Omnivore

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 Tofu fried farro with vegetables

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Beebamom

We have not been doing much cooking this week. Mostly it’s been breakfast for supper and leftovers. There has been the occasional bread for supper which consists of a loaf of good bread served with whatever is good on it – peanut butter, butter, slivers of cheese. I guess I am a little cooked out.

Tonight, though, we scrabble together some farro from last week along with some staple vegetables – carrots, onions, garlic and some pea pods that I bought at Trader Joe’s this week. John scrambles a couple of eggs and makes them into a thin pancake. He cuts the pancake into strips. I’ve also bought some precooked seasoned tofu at Trader Joe’s. It is an easy shortcut. Mix these ingredients all together with some soy sauce, and other Asian ingredients, stir it around and voila! there is our dinner.

I love being inventive with mostly leftovers!

Tofu fried farro with vegetables

Posted in Vegetarian | Tagged diet, farro, tofu | Leave a comment

Friday, February 6, 2015 Penne with meat sauce

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Beebamom

We are trying to make room in the freezer. While looking through the contents of the freezer I noticed an older package of chili-grind ground beef. Just regular ground beef set on a coarser grind setting. Since we are planning on having pasta with tomato sauce tonight for dinner, I just extended the ingredients a little farther and made a beef sauce. It turns out pretty well. Plus there is enough left over for a lunch!

I forgot to take a picture but I found one on the internet that looks very similar to our dish tonight.

Penne with meat sauce

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged diet, ground beef, pasta, penne | Leave a comment

Thursday, February 5, 2015 Pacific cod with polenta, spinach, and parsley sauce

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Beebamom

This is a dinner with a lot of moving parts. Marinate the fish, make a parsley sauce, stir the polenta, chop up the onions and garlic! As it turns out we probably waited a bit too long to get dinner under way so we didn’t eat until around 8:30. We made this dinner last week in Utah. This week we are using slightly different ingredients. So the outcome? Last week’s ingredients were better than this week’s. I would vote a solid yes to using Bob’s Red Mill ground corn for the polenta, it’s much tastier. This week’s polenta is a little bland and runny. The Pacific cod from Costco is not as tasty as the individually frozen portions that I got last week from Albertson’s. (I am surprised.) Nevertheless it is a tasty dinner with the polenta and parsley sauce (parsley, lemon juice, water, oil) really tying the whole thing together.

Pacific cod with spinach, polenta and parsley sauce

Posted in Fish | Tagged cod, creamed spinach, diet, Pacific cod, parsley sauce, polenta | Leave a comment

Wednesday, February 4, 2015 – Dining out Japanese

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Beebamom

Today John goes to the Golden State Warrior game with Jonathan. Sarah and I decide to go out to dinner. Being a good mom, I say we will go wherever she likes. She chooses a Japanese ramen place. It probably would not be my first choice but I am game. We start with a small bowl of edamame. I always feel pretty good about snacking on edamame.

We share a small bowl of edamame

Sarah orders black garlic ramen and she suggests that I try the pork ramen. It comes in a big bowl with noodles, pork, mushrooms, green onions, and an egg. The egg looks like it has been marinating in something brown. I add a little soy sauce and everything is pretty tasty. It is so much that I cannot eat it all. I don’t know if I will make this a mainstay of my diet but it was better than I feared it was going to be.

Pork ramen

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged diet, edamame, ramen | Leave a comment

Tuesday, February 3, 2015 – Mixed grill with asparagus and chipotle sweet potatoes

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Beebamom

First a note as to what has been happening since last Thursday. On Friday we ate the leftovers from Thursday. On Saturday we went out to dinner and had seared walu which is also known as sunfish or escolar. It was served with mixed vegetables and rice. On Sunday and Monday we drove home from Utah and ate on the road. (Nothing eaten that I am too proud of from a dininglite point of view.)

That brings us to today! Since our daughter moved in and brought all the stuff from her refrigerator and freezer with her, we are starting a campaign to eat food that is in the freezer to make room. In the freezer we had lamb chops but not enough to serve three people. She and I go to the grocery store to buy a couple more lamb chops but the store doesn’t have any. So we end up buying a thick pork chop and that’s why we are eating a mixed grill today. John starts both the lamb and pork in a slow oven and cooks them part way and then finishes by searing them on the grill.

In the meantime I roast a couple of sweet potatoes and mash them up with a little butter and chipotle powder to give them a slightly spicy, smoky taste. I have also bought some on-sale asparagus and I just steam it. The first asparagus of the season is always exciting!

So voila, our dinner of lamb and pork chops with asparagus and sweet potatoes! The actual result is much more appetizing than my poor food photography would indicate.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged asparagus, chipotle powder, diet, lamb chop, pork chop, sweet potatoes | Leave a comment

Thursday, January 29, 2015 – Meat Day!

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Beebamom

We don’t eat much red meat but every once in a while John gets a hankering for a steak. He grills it outside and I make creamed spinach and steamed potatoes.

Grilled rib eye steak with steamed potatoes and creamed spinach

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged creamed spinach, diet, red meat, rib eye steak | Leave a comment

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 – Cod with polenta and collard greens

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Beebamom

Today is a special day. In addition to being on vacation in Utah, it is also our son’s birthday. We celebrate his day by taking a trip to Zion National Park and making a special dinner. Unfortunately he is not here with us but is celebrating with his wife and kids at home.

First a little beauty of the surrounding area –

View of Zion National Park

We decide to treat ourselves to a pretty fancy dinner. After all we were responsible for Jon having his birthday today and I worked damn hard bringing him into the world. Our dinner is baked cod with a parsley sauce, soft polenta, and collard greens with corn and garlic.

While I am making the parsley sauce (parsley, water, lemon juice and olive oil), John marinates the cod in lemon zest, bay leaves, rosemary, paprika, and a little cayenne pepper

Here’s John stirring the polenta

I make a chiffonade of collard greens and add garlic and corn

Roasted cod with parsley sauce over soft polenta with collard greens and corn

Posted in Fish | Tagged cod, collard greens, diet, parsley sauce, polenta | Leave a comment

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 – Chicken Tuesday

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Beebamom

We have been really busy since last Friday. On Saturday we helped move our daughter back home and had pizza. On Sunday we left for Utah and ate on the road. On Monday we arrived in St. George, UT and had a quick throw together dinner of whole wheat spaghetti and tomato basil sauce. So here it is Tuesday and we are finally cooking again.

Tonight is a favorite when cooking chicken. John grinds up a bunch of seeds, nuts and spices and coats the outsides of two small chicken breasts. He starts them in a saute pan and finishes them in the oven. They turn out perfectly! In the meantime I cut up rutabagas and put them in the pressure cooker. Seven minutes later they are soft and mashable. With a little butter spray they taste great! I also steam some broccoli. To finish off our dinner, John makes a little chicken gravy. This is a really tasty dinner. It is light on the protein but the vegetables make the dish filling and nutritious.

Pan roasted chicken with rutabagas and broccoli

Posted in Poultry | Tagged broccoli, chicken, diet, rutabagas | Leave a comment

Friday, January 23, 2015 A quick dinner

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Beebamom

The other day while John was at work I took a look in the refrigerator and found some things that needed finishing up. I had some potatoes left from Party Night. I had some of a bagful of baby kale. Hmm, what to do. I see a recipe from Food and Wine which is a combo of Italian sausage, kale, white beans and tomatoes. In the comments about their experience with the dish, someone mentions that they also put in potatoes.

I’ve got onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, kale, some old mushrooms, canned tomatoes and a can of cannellini beans. I don’t have Italian sausage but I do have smoked turkey sausage. Perfect. I cook these to a stew-like consistency and add a lot of chipotle powder for a smoky, spicy flavor. I store it in the refrigerator for an emergency dinner.

Tonight we need a quick dinner before going to a concert by Hookslide in San Jose. This is the perfect time to pull this already-made dinner out. It is good, quick and filling.

This dinner can also be vegetarian by eliminating the turkey sausage.

White beans, turkey sausage and kale

Posted in Poultry, Vegetarian | Tagged diet, kale, turkey sausage, White beans | 1 Comment

Thursday, January 22, 2015 Being social is hard!

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Beebamom

Tonight we meet some friends at the Lazy Dog. It is happy hour. We are known to be happy people. It is too easy to eat too much. We order some flatbread while we are waiting for our friends to arrive. Later we have the rest of our dinner.

In my defense I do look up the nutritional information for the Lazy Dog before heading over. There are not a lot of good choices but there are some that are better than others. I decide to order the vegetarian crisp. It is a lavash cracker with vegetables on top. It is okay except the zucchini on top are really not cooked. The picture I include is of the chicken crisp but they look similar.

Picture of a crisp from the Lazy Dog

Posted in Vegetarian | Tagged diet, lavash, Lazy Dog | Leave a comment