Chicken taco with spicy beans. 4/27/24

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Beebamom
Chicken taco with spicy beans

I bought some frozen chicken tenders on sale at Safeway and figured that when the bag said “Cook from Frozen” prominently on the front that it meant I could pop them in the microwave for a few minutes and, voila, cooked chicken. Since I was planning on using them shredded for chicken tacos, in soup, or maybe chicken salad for lunch I did not need browning. Sadly I should have read the back of the package which said pan fry, oven roast, or grill.

So we roasted the tenders in the oven and they came out fine, just took longer. I cut my piece up into strips to put put in my “stand-up taco shell (heat briefly in microwave)”, then added salsa verde, salsa, cheese, cabbage, onion, and cilantro. Next I heated the taco and its filling in the microwave for 30 seconds. The microwaving gave the taco a more leathery texture which was good since it did not end up shattering all over the place.

The beans were simply a mix of canned black beans, Rotel, and cilantro stems. Since I am cutting down on salt they probably could have used some chipotle powder to give them a flavor boost.

Posted in American, Easy, Legumes, Methods, Mexican, Poultry, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Pinwheel steak, broccoli, mashed potatoes. 4/26/24

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Beebamom

Pinwheel steak, broccoli, mashed potatoes

This prime piece of meat is a rib cap that has been rolled and tied. It is a very scrumptious cut. John seasoned the steak and grilled it to medium rare. Along with the steak I made some broccoli seared in olive oil and we finished up the mashed potatoes that I made on Monday.

I have been losing weight rather quickly since I got sick and I am trying to stop the downward spiral by eating plenty of protein. It is an odd position for me to be in. Without the wine and snacks that were part of my diet, apparently I eat in a mostly healthy manner. (But I miss my bad habits!)

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Buffalo chicken wings with carrots and celery 4/25/24

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings with carrots and celery

No, I did not make these from scratch. We are still in “easy mode” while I try to recover from pneumonia. John does a stellar job roasting the wings in the oven with an extra blast of heat for the last five minutes which makes them super crispy. The ad for the wings says you can make them in an air fryer. We do not own an air fryer and they came out really well just using the oven. My small contribution was to cut up some celery and carrots.

The wings come with a packet of Buffalo sauce and we also served some Bolthouse blue cheese dressing. If you like them you can find a large pack at a much more economical price at Costco. This was an easy and tasty dinner.

Posted in American, Easy, Poultry, Sheet pan, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Fettucine with red sauce. 4/24/24

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Beebamom
Fettucine with red sauce

Last week I made some spicy tomato sauce to serve with bucatini. We had some left over sauce so I decided to go the pasta route again on Wednesday. Since there was not enough sauce left for another dinner I added an additional 14 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes and some fresh oregano from the garden. The complexity of the sauce changed from spicy to tart. It was almost like I had created a whole new dinner! I used Carba-nada fettucine which comes in convenient sized strands and cooks quickly. A glug of good olive oil finished my dish.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Passover Seder, April 22, 2024

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Beebamom
Seder plate

On Monday, April 22, 2024 we celebrated the first night of Passover. Our Seder plate included lettuce, parsley, charoses (apples, walnuts, wine), horseradish, an egg, and a lamb bone.

We went through the blessings, read the story about the flight from Egypt, and ate the traditional foods. Then we moved on to our festive dinner which included matzoh ball soup, grilled lamb, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and homemade macaroons for dessert.

Grilled lamb, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Posted in American, Desserts, Grilling, Holidays, Lamb, soup, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bucatini with spicy tomato sauce. 4/20/24

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Beebamom
Bucatini with spicy tomato sauce

Bucatini is a thick strand of pasta with a hole in it, sort of like long spaghetti tubes. This bucatini was thicker than I like but we were low on pasta and the strands went well with the sauce. I started the sauce from the basics of onion, garlic, tomato paste, oregano, and red pepper flakes. I added a can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes and a can of fire-roasted petite diced tomatoes. After simmering for maybe 45 minutes I corrected for salt and tamped down the overly bright sauce with a little fish sauce.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pasta, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Grilled hamburgers. 4/19/24

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger

Now that I am home again from the hospital it is so great to eat something with seasoning! The hospital did have a hamburger as a lunch selection but the idea of a really low fat, overcooked hamburger with no seasoning was just too horrific to contemplate.

John did his usual super job grilling the hamburgers between medium and medium rare. I am looking forward to getting back to preparing our menus and sous cheffing in the kitchen soon!

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hospital food. 4/18/24

Posted on April 19, 2024 by Beebamom

I am back in the hospital trying to shake this bout of pneumonia. There are many unenjoyable things that go on in a hospital—being awaken multiple times during the night to check on vitals, draw blood, and fix the IV machine whose alarm is pretty alarming.

Another unenjoyable part is the food. The sound of the dishes of the day are sometimes quite enticing, mushroom risotto, pad Thai, or chicken enchilada. The taste, though is disappointing. Everything is cooked with a minimum of fat and no salt. So basically everything is flavorless.

One of my lunch choices was a tuna salad sandwich with a salad, celery and carrot sticks, a couple of unsalted saltines, and some grapes.

Tuna salad, salad, bread, and grapes

I figured that the tuna would have a slightly briny flavor and I added mustard to the bread, crunched up the saltines to put on top along with the celery, and covered the whole thing with salad greens. Passable.

For dinner I had a chicken enchilada with beans and rice. The cheese and tomato sauce really helped out the enchilada and I squeezed some of my orange slices over the rice and beans. Nonetheless the saltless beans were pretty bad.

Chicken enchilada with rice and beans

I am so glad to be home tonight and eat regular people food and maybe get a few hours of continuous sleep. The staff at the hospital was great but I am really hoping not to see them again any time soon!

Posted in American, Lunch, Mexican, Vegetables | Leave a comment

Pizza. 4/15/24

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Beebamom
Pizza with Italian sausage

It has been a while since I posted anything and that is because the miserable people on the plane coming back from Amsterdam had a wide variety of respiratory ailments that they did not bother to try to keep from spreading. So I caught a cold which developed into pneumonia and a stay in the hospital. I am home now but still not better. I guess it will take a while.

Weird thing is that I have totally lost my appetite. Nothing is appealing. We ordered in pizza last night mostly because I did not feel like cooking or eating anything. Since pizza is about my most favorite thing to eat I figured that it would tempt me. I ate two slices which is way less than I usually consume.

Maybe on Tuesday I will feel like eating again. We’ll see.

Posted in Easy, Italian, Pork, take-out, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Meatloaf with rice and broccoli 4/6/24

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Beebamom
Meatloaf with rice and broccoli

Apparently having the flu has made me lose my appetite for anything other than comfort food from my youth. Usually I want vegetable or seafood based dinners but this week I am all about lamb chops and ground beef.

Since I do not eat gluten we had tried a rolled oats preparation the last time we had meat loaf. It was a bit too crumbly so I zapped the oats in my mini- prep until they were bread crumb-like in consistency. I also minced the garlic and onion in the same way. I really do not want to be touching food so that was the end of my participation in dinner prep.

The meat loaf, cooked to 140F was quite good. I ate some broccoli and rice but mostly I just wanted meat loaf and ketchup. I am looking forward to a meat loaf sandwich tomorrow even if I have to eat it on horrible, gummy gluten free bread.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Methods, rice, South American, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment