This Sunday’s Breakfast For Dinner made use of leftover Harira, a Moroccan stew we made earlier this week. I added a piece of deli ham that I cut in strips, an over easy egg, and a squirt of sriracha to spice it up. I found the resulting dish a little sweet for my taste. I also think I like the taste of an egg better on its own. I know that runny eggs are supposed to be a crowning touch to many dishes but it is just not for me.
This dish started out as a quinoa bowl with tahini sauce that I saw on the NYTimes cooking site. John is not a fan of quinoa so I changed the grain to farro. I did not want all the calories from tahini so I made up a sauce of non-fat yogurt and peanut butter powder.
Here is my easy, fool-proof oven-baked recipe for farro (and also brown rice!)
The eggplant and Brussels sprouts I toss in olive oil and salt. I use a separate sheet pan for each vegetable. I roast the vegetables at 425F for 20 minutes for the eggplant and then put the sprouts in for the last 10 minutes. The edamame I just defrost and add a little salt.
I can only give approximates for the sauce because it is a kind of taste as you go recipe. So 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter powder, 1/2 teaspoon each soy sauce and sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, a dash of salt, and water to thin the sauce out. That’s my best guess.
Once again John is responsible for making the burgers and I am taking care of the tabbouleh. He does a masterful job of cooking the burgers out on the grill in the almost dark. They are more on the medium side of medium- rare but still delicious.
I have been working on getting the most out of my patio garden. Yesterday I harvested all my basil and made pesto which I froze. Today I am using up mint and parsley. Making tabbouleh is somewhat onerous what with all the washing, drying, picking of leaves, and chopping. Today it was worth using my full-sized food processor even though it is more of a pain to clean.
This dinner was a delicious nod to summer using the last bits of our patio produce before Jack Frost kills it off.
For years this was the dinner we had on Mondays. In fact our son who is married and has children of his own tells me that on Mondays he always makes chicken. I know he is not making “traditional” chicken, his dishes tend to be much more international, but still it’s chicken on Monday. Warms my heart.
Anyway, it is Thursday and I am making the vegetables that go with our chicken and John is cooking the meat. He sears the chicken breast in a pan first and then puts it in a 350F oven until cooked through.
I make the rutabaga (extended with a couple of potatoes) in the Instant Pot and set it for 15 minutes then let it cool for 10 minutes before releasing the residual steam. Pressure cooking rutabagas insures that they will be totally cooked and easy to mash. I add a teaspoon of butter to the mash. The broccoli is simply sautéed in a pan with a little water and another teaspoon of butter until tender.
While the chicken is finishing in the oven John makes a packet of chicken gravy. Our dinner is completed and it feels like a hug on a chilly night.
While I was away John saw an episode of America’s Test Kitchen where they made this North African dish. He thought it looked doable and good so we put it on the menu for this week. We tweaked the recipe a bit and made it spicier and more stew-like. You can use chicken stock or keep it vegan by using vegetable stock. It turned out pretty well and we will probably make it again.
Here’s the recipe with changes we made in parentheses.
After marinating the tuna for an hour in soy sauce, ginger powder, garlic powder, and a few drops of sesame oil John coated the pieces with black and white sesame seeds. Then he seared it for two minutes on each side. The rice was made earlier in the day and reheated.
I made the bok choy. Since the pieces I had were larger I cut each one in half. I followed the recipe below which ended up with some extra sauce to put on the rice. This was a really healthy and delicious dinner.
Bok Choy in Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3½ tablespoons oyster sauce
Pinch of sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 tablespoon sliced or minced garlic
4 to 6 bunches of baby bok choy, approximately 1½ pounds, cleaned, with ends trimmed (divided in half if large)
Combine soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and rice vinegar in a bowl and set aside.
Heat oil in a skillet or wok set over high heat. When it shimmers, add garlic, then bok choy, and stir-fry for 2 minutes. (Be careful not to burn garlic!) Add 2 to 3 tablespoons water to the skillet or wok, then cover it and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, until bok choy has softened nicely at its base.
Remove bok choy from the skillet or wok and place it on a warmed platter. Drizzle the sauce over the greens and serve.
As much as I love going on vacation and eating dishes that someone else prepares and cleans up, I am always happy to come home to my own kitchen and my own way of cooking. My bowl of pasta is made simply with a little olive oil, fresh mushrooms, broccoli, and zucchini plus a cup of seasoned pasta cooking water. This vegan entree is easy and delicious to make.
Hi, I am back from having a fabulous vacation with my daughter and ready to get back to eating in a healthy and delicious manner. That is not to say that during our vacation I ate in a totally reckless manner but I did have a few desserts plus bigger breakfasts and lunches than I usually do. I was going to post some dinners while I was away but the internet was pretty feeble on the boat and I could not upload pictures.
This week’s menu has four vegan or vegetarian dinners, one chicken, and two seafood. I hope this inspires you to make some good choices this week!
John made some really yummy hamburgers out on the grill in the dark! He says he can tell if they are done by how they feel and the length of time they have been cooking. This is why I leave all the protein cooking up to him! I would have to cut them in half to see if they were done enough!
I bought organic grass-fed beef for these burgers. We usually just eat the regular grind that comes from the grocery store and I was afraid that maybe these would taste strange. But, no worries, they came out tasting just about the same and they were juicy and delicious.
I like my burgers with a smear of mayo on the bottom half of the bun so that it does not get sogged out and ketchup and a slice of red onion on top. I bought a Taylor Farms salad and added some extra lettuce since there were three of us eating.
On Thursday I am off with my daughter on a 10 day vacation. Maybe I will post some airplane food tonight. We are flying SwissAir for the first time and I wonder what kind of Swiss delights they will have. For the rest of the ten days if I eat something exceptionally good or bad I will post it. Strangely, having a record of what I eat helps me to remember what I did during a trip.
At last we had a rainy day here in Northern California! So we scuttled our plans to have grilled hamburgers and went with a rainy day soup. The clam chowder I make is not the thick type you usually associate with New England clam chowder but a much lighter one that depends on homemade shrimp stock and bottled clam juice for most of its liquid with only a small amount of half and half or heavy cream to enrich it.
I use canned minced clams and its liquid for the clam portion but I peel and dice the potatoes and slice the leeks, celery, and onions by hand. Luckily I have thyme and tarragon still growing on the patio. We made extra soup for two reasons. Our daughter joined us for this dinner and proclaimed it as “Great!” a rare accolade. Also since she and I are leaving for a mom and daughter trip on Thursday I wanted some leftovers for John. Although he is totally self-sufficient in the kitchen I know he will appreciate a few easy dinners while we are gone.
I garnished my bowl with broken up pretzel sticks because someone ate up the oyster crackers. Actually they were quite good on top. They did not get mushy fast and added a nice pop of saltiness.
Omnivore 