Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes and green beans. 5/9/23

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Beebamom
Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes and green beans

Here is another idea for using rotisserie chicken.After taking the meat off the chicken (and turning all the bones and bits into stock) we sliced one of the breasts into several smaller pieces. John made the Marsala sauce by creating a roux with a scant 2 tablespoons of chicken gravy mix (taking the place of flour), a tablespoon of Marsala, a tablespoon of white wine, and a tablespoon of butter. After cooking this mixture he added chicken stock until it was the consistency of a sauce. The chicken pieces were reheated in the sauce and the mushrooms were sautéed separately and added during plating.

I made the mashed potatoes which were yummy and the green beans which I found inedible. I don’t like fat green beans so I had gone to the expense of buying slender French green beans or haricot vert. These had an unpleasant mealy texture.

Next time I will buy regular green beans and put them through my frencher which cuts them longitudinally. If you are as old as I am you may remember seeing a rectangular box with three little blades in it on the end of your peeler. That was so you could push the green beans through and they would come out in 3 or 4 long strips. There are separate kitchen tools to use these days.

Old fashioned frencher on top of peeler
Modern frencher

Posted in Italian, Kitchen tips, Methods, Poultry, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Seared shrimp with polenta and broccoli. 5/8/23

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Beebamom
Seared shrimp with polenta and broccoli

John and I really love this dinner and we probably make it twice a month if not more. The shrimp cooks in about five minutes so you just have to prepare the polenta with a 20 minute lead time. We make ours 6 parts liquid to 1 part Bob’s Red Mill polenta so a little polenta goes a long way. The only down side is that you have to keep stirring it. John and I take turns. The broccoli is simply steamed and tastes great with the polenta as a kind of sauce.

Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Methods, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 2 Comments

Grilling with the family. 5/7/23

Posted on May 8, 2023 by Beebamom

Our son’s wife is on a trip with her folks so we had him and his two teens over for lunch. Two favorites were on the menu – Zaydeburgers and Beeba mac ‘n cheese. We also had salad, chips, and Viennetta for dessert.

Zayde burger (grilled hamburger) and salad
Whole wheat mac’n cheese
Viennetta

My part in the dinner was easy. I made a pre-packaged salad, a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, opened a bag of chips, and served an ice cream confection. I am not known for my culinary expertise so expectations are low. But I know what they like and everything was a hit!

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Weekly Menu. May 8-14, 2023

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Beebamom
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Chana dal with rice and kale. 5/6/23

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Beebamom
Chana dal, rice mix, and raw kale

After last night’s little Cinco de Mayo party, it is time for some healthier eating. Chana dal is dried, split chickpeas cooked in the Instant Pot with spices, vegetable stock, onion, ginger, and garlic plus spicy tomatoes. The Instant Pot turns the dried chickpeas into yummy goodness in about 15 minutes.

Along with the Chana dal I made my usual rice mixture of hearty rices cut with riced cauliflower. On the bottom of the bowl is a layer of Foster Farms triple washed, chopped kale.

This vegan dish is easy to make and very tasty. I also feel good about eating it!

Posted in Easy, Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, rice, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 2 Comments

In celebration of Cinco de Mayo…5/5/23

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Beebamom

First, we are not of Mexican heritage, second, Cinco de Mayo is not even a big deal in Mexico, but third, it is a big deal here in the U.S. and we are all about celebrating holidays with food! So for Cinco de Mayo we started off with margaritas, tortilla chips, and guacamole. I got two avocados which ripened up during the week and a packet of spicy guacamole mix and stirred it together, mashing up the avocados. John made his Earl Gilmore memorial killer margaritas.

Chips and guacamole with a margarita

Our main course was chicken enchiladas which consist of shredded rotisserie chicken, shredded cheese, chopped onions, and salsa verde rolled in a corn tortilla.

Chicken enchiladas with spicy beans

Posted in Legumes, Mexican, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment

Roasted salmon with mustard sauce, rice, and Brussels sprouts. 5/4/23

Posted on May 5, 2023 by Beebamom
Roasted salmon with mustard sauce, mixed rices, and Brussels sprouts

John roasted the salmon at 400F for 9 minutes. Since I was doing everything else we had to carefully plan what time he needed to start the fish. Earlier in the day I made the mustard sauce so that was ready to go. The rice was easy to do as well. I combined John’s white rice from the other day with my leftover red, brown, and wild rice plus riced cauliflower. Since we were upping the amount of rice I defrosted some more riced cauliflower, mixed it in, and nuked the whole amount until it was hot.

The Brussels sprouts were the timing problem. Normally it takes about 10 minutes to steam them and then let them brown in a little dry sherry and butter. But these were really big sprouts so I definitely needed about 15 minutes. I started them five minutes before the salmon. They were cooked and browned when the fish was ready.

A word about Brussels sprouts – the bigger they are, the more bitter they are. These were really big and quite bitter even though I added a half teaspoon of sugar. John liked them a lot but I did not. I will look for smaller ones in the future.

Posted in American, Fish, Kitchen tips, Methods, pescatarian, rice, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Penne with mushrooms scampi style over kale 5/3/23

Posted on May 4, 2023 by Beebamom
Penne with scampi mushrooms over kale

After reading an article that scampi is not just for shrimp I decided to try “scampifying” a pasta mushroom sauce. This consisted of starting with equal amounts of olive oil and butter, a tablespoon of each. Next I sautéed a little thinly sliced onion and then added in about 10 ounces of mushrooms halved or quartered depending on their size. After 5 minutes I added sliced garlic. Next came a half cup each of white wine and vegetable stock, some parsley, a pinch of pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

While this mixture was reducing John cooked the penne. When they were al dente he added them to the sauce. I stirred this around together and added some reserved pasta water, maybe a quarter of a cup. After plating on some raw kale we squeezed a little lemon over top.

This dish turned out really well. The white wine gave a slight sharpness to the sauce. Scampi mushrooms? Yes, please!

Posted in Easy, Italian, Kitchen tips, Methods, Pasta, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Tuna with rice and bok choy. 5/1/23

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Beebamom
Seared marinated tuna, mixed rices, baby bok choy with oyster sauce

John marinated our tuna steaks in soy sauce, garlic powder, grated ginger, sesame oil, chile flakes, and dry sherry for 2 hours. When it came time to cook them he heated up our lightly greased cast iron frying pan until very hot, applied some sesame seeds to the tuna steaks, and seared them for about 2 minutes a side. The length of time searing depends on the thickness of the tuna. You want the tuna red inside but not cold.

I microwaved a rice mix of red, brown, and wild rices and then added a similar volume of riced cauliflower. I served myself 3/4 cup.

I stopped at the Asian grocery store and picked up a 1 1/2 lb. bag of baby bok choy. After washing them thoroughly I cooked them with garlic plus a little water in a big, lightly oiled frying pan with a cover. They cook down quite a bit. I made a sauce of 3 1/2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and a pinch of sugar and ladled it over my warmed platter of cooked bok choy.

We originally bought these 2 frozen tuna steaks weighing a total of 11 ounces on sale for $4.99. They turned out really tasty and I am going to keep my eye out for future sales and stock up!

Posted in Asian, Fish, Healthy tips, Methods, pescatarian, Recipes, rice, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and broccoli. 5/1/23

Posted on May 1, 2023 by Beebamom
Chicken piccata with mashed potatoes and broccoli

Here is another use for rotisserie chicken. On Monday, our traditional chicken day, we made a piccata sauce for one of the breasts from our rotisserie chicken. Since we were merely reheating our chicken, we used the powder from a packet of chicken gravy to make a roux with butter and then added white wine, lemon juice, capers, and parsley to it and used the stock that I made earlier in the day to give volume to the sauce. After bringing it up to a boil and lowering the heat we gently warmed the meat.

Along with our tasty chicken piccata I made mashed potatoes which were so yummy with the sauce. Broccoli rounded out our surprisingly delicious dinner.

Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Methods, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment