Vacation sushi. 10/18/25

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Beebamom
Sushi

Every Fall we take a week’s vacation with our son, Jonathan, to St. George, Utah where we used to have a vacation home. We sold it a few years ago and although we miss it a lot we don’t miss the expense and worry. Once a year we rent a condo for a week and it is a fine substitution. We love the scenery and Jonathan has a great time playing golf at all the courses around here.

We also love cooking and shopping together. Jonathan and I have a long history of food shopping. He was the most obliging of babies and was always happy to go shopping with his Mom wherever we lived. Near to where we are staying is a beautiful Harmon’s grocery store. Jonathan and I plan on going there most days.

We have our traditions associated with this trip and one of them is to get sushi from Harmon’s on the first night we are here. It takes about 10 driving hours to get here, so really 11 hours accounting for stops. Obviously we are not going to be doing a lot of shopping and cooking the first night we arrive. We pick up the essentials for our dinner and breakfast in the morning and collapse exhausted on the couches with our sushi.

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Buffalo chicken wings and salad. 10/17/25

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings and salad

Since we are going away tomorrow I wanted an easy dinner and one that would use up the tomatoes we have left. The chicken wings come prepared and frozen so all we had to do was bake them at 425F for 25 minutes. I had some pre-washed lettuce so I cut that up, added a lot of cherry tomatoes and banana pepper rings, and topped the salad with packaged fried shallots. Quick and tasty!

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Spaghetti and meatballs. 10/16/25

Posted on October 17, 2025 by Beebamom
Spaghetti and meatballs

Tonight was Sarah’s night to cook and she took the shortcut route. With the help of Barilla spaghetti, Rosina’s frozen meatballs, and Rao’s vodka sauce dinner was ready in a flash. I make diners with shortcuts occasionally so I am in no position to throw stones. The bowls she served us were garnished with olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and a slice of garlic bread. Yum!

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Clam Chowder. 10/15/25

Posted on October 17, 2025 by Beebamom
Clam Chowder

The clam chowder that I make is a cross between the traditional New England clam chowder and Rhode Island clam chowder. It is not so thick that your spoon can stand up in it but it is not just the ingredients in an almost clear clam or fish broth. It all depends on how much cream you are willing to use. The amount I use varies between 2 tablespoons and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. If all I have on hand is half and half I would use a little more. No matter what or how much dairy you use is up to you. It will still taste good.

Screenshot
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Hot and spicy hot dogs with enhanced canned sauerkraut and beans. 10/14/25

Posted on October 15, 2025 by Beebamom
Hot dogs with sauerkraut and beans

Sarah and I came across a very good buy at Grocery Outlet a few weeks ago. Our family really likes Nathan’s all-beef hot dogs and here we had found Nathan’s hot dogs for 2 8-packs 2/$3.00! But they were not the usual style we buy. They were Nathan’s Hot and Spicy hot dogs!

I stuck them in the freezer feeling a little hesitant to use them because of the hot and spicy label. Finally on Tuesday we boiled them and guess what, they were hardly spicy at all! So my qualms were unfounded.

Along with the hot dogs I made canned black beans with red bell pepper, jalapeño, coriander, and cumin. I also added onion and garlic powder and caraway seeds to the canned sauerkraut. Just these small adjustments made the canned food much tastier.

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14th Blogiversary, Shrimp Creole 10/13/25

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Beebamom
Shrimp Creole

Happy 14th Blogiversary! The first time shrimp Creole appeared in my blog was October 18, 2011. The last time it appeared before last night was in January, 2015. I have not made this dish for over ten and a half years. Why is that, I wonder.

Shrimp Creole takes a fair amount of vegetable chopping. I enjoy chopping up vegetables. Once all the chopping is done it takes about 45 minutes to cook. That’s not bad. I think the reason I stopped making it was because I am pretty meh about the way it tastes and looks. The stew-like dishes and bowls I make now have brighter flavors and look better on my plate. Next year on my Blogiversary I will try something new instead of something old!

Terrible old picture of Shrimp Creole
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Blogiversary Weekly Menu. October 13-19, 2025

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Beebamom

On Monday I am celebrating the 14th anniversary of Dining Lite. In honor of this momentous occasion I am making a meal from the first week of posts, Shrimp Creole. My original idea for my blog was just to publish pictures of my dinner each day. With the publishing of Shrimp Creole I got a request for more information and so from that day on I tried to include diet tips, recipes, and how I felt about the dinner I made. I hope you have enjoyed my musings over the past 14 years.

Screenshot
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Chickpeas with ditalini and vegetables 10/10/25

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Beebamom
Chickpea stew

Making chickpea stew is an easy way to use up leftover vegetables that may be getting limp in the refrigerator. In addition to the chickpeas, Ditalini, and broth I added tomatoes, thyme, and zucchini from the garden and carrots, fennel, kale, and celery from the fridge.

Posted in American, Easy, Legumes, Methods, Pasta, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chicken enchiladas. 10/9/25

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Beebamom
Chicken enchikadas

After taking a couple of weeks break we made chicken enchiladas. I decided to put more filling in and make fewer of them. So I only made 12. There were none leftover for lunches. 😟

Posted in Mexican, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Penne with spicy Italian sausage and kale. 10/8/25

Posted on October 10, 2025 by Beebamom

Tonight was Sarah’s night to cook dinner. Her pasta dinners are always much more exciting than mine as she cooks something delicious without regard to whether it fattening or not. Tonight she made a pasta dish that you might find in Bari, Italy and one that we have eaten there several times, pasta with olive oil, crumbled sausage and greens.

Penne with Italian sausage and kale (from the internet)

In my excitement to eat, I forgot to take a picture. Trust me, though, it was delicious!

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