Chicken Monday highlighting rutabagas! – 2/27/17

Sous vide chicken breast with broccoli and rutabagas

Sous vide chicken breast with broccoli and rutabagas

I was looking back and I see that I had this exact same dinner on February 2nd.  What can I say? It is a favorite for Chicken Monday (or chicken anyday.) So since this is the same old-same old I thought I might talk about rutabagas.

Rutabagas, swedes or neeps are a cross between turnips and cabbage. A staple in Northern Europe they are eaten as a winter vegetable in the U.S. Most often they are boiled and mashed with potatoes or carrots and butter. For a 3.5 oz. serving they only contain 38 calories. So they taste like a starch but calorie count like a vegetable. They have a sweet cabbage-y kind of flavor and are high in vitamin C.

After peeling the outer and under skin I cut them into small pieces an microwave them in a covered dish for 10 or so minutes on high with a little water and salt. Then I mash them up and add a little butter. I have also made them in the pressure cooker which is much faster but entails more clean-up. As  you see I serve them with some chicken gravy. As a child we only had rutabagas on Thanksgiving so it always gives my meal a holiday feel even though I probably eat them twice a month.

Yum, rutabagas!

Yum, rutabagas!

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Out to lunch – Lamb Kebab! – 2/26/17

Chicken and lamb kebab platter from Sultan's Kebab

Chicken and lamb kebab platter

Today our son came over for some tennis and lunch.  He got to choose the luncheon spot. We ended up at a Mediterranean place and I had the lamb kebab platter. (I know this shows lamb and chicken but I forgot to take a picture and this is what I could find on the internet.) It was tasty although some of the pieces were a little tough.

Needless to say we were not hungry for dinner. We had an abbreviated breakfast for dinner. I am having trouble with asthma and I am trying to find foods that will help the condition. I will see how that works out starting tomorrow.

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Nuts and bolts and leftovers – 2/25/17

Curried fried rice

Curried fried rice

We are in the process of taking down our old window coverings and getting shutters next week. John is up and down the ladder and I am in charge of having bits and pieces handed to me and me handing up other bits and pieces as we move around the house. At the end of the day, who wants to cook!?

So we rummage around the refrigerator. We have three different rices! There is white rice from Chinese take-out, brown rice from earlier in the week, and curried rice from two nights ago. Mix them all together, add some Asian flavors, and an egg, and we have dinner!

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Lamb chops with Brussels sprouts and rice

Lamb chops with Brussels sprouts and rice

Lamb chops with Brussels sprouts and rice

As I have mentioned before lamb chops are not photogenic. John grilled them and I heated up the brown rice that we had earlier in the week and I also prepared the Brussels sprouts. In our family they are known as Incredibly Yummy Brussels Sprouts.

I made up the Brussels sprouts recipe myself! Here it is –

Take about 20 or so Brussels sprouts, trim the root end, and peel off undesirable outer leaves. Cut in half. Wash. Lay the sprouts cut side down in a pan. Add about 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a sprinkling of sugar (not even an 1/8 of a teaspoon.) Take one or two teaspoons of cold butter and dot it around the pan. How much you use depends on how low in fat you want this to be. You do need some fat for the browning. Cover. Bring the water to a boil and cook for 4 or 5 minutes. The sprouts should still be a little underdone at this point. Take off the lid. Continue to boil rapidly. When there is just a little water left add a teaspoon or so of dry sherry. Let that boil away. Turn down the heat a little. Let the sprouts remain in the pan until the cut side is nicely brown. They will be sweet and delicious. The sugar aids in the browning and the sherry enhances the nuttiness of the sprouts.

Yum!

Yum!

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Penne, meatballs, tomato sauce, ho-hum – 2/23/17

Penne with meatballs and tomato sauce

Penne with meatballs and tomato sauce

Boring. Easy. Quick. That about sums up Thursday’s dinner. The sauce was leftover and frozen from some previous Italian-inspired dinner and the meatballs come frozen in a bag. We cooked the penne.  It is embarrassing to post this but I need to keep the blog 100.

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Comfort curry – 2/22/17

Curried chicken and rice with vegetables

Curried chicken and rice with vegetables

Having undergone the trauma of the past four days, we decided on some comfort food.  John made up his spice blend and cooked it in some oil with the onions, garlic, and ginger to round out the flavors. Then he added the pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and the rice along with the raisins and carrots. After it had simmered until the rice and chicken were cooked through, he added the broccoli. A warm and comforting dish on a cold (but unrainy) night.

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Please just a normal dinner and no more driving – 2/21/17

All we want is a normal dinner tonight. No more eating crap on the road. We decide to share a chicken breast, rice, and asparagus. I bought asparagus in St. George for $1.77 a pound (WOW). It made the return trip with us. I steamed it and put a pat of butter on top. I also prepared brown rice using the oven technique and added diced vegetables to it.  John sous vide the chicken breast. I added some BBQ sauce to mine.

The saga of the roof continues. Today a roofer came. He finds that we have two leaks and that is why it is still leaking. He will fix it on Saturday. At least there is no rain in the forecast before that. I am so done with the rain.

Chicken with rice and asparagus (plus the new issue of Milk Street!)

Chicken with rice and asparagus (plus the new issue of Milk Street!)

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On the road again, Part 2 – 2/20/17

We arrived in SG around 2PM on Sunday. We plan a dinner of burgers but after having a late lunch decide that we are too full to eat dinner. We have an English muffin with peanut butter instead.

On Monday we get a text from our daughter. It has rained very hard and the roof is leaking big time. Shortly after lunch we get in the car and start the trip back to California. We stop again in Barstow. We eat again at Chili’s. I get the ancho salmon off their “light an healthy” menu. It’s pretty good but it seems like it should count for more than 590 calories. I give some to John.

Chili's ancho salmon with citrus rice and steamed broccoli

Chili’s ancho salmon with citrus rice and steamed broccoli

The plating was pretty messy.

After forgetting to turn my clock back to Pacific time, I set the alarm for 5:30 AM and we get up at 4:30 AM. After a quick cup of coffee we are in the car again and arrive home around noon on Tuesday. We are exhausted. We have driven around 1400 miles in the last four days. We are too old for this.

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On the road again – 2/18/17

So we did not leave for St. George on Friday. We thought the leak in the roof was fixed but it was not. However, the crew came back on Friday afternoon and assured us that now they had really fixed it and so we left on Saturday. Our plan was to stay over in Barstow, CA and then drive the rest of the way on Sunday. The distance is 660 miles and that is a lot for the two of us to do in one day especially if we are driving east and losing an hour as we pass from Pacific to Mountain time.

One of the things we enjoy doing on our trips is to stop and have breakfast at McDonalds. Sometimes we get a McMuffin with no cheese but lately we have been getting the Big Breakfast which consists of scrambled eggs, an unbuttered toasted English muffin, a flat sausage patty, and a hash brown potato cake. DO NOT EAT THE HASH BROWNS!!  They are deliciously evil. I give mine to John.

McDonalds Big Breakfast

McDonalds Big Breakfast

That potato thingy in the upper left hand side of the picture? DO NOT EAT IT! They also give you some strawberry jam and butter.

Later we eat at Chili’s for dinner. It is right across the parking lot from our hotel. Because I already have had a lot to eat today, I just have a version of my “sad lunch.” Instead of the broccoli I have asparagus with my salad and shrimp.

I substituted asparagus for broccoli in my "sad" dinner salad

I substituted asparagus for broccoli in my “sad” dinner salad

Thus fortified we retired for the evening in preparation for the rest of the trip the next day.

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Fajitas and fixins’ – 2/16/17

Steak fajitas, black beans, and rice

Steak fajitas, black beans, and rice

I am still trying to use up stuff in the refrigerator. We have so many tortillas! They don’t come in a package size for two people who don’t eat tortillas every night!! After tonight we will have fewer. I am also finishing up rice from Chinese takeout night. Some salsa and seasoning makes the rice seem less Chinese. This was a very filling dinner. Not really dining lite ☹️.

We will be eating on the road tomorrow. Next post on Saturday.

 

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