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Salmon bowl. 12/10/22
I have been having some trouble with a painful knee. It is obviously arthritis brought on by years of running, hiking, and playing tennis and mostly because as you get older your joints start to wear out. In order to postpone knee replacement as long as possible I looked into what foods help reduce inflammation. Foods that fight inflammation include salmon, legumes, cruciferous vegetables, and avocados. So why not put them all in one bowl!?
Luckily combining all these components with a delicious soy vinaigrette is also super tasty! In fact this dinner is the number one favorite at our house. Sometimes we make it with tofu or shrimp instead of salmon. All are equally delicious.
I think my knee feels better already!
Posted in Asian, Easy, Fish, Healthy tips, Legumes, pescatarian, Vegetables
Tagged salmon
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Fried scallops with tots and salad. 12/8/22
This is my birthday dinner. I love fried scallops and have not had them since July 17, 2020! That’s the thing about having this blog I always know what and when I ate something. So obviously frying stuff is not usually on the menu.
The downside to not making something very frequently is that we are sometimes a little a hazy about the procedure. I suggested to John that he heat the oil to 375F. That temperature turned out to be a little hot and the scallops turned out a little dark. But they were still delicious.We all enjoyed the scallops with my Fish Market Tartar Sauce, my secret recipe!
Otherwise we also had a bunch of crispy Tater Tots and a packaged Caesar salad. Where’s the cake? No cake for me. Sweet things are just not in my wheelhouse. Instead my daughter made spice cookies, thin and crispy and about the size of a 50 cent piece, (Do they have those anymore?) The cookies are just barely sweet and get their heat from powdered mustard.
It was a lovely birthday dinner made lovingly by John, me, and our daughter.
Posted in American, Easy, Methods, pescatarian, Salad, Shellfish, Special occasion, Vegetables
Tagged scallops
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Pasta Wednesday—pesto, asparagus, mushrooms 12/7/22
About a month ago I cut off all the leaves from our basil plants and made pesto with the basil leaves, almonds, garlic, and olive oil. I froze the pesto in a quarter cup ice tray and then transferred the cubes to a zip lock bag in the freezer. It is so easy and delicious to plop one of those cubes in a pasta to make a yummy dinner.
I paired the pesto with onions, mushrooms, and asparagus. Asparagus was on sale this for less than $2.00/lb! It was like a delicious breath of springtime before winter has even started!
Posted in American, Easy, Italian, Pasta, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners
Tagged pasta, pesto
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Taco Tuesday – carnitas! 12/6/22
Pork butt (shoulder) was on sale this week for $1.87/lb. So we thought we would buy a small one and try making carnitas in the Instant Pot for some dinners and lunches. We followed this recipe from the Well plated blog. The recipe calls for the pork butt to be cut into four pieces which John ignored so it was not done after the first 45 minutes. At that point he cut it into four pieces and gave it another go and it turned out perfectly. It was easy to shred with two forks right in the pot.
A quick broil in the oven while the tortillas heated up finished the carnitas. In my tacos I included salsa, cabbage, avocado crema, and onions. I served a prepackaged Southwest salad from Taylor Farms to round out the dinner.
I am sure you could do this dish in a slow cooker or in a Dutch oven. It just needs to cook slowly for a long time until it is fork tender. The Instant Pot merely speeded up the process. We really enjoyed our inexpensive Taco Tuesday. We rarely have pork so it was a treat!
Posted in American, Instant Pot, Mexican, Pork, Recipes, Salad, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners
Tagged Pork, Tacos
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Chicken, mashed squash/potato, broccoli. 12/5/22
This is a pretty typical Chicken Monday. John started the chicken on the stove top and finished it in the oven. I cooked a few red skinned potatoes and a bit of butternut squash in the Instant Pot for 12 minutes which made them very easily mashable. The broccoli cooked quickly in a pan with a quarter of a cup of water and a teaspoon of butter. The gravy, which tied the whole dinner together, was a mix of packet chicken gravy and the very last of the turkey gravy from Thanksgiving, 2021. This simple chicken dinner is real comfort food for me!
Posted in American, Easy, Instant Pot, Methods, Poultry, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners
Tagged broccoli, chicken, squash
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Birthday Week Menu. December 5-11, 2022
It is my birthday this week and I will be (mumble) years old. So the food this week will be a little more indulgent. On Thursday, my birthday, instead of spending mega-bucks going to some fancy restaurant I have asked John to re-create one of my favorite meals. In 1980 I went with a bunch of girlfriends to Atlantic Beach, NC for the weekend. We left the kids at home with the husbands. One night we went to Morehead City to a restaurant called Sanitary Seafood. In fact it still exists today! I ordered fried scallops which came with French fries and cole slaw. It was amazing!! We don’t eat much fried food around here so John making it is a real treat.
Posted in Weekly menu
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Tilapia tacos with spicy black beans. 12/3/22
John pan roasted the fish and I made the beans with yellow bell and jalapeño peppers, onions, and garlic spiced up with Tabasco sauce, cumin, and chipotle powder. The garnishes were avocado crema and yogurt. We warmed the tortillas in the oven and combined the fish with tomatoes, shredded cabbage, avocado crema and yogurt. This is an easy and enjoyable dinner.
Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Legumes, Methods, Mexican, pescatarian, Southwest U.S., Vegetables, Weeknight dinners
Tagged beans, tilapia
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Kale and white bean stew. 12/2/22
We made this dish once in 2021 and I was not a total fan. It was merely okay. Obviously I had forgotten that I did not really care for it when I suggested it this week as one of our vegan/vegetarian entrees.
This time, however, we worked on it to make it a much better dish. First we added extra vegetables – carrots, celery, poblano and red bell peppers, and mushrooms. Instead of two cans of plain diced tomatoes, we added one can of Rotel and one can of Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes with garlic. Then with the addition of a tablespoon of smoky paprika and a tablespoon of vinegar we were almost done.
The final touches to our dish were to add a base of raw kale to complement the cooked kale in the stew, a drizzle of olive oil, and a good squirt of sriracha. Now we had a dinner worth the time and trouble it took to make it! You can find the original recipe here but I really recommend trying the tweaks I suggested.
Posted in American, Easy, Kitchen tips, Legumes, Methods, Recipes, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners
Tagged beans, kale, stew
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Creamy polenta with shrimp and broccoli. 12/1/22
Tonight John took the lead on dinner making both the creamy polenta and the shrimp. I was relegated to broccoli duty. John makes his creamy polenta with a ratio of 1:5.5 or in this case 1/2 cup polenta to 5 1/2 cups of water. It cooks for about 15 minutes and come out really creamy. Once he was ready to cook the seasoned shrimp, I turned on the broccoli which steamed in a little water and 1 teaspoon butter. The polenta was really great with the shrimp and the broccoli.
Posted in American, Easy, Grains, Methods, pescatarian, Shellfish, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners
Tagged shrimp
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