Chicken spaghetti vegetable soup. 10/30/22

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Beebamom
Chicken spaghetti vegetable soup

While John was having an omelet (again!) for his Sunday supper, I decided to raid the produce bins in the refrigerator, use up the rest of the pulled chicken from enchilada night, and break up some whole wheat spaghetti for something different. For the vegetable component I chopped up mushrooms and onions and sautéed them first. Then I added chicken stock and water plus a teaspoon of what we call chicken salt (chicken bullion.) Carrots, celery, broccoli, cabbage, parsley, and the shredded chicken were next in the pot. Lastly I broke up thin stranded whole wheat spaghetti for a kind of noodle effect. About nine minutes later my soup was done. It was tasty and filling plus I have enough leftover to start another pot of soup for lunch this week!

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Weekly Menu October 31-November 2, 2022

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Beebamom

Starting on Thursday I will be taking a 10-day vacation with our daughter. Poor John is staying at home and will have to cut up his own vegetables! I offered to chop up a bunch of stuff before I leave but he said no. Since he does all of the protein cooking anyway, he can buy himself a bag of salad for a complete meal. He is also talking about ordering Chinese food which he never gets to do since we instituted the healthy lifestyle plan. Plus we made extra Chana dal and we will also have leftover clam chowder so I do not think he will starve.

My plan is to eat seafood or vegetarian during our trip. Daughter and I have made a pact not to comment on or criticize each other’s food choices. Hopefully that will help. If I manage to eat a healthy dinner while away I will post it here.

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Chana dal (dried split chickpea stew) 10/29/22

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Beebamom
Chana dal over cauliflower rice and kale

We make our Chana dal in an Instant Pot where it cooks under pressure for 15 minutes. It is full of spices, ginger, garlic, a can of Rotel, and plenty of vegetable broth. I serve my portion over riced cauliflower and kale while John has his with regular white rice. I got my recipe from the Piping Pot Curry website and have modified it to our taste over time. If you are interested in making it, the Piping Pot Curry recipe is a good place to start.

Posted in Indian, Instant Pot, Legumes, stew, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian | Tagged | Leave a comment

Roasted tilapia, pesto, and sheet pan veg. 10/29/22

Posted on October 29, 2022 by Beebamom
Roasted tilapia with pesto and sheet pan zucchini, red onion, carrots, and mushrooms

This is almost an instant replay of a dinner we had last week. We enjoyed last week’s rendition of this fish dinner plus we had one frozen cube of pesto left so our only change was to add mushrooms to the sheet pan.

After preheating the oven to 425F and oiling up and seasoning the vegetables I started roasting them for 30 minutes. Half way through John added the tilapia in a separate dish. Everything was done at the 30 minute mark. All that was left to do was add the pesto which had defrosted in a little bowl to room temperature. This was a very economical, healthy, and tasty fish dinner.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Methods, pescatarian, Sheet pan, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicken enchiladas and spicy black beans. 10/27/22

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Beebamom
Chicken enchiladas and spicy black beans

Usually when we make enchiladas John heats the tortillas on the stove’s open flame and then hands them off to me. This method means I have to cradle this hot tortilla in my hand and try to fill it fast enough that I don’t get burned. Plus often they are too crispy and not pliable. I looked up various recipes which called for lightly frying them or dipping the tortillas in hot enchilada sauce. Both methods seemed to have similar problems. I decided that since the whole casserole of enchiladas was going to bake in the oven anyway that I would just use the tortillas raw.

I have to admit that a couple of the tortillas tore a little when I rolled them up but once they were nestled against one another and covered in sauce and cheese no one could tell the difference. And I did not get burned in the process. So win-win!

I stuffed the tortillas with shredded chicken, sautéed onions and peppers (including a spicy habanero), cheese and a drizzle of salsa verde. I put them in a 8×12” baking dish which was coated with the salsa verde. Nine tortillas fit down the length of the dish with another two along the side. I covered the top with more salsa verde, the remaining onions and peppers, and a sprinkling of Mexican blend shredded cheese. The casserole baked at 350F for 30 minutes.

Along with some black beans which were spiced up with a can of Rotel our dinner was solidly in the category of “family favorite.”


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

Zoodle-mania. 10/26/22

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Beebamom

So here is a silly/stupid thing I did. I wanted to make some zoodles to augment our pasta dish. Unfortunately I pulled a cucumber out of the fridge instead of a zucchini! John snitched a few strands out of my pile of cuke-oodles and remarked that my zoodles tasted like cucumber. Thank goodness he discovered my mistake before I put them in the pasta! I turned my errant cucumber zoodles into a first course salad.

Cucumber zoodles with tomatoes and radishes

For our main course we had fettucine augmented with (zucchini) zoodles and meat balls in a tomato sauce. This was delicious and very filling with 3oz. of pasta and a whole pile of zoodles.

Fettuccine and zoodles with meatballs and tomato sauce
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Singapore shrimp with rice and snow peas. 10/25/22

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Beebamom
Singapore shrimp with rice and snow peas

The sauce is what makes this shrimp Singaporean. It is salty from fish sauce, tart from rice wine vinegar, spicy from chili garlic sauce, and tomato-ey sweet from ketchup. You can find the recipe from the last time I made it – https://wordpress.com/post/dininglite.blog/12473 We make a half recipe since only John and I are eating it.

It is a little fussy to make. First you sear the shrimp and take it out of the pan. Then you cook the finely chopped garlic, onion, and ginger. (I use my mini-prep for this) and then you add in the sauce which needs to be cooked since there are raw shrimp in it. Finally you add back in the whole seared shrimp and warm up the whole thing together.

Fussiness aside, this is a very tasty dish with the sauce hitting all the taste points!

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Seared tuna, lentils, and broccoli 10/24/22

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Beebamom
Seared tuna, lentils, radish, and broccoli with a warm soy vinaigrette

We were supposed to be making lentils with turkey sausage tonight but we saw a nice piece of tuna at Costco and took the lentils in a different direction. I whizzed up a little onion, garlic, and ginger in my mini-prep, sautéed them, and added the lentils and water. In 20 minutes at a low simmer they were done. While I steamed the broccoli John quickly seared the sesame seed encrusted tuna. We had some leftover soy vinaigrette from last week so I zapped it in the microwave and dinner was ready.

Do lentils go with tuna? Not totally but the soy vinaigrette tied everything together.

Posted in Asian, Easy, Fish, Legumes, Methods, pescatarian, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekly Menu. October 24-30, 2022

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Beebamom
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Tilapia with pesto and roasted vegetables. 10/22/22

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Beebamom
Tilapia with a pesto sauce and roasted zucchini, carrots, and red onion

We took the humble tilapia and elevated it with a perfect cook, a homemade pesto, and delicious roasted carrots, zucchini, and red onion. Our dishes were garnished with a drizzle of olive oil and a chiffonade of fresh basil.

I put the vegetables coated with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a 425F oven. After 15 minutes John added the fish. They cooked together for 11 minutes and everything was done. We were amazed at how delicious it all turned out. It just goes to show you don’t have to spend $25-$30/lb. for some delicious fish.

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