Friday was our official celebrating of John’s birthday so we went out to dinner. I had a disappointing shrimp risotto which was more like some shrimp on a bed of rice swimming in chicken stock. On the plus side I was not enticed to eat the whole thing. Mostly I ate the shrimp and picked out the vegetables. Sigh.
Shrimp risotto?
Salad, tots, and a burger
Tonight I made a big salad with lots of components to have alongside of some tater tots and a burger. I try to cover the majority of my plate with vegetables. I guess it assuages some of the guilt from the rest of the plate.
Interestingly, John added baking soda along with salt and pepper to the ground beef. According to Cook’s Illustrated the baking soda “raises the pH on the meat’s surface, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond excessively, which keeps the meat tender and moist when it’s cooked.” The burgers turned out very well. They were firm and cooked without being dried out.
First happy birthday to my wonderful husband, John, who cooks all the animal proteins in our dinners! Second, my dining experience eating Italian food on our trip home was pretty good. I brought more than half of it home. So, yay me!
We are doing the actual celebrating of John’s birthday on Friday so tonight I bought a pre-cooked whole chicken. As I said, I don’t cook animal proteins. That is John’s job but, since it was his birthday and he wanted chicken, my solution was to buy one already cooked!
I also made a warm potato salad dressed with olive oil and rice vinegar and prepared a salad. It was all tasty and John had a happy birthday. (P.S. I also don’t make desserts so no birthday cake!)
Store bought chicken with warm potato salad and a green salad
I have gotten a few days behind because we were traveling and I was also a little lax on eating correctly. It happens! And when it does learn from the experience and move forward. There is nothing to be gained by wallowing in guilt for bad food choices!
To wit, yesterday we got a pizza, today we ate a delicious vegetarian dinner, and tomorrow we are eating out, probably at an Italian restaurant in Bakersfield. Hopefully I will choose wisely.
Back to today! This is a rendition of my chickpea stew except we didn’t have any chickpeas so I used cannellini beans instead. We made a lot so there are containers of goodness in the freezer for the next time we visit Utah. Planning ahead is always a good idea.
Canellini stew with toasted pita
Besides the beans there are onions, garlic, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, vegetable broth, ditalini, and greens from a dark greens mix. We served ours with a grate of Parmesan cheese, some good olive oil, and chopped green onions.
Note: For vegan version eliminate Parmesan cheese
Shrimp tacos and black beans
Easy shrimp dinner with mango-peach salsa on the tacos and spicy tomato salsa in the black beans.
As the sun sets in St. George, it is time to light up the grill. The heat has started to abate and it is nice to be outside and enjoy the scenery.
Dusk arrives at the pond behind our house
One reason that I enjoy a grilled dinner is that there are fewer dishes and pots and pans. But the best reason is because John does the majority of the cooking.
John is ready to make our grilled dinner
John makes ribeye steak and potatoes. I make steamed broccoli. I also microwave the potatoes until almost done and then hand them over to be grilled. For my steak John coils the beef cap into one cohesive piece and for himself takes the eye and bone portion. Over the years we have become very compatible diners.
Grilled ribeye steak and potato with steamed broccoli
Since we are constantly to and fro-ing, it seems like we exist in semi-constant eat-down mode. A great dish for leftovers and bits and pieces is fried rice.
Newly made leftovers fried rice
John made this from leftover white rice from Sunday’s Chinese take-out, the remnants of the flank steak from last night as well as the green beans, a little turkey sausage from a lentil stew, some tired mushrooms, and whatever other vegetables existed in the crisper. He also scrambled up an egg and used soy sauce and sesame oil for flavor.
After our usual Sunday dinner of Chinese take-out, on Monday we discovered that we did not have chicken left in the freezer for Chicken Monday! So I defrosted a flank steak that John marinated and grilled while I steamed new potatoes and some lovely haricot vert that I found at the farmers’ market on Saturday.
Grilled flank steak with new potatoes and haricot vert
We had the family over on Saturday and a grilled lunch of Zaydeburgers, corn on the cob, fruit salad, and cranberry pound cake. Zaydeburgers are hamburgers that John makes and grills. They are often a request by the grandkids. We all went to the Farmers’ Market to pick out fruit and corn plus we bought a giant bag of kettle corn. Sarah made a cranberry pound cake.
We played street tennis and threw around a football. Of course I forgot to take food pictures because it was so busy but here is a picture of cherry tomatoes growing in the backyard out of the bottom of a hanging basket. (Sarah took her own picture of the pound cake.)
Cherry tomatoes ripening
Lentil soup with turkey sausage
Last week I made a new recipe, lentils with middle eastern spices. There was a bunch left over. I took that leftover portion and added turkey sausage plus additional carrots and celery. Easy and tasty!
Omnivore 