Chicken enchiladas with spicy black beans 4/3/23

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Beebamom
Chicken enchiladas with spicy black beans

Today we went to Costco with our main goal of getting a boneless leg of lamb for our Saturday family feast. But who can resist that $4.99 rotisserie chicken?! So we bought one and when we got home I took it apart shredding the chicken I wanted to use for tonight’s chicken enchiladas. I also have some nice pieces of white meat for a dinner or lunch sandwiches and I boiled up the bones for stock. So much value from a $4.99 chicken!

After getting the chicken shredded, making the enchiladas was just a matter of assembly. John briefly warmed the tortillas in the oven. I filled each tortilla with some chicken, a dollop of salsa verde, a little Mexican blend cheese, and some chopped onions. The enchiladas were nestled tightly against each other in an oblong baking dish that had been prepared with a layer of salsa verde.

When all 12 were in the baking dish I covered the top with salsa verde and the remaining onions and cheese. I baked it in the oven at 350F for about 40 minutes until it was bubbly and the cheese was melted. The black beans were merely a can of black beans, a half can of Rotel, and a few shakes of cumin.

This was a fairly easy dinner using rotisserie chicken and canned or jarred products. When the three of us were done with dinner there was not a scrap of food left!

Posted in Easy, Legumes, Methods, Mexican, Poultry, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Easy Sunday night dinner. 4/2/23

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Beebamom

On Sunday night we usually have Breakfast For Dinner (BFD). We each make our own and it is always easy. I started my BFD with a shared Taylor Farms packaged Greek salad.

Greek salad

For the egg portion of my BFD I decided on a fried egg over toast. Here is my method. First I toast a piece of bread. I like rye bread. Then I cut it into 18 pieces. (that is in half and then 3 x 3) I set my plate with the cut toast spread out on it on the burner behind the one that I am going to cook my egg on to keep it warm.

Cut up toast

I cook my seasoned egg over-easy and slide it on to the waiting toast. I usual add a little extra salt on top, break the yolk, and it is ready to eat. I try to have a little egg with each toast square. And that is my easy Sunday night dinner.

Over-easy egg on toast

Posted in American, Breakfast For Dinner (BFD), Easy, Eggs, Kitchen tips, Methods, Salad, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment

Weekly Menu. April 3 – 9, 2023

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Beebamom

Busy week ahead with Passover and Easter being celebrated over the weekend. John and I are making a Seder for 8 on Saturday and our daughter-in-law’s parents have invited us for Easter dinner. It is hard to eat lightly this week!

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Shrimp and broccoli with creamy polenta 4/1/23

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Beebamom
Shrimp and broccoli with creamy polenta

This dinner is a favorite of ours. The half cup of polenta is made with 3 cups of water, a couple of bay leaves, 2 garlic cloves, a scant teaspoon of salt, and is finished with a teaspoon of butter. This makes a loose, creamy-seeming polenta which acts as a base and almost a sauce for the steamed broccoli and sautéed shrimp. Yum!

Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Methods, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Leave a comment

Lamb chops with mixed rice and asparagus. 3/31/23

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Beebamom
Grilled lamb chops, mixed rice, and asparagus

This is an easy prep and clean-up dinner. John grilled our little lamb chops to a medium/medium rare perfection. I tried for the first time a package of Bibigo brown rice, red rice, and wild rice mix that you micro-wave for 90 seconds. It comes in a 7.7 oz. package. I used about 1/3 of it in my rice preparation and also added 1/2 cup riced cauliflower. It was very good and certainly easier than preparing three different kinds of rice! The asparagus was simply cooked in a little water.

The only downside to the dinner was that it was too much to eat! I definitely could have been fine with two. I cut forkful of meat off two of them and left the rest for our daughter to nibble on as she prepared her dinner.

Posted in American, Easy, Lamb, Methods, rice, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Afghani dal with rice and kale. 2/20/23

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Beebamom
Afghani dal with rice and kale

I am so happy to be eating vegetables again! While we were away the occasional salad and the tomatoes in pizza sauce were the only vegetables we had pretty much.

The food this week is comfort food such as the meatloaf I made last night, easy things like this Afghani dal, and minimal clean-up dishes while we suffer through jet lag.

Posted in Afghan, Easy, Legumes, rice, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. March 27-April 2, 2023

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Beebamom

Hi, I am back! We were away celebrating our daughter’s birthday for most of March eating everything good and a few clunkers in Italy. Now it is time to start cooking and eating reasonably again! I am looking forward to it!! Every day I will post a picture and explanation of my actual dinner plate. I hope it gives you some ideas about how you can cook your way to a healthy lifestyle. Here is the remainder of this week’s menu.

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Mac ‘n cheese with coleslaw. 3/6/23

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Beebamom
Macaroni and cheese with broccoli, homemade coleslaw

As I mentioned earlier I am taking a break until the end of March so this will be my last post until then. I may write something occasionally if we have an especially interesting dinner.

Monday’s dinner was like a throwback to childhood with a couple of adult twists. The mac ‘n cheese was from the Kraft blue box. It was definitely sweeter than I remember. I added a bunch of broccoli to it which I dropped in with the boiling noodles when they had two minutes left on their timer. John sautéed up some mushrooms and onion to add. These additions plus some shredded parm helped with the sweetness level. (I am totally adverse to sweet flavors. No one else here commented on it tasting sweet.)

I made the coleslaw myself, shredding cabbage, carrot and onion. The saucy part was a combo of mayonnaise, rice wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, celery seed, and salt.

John, our daughter, and I really enjoyed this retro dinner. It was definitely our kind of comfort food!

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Pasta, Salad, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Chilean sea bass, new potatoes, glazed carrots. 3/5/23

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Beebamom
Roasted Chilean sea bass, steamed new potatoes, and glazed carrots

A no-egg Sunday! Instead we made delicious Chilean sea bass. Actually John made the fish and I made the vegetables, our usual division of meal prep. He cooked the fish for about 14 minutes in a 400F oven It came out moist and unctuous. I would love to eat it more often but it is so darned expensive.

For my part I steamed new potatoes and glazed some carrots. The potatoes were bigger than usual and took about 25 minutes. I had to add additional water to keep the pan from drying out. The carrots cooked in a little water with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar for fifteen minutes. I took them out of the pan, dumped out the remaining water and made a glaze. This consisted of another tablespoon of sherry vinegar, some minced onion, thyme leaves and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Then I returned the carrots to the pan to glaze them.

We opened a bottle of Imagery White Burgundy to complete our dinner. Sometimes it is fun to have a celebratory dinner for no reason at all!

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Methods, pescatarian, Special occasion, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Turkey sausage and vegetable soup or stew? 3/4/23

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Beebamom
Turkey sausage and vegetable soup or stew

John and I are a match made in heaven. He likes chicken drumettes and I like the flats when it comes to chicken wings. He likes dark meat and I like white meat. And he likes soup and I like stew. This means whenever I make soup I can take as many vegetables as I like and as little broth as I want and he can have his vegetables swimming around in a bunch of broth. It works out perfectly!

Dinner was a kind of clean out the refrigerator kind of meal. I had four ounces of turkey sausage, some new potatoes, as well as onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, and mushrooms I needed to use. I started by sautéing the mushrooms onions, and half of the sausage pieces in a little oil. Then I added chicken stock and the rest of the vegetables. Towards the end of the cooking I added the rest of the sausage and some parsley. The whole thing took about 25 minutes.

My serving look like stew. Just the way I like it. John’s definitely looked like soup. The best part is that I did not have to feel guilty for eating the majority of the vegetables!

Posted in American, Easy, Methods, Poultry, soup, stew, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment