Omnivore

October 14, 2015 – Bell peppers stuffed with ground turkey, mushrooms, and farro

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Beebamom

This is an earlier dinner of stuffed peppers. I was too excited by my results to remember to take a picture before I ate them this time.

Tonight for dinner I prepare red bell peppers stuffed with farro, ground turkey, mushrooms, and various herbs. It is really delicious. I whiz up the mushrooms in the food processor until they are the size of the farro pieces or the broken apart bits of ground turkey. First brown the ground turkey. Using the same pan, cook the mushroom pieces until they are dry and browned, then cook the onions and garlic, hot chiles, thyme and be sure to season everything as you go along. Mix your precooked farro (or brown rice), the meat, and vegetable mixture. Add spaghetti sauce to a moist consistency. Put some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish, put in the blanched bell pepper halves, add about 3/4 cup of the meat mixture on the pepper halves and finish with a little more sauce over the top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1/2 hour. This has been the best rendition of the recipe. The combination of the ground turkey and the mushrooms gives it a real meaty flavor. Yum.

Of course in my excitement to eat this dish, I forget to take a picture.

Posted in Poultry | Tagged bell pepper, farro, ground turkey, mushrooms | Leave a comment

October 13, 2015 – Trying again

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Beebamom

John and I have joined the weight loss challenge at ClubSport. I am thinking that some sort of new thing with emphasis on exercise may help. I don’t know if either of us is ready for the challenge of being strictly on plan for the next 18 months. I think that we need to at least give it a try. I have met my personal trainer who is a very nice man named Vernon. He has a lot of experience with post-surgery people. Although I am two years out of surgery on my knee, I am still having a lot of difficulty with simple things like going up and down stairs. Vernon and I are going to work on strengthening the muscles around my knee to make everything more functional.

Our first dinner after joining the challenge is grilled chicken thighs with BBQ sauce, couscous and vegetables, and broccoli. I know I need to take the skin off the chicken but otherwise the dinner is pretty plan-centric.

Grilled chicken with BBQ sauce, couscous, and broccoli

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September 23, 2015 – Baked cod, chickpea puree and parsley sauce

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Beebamom

This is such a delicious dinner! And so easy! John marinates the fish for about a half an hour and in the meantime I whiz up two cans of chickpeas with some water, oil, lemon and herbs in the food processor. The parsley sauce I make with my stick blender and it’s just parsley, lemon juice, a little oil and salt and pepper. The fish bakes for about 15 minutes (depending on the thickness) and while that is baking the chickpea puree is heating very slowly in a pot on the stove. Since there’s not much texture I added a crunchy salad with a spicy chile and an acidic salad dressing.

Pacific cod on chickpea puree with a parsley sauce. Side of crunchy salad.

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August 9, 2015 – Mediterranean Fish Soup

Posted on August 9, 2015 by Beebamom

Mediterranean fish soup

I am trying to pare down the amount of frozen food I have in the Utah freezer. I am always afraid that power will go out or the old refrigerator will break and we will come back to a mess of decomposing food. I suppose that visual is not too appetizing for a food blog.

A good, healthy dish is this fish soup inspired by Rick Stein’s dish of the same name. I am able to use shrimp, scallops, and cod from packages that had been opened previously. We saute carrots, leeks, fennel, and onions. Then we add some quick fish stock made with the shrimp shells and a bottle of clam juice as well as white wine, water, and a touch of Pernod. The potatoes and tomatoes cook next and at the end we add the fish and shell fish. A garnish of fennel fronds, pita points, and a drizzle of olive oil finish the dish.

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July 30, 2015 – Grilled shrimp with couscous and vegetables

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Beebamom

It is still pretty hot here so we decided to make a simple dinner of shrimp cooked on the grill and quick cooking couscous with some diced vegetables. John marinated the shrimp in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sambal, and a touch of sesame oil and then grilled the skewers on the grill outside. I diced a bunch of vegetables, did a quick cook on them and then put them in some couscous which was steeped in chicken broth. An easy and satisfying dinner.

Grilled skewered shrimp with couscous and vegetables

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July 29, 2015 – Tabbouleh, baba ganoush, and pita

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Beebamom

I still have some cute little Indian eggplants and tiger tomatoes left from my foray to the farmer’s market on Saturday. Since the thermometer reads about 105 today, it is a good day for something salad-oid. I decide to make baba ganoush out of the eggplants and incorporate the tomatoes into some tabbouleh.

The baba ganoush turns out okay but nowhere as good as Alessio’s aubergine spread. I think this product is only available in Northern California. It is so delicious and really spoils you for any other eggplant spread. But my baba ganoush is tasty and everyone eats some.

The tabbouleh, on the other hand, turns out spectacularly. I use the America’s Test Kitchen recipe which soaks the bulgur in the juice from the tomatoes and lemon juice. It adds so much flavor that just soaking in water loses out on. I use some parsley from the backyard, along with mint, tomatoes, olive oil, lemon, and garlic. Yum!

Our produce from the farmer’s market – Indian eggplant, tiger tomatoes, garlic, and a nectarine

(Sorry for the blurriness) Tabbouleh topped with chopped cucumbers, baba ganoush and pita

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July 28, 2015 – Eggplant parmesan

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Beebamom

Maybe I should just rename this blog, “Dining” because I am not doing so well with the “lite.” But I like taking pictures of our dinners so maybe I’ll just start up again and, who knows, maybe the food will get lighter.

On Saturday Sarah and I go to the farmer’s market and we find the elusive Italian eggplant. Sarah took a cooking class in April with an Italian chef and he explained to us that the round Italian eggplants are not bitter and do not need soaking. We buy some and decide to make eggplant parmesan. We bread the eggplant with seasoned panko breadcrumbs and since frying the slices is so messy, we fire up our electric wok and do all the frying outside. The results are that the eggplant is kind of heavy and too bread-y. Next time we will try the America’s Test Kitchen recipe. In this recipe the eggplant is cooked in the oven rather than being fried. I think it will be much more “DiningLite.”

Eggplant parmesan

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Monday, February 16, 2015 Carnitas

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Beebamom

Our daughter has moved back home with us. She is not so happy with our “American” cooking. We eat lots of different stuff trying to keep our dinners interesting. But she seems to imagine a lot of gray food coming out of the kitchen. In order to make her happier with our dinner choices, I am trying to bring back some “oldies” that she may like.

Tonight’s dinner is a slow cooked pork shoulder or “Boston Butt.” We cook it in the slow cooker on Sunday. We plan on eating it Monday.

Pulled pork with cabbage, green onions, cilantro, and crema on a corn tortilla

John shreds the pork and puts it under the broiler. I chop up some cabbage and prepare black beans. Each person makes their own tortilla with shredded pork, cabbage, beans, and toppings of cilanto, green onions and crema made wih yougurt, salt and cilantro. We are happy with our south of the border creation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carnitas, diet | Leave a comment

Saturday, February 14, 2015 Valentine’s Dinner

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Beebamom

Rather than go out we have decided to cook a nice Valentine’s dinner for each other. Our dinner of Pacific cod, polenta and collard greens and corn is one we have been working on. We have found a better source of ground corn for the polenta which will help the dish greatly.

John makes the polenta in a ratio of one part polenta to five parts water. It comes out soft and creamy. He also bakes the cod in the oven. In the meantime I make the parsley sauce for the fish and chiffonade the collard greens. Before cooking the greens I saute some sliced garlic and the corn. I’ll add it back in when the collards are cooked.

In no time at all dinner is ready. We open a good bottle of Chardonnay and toast each other! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pacific cod on polenta with collard greens and corn

Posted in Fish | Tagged collard greens, corn, diet, Pacific cod, polenta | Leave a comment

Friday, February 13, 2015 Chicken Friday?

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Beebamom

I seem to be having trouble sticking with my usual progression of meals, i.e. Chicken Monday, GBOF Tuesday, etc. So somehow chicken got taken out of the freezer on Wednesday and cooked on Friday. I think it means that now all weekend I am going to think it’s Tuesday. Anyway, nothing new or surprising with the chicken. John coats the chicken with dukkah, a middle eastern rub of spices and ground nuts, browns it on the stove top and finishes it in the oven. Earlier I made a roasted butternut squash and mashed it with nutmeg and a little butter. While the chicken is in the oven I steam some petite green beans. John makes a little chicken gravy. A simple dinner but it is delicious!

Tomorrow a yummy Valentine’s dinner!

Posted in Poultry | Tagged butternut squash, chicken, chicken gravy, diet, green beans | Leave a comment