Easy dinner tonight! I started out by making the Taylor Farms Steakhouse Wedge salad and added some Power Greens, diced red onion, and the last of our daughter’s cherry tomatoes from the community garden. This made enough salad so that John and our daughter could have two helpings.
John manned the grill and did a superlative job cooking the burgers and toasting the rolls. We all like the same toppings—mayonnaise, ketchup, and a red onion slice.
We have not made this in quite a while and we were pleasantly surprised at how good and easy it was. Since we are not strictly on our diet regimen we added 2 teaspoons of butter to the sauce at the end. It made a delicious difference.
Light Shrimp Scampi
Serves 2
4 ounces pasta or 1 cup cooked rice
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
½ tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined (21-25 count)
Salt to taste
¼ low-sodium chicken broth
¼ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 pitted and chopped olives or 2 tablespoons of capers
2 teaspoons butter (optional)
Cook the pasta or rice according to package direction. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring until the shallots are soft, about 1 minute. Add the shrimp and the salt and cook over medium high heat turning occasionally until the shrimp are opaque, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the broth, wine, lemon juice, and olives or capers. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute and then reduce the heat to medium. Stir , the parsley, the zest, and the optional butter stirring to coat the shrimp and remove from heat. Plate the shrimp on the rice or pasta and drizzle the remaining sauce over.
Serve in bowls.
Chana dal are dried, split chickpeas that we make in the Instant Pot. The recipe calls for Indian spices, onions, ginger, and garlic. Along with water we add a can of Original Rotel for some extra zing. John also garnishes his bowl with sriracha to take the spiciness to the next level. This is the recipe that I use – https://pipingpotcurry.com/instant-pot-chana-dal/#wprm-recipe-container-6238
When the Chana dal is ready I put a bunch of kale (chopped and pre-washed from a bag) in my bowl and then my white rice, cauliflower rice 50/50 combo topped with the Chana dal. Tonight since I was craving something crunchy I ate it with a few tortilla chips scooping the dal up like a dip. It was kind of a Mexican-Indian mashup and it really tasted good!
During the third week in September I made a batch of meaty spaghetti sauce. I divided it in thirds and froze two containers. Tonight I made stuffed pepper with my remaining third. I mixed the ground beef and tomato sauce with a cup of microwaveable rice. That was a mistake. The microwaveable rice lost all its texture and turned into mush! The peppers still tasted good but were badly missing any texture.
Lesson learned – Do not use fast-cooking microwave rice in a dish that is going to bake in the oven!
All I can say is better late than never! At least I know that I have stuck to the menu for the first three days of the week!
I have been eating gluten-free but my doctor wants me to add gluten products back into my diet so we can test what is going on. So we decided on pasta for tonight. It came out fine but I could not eat my whole portion. I think I am nervous about having too much.
John and I have decided to make Mondays “Fish of the Week” day and purchase whatever fish is on sale at Whole Foods. Luckily for us Chilean sea bass was on sale this week. The fellow behind the fish counter cut us a piece and even skinned it for us. John did have to wrestle a few bones out and then cooked the fish in the oven at 400F for 14 minutes. I made the potatoes and asparagus. One of our nearby grocery stores had asparagus on sale for $1.99/lb. Our delicious dinner cost about $15.00 per person. Can you imagine what this would have cost at a restaurant?!
This combo of lentils, carrots, and turkey sausage is a “comfort food” dish for us. Other ingredients in our dish are onions, celery, garlic, and chicken stock. I like to serve the stew over whatever greens I have around, spinach, kale, or collard. It is easily adaptable depending on what you have in your pantry and fridge. You can make it vegan with non-meat crumbles and vegetable broth or add winter squash chunks. Changing the spices can take the lentils to different cuisines. Imagine an Indian or Mexican seasoning. In other words if you are stuck for something to make “lentils and …” is a nutritious, inexpensive, handy dish to make!
Another easy fish dish, it is amazing how quickly you can cook fish. The tilapia took 8 minutes in a 400F. After microwaving the potato until done, we popped it in the oven to pick up some browning. The fish was done so quickly that the potato did not get much browning. The mustard sauce was a great topping for the fish and potato and a little butter on the broccoli rounded out the dish.
A trip to Costco today equals a rotisserie chicken equals chicken enchiladas. I made mention of chicken tostadas or chicken fajitas but both John and our daughter were voting enchilada. So even though we had chicken enchiladas 10 days ago we are having this dinner again!
No real complaints from me. The enchiladas are easy enough to make. Warm the tortillas until they are pliable, hold them in the palm of your hand, lay in shredded chicken, onions, cheese, and salsa verde, roll them up and nestle the enchiladas close together in a baking dish with a layer of salsa verde on the bottom, then put a coating of salsa verde and cheese on top.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes then increase the temperature to 425F and finish cooking uncovered for about 8 minutes until the top is browned and the cheese is melted. Watch to make sure they don’t burn!
I made a side of black beans, onions, corn, and a little salsa verde seasoned with salt, garlic powder, cumin, and chipotle powder. It was a little spicy but good.
Omnivore 