New recipe! Curried butternut squash and chickpeas – 1/31/17

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Beebamom
Curried butternut squash and chickpeas

Curried butternut squash and chickpeas

Curried butternut squash and chickpeas is a recipe I found through Food and Wine Magazine. It was pretty good except I would tweak it a bit if I made it again. The recipe called for the curry powder and cayenne pepper to be mixed in with the squash and chickpeas along with the olive oil. I would put the spices and oil in a pan and cook them first. Just putting them on the squash and chickpeas left them gritty and harsh. Also, in the crema yogurt, cilantro, and lemon juice are called for. It tastes better if a little cumin is added.

Except for the fact that it took quite a while to peel and chop up the butternut squash, this was a good recipe and I will make it again (with the changes noted above.)

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Chicken Monday and a new resolve – 1/30/17

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Beebamom

I see it has been a week since I posted. Part of that is due to the fact that we were en route back home and most of it is because I have been eating terribly. On December 1 I decided to take control of my diet and on January 30 I had gained a half a pound. That means not only did I not eat properly for 2 months but that I made negative progress. So I am done with that. No more snacking on chips and wine before dinner, no more eating lots of red meats, no more slathering butter on things.  I have got 6 weeks until we leave for our trip to Italy. I would really like to lose 10 pounds!

Sous vide chicken breast with rutabagas and broccoli

Sous vide chicken breast with rutabagas and broccoli

Oh, ho hum, boring, you might think. But when you are filled with the zeal of accomplishing a goal, this is a mighty fine dinner. John and I split a chicken breast and I cooked up some vegetables. We used our packet gravy. This was a satisfying dinner and afterward I was satisfied with myself.

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Chicken piccata Monday – 1/23/17

Posted on January 24, 2017 by Beebamom
Chicken piccata with rice and broccoli

Chicken piccata with rice and broccoli

I was talking to my sister today. It’s her birthday! She told me that she had her kids and their wives over for dinner on Saturday as a celebration. Of course as a mom the celebration of her birthday meant that she did the cooking and clean-up. She told me that she had made chicken piccata and since she was making it for six people she dusted the chicken breasts with flour, sautéed them, and then set them aside while she made the sauce. Then she put the chicken breasts with sauce on top in a casserole dish and popped it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. So I thought what a good idea for Chicken Monday.

After explaining to John what he needed to do we went ahead and prepared dinner. While the chicken was being prepared I made rice and broccoli.  It turned out really well! But now we’ve ended up with more leftovers right before we are going home and I’ve already made soup!!

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Scotch broth – 1/23/17

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Beebamom
Scotch broth

Scotch broth

Since we are leaving for home later this week it is time for leftover soup. This soup was made with the lamb chop that I didn’t eat on Saturday and about an inch of turkey sausage plus an ancient pack of barley, and all the other vegetables that we have left. This makes a fine lunch for today and tomorrow and if there is still some left I will freeze it and it will be waiting for us the next time we come.

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Easy pasta dinner – 1/22/17

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Beebamom
Penne and meatballs

Penne and meatballs

We still had some frozen meatballs from when Jon visited in October so decided to make a very easy dinner of penne, with doctored, jarred spaghetti sauce and meatballs. Very enjoyable!

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An underutilized protein – Lamb. 1/21/17

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Beebamom
Lamb chop with sweet potato and Brussels sprouts

Lamb chop with sweet potato and Brussels sprouts

We really enjoy the Australian lamb that is available at Costco. The amount of lamb that Americans eat is minuscule compared with beef consumption. John grilled the lamb and also finished the sweet potatoes on the grill. When everything was almost ready I put on the B. sprouts and got them streamed and then browned in a bit of butter and sherry. Since John made us two lamb chops each and I ate only ate one, my plan is to make Scotch broth with the remaining chop.

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Don’t pay for extra toppings on your take-out pizza – 1/19/17

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Beebamom

Seriously, who can make better toppings for their pizza than the local pizza place – YOU! Usually the vegetable toppings, especially the vegetable toppings, are sadly undercooked or too sparse. Is their anything worse than crunchy uncooked veg on a pizza? Well, yes, the horrible crust that you get in most places.  But other than that, no! I always make my own sautéed mushrooms and caramalized onions if we are having pizza.  Since we don’t have pizza too often (except when we are in Italy, yum!), I want it to be as wonderful as possible.

Sautéed mushrooms and onions awaiting pizza

Sautéed mushrooms and onions awaiting pizza

 

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Fajitas – 1/18/17

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Beebamom

Fajitas are a Tex-Mex dish and the word “fajitas” means little strips of meat.  In the recipes I looked at most called for skirt steak but what we had was leftover ribeye steak from the “too rare” night. Unfortunately ribeye doesn’t translate well into fajitas. The flavor of the sauce overwhelmed the more subtle beef flavor. Dinner was enjoyable anyway.

Leftover steak fajitas

Leftover steak fajitas with Mexican-ish rice

I jazzed up some Rotel to add to the leftover rice medley and to use as salsa on the fajitas. That’s not sour cream, it is crema made from non-fat yogurt with some salt and cumin. Wish this had been better but it was still fun to eat.

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My First Vegan Day (I think) – 1/17/17

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Beebamom

Today I made a conscious effort to have a total vegan day.  Maybe I have eaten vegan at other times by happenstance. Today I decided to keep my diet plant based. For breakfast I had peanut butter on toast.  For lunch I had hummus, tabbouleh, and salad with pita.  Now I just needed to keep it going.

I saw a recipe on the New York Times cooking site that I thought would be tasty and could be adapted to be vegan and decided to give it a try.

Lentil soup with lemon, an adaptation of a New Yourk Times Cooking recipe

Lentil soup with lemon, an adaptation of a New York Times Cooking recipe

This recipe, I thought, would work well in case John wanted to put some sausage in it. The original recipe called for red lentils and some chicken stock. I used brown lentils and water. I bulked up the the vegetables and as it turned out John was okay with no meat. Here’s the original recipe  – http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016062-red-lentil-soup-with-lemon.

Aothough I am more of carnivore and probably definitely more of vegetarian than a vegan, I enjoyed my day and think it would be good to incorporate one of these days into each week.

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Chicken Monday – 1/16/17

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Beebamom

Just a regular chicken Monday. Boneless skinless chicken breast, green beans, butternut squash, and a little packet gravy. The breasts were 8 ounces each so we have leftovers but we ate up all the vegetables.

Butternut squash cut in half and seasoned with salt, nutmeg, and a little olive oil

Butternut squash cut in half and seasoned with salt, nutmeg, and a little olive oil

After about an hour at 400F the squash is ready to be scooped out and mashed

After about an hour at 400F the squash is ready to be scooped out and mashed

McCormick's Chicken Gravy, only 20 calories for 1/4 cup

McCormick’s Chicken Gravy, only 20 calories for 1/4 cup

Pan roasted chicken breast with butternut squash and green beans

Pan roasted chicken breast with butternut squash and green beans

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