I am on vacation and will begin posting again starting on March 20, 2012. I will definitely have to come up with some interesting and creative new dishes to get off the vacation eating jag and back on the sane route. How I long for chicken Monday right now.
On Friday we were in full throttle eat down. We are leaving for Indian Wells on Sunday to attend the BNP Paribas Open. That’s tennis for the uninitiated. No doubt there will be a lot of challenges in the coming week. Too bad I overate this week. It’s why one should only weigh oneself once a week. So I am eating and drinking away this week and I step on the scale every morning and there is no change. Hah! I say to myself, I can get away with this. Until today. Today it all caught up. No more fun times for me.
Anyway, we had some leftover pork tenderloin and butternut squash. We also needed to use up rutabagas, zucchini, a half of a bell pepper, a bunch of mushrooms, part of an onion, a few garlic cloves, a carrot, some tomatoes, the end of a stalk of celery and a little tomato paste. Solution? First I pressure cooked the rutabagas and combined them with the butternut squash. Then I sauteed the rest of the vegetables and added some oregano from the back patio. John sliced the pork, sauteed a bunch of the mushrooms, and made some pork gravy. Voila, dinner.
Pork tenderloin with mushroom gravy, rutabaga/butternut squash mash, mixed vegetables over arugula
Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago, we had a condo in Redwood Shores. The kitchen was so, so small that we bought a wheelie cart and an electric wok so that both John and I could cook at the same time. Actually, it was about 10 years ago and we no longer have the condo but we do still have the electric wok. We also have an electric wok in our house in Utah. They are great for putting out a lot of power, quickly. Unfortunately, Maxim no longer makes them.
Electric wok
Tonight John steamed lobster tails in the electric wok. I started some new potatoes a little earlier. Then I put on the asparagus. Very quickly the lobster, potatoes and asparagus were done. Each had a seasoning of salt and lemon zest and squirt of butter spray.
Lobster tails with new pottoes and asparagus
The pork tenderloin dinner is kind of a replay of a usual chicken Monday. Since we had the exotic curried chicken on Monday, a straight-forward dinner seemed the right choice for Tuesday. John roasted the pork tenderloin in the oven at 250 degrees until the internal temperature was between 125 and 130. After letting it rest, he seared it on all sides. He also made a packet of pork gravy.
In the meantime, I roasted a butternut squash. First John split it in half for me and scooped out the seeds. I scored the surface and seasoned it with salt, pepper and freshly ground nutmeg. It cooked for about 45 minutes. The squash was pretty watery so while the rest of the dinner cooked, I mashed up the flesh and tilted the bowl so water could drain onto some wadded up paper towels which I changed a few times. The squash flavor was sweet and concentrated in the end.
The Brussels sprouts were a bit of a disappointment to me. John likes them bitter but these were really bitter. I had to add butter and sugar to make them palatable. No more buying large Brussels sprouts!
Pork tenderloin, gravy, butternut squash and Brussels sprouts
Since it was Chicken Monday yesterday, of course we had chicken. We decided to make it a little more exciting than usual. Since we were not going to have a lot of preparation time, we used pre-cooked chicken strips. John toasted the curry mixture and sauteed the onions. We added some carrots and cauliflower plus a handful of raisins. Then we added brown rice, the chicken pieces and boiling chicken stock. We covered it tightly and popped it in the oven for an hour. Since I love eating this, I didn’t manage to take a picture until I was part way done.
Curried chicken with vegetables
Last week was a hard, hard week from a losing weight perspective. We went out to dinner on Wednesday. We had friends over for drinks and hors d’oeuvres on Friday. And we took Sarah up to Napa Valley for a birthday celebration. Amazingly, I did manage to lose a pound. I’m not sure how.
For Sarah’s birthday luncheon we ate at celebrity chef, Michael Chiarello’s, Bottega in Yountville. I thought I did pretty well (though not perfectly) when ordering. For my first course I had, and this is the description from the menu, Caramelized Brussels Sprout Salad – Citrus segments, toasted Marcona almonds, prosciutto bits, aged balsamic dressing. Not the best choice. The best choice would have been just a plain salad but I am a pushover when it comes to Brussels Sprouts. Danger words in the above description are “caramelized,” “prosciutto bits,” and “dressing.”
Caramelized Brussels Sprout Salad - Citrus segments, toasted Marcona almonds, prosciutto bits, aged balsamic dressing
My main course was the best choice on the menu – Mediterranean Seafood Brodetto – mussels, Gulf prawns, clams and Monterey calamari, forno-confit tomato broth, olive oil crouton, paprika-saffron rouille. I gave almost half of this to John. I only had a bite of the crouton. I felt pretty good about selecting the brodetto. It was quite tasty and light.
Mediterranean Seafood Brodetto - mussels, Gulf prawns, clams and Monterey calamari, forno-confit tomato broth, olive oil crouton, paprika-saffron rouille
We all shared one dessert. After all, it was a birthday celebration! The best part of the dessert was a small scoop of caramel and sea salt gelato with espresso poured over it. It was salty, sweet and bitter. Perfect.
As we left, we ran into the chef himself roasting a whole lamb over a wood fire.
Chef Michael Chiarello basting a whole lamb with salt water.
Last night we went out to dinner. Dining out is a rare occurrence around here. It is just too difficult to eat correctly when dining out. So back to the straight and narrow today. Unusually, though, we had beef. We have a bagful of 6 to 7 oz. pieces of flank steak in the freezer. It is not a high fat piece of beef and as long as I don’t eat too much of it, I’m okay. So tonight’s dinner was 1 1/2 ounces of flank steak, steamed new potatoes and asparagus. Also a couple of steamed tomatoes. The asparagus at our local store is from Mexico and is really tasty and fairly low-priced. I think we will be eating a lot of asparagus since the season is lengthened by being able to buy it from Mexico followed by the great local California supply.
Grilled flank steak with steamed new potatoes, asparagus and tomatoes
It always seems that when John and I really like some convenience food that is low in calories and fat that it disappears from the market. Case in point? Michelangelo’s baked eggplant parmesan. For around 300 calories each we could split this large frozen entree and have a tasty, quick dinner. I think it was what won the diet war back in 2001. Sadly it no longer is made in the family size for Costco. So it was no surprise to us that Morningstar chipotle bean burgers also disappeared about 6 months ago from Costco. Although the chipotle bean burgers were a little high in calories and fat for a lunchtime treat, they were perfect for a quick dinner. When time was pressing and I was really hungry, I could microwave up a bean burger and serve it on a toasted sandwich round in about 2 minutes – a real lifesaver sometimes.
Much to our surprise the Morningstar chipotle bean burger was back on Costco’s shelves this past week. It is a large patty with a slightly spicy, smoky taste. Tonight we had a big salad of arugula, roasted golden beets, mushrooms and tomatoes and a bunch of steamed new potatoes along with the burger. It was a fast, satisfying dinner.
Morningstar chipotle bean burger on a sandwich round, new potatoes and salad
And here it is again, Chicken Monday. John and I plan out a dinner menu for the week on Monday morning. We had discussed having lobster tails, new potatoes and asparagus tonight. But what heresy! When it came down to taking something out of the freezer, we just had to have chicken.
The past week has been up and down for me. At one point I was closing in on having lost 60 lbs. But the thrill was too much so I overate on Saturday and only managed to lose 1/2 lb. for the week. Oh, well. At least it is in the right direction. This is going to be a hard week for dieting. We are going out to dinner with friends on Wednesday, having a little get together for wine and hors d’oeuvres on Friday, and taking Sarah up to wine country for tasting and a lunch at Bottega in Yountville on Saturday. As I said, it will be a really difficult week. I’ve looked at the menus online for the two meals that we will be dining out and have found some reasonable things to have. I am visualizing how I will deal with wine and hors d’oeuvres. Perhaps I can rise to the challenge.
In the meantime, I need the safety of Chicken Monday. It was a really tasty dinner.
Chicken and rutabagas with mushroom gravy, asparagus
On Saturday I got the good news that all my blood work for my upcoming physical was great. This, of course, led to a celebration of health with a bunch of unhealthy food. You would think I wouldn’t do this kind of thing. You would be wrong. On Sunday, we got back on track. The plan was for fish tacos, a favorite. But if I eat fish tacos, I have to take into account that I am having two tortillas. So I decided that I could have fish tacos and enjoy them almost as much without the tortillas.
John sauteed the red snapper in a little olive oil spray. I enhanced the black beans with fresh salsa, onions, cilantro and garlic. I also used some of the salsa/veg combination in some brown rice that we had leftover. I made nonfat yogurt crema and shredded up some cabbage. The dinner was delicious! I did not miss the tortillas at all.
Tortilla-less fish tacos with black beans and rice
Omnivore 