I have gotten behind so I am using today’s post to catch up.
Saturday, September 13, 2025. Hot dogs, spicy pinto beans, and salad
Sunday, September 14, 2025. John’s birthday Lunch at Posada
Monday, September 15, 2025. Weekly Menu
Monday, September 15, 2025. Classic chicken dinner
I made this a couple of weeks ago and it turned out really tasting good so I decided to make it again. Still good! There is some chopping and you have to wait for the potatoes to cook through but the whole prep and cooking time shouldn’t be more than an hour. I cut up my veg earlier in the afternoon so everything was ready to go when it came time to cook it. This time I added one russet potato to the mix thinking that it might thicken the juice a bit but I really did not see any difference so I think I will stick with the small Yukon gold potatoes that I do not have to peel. I also added some fresh tarragon that we can get from the community garden.
Sarah made this delicious chili using Muir Glen Chili Starter (medium spicy), browned ground beef, undrained black beans, and a little salt. That’s it and it was probably the best chili that we have had in a long time. Here’s a page from Muir Glen with info about their chili starter. https://www.muirglen.com/products/muir-glen-chili-starter
She found the 28 oz. can at Grocery Outlet for $.99 (yes, ninety-nine cents!) and bought two, one mild and one medium. She browned and drained the excess fat from the ground beef and added the tomatoes and beans. As extras on top she chopped up some onion and cilantro and served those separately with sour cream and tortilla chips. We just could not get over how good it was. We ate the whole pot!
Sarah’s community garden friend gave her bunches of basil . Rather than let it spoil I decided to make pesto. I used this recipe from loveandlemons.com. https://www.loveandlemons.com/pesto-recipe/
It is simple and the pesto turns out great. I would suggest, however, that you keep tasting it for salt level. I started with 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and kept adding from there.
Since pasta with pesto does not happen very frequently at our house I was rewarded with “yum” from Sarah and a suggestion that I make it again soon from John.
We have made this Sicilian dish a few times with both swordfish and tilapia. I think I like it better with tilapia. Cod would be a good choice too, especially Atlantic cod which is much more delicious than Pacific cod. The swordfish is harder to cook just right and last night’s was just a little over.
The sauce is delicious with whatever fish you cook and probably would be pretty tasty with chicken too. You can find the recipe here. https://www.seriouseats.com/agghiotta-di-pesce-spada-sicilian-braised-swordfish-with-tomatoes-and-olives-5212333
As I look through the spring and summer months grilled hamburgers and salads pop up almost every week. With John grilling the burgers and me making a salad, it is quick, easy, and delicious!
We occasionally buy these frozen pieces of tuna when they are on sale. Two 7-ounce portions at $5 each make a fancy but economical meal for the three of us. John marinates the tuna briefly in soy sauce and presses sesame seeds into the fish. He cooks it very briefly in a hot pan, only a couple of minutes on each side. While he is working on the fish I reheat some pre-made rice and briefly steam the vegetables. I have already put together a sauce for the vegetables.
Here is what I am thinking about the result of the vegetables. Steaming them for a couple of minutes and the reheating them with the sauce made the vegetables over-cooked. I tried using a stir-fry sauce that I found on NYTimes Cooking but I wasn’t happy with the results. The vegetables were just cooked too much in a sauce that did not taste particularity Asian. It is back to the drawing board for this dinner.
Sarah was not feeling well tonight so we decided to just order in pizza and save our tuna dinner until tomorrow.
Thursday is Sarah’s night to make dinner. Instead of pasta she set up a buffet of ingredients so that we could each make our own bowl. Mine consisted of rice, black beans, cheese, chicken, cabbage, salsa, peppers, cilantro, avocado, sour cream, and tortilla chips. It was a really good dinner!
Omnivore 