Gazpacho. 7/3/24

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Beebamom

Today we went out in the insufferable hot weather. While out we made three attempts at getting lunch. First place was closed, no explanation. The second had finished its lunch service a few minutes earlier and told us that they were only doing take-out. Finally we collapsed into Bangkok 101 and discovered they made our favorite dish and they were willing to make it for us. The dish is Thai basil eggplant with crispy tofu. Yum! All of our walking around in the heat was worth it!

Thai basil eggplant with crispy tofu

After having this late lunch on a very hot day we were looking forward to a light dinner. I had made gazpacho in the morning and it was hanging out in the refrigerator getting acquainted with its various ingredients. Here’s my easy gazpacho—

Do not be shy with the salt. It needs a lot of salt.
Gazpacho
Posted in Easy, Hot weather meals, Mediterranean, soup, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Asian chicken bowl. 7/2/24

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Beebamom
Asian chicken bowl

This bowl is similar to our other Asian bowls except we use shredded chicken, add bean sprouts, and substitute rice noodles for rice. The rice noodles I use are ready in about 20 minutes of soaking in hot water. When I first made the dressing it was more Vietnamese. The main ingredient was fish sauce. I like fish sauce but I like it better if it is a flavoring component. So I changed from the fish sauce-y nuoc cham to a soy based vinaigrette.

Other items in our bowl are jalapeño peppers, zoodled cucumber, carrots, julienne Romaine lettuce and for some additional texture I added a sprinkle of slivered almonds.

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Chana dal. 7/1/24

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Beebamom
Chana dal

Whenever I ask John what he would like as a vegetarian entree he always says Chana dal. I often try to steer him in a different direction but today I caved so Chana dal it is. While I like Chana dal it is really not a hot weather dish.

Chana dal are dried split chickpeas in a spicy sauce which is served over rice or kale. Since it is going to be “damn hot” today I get up early and get it into the Instant Pot where it cooks under pressure for 18 minutes. Later I am definitely glad that I made dinner in the morning and all we have to do is heat it it in the microwave.

Posted in Grilling, Indian, Legumes, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Grilled Steak, Broccoli, and Potatoes 6/30/24

Posted on July 2, 2024 by Beebamom
Grilled steak, broccoli, and potatoes

Our grilled steak was a little rarer than usual but still tasted great. The broccoli also spent some time on the grill after I had parcooked it in the microwave. Since we were trying not to heat up the kitchen I made some convenience mashed potatoes.

Our menu called for eggs tonight but I was just not feeling it. We really enjoyed our steak dinner.

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Buffalo Chicken Wings and Slaw. 6/29/24

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings and slaw

Not much to say about this lazy dinner. Frozen chicken wings and a packaged salad. I always take the flats since they are my favorite parts. It works well since John likes the drumettes. Foster Farms Take Out brand has been reliably good. Buying the large package at Costco is much more economical than the smaller bags at the grocery store.

Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Buffalo Chicken Wings and Salad. 6/29/24

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings and salad

Easy dinner using Foster Farms frozen Buffalo chicken wings and Taylor Farms Mediterranean salad. More economic than going out for a similar dinner or getting take-out. Sometimes the cook needs a breather!

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Weekly Menu. July 1-7, 2024

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Beebamom

Hot weather week ahead! Hope everyone stays cool!

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Lentil Stew with Turkey Sausage. 6/28/24

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Beebamom
Lentil stew with turkey sausage

We have not made this dish in quite a while. It’s not really a summer dinner entree but we had a turkey sausage that needed using so we went ahead. At least we did not need to turn the oven on!

This is one of our concoctions that we do not have a recipe for. What’s in it depends on what is in the fridge. For this rendition we used onion, garlic, fennel, carrots, and celery. Usually we put cremini mushrooms in the stew but they were so old and shriveled that I just threw them out. We made a double batch so that there would be plenty left over for lunches.

We started out by sautéing half of the turkey sausage in some olive oil. We save the other half for adding towards the end of cooking so its flavor will not get cooked out. In the grease from the sausage we sweat all the vegetables. Then we added 4 cups of stock and 2 cups of lentils. We cooked this for an hour and a half adding some water when it started looking too dry.

It was so delicious! The carrot added a lovely sweetness to the earthy lentils and salty sausage. We did not have as much left over for lunches as I had anticipated because it was just not possible to deny ourselves a second bowl!

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Spaghetti Arrabbiata with Salad. 6/27/24

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Beebamom
Spaghetti arrabbiata with salad

I love strand pasta. John is more of a “shapes” man. So we always have a pasta debate before making dinner. I think that smooth sauces should get strands and piece-y sauces should get shapes. My argument won the day so we ended up making spaghetti. Yay!

The arrabbiata sauce is spicy. Along with crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, garlic, bell pepper, and poblano chile I added a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 2 large squirts of sriracha, and 5 shakes of Tabasco. I made the sauce on Tuesday morning so it had two days to improve. It was really tasty and not as spicy as you might imagine.

To round out our dinner I assembled a packaged Buffalo flavored salad. That’s chicken wing Buffalo dressing not some odd bovine flavored sauce!

Posted in Italian, Pasta, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tilapia with Pesto, Rice, Asparagus. 6/26/24

Posted on June 28, 2024 by Beebamom
Roasted tilapia, homegrown pesto, rice, and asparagus

We have cubes of pesto in the freezer that we made over the last couple of growing seasons. This particular pesto is a basil, almond, garlic, olive oil, parmesan combination. Pesto can be made with basil, parsley, even oregano and you can chose the nuts you like best. Pine nuts are quite expensive so we opted for almonds.

In a small garden patch on our patio are, from the left, parsley, oregano, thyme, purslane, chives, more oregano and a couple of cherry tomato plants.

The tilapia roasts in a 400F oven for 10 to 12 minutes depending on the thickness. When it was done it got a good smear of the pesto. Even though the pesto had darkened from its original bright green it still tasted delicious.

Rounding out the dinner was a portion of rice and quite a few spears of asparagus. The pesto tasted good on them too!

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