Omnivore

Chicken fajitas – 10/10/16

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Beebamom

Mexico is our first stop on our culinary tour. We all pitched in to prepare the dinner. Jon and John worked on the meat and vegetables for the fajitas and I made the beans and rice. Here’s my two favorite guys in the kitchen.

Jon and John in the kitchen

We used boneless skinless chicken thighs sliced into strips. We bought a packet of fajita mix because I wasn’t sure I had all the spices in the house. I mixed the black beans with a little of the juice from a can of Rotel and some of the vegetables. The rest of the liquid from the Rotel went into the cooking liquid of the rice. Jon mixed up a tasty spread of sour cream and chipotles in adobo. Yum, what a great dinner!

Chicken fajitas with spicy black beans and Mexican rice

Posted in Legumes, Poultry, rice, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged black beans, chicken, chicken fajitas, Fajitas, Mexican rice | Leave a comment

Our son’s favorite meal – 10/9/16

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Beebamom

After having dinner at our friends’ house on Thursday, Chinese food on Friday, and driving to Utah on Saturday, it is time to get back to cooking!

We are spending two weeks in beautiful Utah red rock country. Our son is here for the first week and then we are going solo for the second. What better way to start off his visit than to make his favorite meal, meatballs and gravy over noodles with green beans!

Meatballs and gravy over noodles with green beans

This week we are doing a different world cuisine each night. Sunday’s dinner was plain ol’ ‘Merican. Tomorrow’s will be Mexican. Dining “lite” is a little harder when you want to please a loved one. I think the best thing to do will be to shrink portion size.

Posted in Beef, Pasta, Vegetables | Tagged gravy, green beans, meatballs, noodles | Leave a comment

Spiced eggplant with bulgur salad – new recipe – 10/5/16

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Beebamom

Spiced eggplant with bulgur salad and yougurt

Spiced eggplant with bulgur salad and yogurt

Note: For a vegan dish omit yogurt.

John had a day in the office today so I was officially in charge of dinner. Since I am cooking it usually means something vegetarian is in the offing. Tonight’s dinner is a new recipe for me from Bon Appetit by Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli chef. So we are doing a delayed celebration of Rosh Hashanah. Our daughter has made a delicious honey cake as well.

For the spiced eggplant it is basically a bunch of spices smeared atop eggplant halves and baked in the oven for about an hour. During the cooking time you can hydrate the bulgur and then add the herbs, fruit, and nuts. The dish is served with some yogurt that we added sumac to.

Here’s the recipe – http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spiced-eggplant-with-bulgur-salad

When I make it again I would cook the spices for the eggplant first since they came out a little raw tasting. Also I did not use as much oil or salt. The bulgur could have used a little more punch, maybe some chiles, and it did require quite a bit of seasoning.

The honey cake was served with sliced up plums in honey with thyme. Yum! Here is a link to her blog post with the recipe.

Honey Cake

Honey cake with plums

Posted in Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged bulgur, Eggplant, honey cake | Leave a comment

Seafood cakes! – 10/4/16

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Beebamom

Our entire dinner consisted of seafood cakes, corn, and coleslaw but I made the corn first (2 large ears in a plastic bag with some butter and microwaved 5 minutes, so easy!) and we totally devoured it before I even thought about my camera.

Demolished corn

Here is how the rest of the meal happened. We had a small piece of cod and a few shrimp in the freezer that needed using. I made crab-type cakes out of them after chopping them up and adding previously cooked onions and carrots, plus some parsley, panko breadcrumbs, an egg, a dollop of mayo, and some Old Bay and salt. While we ate the corn I let the cakes firm up in the refrigerator.

To cook, John browned them in a pan and finished them in the oven. They were a little dry due either to not enough fat or maybe too hard a sear but tasty nonetheless. I made some coleslaw with leftover cabbage from taco night and spiced it up with siracha. We made a whole dinner out of bits and pieces and leftovers! The only new ingredient was the corn.

Seafood cake with spicy coleslaw and greens

Posted in Fish, leftovers, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables | Tagged cod, coleslaw, seafood cakes, shrimp | Leave a comment

Chicken Monday on Monday! – 10/3/16

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Beebamom

Finally a proper Chicken Monday on the correct day! Lately we have been having quick cooked sides because it has been hot but Monday it was cool all day. Time to break out the root vegetables!

Sous vide chicken breast with mashed rutabagas and broccoli

John manned the immersion circulator and then finished the chicken breasts under the broiler for a little color. He also made up the packet of gravy. Rather than haul out the pressure cooker, I microwaved the rutabagas for around 20 minutes after peeling and chopping them up into fairly small chunks. Really, the peeling, which I do with my chef’s knife, is the most time consuming part of preparing the rutabagas. The broccoli was simply steamed. Both the broccoli and the rutabagas got a pat of butter.

Much like the meatloaf meal the other day, this is also comfort food to me.

Posted in Poultry, Vegetables | Tagged broccoli, chicken, rutabagas | 1 Comment

My comfort spree – 10/2/16

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Beebamom

It was chilly out on Sunday and so a perfect day for a little comfort spree. Here it is almost ready for serving –

Meatloaf, IYBS, new potatoes

IYBS, you ask? Incredibly yummy brussel sprouts! Aptly named by my family due to their quick steam and then sauté in some butter, sugar, and sherry. I got these at the farmers’ market on Saturday and when I handed over my bag, the cashier said $8.00! Guess I should have asked what the price was first.

Best thing about meatloaf? Meatloaf sandwiches the next day on white bread with ketchup!

Meatloaf, brussel sprouts, new potatoes, and a ketchup/hoisin/fish sauce combo

P.S. My menu has been revamped with Chinese take-out moved to Friday.

Posted in Beef, Vegetables | Tagged brussel sprouts, ground beef, meatloaf, new potatoes | Leave a comment

Sometimes you have to be flexible – 10/1/16

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Beebamom

First of all Happy Anniversary to our son and his wife who have been married for 16 years!

Cheerios with strawberries
Credit: https://stylethrifted.wordpress.com/

Today we invited our son and grandkids over while their mom went to garage sales with her sister and a girlfriend. Our son refers to these visits as his trifecta – tennis, lunch, and a nap! After tennis we all went out to lunch. I had a vegetarian Philly (half roll only) and some fries. John had buffalo chicken wings and a salad. After lunch and a game of chess, our company departed and we took the nap part of the trifecta. When it got to dinner time neither of us was very hungry so we ate a bowl of Cheerios with strawberries.

Sadly I will have to reprint my menu because the week is now screwed up. Sigh.

Posted in Vegetarian | Leave a comment

Cellentani with broccoli and green onions in peanut sauce – 9/30/16

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Beebamom

Cellentani with broccoli and green onions in peanut sauce

John was too full for a proper dinner tonight since he ate one of containers of leftover Moroccan chickpeas with chard for a late lunch. My lunch was somewhat smaller so I decided to go with the dinner on my menu schedule. Cellentani is also known as cavatappi which means corkscrew in Italian.

This was an easy dinner to whip up in about 15 minutes. I love the spicy peanut sauce and I will never say no to pasta.

Posted in Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged broccoli, green onions, pasta, Peanut sauce | Leave a comment

Kap’n Mom’s Kitchen – 9/29/16

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Beebamom

We had some dining rules of the road when the kids were little and we were taking a vacation. When eating in a bad food state never choose a menu item having more than basic steps. The classic example would be, “kill cow, cook cow, eat cow.” The more steps the more trouble. We refer to this and others as Utah rules.

Never eat in a place called by a relative’s name, i.e., Mom’s, Aunt’s, Dad’s, Grandma’s, etc. Or a military name such as Captain’s. Beware of the adjective “home made” or its scary cousin “homade.” Avoid all dialect restaurant names such as “Unca Jim’s Homade Cookin'”. And lastly do not patronize a place which uses alternative spellings such as Olde, Shoppe, or Kountry.

The epic example of this was when our son suggested to his grandmother when faced with another one of her horrible meals was that she should open a restaurant named Kap’n Mom’s Kitchen. She was pleased. The rest of us could barely meet each others’ eyes. It is family lore.

Anyway I have taken to posting the next few days menus in the kitchen as such…

Kap’n Mom’s Kitchen

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Moroccan chickpeas with chard – New recipe – 9/27/16

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Beebamom

Moroccan chickpeas with chard

We made this recipe almost exactly as published by NY Times. I always figure the first time you try something you should more or less stick with what’s written. It turned out very well. We served it with some rice.

The pluses to this recipe is that it is vegan and healthy. The flavor of the spices is warm and inviting. It uses under-utilized vegetables such as turnips and fennel. If you use canned chickpeas the cooking time is not long. The recipe makes a lot.

The minuses are that there is a LOT of chopping up. I found the chard stems too bitter for the dish. Before I just chucked them in I tasted them and decided to eliminate them. I am concerned that the dried apricots that I got from the bulk foods section of the market had sulfites because I have been very wheezy since I ate this.

I would definitely make this again probably continuing to use canned chickpeas, checking the dried fruit for sulfites or maybe using raisins instead, buying a bag of already chopped up and washed greens, and either making some preserved lemons or finding somewhere to buy some. Note: I used Mark Bittman’s fast preserved lemon recipe for faux preserved lemons in three hours.

Here’s the recipe::

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017228-moroccan-chickpeas-with-chard?action=click&module=Recipebox&region=all&pgType=recipebox&rank=31

Posted in Legumes, rice, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged carrots, chard, chickpeas, fennel, garlic, Moroccan, onion, rice, turnips | Leave a comment