Shrimp tacos. 5/17/18

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Beebamom

Shrimp tacos with Texas caviar

Who does not love a taco? And even though we did not get to have a taco truck on every corner, you can make delicious, healthy tacos at home easily. Before a brief sauté John marinated the shrimp for a short time in garlic powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne for extra flavor and toasted the white corn tortillas over the stovetop’s open flame. (That was actually my idea!) I enhanced a drained can of Rotel into salsa, whipped up a sour cream and cumin crema, and chopped some cilantro, tomatoes, and cabbage. The side with our tacos was the remainder of the Texas caviar (fresh vegetable and bean salad) we had on Mother’s Day. This is a dish that is great visually and delicious to eat!

Mmmm, healthy, fresh, and delicious!

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Vegan chickpea stew. 5/16/18

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Beebamom

 

Chickpea stew with ditalini and collard greens

We try to eat vegan or vegetarian once or twice a week. I figure it is good for us and good for the earth. Plus there are so many tasty dishes that do not require meat.

Chickpea stew is a favorite of mine since you can change it up in so many ways and it is quick and easy to make. Tonight’s dish started with a base of onions, carrots, and celery. To make it different I added some poblano pepper, fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and a chiffonade of collard greens at the end. I am sure you could make this with a different bean or change the pasta shape or use rice instead. The possibilities are endless.

This is another NY Times Cooking recipe and on the site it goes by the name of Chickpea Stew with Orzo and Mustard Greens.

Yum!

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New recipe! Chicken Paprikash. 5/15/18

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Beebamom

I have been trying out a lot of new recipes lately. Last week’s Three Cup Chicken was a real winner. Last night’s Chicken Paprikash was not. I used a recipe from NYTimes Cooking.  The chicken itself came out pretty good and the noodles were lovely but the sauce was a non-starter. Maybe our paprika was too old and bitter. John had his with the sour cream mixed into the sauce. I had mine on top. We ate the chicken and some of the noodles and threw the rest out.

I am sure there are wonderful recipes out there for chicken paprikash and certainly better cooks than I. You should try some recipe for chicken paprikash that you like.

Chicken paprikash with noodles and sour cream

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Meat loaf. 5/14/18

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Beebamom

We had five hamburgers left over from Mother’s Day so I made meat loaf. I make meat loaf the way my mother did-nothing fancy, egg, breadcrumbs,Worcestershire sauce, some chopped up onions, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I cook it at 350F to an internal temperature of 145F. I like it a lot and even though my mom has been gone 34 years, it still makes me think of her.

Cannot wait for tomorrow because even better than just out of the oven meat loaf are cold meat loaf sandwiches!

Meat loaf served with Texas caviar and Lebanese tabbouleh

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Happy Mother’s Day cookout. 5/13/18

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Beebamom

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. For the most part we do a pretty terrific job taking care of our children plus working outside the home and working inside the home. I hope everyone had a pleasant and relaxing day.

Our daughter who lives with us got up early to complete the Swedish tea ring she made for me. It is a favorite of mine from childhood. No, I am not Swedish. This was a coffee cake that the Dugan’s man use to bring to our house when he stopped a couple of times a week with a display case of breads and pastries. Things were very different in the 1950’s.

Delicious Swedish tea ring

Later on our son and his wife and our two grandkids came over along with his wife’s parents and sister for a cookout. John made hamburgers on the grill. (Eating vegetarian/vegan? Substitute a portobello mushroom for the hamburger!)

Hamburger on a bun

I made Lebanese tabbouleh with the emphasis on the parsley rather than the bulgur wheat. You can find the recipe for it at The NY Times cooking site. (Unfortunately this summer the NYT is going to be putting the cooking site behind a paywall so get it while you can!) I added a little chopped cucumber to mine.

Lebanese tabbouleh

I also made some Texas caviar which is basically a whole bunch of chopped up vegetables and black beans and black eyed peas with a light spicy dressing. I added a touch of chipotle powder to give it a smoky taste.

Texas caviar

For dessert we simply had some of our daughter’s Snickerdoodle cookies with vanilla ice cream. I think all the moms felt loved!

Snickerdoodle cookies

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And sometimes I don’t cook. 5/12/18

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Beebamom

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

Posted on May 12, 2018 by Beebamom

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.

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New recipe! 3 Cup Chicken. 5/10/18

Posted on May 11, 2018 by Beebamom

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

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Thali for lunch and spaghetti for dinner! 5/9/18

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Beebamom

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

 

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Artichokes, scallops, and potatoes. 5/7/18

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Beebamom

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

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