New Year’s Eve – 12/31/16

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Beebamom

Well so long to shitty 2016. I have bronchitis which seems like a fitting way to ring out this year when we elected a terrible person for President and realized for sure that there are a lot of racists and women haters out there. But, hey, might as well drink some wine and eat some steak and bury our heads in the sand.

Italian salad

Italian salad

We start with a tasty shredded Italian salad. I make some croutons and slice some cherry tomatoes on top.

Next John sous vide and sears a rib cap steak and I make a vast tray of roasted root vegetables – potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, onions, and carrots. It seems we will never be able to eat it all but we do.

Happy New Year!

Rib cap steak with roasted root vegetables

Rib cap steak with roasted root vegetables

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Homage to Hanukkah – 12/30/16

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Beebamom

Since we are a multicultural household we celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays. Plus since we were busy on the first day of Hanukkah celebrating Christmas Eve we missed having our usual Hanukkah treat, potato latkes. Tonight’s dinner was an opportunity to make amends with a not exactly traditional dinner. Our fried entree was takeout hot and sour soup with crispy noodles on top and potstickers! Yum!

Hot and sour soup with crispy noodles

Hot and sour soup with crispy noodles

Potstickers

Potstickers

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A versatile dinner dish – 12/29/16

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Beebamom
Rigatoni with chicken, corn, and brocoli

Rigatoni with chicken, corn, and broccoli

A big bowl of pasta – who doesn’t love it?! While we made ours with some leftover chicken and chicken stock, you could scramble an egg and toss it with the pasta and vegetable stock, or add some tofu and just pasta water. While the rigatoni cooked, I sautéed some onions and garlic, then in went some frozen corn kernels and the chicken stock and thyme sprigs. When the pasta was just about done I added the broccoli and chicken. Dump the pasta into the sauce and cook it a little more adding pasta water if it needs more liquid. A drizzle of olive oil and some green onions and dinner is done in well under 1/2 hour.

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Straighter and narrower – 12/28/16

Posted on December 29, 2016 by Beebamom

Dinner tonight was back on track! John sous vide a boneless skinless chicken breast using his new container and vacuum sealer. I made broccoli (again!) and rutabagas using my new ceramic knives. I cooked the rutabagas in the microwave which made for a much easier clean up. The pressure cooker may be a little faster but it is kind of a production. John also made up a packet of chicken gravy (25 calories for a quarter of a cup) so the dinner seemed less diet-y. We didn’t eat up all the chicken so tomorrow night’s dinner will be chicken pasta with, you guessed it, broccoli!

Chicken breast with gravy, mashed rutabagas, and broccoli

Chicken breast with gravy, mashed rutabagas, and broccoli

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Woeful dieter – 12/26/16

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Beebamom

Last night for dinner we had some leftovers  from the Christmas feast and from the hors d’oeuvres on Pilat Eve. There are so many delicious but evil things in the refrigerator! After munching on some chips and dip with leftover wine, we had the cocktail meatballs and mashed potatoes with gravy. We also ate leftover creamed onions. I guess the only healthy thing we ate was broccoli. We had some cookies for dessert. I am a woeful dieter. My only consolation after all this eating is that tomorrow is a new day and I can make better choices.

img_3401

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Take-out strategy – 12/21/16

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Beebamom

When we get take-out from our local Chinese restaurant we frequently order more than we are planning on eating that night. So last week we ordered our usual moo shu and Mongolian beef but we also got a container of hot and sour soup. I know chances are that during this busy holiday season there will be times when I don’t feel like cooking or have forgotten to take something out to defrost. And there is the hot and sour soup waiting to rescue the situation.

Hot and sour soup

Hot and sour soup

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A scrummy dinner – 12/19/16

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Beebamom

Just learned today that “scrummy” is British for scrumptious. I was reading a site where people were talking about eating the skins of various squashes and calling them scrummy.  Squash skin, though, cannot hold a candle to our delicious dinner of Monday night.

I was feeling like something braised such as short ribs. Since our store wasn’t carrying short riba except for flanken style, we bought some chuck roast. It turned out lucious and the gravy from it was wonderful especially paired with Harry’s Mashed Potatoes with Creme Fraiche. (I may never make mashed potatoes again!) In my picture there is no way to make my mountain of mashed potatoes look small.  Mea culpa.

Braised chuck roast with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Braised chuck roast with mashed potatoes and broccoli

 

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Meatless Sunday – 12/18/16

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Beebamom

It appears that one of my pre-new year’s resolutions is to throw my weekly standards out the window.  No more chicken Monday, giant-bowl-of-food Tuesday, Chinese Sunday, and meatless whenever! Much like our deplorable “unpresidented” soon-to-be president, I shall keep everyone guessing about what is happening next.

Cellentani with broccoli and carrots in peanut sauce

Cellentani with broccoli and carrots in peanut sauce

This is a delicious vegan meal. It’s good to look at and good to eat. While I try to keep the whole day meatless, I am much better at keeping it vegetarian rather than vegan. I ate toast with butter for breakfast, lentil soup for lunch with half of a mayo, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, and then the celletani for dinner.

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Please, only notice the salad – 12/17/16

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Beebamom

I took this picture of our dinner tonight and I think I was trying to highlight the fact that I had salad and lowlight the fact there is steak and tater tots on the plate! Seriously the only reason that we are eating evil things is that we have a lot of stuff that needs to fit in the freezer so we need to eat up the stuff that is taking up room.

Ribeye steak with tater tots and salad

Ribeye steak with tater tots and salad

That being said it was a pretty great salad with a side of steak and tatertots. I do not like preparing salad for some reason so a really good salad is good therapy for me.  I even made crispy croutons seasoned with garlic, oil, and oregano! It was a good dinner with John grilling the steak, and me making the salad and tots.

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Lentil stew with turkey sausage (or not) and vegetables – 12/15/16

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Beebamom

As usual this dish cane be made vegetarian or vegan by omitting the meat.

Lentil stew with turkey sausage

Lentil stew with turkey sausage

The weather here in Northern California has taken a (California) winter turn and a warm bowl of lentil stew is the perfect dinner for a chilly night. We made the whole pound of lentils so that we would have leftovers. I use the vegetables and sausage in two ways. First I dice up some for mirepoix and sauté that in some olive oil. By doing this the lentils get to cook in a flavorful base. After simmering the lentils for 30 minutes in water or a water/chicken stock broth, I add larger chunks of carrots, celery, and sausage and cook the stew a little longer until the veg is crisp cooked and the sausage is warmed through.

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