Simple salad and pasta 9/8/17

Posted on September 9, 2017 by Beebamom

As you know pasta is one of my favorite things to eat. This is usually exemplified by my forgetting to take a picture in my enthusiasm to get down to eating. This time was no exception. But I do have a picture of salad!

Mixed greens and cherry tomato salad with garlic crouton

I used mostly my lo-cal salad dressing that I make from a Good Seasons packet adding only a teaspoon of oil with the contents of the packet along with water and vinegar. I bought some xantham gum a while ago and use a pinch to thicken things up. I do not understand why Good Seasons stopped making their fat free blend. I can only assume it was because I liked it.

I went through my old spaghetti pictures to find one that looks sort of like our meal. You can see our daughter’s bounty of tomatoes from the community garden in the background. That was in July.  We have way more now.

NOTE: For a vegan dish omit parmesan cheese and use a vegan salad dressing

Spaghetti with fresh tomato/basil sauce

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Sort of chicken parm on the fly 9/7/17

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Beebamom

Sometimes as the dinner hour approaches I decide I just cannot stand the idea of what we are supposed to be eating for dinner. In this case it was chicken breast with new potatoes and green beans. So I changed it up to something a little tastier, chicken Parmesan with spinach and garlic bread.

Chicken Parmesan with spinach and garlic bread

John sous vide one chicken breast that we split. Then he melted a slice of ultra thin Swiss cheese on top and added some spaghetti sauce from a jar. The spinach is Stouffer’s spinach soufflé and I toasted the bread and rubbed some garlic on it and a little olive oil.

Yay! This was so much better than our original plan. Sometimes you just have to be flexible!

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Use it or lose it – a bowl of vegetables 9/6/17

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Beebamom

Bowl of vegetables

We have so many cherry tomatoes! It seems that our daughter’s cherry tomato plants are much more prolific than her sandwich size tomatoes. On top of this I have a lot of vegetables I bought about a week ago in the refrigerator. What to do?!

Originally I thought I would make a pasta sauce so I sautéed up everything (corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, Brussels sprouts, and bell pepper) but the kitchen was hot and I was tired so I settled for a bowl of vegetables. The outcome was less than I had hoped for. I think adding the mushrooms was a mistake or maybe it just would have been better as a pasta sauce. But at least I did not waste a whole bunch of vegetables!

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Tired of burgers and leftovers – 9/5/17

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Beebamom

Hopefully this is the end of burgers and leftovers. I have had enough. Problem is whenever I am having a family get-together I make way too much food and I do not like to throw things out. On Wednesday, even though there are still ribs in the refrigerator, John can eat them or we can freeze them.  I need to move on to something else.

However Tuesday’s dinner consisted of grill hamburgers, olive oil based potato salad and Texas caviar, a bean and veg salad.

Hamburger, potato salad and Texas caviar

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Labor Day Weekend Menu 2017

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Beebamom

Here’s a vegetarian menu from our Labor Day weekend. Since we were in the midst of watching the U.S. Open we fixed a course then ate it while watching the matches and then during a commercial or lull we made the next course. First up, a broccoli salad-

Broccoli salad

This salad has a dressing of oil and vinegar plus some grated onion, sugar,and quite a bit of celery seed. So it is sweet and tart with a fairly strong celery flavor. I let it marinate for an hour or two. Next we had corn-

Corn on the cob

For this I shuck the corn and give it two minutes on high in the microwave per ear. Fresh summer corn is the best! Finally we finished with vegetarian burgers-

California style veggie burger

This is a Morningstar griller burger. I wish it were more substantive. I used to buy chipotle bean burgers at the local Costco but they are no longer available. Why is it California-style? When I was growing up on the East Coast , it meant the hamburger was served in a a bun with mayo, lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. I guess the fact that it included vegetables made it “Californian!”

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Cool vegan dinner on a hot night – 8/31/17

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Beebamom

We are experiencing “hot-pocolypse” here in California. With temperatures forecast in the 100s (F) it’s time for a no-cook dinner.

Hummus with tabbouleh, roasted beets, and pita

I bought the hummus but made the tabbouleh following (sort of) a New York Times Cooking recipe, Lebanese Tabbouleh. The salad has the emphasis on the parsley rather than the bulgur. It calls for three bunches of parsley and only 1/4 cup bulgur wheat. I wanted to make a little more so that we could have it for dinner again so added 1/2 cup instead. It got rave reviews. A few garnishes such as cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini, and olives round out the dish.

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Better pasta at home than restaurant – 8/30/17

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Beebamom

Here is a pretty poor pasta primavera I had in Banff at a fairly fancy restaurant.

Restaurant pasta primavera

Obviously no care was taken in the plating, just slopped on the plate and not tidied up. Also vegetables were overcooked and the sauce too heavy for primavera.

Here’s a penne dish I made for us. Looks much more appealing, doesn’t it? This is not primavera but the remnants of the meat sauce I made a few days ago. I extended by adding more tomatoes and their juice. Remember the saying, “You eat with your eyes first!”

Penne with meat sauce

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Pork loin chop with leftovers – 8/29/17

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Beebamom

As I mentioned we are freezer foraging currently. There are just too many old things in the freezer. We bought a couple of these in a package a few months ago. The first one we made did not turn out well. This one we decide to brine, sous vide, and grill. It came out better but not well enough for me to want to buy pork loin chops again. I serve it with the Texas caviar I made last night and the couscous from a couple of nights ago with the addition of green beans. It is an okay dinner but not great.

Pork loin with Texas caviar and couscous with green beans

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Turkey sausage with Texas caviar – 8/28/17

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Beebamom

I have been craving a hot dog type meal since we went to the baseball game in Great Falls, MT. The hot dogs there were a real disappointment.

Great Falls Voyagers vs. Ogden Raptors

I expect a steamed hot dog at a ball game. This one seems grilled and then held until it is shriveled. So it is high time for some sort of hot dog.

What is wrong with me lately? I get so excited about a favorite food that I keep forgetting to take a picture. Trust me, it looks like a turkey sausage sliced longitudinally sitting on a hot dog roll with mustard, relish, and onions. I made Texas caviar to go with it. Here’s a picture of the Texas caviar with some grilled portobello mushrooms I made awhile ago.

Portobello mushroom burgers with goat cheese, roasted red pepper and grilled onion, served open-faced with arugula and accompanied by Texas caviar and cole slaw

Just a tip while you are trying to pare down what you have been eating. If you have a craving for something, do not deny yourself. Try to find a way to eat it but eat it in a more controlled way. Instead of a fatty hot dog I choose to have a turkey sausage. Instead of pork and beans from a can I choose to make a salad full of healthy fresh vegetables and complex carbohydrates. There is no reason to totally deprive yourself. That will only lend to binging.

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Make a lighter version of a restaurant dish you liked – 8/27/17

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Beebamom

DRUNKEN SHRIMP
Black tiger shrimp (6) sautéed in butter and shallots, flamed with Sambuca. Served with two grilled baguette spears.

Here is something I liked from the Tonic Kitchen+Bar at the Applause Hotel by CLIQUE at the Calgary, Alberta airport. Since we were staying out of Calgary near the airport, we did not have a lot of choices on where to eat. And, we were there for three days. I think during those days we tried most of the menu and we found these shrimp on the last day on the appetizer menu. They were delicious but I wanted more sauce and I wanted it to be less fatty.

When we made our home recipe,  John deshelled the shrimp and added some shells we had in the freezer to make a shrimp stock. (It’s quick only takes 1/2 hour! But you could also use clam juice or even chicken stock.)  He sauteed onion and garlic with some herbs in a mixture of butter and oil (not too much.) He adds Pernod to the mixture and cooks it off. Now this enhanced stock is the poaching liquid for the shrimp.

In the meantime I make some couscous because it will be good for sopping up the stock and broccoli because, duh, vegetables. We still need a few tweaks, maybe more butter. Nonetheless this was a very good dish.

Our version of drunken shrimp with couscous and broccoli

 

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