagus, pasta, penne, pine nuts, Vegan, vegetarian
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New recipe! Lamb kabobs. 5/4/18
In keeping with my pledge to make some new recipes, here is one that we tried last night. It is a good idea but we need to work on it some more. We used the immersion circulator to cook the meat to to 130F and then put it on the grill to get some browning. Unfortunately it came out kind of medium well instead of medium rare. We are thinking of just cooking it on the grill without the pre-cook and threading a little bacon between the lamb to keep it moister. The tzatziki I made came out well and is just a mixture of plain yogurt, lemon, cucumber, garlic, and mint. We served our lamb kabob over brown rice with a side of asparagus.
Lamb kabob, tzatziki, brown rice and asparagus
Posted in Grilling, Lamb, rice, Vegetables
Tagged asparagus, brown rice, Lamb, lamb kabob, tzatziki
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Instant Pot beef stew. 5/2/18
This beef stew was good but not as good as the first one we made. I think it was because we added too much liquid forgetting the fact that the vegetables give off a bunch of liquid as they cook. We are going to have it as leftovers dinner tomorrow night and I think I will put more vegetables in and beef up the sauce that they are swimming in.
Ah well, they cannot all be winners!
Instant pot beef stew
Last classic chicken dinner (for a while). 5/1/18
As I said I am going to search for some new recipes to introduce into my rotation. Chicken is way overdue for a makeover. But for all times sake, we have one more chicken classic, that is, chicken breast sous vide, pressure cooked rutabagas, and broccoli. I put a little sear on the broccoli and we also made some chicken gravy.
Chicken breast with gravy, mashed rutabagas, and broccoli
Omnivore 