Healthy start to the week. 4/15/18

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Beebamom

Now that we are here in Utah and we have taken care of the unpacking and the installation of our patriotic goose guard, it’s time to make a menu and shopping list.

Patriotic goose guard to keep the Canadian geese from pooping all over our patio

I like to make a menu for a couple of reasons. First of all it insures that I will buy what I need at the grocery store and secondly, it kind of makes sure that I actually make dinner and do not give in to “let’s call for pizza.” Also, if I know what we are eating tonight in the morning, I can get a jump on the prep early.

Weekly menu

I have to admit that this is a pretty tasty looking menu with lots of variety. Since many of these entrees could be on the high calorie side, I need to watch the portion sizes carefully.

On Sunday night we had chickpea stew with ditalini or salad macaroni and Lacinto kale. Usually I just go with a package of spinach but I am trying to be careful with the produce since there has been an e.coli outbreak recently. This is an easy omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan dish. It just depends on what type of stock you use and if you put parmesan cheese on top.

Chickpea stew with ditalini and Lacinato kale

There is nothing tricky about this stew-just chop up the vegetables, sauté them, add the stock, and put the greens in at the end. Once the chopping is done, it takes about 20 minutes. Colorful and delicious!

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Bad lunch on the road. 4/14/18

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Beebamom

When John and I travel back and forth between NorCal and Utah we like to stop at family owned places for lunch. There are certainly lots of chain restaurants and fast food available but you get lots of interesting lunches at these small places.

We chose a Mexican place in a town in the Mojave Desert for lunch. It is a small restaurant in a strip mall that has gotten very good reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp!. Unfortunately for us and them they were having a bad day.

Here is a picture of the food-

Carnitas with rice and beans and a small salad

First we got a very small bowl of chips that was about half full. This was accompanied by a salsa which was either straight out of a hot sauce bottle or puréed to liquid. It was so unappealing that at the end of lunch our tiny half bowl of chips was only half emptied. Then our lunch came. The carnitas was so overcooked that it was dried out into shards of pork. The accompanying salad had no dressing. The gloppy looking refried beans and the rice were okay but were served at a temperature that was barely room temperature. There were also some corn tortillas which were good.

What did the hundreds of people who reviewed this restaurant eat?! If they ordered what I had than I can no longer trust my fellow diners. The best I can hope for is that this place was having a very bad day. Either way we won’t be back.

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Yes, we ate steak again. 3/12/18

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Beebamom

Usually I post a menu for the week so I make sure we are not eating the same things too closely together. This week there is no menu and I actually did not realize that we just had steak until I looked at the blog this morning.

Steak was done the usually way in the immersion circulator and then on the grill. We had the rest of the cauliflower/parsley purée and some sauteed broccoli with pepper flakes as sides.

Steak, broccoli, and cauliflower/parsley puree

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Chicken Cacciatore. 4/11/18

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Beebamom

We made this tasty dinner using boneless chicken thighs, fennel, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, olives, red wine, and chicken stock.

Chicken Cacciatore

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Turf then surf. 4/8 and 4/9/18

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Beebamom

On Sunday we turfed with a ribeye cap steak which we first cooked in the immersion circulator to a delicious 125F degrees. Then John put it on the grill along with a microwaved baked potato cut in half to get some good grill marks on them. Our green veg was the old standby, broccoli, which seems always to be in season.

Ribeye cap steak with grilled potato and broccoli

And on Monday we surfed making Pacific cod with a chimichurri sauce, on top of puréed cauliflower and parsley, and sauteed zucchini with onions and garlic as a side. I steamed the cauliflower for about 12 minutes and then popped it in the food processor with the parsley, some butter, and a little water and salt and pepper.

Pacific cod with chimichurri sauce on top of puréed cauliflower and parsley and a side of zucchini with garlic and onions

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Spaghetti rigate X 2. 4/6 and 4/7/18

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Beebamom

We bought some Barilla spaghetti rigate the other day and thought we would return to Italy for the evening meal. Rigate means striated and the spaghetti has grooves on it that run the length of each strand. It helps the sauce to adhere to it.

Our sauce was part of a container of meat sauce to which we added additional tomato sauce and one finally diced leftover sausage from the other night.

Spaghetti rigate with beer/sausage sauce

Saturday night was a leftover night. I had the leftover pasta and a salad and John had leftover chicken and salad.

Leftover spaghetti rigate

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Chicken and sausages. 4/4 and 4/5/18

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Beebamom

What can I say about this chicken dinner? It was part of my do nothing, I am still jet lagged cuisine. Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, leftover mashed potatoes and gravy and frozen spinach – I have got to try harder!

Chicken breast with mashed potatoes and spinach

Thursday’s dinner was slightly better. After starting with a salad we had white beans with juniper berries and sweet Italian sausage.

White beans with juniper berries and sweet Italian sausage

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Instant Pot dried beans. 4/3/18

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Beebamom

While discussing what to make for dinner the other morning we came up with a soup idea for the 6 oz. of lamb we still had from Sunday. We decided on lamb with cannellini beans and ditalini. However we had not soaked the beans overnight. Instant Pot to the rescue!

We put our 12 oz. of beans in the pot and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil to control foaming, a Bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, some onion, and a smashed garlic clove along with 7 cups of water and  2 teaspoons of salt. We set the Pot to pressure cook for 40 minutes and turned it on. We waited until the pressure came down naturally and opened it up to perfectly cooked cannellini beans and it only took about an hour of hands-free cooking!

We used half the beans, chicken stock, carrots, onions, carrots, parsley, the lamb and ditalini in the finished soup and topped it with a dollop of chimichurri.

Cannellini bean and lamb soup with ditalini

 

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Leftover festive dinner. 4/2/18

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Beebamom

On Sunday we had the family over for a festive dinner. John grilled a boneless lamb leg and I made some fancy mashed potatoes and asparagus. Our daughter made macaroons. On Monday we had the replay.

Festive asparagus topped with olive oil, capers, parsley, and chopped egg

Fancy mashed potatoes made with cream cheese and sour cream and topped with butter, paprika, and parmesan

Here’s what a plateful looked like on leftover night.

Sliced grilled lamb with chimichurri sauce, mashed potatoes and asparagus with chopped egg

And I cannot forget our daughter’s delicious almond flavored macaroons. Happy Easter and Passover!

Almond flavored macaroons

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Homey goodness, chicken dinner. 3/30/18

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Beebamom

Nothing says being home more than my favorite chicken dinner. Usually I serve this on Chicken Mondays but I just could not wait. Because we are in the throes of jet lag I cheated a little and used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

Chicken breast with rutabagas and broccoli

While we were traveling no chicken was had with the exception of John ordering some in Sicily. The thing to remember when you are in Italy is that when you order a meat dish that is what you get, meat. Only very occasionally do you get a vegetable or a starch with it. They have to be ordered separately.

John’s plate of chicken in Palermo

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