Grilled hamburger and salad. 4/9/25

Grilled hamburger and salad

John cooked the burgers and I made the salad. Great dinner in less than a half hour!

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Whole grain penne with tuna, zucchini, and herbs. 4/8/25

Whole grain penne with tuna, zucchini, and herbs

I had a partially used package of mint that I wanted to use before it went bad. So I googled mint recipes and found this one from NYTimes Cooking.

https://recipekeeperonline.com/recipe/gHwiS0Yl2U-azD061aVrTw

Recipekeeperonline.com is where I keep all my recipes that I run across when searching online. It has lots of ways to organize your recipes.

Of course I adapted the recipe with what I had on hand or thought would work better. I changed the spaghetti into whole grain penne. For the spiciness I added sriracha. I like its slightly sweet spicy flavor. Since I had both mint and cilantro I added both. With the exception of the herbs and zucchini the dish used pantry staples. John and I thought it was pretty tasty and will probably make it again.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Italian, Pasta, pescatarian, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Classic chicken dinner. 4/7/25

Monday’s classic chicken dinner harkens back to the years when we always had chicken on Monday. It is an easy, comforting dinner. John made the packet chicken gravy and warmed the sliced rotisserie chicken breast in it. I tried the Idahoan brand of instant mashed potatoes whose directions called for 2 cups of boiling water and no other ingredients. I liked it better than other brands I have tried. It tasted like potatoes! I also made the rest of the asparagus that I bought for $1.97/lb! I cut the spears in half so it looked like we were each getting a hearty portion. We really enjoyed our easy Monday classic chicken dinner.

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Weekly Menu April 7-13

Screenshot
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Grilled steak, potatoes, and asparagus. 4/5/25

John cooked the steak on the grill perfectly. He also put a little char on the potatoes I had microwaved earlier. The asparagus cooked in a little water and butter. This was an easy dinner full of flavor.

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Sicilian Swordfish. 4/4/25

Individually frozen 6 oz. portions of swordfish were on sale at our local grocery store a few weeks ago. We have had some good swordfish in Italy so we went about looking for an Italian recipe that looked tasty and possible for us to make. John was in charge of cooking the fish and I made the sauce. The sauce consists of tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes), capers, pine nuts, onions, and olives. I think it came out tasting really good! The sauce went really well with the fish and we had some bread to sop up the rest. Six ounces of fish is too much for me so I have a hunk left over for lunch today!

Below is a link to the recipe.

https://www.seriouseats.com/agghiotta-di-pesce-spada-sicilian-braised-swordfish-with-tomatoes-and-olives-5212333

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Shrimp scampi with rice and snow peas. 4/3/25

Shrimp scampi with rice and snow peas

We chose rice as the starch to soak up the garlicky sauce of shrimp scampi. Pasta would work well too. I am including the recipe. Be careful with the lemon juice, tasting and adding a little at a time. You don’t want it to take over the dish.

 Shrimp Scampi

Serves 2

4 ounces pasta or 1 cup cooked rice

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

Pinch of crushed red pepper

12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (21-25 count)

Salt to taste

¼ low-sodium chicken broth

¼ cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon lemon juice or to taste

6 pitted and chopped olives or 2 tablespoons of capers

3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

½ tablespoon grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons butter (optional)

Cook the pasta or rice according to package direction. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring until the shallots are soft, about 1 minute. Add the shrimp and the salt and cook over medium high heat turning occasionally until the shrimp are opaque, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the broth, wine, lemon juice, and olives or capers. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute and then reduce the heat to medium. Add the parsley, the zest, and the optional butter stirring to coat the shrimp and remove from heat. Plate the shrimp on the rice or pasta and drizzle the remaining sauce over.

Serve in bowls.

Posted in American, Italian, pescatarian, rice, Shellfish, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chicken enchiladas. 4/2/25

Chicken Enchiladas

The chicken enchiladas that we make are stuffed with shredded chicken, chopped onions, cheese, and a bit of salsa verde. What made these especially good was the medium spicy salsa by Las Palmas and shredded habanero pepper jack cheese. They were spicy and the cheese that we grated ourselves melted really nicely on top of the enchiladas.

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Penne with basil and tomato sauce. 4/1/25

Penne with basil and tomato sauce

John and I were out most of the day visiting old friends who were staying near their kids and grandkids in the North Bay. Since we would not be back home until 6 PM I figured we would need a quick and easy dinner. I had defrosted some leftover Rao’s tomato and basil sauce so while John cooked up the penne pasta I worked on enhancing the jarred sauce with onion, garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes and my secret ingredient, fish sauce! Fish sauce brings the umami while tamping down the sweetness that commercial products seem to always include. With a sprinkle of basil leaves and parmesan our dinner was ready in about 15 minutes.

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Two vegetarian meals 3/30/25 and 3/31/25

Fettuccine with vegetables

On Sunday I decided that I just did not want to eat eggs. Instead I boiled a couple of ounces of pasta and when it was done I put it back in the pot with some shredded carrots, kale, green onions, a little pasta water, and olive oil. I stirred this over heat and in no time I had my vegetarian Sunday dinner.

Curried tomatoes and chickpeas over raita and rice

This is a new recipe for us and needs a little working on. The tomato and chickpeas part was delicious, the rice was fine, but the raita overpowered everything. Next time I might thin the raita out a bit and serve it on the side.

Hopefully this link will take you to the recipe.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025658-curry-tomatoes-and-chickpeas-with-cucumber-yogurt?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Posted in Easy, Indian, Italian, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment