A new year. 9/20/17

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Beebamom

At our house we celebrate some Christian, some Jewish, and some National holidays. We are a celebrating kind of family. Last night John and I had a small celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. It is nice to have two New Years every year. It is a second chance to head yourself in the right direction again and to reflect on the past months.

Rosh Hashanah dinner of sous vide chicken breast, chicken gravy, mashed potatoes, and broccoli

John is loving his sous vide. Even though this chicken breast had not thawed (because we forgot to put it in the refrigerator yesterday) it still came out perfectly. It just takes the water a little longer to come up to temperature. We leave it in for at least an hour and a half after that. The gravy comes from a McCormack packet and is only 25 calories for 1/4 cup. The mashed potatoes I made with a little butter and olive oil plus milk. The broccoli is just briefly steamed.

We were supposed to have apples and honey for dessert which is traditional. Since we never eat dessert we totally forgot.

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Eat what you like! 9/18/17

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Beebamom

One of the pitfalls of dieters everywhere is denial. I cannot eat this and I must not eat that. What happens inevitably is that when you finally give in and eat your treasured food, you eat way too much of it. Or another scenario plays out that while you are busily trying to find and eat alternatives, you end up eating the alternatives and then the desired food anyway. Eat what you like but do it in moderation!

This dinner features a favorite, spaghetti with meat sauce. I slowed things down by eating a first course of salad.

Salad of dark greens and cabbages

We always weigh out our pasta before cooking it so we do not over-indulge. Since I was slowed down by the salad, I even remembered to take a picture this time!

Spaghetti and tomato, basil, and ground beef sauce

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A meat haiku. 9/17/17

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Beebamom

Today I ate steak,

Yesterday all vegetables.

I feel conflicted.

Steak with baked and grilled potato and tabbouleh

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Vegan Day – Give it a try! 9/16/17

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Beebamom

Here is something you can do to help yourself and the world.  Try a totally vegan day! It is not as difficult as you are probably imagining.

I started my day with an English muffin and peanut butter. Easy, but check the ingredients lists!

For lunch we had hummus with pita and tabbouleh. I know you can buy tabbouleh at the supermarket deli but try making it at home. It is so much better. The ingredients are parsley, mint, green onions, garlic, and tomatoes which you can whiz in your food processor or chop by hand. Add soaked and drained bulgur. (You can soak it while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.)Dress with lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Hummus, pita, and tabbouleh

Moving along to dinner I made ribollita which is an Italian vegetable soup thickened with bread. I had some leftover baguette from the fancy hors d’oeuvres the other night and it was hard as a rock. Perfect for ribollita! Basically you cook all the vegetables you have in your refrigerator.

All the vegetables in my refrigerator (except broccoli and Brussels sprouts) cooking away

I added a can of diced tomatoes and you can use vegetable stock or water for the liquid. After the vegetables are cooked, add a drained can of cannellini beans and warm them through. Take a stick blender or mash by hand a little of the soup to thicken it up. Lastly add the chunked up stale bread and let it cook for another 10 minutes. Garnish with basil and green onions.

Ribollita

So that is my total vegan day. It tasted really good and I feel good about myself.

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Fish tacos and black beans. 9/15/17

Posted on September 16, 2017 by Beebamom

Fish tacos and black beans

John cooked up some Pacific cod and I made the black beans and condiments for tonight’s Southwest inspired dinner. I had a can of Rotel and added that to the black beans along with some onions, cumin, and cilantro. The condiments with the fish are fresh salsa, shredded cabbage, cilantro, and green onions. The crema is a combination of plain yogurt, salt, and cumin.

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Happy Birthday, John! 9/14/17

Posted on September 15, 2017 by Beebamom

Since we are in Utah, state of bad restaurant dining, we decided to prepare a favorite meal at home. We would start with fancy hors d’oeuvres and then have a scallop dinner. In preparation we skipped lunch so less guilt would be involved.

I made two types of crostini – 1. Tomato, onion, and basil 2. Chicken liver pate with Thai pickled vegetables. My dinner contribution would be small so I tried hard on the hors d’oeuvres.

On the left are chicken liver pate and Thai pickled vegetables crostini and on the right tomato, onion, and basil

I made the pate myself from actual chicken livers. I am not impressed with the quality of the livers from Harmon’s and if I made these again I would buy my chicken livers somewhere else. I also pickled the carrots, onions, and cabbage. The tomato crostini were much easier.

John fried the scallops after coating them with seasoned panko breadcrumbs and fried them outside in our electric wok. I know fried food is taboo but we don’t do this often and scallops are a very low calorie protein. I steamed new potatoes and broccoli and mixed up some Fish Market tartar sauce.

Fried scallops with steamed new potatoes and broccoli

It was a delicious birthday celebration. What, no birthday cake you ask? Nope, we are not sweet eaters. I would rather spend my time making hors d’oeuvres rather than dessert.

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Leftover leftovers plus a delicious vegetable dish. 9/13/17

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Beebamom

I was supposed to make a chickpea stew for dinner tonight but I didn’t. I just was not feeling it and I knew we still had a lot of one pot chicken and rice curry in the refrigerator. But I did not just want to eat a giant bowl of it so I had to come up with a vegetable that would end up being as little of this and a little of that.

Leftovers plus a combination of Umfelliferae and Cruciferae family vegetables

I thought about which vegetables would work well together and decided to combine two families of vegetables. From the Umgelliferae or parsley family I have carrots, celery, an parsley. From the Cruciferae family I chose broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. I sauteed these in some oil and they made a delicious “seasonal vegetable.”

I still have some one pot curried chicken left but I promise it will not make an appearance tomorrow night. Tomorrow is John’s birthday and I need to come up with something special.

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One pot curried chicken and rice. 9/12/17

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Beebamom

John and I have been debating what to call this dish. It is not a traditional curry which you serve over rice. This is more, hey, we have some leftover chicken! What shall we do with it that is fairly easy and has minimal clean-up?

One pot curried chicken and rice

While John assembles the curry spices and slices up the chicken, I cut up the onions, garlic, and carrots. He sweats the spices, onions, and garlic in oil and butter and then coats the rice. He then adds the chicken, some raisins and the carrots plus cooking liquid (water or chicken broth) and seasons the dish. He brings it to a boil and then simmers until the rice is done. I garnish it with sliced green onions.

Quick, easy, tasty, and minimal mess! That’s my kind of dish for dinner!

 

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How to keep your stovetop clean and shiny. 9/11/17

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Beebamom

On Monday we flew to Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove to St. George, Utah. We stopped at the grocery store on the way to the house and picked up a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad.

In lieu of having something interesting to post I will share a bit of kitchen magic – how I keep my stovetop clean and shiny.

Here’s my stainless steel cooktop. It is 6 1/2 years old. Looks pretty good, right?

My stainless steel cooktop

I can tell you that it is a real bugger to clean. After fighting with it for a few years I got one of these.

John cooking on an induction burner

Yes, my solution to a messy stove is to use it as little as possible and never for something that spatters. The countertop is a lot easier to clean up than the stovetop. This induction burner cost about $50 and has saved me (actually mostly John) a lot of clean-up time. Plus it doesn’t heat up the kitchen. The only thing to remember is that it does not work with aluminum pots and pans. You have to use cast iron or stainless steel bottomed cookware.

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Sous vide then grill. 9/9/17

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Beebamom

A couple of Christmases ago I bought John an immersion circulator as a present. Last year I got him a vacuum sealer. Although chicken is our main ingredient for the sous vide method, it works really well on steak too.

The piece of meat he made was a prime ribeye cap steak. We got it at Costco. It is a narrow strip from the top of a ribeye steak. It is spiraled up and tied with string. He cooked it in the immersion circulator set to 125F.  We let it stay in its bath for about 2 hours until we were ready for dinner. At that point John turned on the grill and seared each side for 2 minutes. It came out perfectly! I steamed some delicious tiny new potatoes and we had the rest of our spinach soufflé from the other night.

Ribeye cap with new potatoes and spinach souffle

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