Two weeks ago I made extra spaghetti sauce and froze it. Tonight all I needed to do was thaw the container of sauce and sauté a few more mushrooms to add to it. I decided to keep the zucchini as a side dish which I made simply by cooking up some onions and garlic and then adding the zucchini half-rounds. The only thing I would do differently is buy more zucchini!
Just a reminder that all the pictures on my site are exactly what I eat. I lost 60 lbs. eating these dinners and by having reasonable breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. By cooking at home John and I can control the amounts of fats and carbs plus insure our portion sizes. In fact I read an article today from the Mayo Clinic which reported that limiting dining out was a indicator of weight loss success.
Flank steak is an economical beef choice and is quit lean. It only takes about five minutes to cook on the grill. To go along with the steak I gave John a split potato that I had microwaved. A little char on the potato makes it even better. Tonight’s vegetable was sautéed broccoli. The vegetables are always the first thing I eat. So delicious!
We definitely have a division of labor when making this dinner. John does all things fish and I do all things vegetable. Here is how he prepares the salmon. First he chooses similarly sized pieces, in this case 3/4 of an inch thick. He brines the fish for 20 minutes in a solution of two tablespoons of table salt in a quart of water. Then he puts a scant layer of kosher salt in the bottom of a frying pan and puts the fish in skin side down. The salt in the pan acts as “ball-bearings” so the fish does not stick. It does not actual salt it. There is no fat in the pan and there is no flame under the pan to start. Once the fish is in the pan he turns the burner on to low and cooks the fish on low for 15 minutes. Then he flips the fish over for two minutes and removes the skin.
I usually have all my green vegetables cut up by the time he starts cooking. To make this mono-chromatic salad I use avocado, edamame, cabbage, cucumber, jalapeño, scallions, and either basil or cilantro. I make an almost no-oil vinaigrette from about equal parts of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, a few drops of sesame oil, and minced garlic, ginger, and scallion. After dressing the salad with the vinaigrette I drizzle on a good olive oil. We usually eat this dish with rice or riced cauliflower.
On Sunday nights everyone in the family is on their own to make whatever appeals to them. I knew we had bits and pieces of vegetables and I decided to roast broccoli, cauliflower, rutabaga, mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots. I tossed all the vegetables in a bag with olive oil and salt and then laid them out on a foil-lined and sprayed sheet pan. In a pre-heated 425F oven on the convect setting, it took about 20 minutes to cook everything to slightly brown and tender. I put some raw kale in a bowl followed by microwaved riced cauliflower and then the veg on top. An extra drizzle of olive oil and a little more salt and it was a perfect dinner for me!
Delicious, healthy, and inexpensive red lentils are the stars of this dish.
Tonight we dressed up our leftover Autumn soup with a strip of bacon each. I made a double batch last week which makes about 10-12 servings. The recipe below is the full fat version. I use about 1/4 of the butter and cream recommended and it still tastes delicious.
In addition to our bowls of soup we also had some store bought hummus and pita plus I made a tabbouleh salad.
When we have tacos I like to make a condiment bar on the kitchen counter that way everyone can fix their plate the way they like. John cooked the shrimp and warmed the tortillas while I cut up the taco accompaniments. (I know that arugula and golden beets do not go with tacos but the beets were left over from Sunday and I needed to use them!)
In the back row are arugula, avocado, and sliced golden beets. In the middle are crema (yogurt mixed with salt and cumin), a small bottle of spicy avocado sauce (just bought this today. It is good!), salsa, and shredded cabbage. The lone item in the front is cilantro.
Dinner was a success! John cooked the shrimp perfectly as usual and the salsa, crema, and avocado sauce worked well on everything.
While I will never be fooled by vegetables parading as pasta, if you mix zoodles with actual pasta what you get is a very tasty dish that takes a while to eat. I am definitely a fan of a big bowl of food.
I bought my hand zoodler back in June and am glad that I remembered to use it on Wednesday. I sautéed mushrooms, onions, and garlic seasoned with red pepper flakes and oregano and then waited until the pasta was ready to join the vegetables to put the zoodles in. If you try cooking them you are liable to end up with mush. A little olive oil, basil, and pasta water was all that was needed to make a light sauce.
I made the vegan version of the sesame bowls I have been making. The bowl pictured here is waiting for its scallion-ginger-soy vinaigrette. We have one of these almost every week rotating through tofu, shrimp, and salmon. My daughter mentioned today that avocados are on sale this coming week. I rejoined that I could not make the same thing over and over again. She said why not? Good question! The bowls are simple to make and delicious!
Omnivore 