Grilled ribeye with broccoli and grilled potato
Today we went and worked out with trainers. It was intense and we decided that instead of a vegetarian dinner we needed MEAT! John, of course, grilled the meat perfectly and I first par -cooked the potato in the microwave and then John finished it on the grill. Broccoli was simply steamed.
Curried shrimp with cherry tomatoes and rice
Note: For a vegan dish substitute tofu for shrimp.
This is an adaptation of a recipe I saw on the NYTimes cooking site. Their version has it served over rice noodles but I thought that rice would be a better absorber of the sauce.
John went to work today which gave me some solo time in the kitchen to try something new. I cannot seem to link the recipe but you can find it at the NYTimes Cooking site as Curry Noodles with Shrimp and Coconut. They also suggest that it can be made with tofu for vegans and vegetarians.
I still need to work on this recipe a bit. It needed more spice and a less sharp flavor. We added more curry at the end and some butter and additional fish sauce. But it was fun toasting the various spices and grinding them. Plus my daughter and I used the spice search to clean out our cupboard of old, stale spices.!
Red bell peppers stuffed with farro and mushrooms
We were away for the weekend celebrating our anniversary. We had such a good time going to a winemaker’s dinner and eating tapas in Sonoma, CA.
We loved the tapas place, Tasca Tasca, right off the square. Here is a picture of the tapas plate we had.
Tapas from Tasca Tasca included smoked duck, tuna ceviche, anchovies, and goat stew!
But it is reality time and we cannot keep eating like we are celebrating all the time. When we got back on Monday I made stuffed peppers. I had bought a package of six peppers at Costco and it was time to use them before they went bad. I cooked the farro using the oven method and mixed it with a bunch of brown mushrooms sautéed until they were dry plus some onions, garlic, Fresno chile, bell pepper, oregano, and seasoning. Then I added some jarred spaghetti sauce and cooked it briefly all together. I split the peppers in half and microwaved them for five minutes until they were pliable. Each of the twelve halves got a half cup of the farro mixture. I baked the whole thing in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes.
We ate two halves each on Monday and Tuesday and we have a portion left for later in the week!
Recently I was watching a program on how to improve the quality of one’s eating. Some nutrition expert was saying that you can eat whatever you want as long as you make it. Well, that would really slow me down when it comes to some of my favorites like potato chips! But there is a lot of good advice in what he said. Take my pulled pork dinner for instance.
If we had not made the pulled pork and the coleslaw at home, I am sure the calories would have doubled. John carefully trimmed the meat of excess fat and thoroughly drained any accumulated fat after cooking. We left the cooking liquid to cool in the refrigerator overnight so the fat would separate out and then we removed it.
For the coleslaw, instead of using a lot of mayonnaise and/or sour cream I used a little low fat mayo, non-fat yogurt, mustard, and vinegar. The black beans were spiced with cumin and Tabasco and mixed with tomatoes and a jalapeño. Their creaminess was due to mashing some of them up after cooking.
Making your own meals at home where you control the ingredients means that you can have some guilty pleasures without the guilt!
Pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and black beans
A while ago we bought frozen sea scallops from Costco. We have been disappointed in them. Even though there is no indication on the label that they have been treated with tripolyphosphate, they ooze that telltale milky liquid and refuse to get a good sear. Sea scallops are not cheap and I needed to find something to do with them. I thought breading and frying them might work and it did!
Fried scallops with collard greens and corn (plus a little leftover couscous from last night)
They came out moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. Now we never make fried food except when John makes latkes at holiday time. And frying is definitely not dining light. However, at least it was shellfish which is about as low as you can go calorie-wise for a protein. I still have another big bag of them so I am thinking of having a family dinner to use them up.
Here again I am breaking with my tradition and having chicken on Tuesday instead of Monday. It is always my intention to wash the sheets and make chicken on Monday but life often interferes. Given the success of last week’s chicken, we tried glazing the chicken breasts with BBQ sauce again. Same good result!
BBQ glazed chicken breast, lemon-garlic couscous, and steamed broccoli
John pan-roasted the chicken by cooking it on the stovetop part of the way, then basting it with the BBQ sauce, and finally roasting it in the oven for 5 minutes at 250F. Once the chicken went into the oven I quickly steamed the broccoli, and made the couscous. For the couscous I sautéed 2 cloves of garlic with some turmeric and lemon zest, then added 1 1/3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 cup of couscous, next took it off the heat, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Before fluffing it up I added 1/4 cup cilantro and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, plus a sliced green onion. It required more salt in the final seasoning.
Yesterday I did not post anything because I had a really late lunch after I got my hair cut. We ended up picking at stuff from the refrigerator around 9 PM instead of having a real meal.
I had made and shopped for a menu for the week. Luckily I had two nights where there was takeout food or going to the local sushi place so I had plenty of wiggle room.
Tonight’s dinner I am not really proud of but it tasted pretty yummy. John grilled hamburgers (not too large) and toasted the buns giving them a delicious char. I made a garden salad which included some of Sarah’s lovely cherry tomatoes from the backyard and, I am embarrassed to say, tater tots.
Grilled hamburger, garden salad and tater tots
Penne in peanut sauce with shrimp, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots
Put some water on to boil. In the meantime cut up the vegetables. Drop in the pasta when the water boils. Heat a pan with some olive oil. Put in the pan in this order mushrooms, onions, carrots, and garlic. About two minutes before the penne is al dente, add the shrimp and broccoli to the saute pan. Then add cooked pasta. Dress with peanut sauce.
I decided to scrap the puzzles. I love them and will continue to do crosswords every day. But I need to marshall my resources towards my main theme. I am having a lot of trouble right now eating reasonably so, FOCUS! Maybe I shall start including recipes. The problem is that it is very hard for me to say a pinch of this, a half cup of something else. Mostly I combine a bunch of stuff and keep adding and tweaking until it tastes right.
So, tonight’s dinner. We are trying to de-clutter the freezer and came across this prime steak that we had bought with some others at Costco for a dinner party. It was small and so a good size for the two of us.
Grilled rib eye steak with steamed new potatoes and Caesar salad served with a 2000 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages
We were feeling bummed because we had just watched Federer lose in the semi-finals of Wimbledon. But as a salute to our tennis hero, we opened this bottle of wine that was bottled when he was eighteen and we were much younger! Although John cooked the meat quite rare, it was still wonderful. I steamed the potatoes and assembled the salad with croutons that I sautéed slowly in some butter and olive oil plus thyme. I have made croutons in the oven and on the stovetop and trust me, the ones on the stovetop are infinitely better. Some new potatoes were steamed and served with olive oil and parsley.
Ground turkey and mushroom chili
One of the problems with making chili with ground turkey instead of beef is that you lose a depth of flavor. One way to combat this is to use mushrooms which add umami. I made short work of the vegetables today by using the food processor. The mushrooms, onions, Fresno chiles, poblano chile, and the red bell pepper were all chopped with a few short pulses. John assembled a teabag of herbs and spices and did the cooking. We let if simmer for a few hours. At the end we did a seasoning adjustment and John added Tabasco to make his spicier.
Today’s NYTimes Crossword was less food related than usual. Just ovens and BLTS. I know you can cook bacon in the oven but I never have more than a strip or two at a time so I just use the microwave. It’s faster and doesn’t heat up the kitchen.
NYTimes Crossword 7/7/2016
Omnivore 