Chilean sea bass, asparagus, and riced broccoli mix 8/29/22

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Beebamom
Roasted Chilean sea bass, asparagus, riced broccoli mix

Tuesday was a busy day for me and I did not get around to posting Monday’s dinner. It was an especially tasty dinner with a nice thick piece of Chilean sea bass that we got on sale from Whole Foods. I do not shop at Whole Foods very often due to their rather high prices but I always keep an eye out for sale items. The fish guy there is always happy to cut you pieces just the way you want them. John cooked the sea bass pieces in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes and they came out perfectly, succulent large flakes of delicious fish.

For my part I prepared the asparagus. In case you do not know, when asparagus pops out of the ground in the spring a variety of stalks come up. Some are thin, others medium, and some are thick. There is no baby asparagus so if you are just buying the thin ones, they are really no different from the thick ones, just skinnier. In order to get the most out of my asparagus buck I peel the bottoms where they look woody. Underneath you can find perfectly good, tender asparagus. You can see where I peeled the ends in the picture above.

Finally, when I was at Grocery Outlet the other day I picked up a frozen package of riced broccoli with onions, carrots, and quinoa. It comes unseasoned so it needed quite a bit of salt. But it was a nice change from riced cauliflower. I also added a quarter teaspoon of butter to the fish, the asparagus, and the broccoli mix. Just a little butter goes a long way to making everything taste even better!

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Kitchen tips, Methods, pescatarian, Vegetables | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tossed green salad with herbs and chicken. 8/28/22

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Beebamom
Herb and greens salad with chicken

If this looks a lot like Saturday’s dinner it is because I had leftover shredded chicken and chow mein noodles. But it is not totally the same. The base of this salad is spinach, arugula, Romaine, mint, and basil. I dressed it with a drizzle of olive oil and a combination of soy sauce, half of a lime’s worth of juice, garlic powder, and ginger powder. I did not bother on combining the oil and soy parts because they do not emulsify. I put the oil on first and then the soy mixture and tossed the greens around to get it mixed together. I am really liking this new way of dressing the salad. I can control the amount of oil I am using much more easily. Then I piled the chicken on top followed by a scattering of chow mein noodles and furikake.

I lost one pound this week eating exactly what you have seen in the pictures. We also had popcorn for before-sies and wine with many (but not all) of these dinners. Losing 1-2 lbs. a week is a sane way of getting myself back to my goal weight.

Posted in Asian, Easy, Healthy tips, Hot weather meals, Kitchen tips, leftovers, Methods, Poultry, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment

Weekly Menu. August 29 – September 4, 2022

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Beebamom
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Crunchy Vietnamese chicken salad 8/27/22

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Beebamom
Crunchy Vietnamese chicken salad

I made this salad for the first time last night. The original recipe is from Food and Wine but I added a few more vegetables and replaced the peanuts with almonds and the fried shallots with chow mein noodles. Using shredded rotisserie chicken and replacing the fried shallots with chow mein noodles makes this a completely no-cook meal great for hot nights.

It is a lot of chopping, though. Shred the cabbage and carrots, or buy it pre-shredded, thinly slice red bell pepper and cucumbers (my additions), mince the garlic and ginger (my addition), shred the chicken and you are looking at more than a half hour of chopping work!

Instead of serving this as a composed salad, I put all the components out on our kitchen island and let each of us make our own salad. I was pleased that dinner got rave reviews. We decided that next time we might try tofu instead of chicken and maybe use a soy vinaigrette instead of fish sauce as a base. That way we can keep the dish totally vegan/vegetarian.

Posted in Asian, Hot weather meals, Poultry, Recipes, Salad, Vegetables, Vietnamese | Tagged | 1 Comment

Grilled flank steak, baked potato, steamed broccoli 8/26/22

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Beebamom
Marinated and grilled flank steak, microwaved and grilled baking potato, steamed broccoli

Once again having good products means that they can be treated simply and be delicious. John put a dry rub on the flank steak. The rub consisted of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin. He did that around lunch time and then the meat sat in the refrigerator enjoying its rub until he took it out about an hour before dinner. After heating up the grill for 15 minutes the steak cooked for 1.5 minutes on each side followed by an additional 1 minute on each side. Then it rested for 5 minutes before he sliced it up. Flank steak is a very beefy tasting cut of meat but you have to be sure to cut it across the grain or else it turns out tough.

I microwaved an 8 ounce potato sliced in half lengthwise for 7 minutes and then handed it over to John to put on the grill. He cooked it for 3 minutes on the cut side and 2 minutes on the skin side. While he was taking care of the meat and potatoes, I steamed the broccoli and gave it a butter spritz.

Dinner was delicious! We do not usually eat red meat so it is always kind of a treat. Although this is embarrassing I like to eat my meat and potato with ketchup. It satisfies my inner child.

Posted in American, Beef, Easy, Grilling, Hot weather meals, Kitchen tips, Methods, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment

Buffalo chicken wings 8/25/22

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Beebamom
Buffalo chicken wings with carrots, celery, and blue cheese (picture from July road trip)

On Thursday I got sidetracked with planning a trip to Boston with my best friend and dinner got lost in the excitement. Luckily we had bought a bag of frozen chicken wings and made a dinner of them plus a couple of carrots and two ribs of celery. So while I was busy texting back and forth and trying to find flights etc., John cooked up the chicken wings. The wings, from Foster Farms, were already seasoned and John baked them at 425F for 22 minutes and then turned the oven to 450F for an additional seven minutes. We had these once before and they came out a little flabby so he made sure they were crisp.

This was not the healthiest of dinners but better than John’s first suggestion which was pizza delivery. I give myself a lot of credit for turning his suggestion down.

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Gazpacho and avocado toast 8/24/22

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Beebamom
Gazpacho

This week’s gazpacho is the same recipe as last week’s except instead of a squirt of sriracha I put in two Thai chiles. It was pretty spicy but I liked the contrast of the cold soup and the hot flavor. Here’s the recipe in case you missed it.

Posted in Easy, Hot weather meals, Mediterranean, Recipes, soup, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Leave a comment

Tilapia tacos with beans and rice. 8/23/22

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Beebamom
Tilapia taco with spicy beans and Tex-Mes cauliflower rice

Tonight was Taco Tuesday at our house. In order to keep the dinner healthy and the calories down, I had one open face taco with a tortilla which is simply seared over the flame on our cooktop. John cooks the fish in a combination of olive oil spray and 2 teaspoons of oil.

I added to our dwindling salsa but cutting up additional tomatoes, peppers, and hot chiles. I added a little of the salsa plus a half can of Rotel to the beans and heated them up. The other half can I put in my cauliflower rice. The fish was simply served on a bed of shredded cabbage with a topping of salsa, cilantro, and yogurt crema which is a combo of non-fat Greek yogurt, salt, and cumin.

Posted in American, Easy, Fish, Healthy tips, Hot weather meals, Legumes, Mexican, pescatarian, rice, Southwest U.S., Vegetables | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Salmon bowl. 8/22/22

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Beebamom

Salmon bowl

We have been making some sort of bowl almost every week. The last one featured tofu but this week our daughter asked for salmon. After a short brine John cooks the salmon on a low flame starting from a cold pan. It takes about 20 minutes with a flip for the last two minutes.

Between the brine and the cook I have plenty of time to get all the other components ready. We each are responsible for heating up our own rice, basmati for our daughter, white rice for John, and cauliflower rice for me. Everything else is cold – shredded cabbage, edamame, cucumber, hot chiles, avocado, and green onions. The dressing is a gingery, soy vinaigrette. The garnish is Furikake.


Our “bowl” dinners are easy to make and keep the kitchen cool on these hot evenings. I think that they are the most popular thing I make so I expect there will be some version of this again next week.

Posted in Asian, Easy, Fish, Hot weather meals, Legumes, pescatarian, rice, Salad, Vegetables, Weeknight dinners | 1 Comment

Simply salad. 8/21/22

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Beebamom
Tossed salad

Sunday dinner is supposed to be eggs plus. But I just was not feeling the eggs tonight. So first I thought I would make a salad with some chicken and chickpeas but shredding the chicken seemed like too much work. So I just went with the chickpeas for my protein. I also added cauliflower, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, and red onion. Still it was lacking pizzazz. That it when I decided on the slivered almonds that I had bought earlier in the week. They added some crunch, fat, and protein. For a dressing I used Skinny Girl ranch cut with soy sauce because it is too sweet and a teaspoon of olive oil to give it a better mouth-feel.

To be honest this salad did not fill me up and I raided the refrigerator later. I mashed up a few more chickpeas, added some salt, toasted a pita pocket half and had a satisfying mini-sandwich. Then I went to bed before I got involved with the zucchini cake that our daughter had made earlier!

Posted in American, Easy, Hot weather meals, Salad, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Weeknight dinners | Tagged | 1 Comment