Grilled hamburger with chopped salad 11/2/22

Posted on November 3, 2022 by Beebamom
Grilled hamburger with chopped salad

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.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Clam chowder. 11/1/22

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Beebamom
Clam chowder with pretzel garnish

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.

Posted in American, pescatarian, Shellfish, soup, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged , | 1 Comment

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!

Posted in American, Easy, leftovers, Methods, Pasta, Poultry, soup, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

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!

Posted in Asian, pescatarian, rice, Shellfish, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

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