Grilled Hamburgers with Coleslaw 8/8/24

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger and coleslaw

I think every time we have this dinner I say to John, I wish I could have another hamburger! They are so good! Tonight the little char on the bun was the perfect complement to the medium rare burger. A little mayo, ketchup, and sliced onion made my hamburger complete.

Tonight, instead of buying an expensive prepared salad I shredded some cabbage, thinly sliced part of an onion, and grated a carrot and made my own coleslaw dressed with a combination of light mayo, Dijon mustard, and cider vinegar as well as salt and pepper. If you like sweet slaw you could add sugar. John sprinkled his portion with celery seed. It was a fine dinner for a hot August night.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Methods, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. 8/7/24

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Beebamom

Chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli

This is our second dinner made from the rotisserie chicken I bought at Costco. Now that we have used both breasts, the rest of the chicken will be used for lunches, solo dinners, and chicken stock.

We used instant mashed potatoes to keep from heating up the kitchen. Surprisingly John really likes these potatoes. I prefer my regular preparation of peeling, boiling, and mashing the potatoes with some milk and butter but I am willing to take this short cut. I wouldn’t use them for Thanksgiving dinner but instant mashed potatoes for a ho-hum weeknight dinner is fine.

I cooked the broccoli in lemon juice and butter and it turned some of the florets yellow. It must have been some chemical reaction between the broccoli and the acidic lemon juice. I will not do that again!

Posted in American, Easy, Hot weather meals, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vietnamese Chicken and Noodle Salad. 8/6/24

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Beebamom
Vietnamese Chicken and rice noodle salad

This is a tangy hot weather salad. I adapted it from a much more complicated recipe. Using rotisserie chicken, a mini-prep processor, a box grater, and a zoodler made this dish much easier.

Vietnamese Chicken and Rice Noodle Salad

Screenshot
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Weekly menu. August 5-11, 2024

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Beebamom

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Leftover Lasagna and Salad. 8/5/24

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Beebamom
Mixed salad

Tonight we finished off Saturday’s lasagna and added a fresh salad.

Lasagna

If it were practical we would eat this every week!

Posted in American, Beef, Italian, Leftovers For Dinner, Pasta, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nachos with Eggs. 8/4/24

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Beebamom
Nachos with eggs

I am finally returning to Breakfast for Dinner or BFD on Sundays. Nachos with eggs is one of my favorites. In the bottom of my bowl are tortilla chips then warmed black beans, corn, and kale. This is followed by a scrambled egg and salsa. Next up is shredded cheese and since we were out of green onions I used some fried onion bits. I popped the whole thing in the microwave until the cheese melted, probably about 45 seconds. Voila! An egg dish that was tasty and fun to eat!

Posted in American, Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Methods, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Lasagna and Salad. 8/3/24

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Beebamom
Lasagna

I know this is not a hot weather dish. But we did beat the heat by making the sauce and assembling the lasagna on Friday morning, then refrigerating it. We finished up by baking it at 7 AM on Saturday. Saturday evening we cut ourselves pieces and heated our portion up in the microwave. It was so, so good.

In order to stretch the lasagna into two meals (we love lasagna and could have eaten the whole 9×13 dish in one sitting), I made a big salad and reminded everyone that salad is a part of dinner!

A salad consisting of Romaine, kale, scallions, carrots, celery, cauliflower, and home-grown cherry tomatoes with blue cheese dressing
Posted in American, Beef, Italian, Pasta, Salad, Vegetables | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hummus and Chopped Salad 8/2/24

Posted on August 3, 2024 by Beebamom
Hummus with rice crackers and chopped salad

I prepared an easy vegetarian/vegan dinner for a hot evening. The hummus is simply one of Sabra’s varieties and the rice crackers are from Trader Joe’s. They are gluten free. After doing so much nothing as meal prep I decided to fancify my tossed salad by making it a chopped salad. Along with some small pieces of Romaine lettuce I chopped up celery, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower, feta, scallions, and cucumber. I dressed mine with Bolthouse blue cheese dressing but vinaigrette would work as well.

For a vegan meal omit or replace salad dressing and feta.

Posted in Easy, Hot weather meals, Mediterranean, Salad, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Thai Basil Eggplant with Tofu. 8/1/24

Posted on August 2, 2024 by Beebamom
Thai basil eggplant with tofu

Happy August! Just think in a month and a half it will be autumn! Maybe the weather will cool down. I am not a summer person and I long for the days when I can make any sort of dinner I want, not just the ones that don’t heat up the kitchen.

One way to beat the kitchen heat is to dine out. John and I went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant on Thursday. We enjoyed our favorite dish, Thai basil eggplant with tofu. Whatever town or city we may be passing through we often check out the local Thai restaurant to try their version of this dish.

Since the portion size was plentiful I took half of my lunch home and ate it for dinner. Doing this made our dining out more economical and I did not have to heat up the kitchen cooking! (John ate leftover chicken enchiladas from Monday.)

Posted in Asian, Dining out, Hot weather meals, Leftovers For Dinner, rice, Thai, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Braised Chickpeas with Zucchini and Pesto. 7/31/24

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Beebamom
Braised chickpeas with zucchini and pesto

Our daughter, Sarah, was the chef on Wednesday. She chose a recipe from Smitten Kitchen which is linked below. We are always looking for new vegetarian recipes and this dish fit the bill. Sarah’s rendition added kale and she stirred the ricotta in which gave the sauce a cream-like look and texture. It was really tasty and I recommend trying it.

braised chickpeas with zucchini and pesto
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