What's for Dinner?

Share recipes, menus, and kitchen hints.
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Harriet
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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby Harriet » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:03 pm

blessed, you have such interesting posts! I think your kitchen must be a fun place. I have never prepared leeks before. They are an important ingredient in the various soups that are named "anti-cancer" soups.

Yes, the broccoli microgreens are a winner. Definitely want to have some ready when any company is here for a salad because they will be a conversation piece and so pretty. We didn't have any for our salads tonight because we ate the second flat of them so fast (flat meaning 9-inch-long and maybe 5 or 6 wide for windowsill). The third flat is just about to green up tomorrow but won't be ready for another day or so. I need to decide how often to start them.

Tonight was very simple. I cooked up a blend of rices and made salads. HRH cooked not-chicken strips with bell pepper 1-inch squares and a little of bottled sauce.

I am enjoying gardening videos and seeing how some of the newer-to-me veggies we've started enjoying at table would look in the garden, what it would take to grow them in a small bed. I did not know that lacinato kale will grow taller and taller as you harvest lower leaves, until it looks like a miniature palm tree several feet high. I don't have the long growing season that it would enjoy some places, but you never know. This one was grown in Philadelphia, so.. .. hmmm.

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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Sat Feb 03, 2018 1:40 pm

where do you get the seeds for your broccoli - are they regular broccoli? so interesting. do you need light soil - starter soil and cover them etc...? I have lots of questions??? I want to try this!

that sounds really good - the not chicken strips with bell pepper and rice. we have some in our fridge for tacos or salads.

I never knew the name of that kale - I see it often at our grocery store. I still can't get past the bitterness sometimes - I wonder if it is because I didn't grow up with greens as a staple like other veggies. It's a beautiful plant! it is harvested like brussels sprouts - so interesting. We eat kale in our potato soup. I love the dark colour. Do you ever have problems with dear eating your garden?

We had to shut down our small garden for years because the landscaper sprayed the garden. I hope this year we can start over as it has been 3 years.
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Sat Feb 03, 2018 2:01 pm

I pulled my recipes for this week. I am hoping to cook in the morning for most items. This was my thinking process in planning but being sick it was not the time.

last night we went out to dinner with relative and I over ate again and today I am suffering from all the cheese.

I am trying hard to stick to a budget for my cooking and grocery shopping. Today my groceries cost 137 and it was a small amount - mostly yogurts, fill ups, etc. I bought veggies last week and this week I bought herbs as I found mine went south after 2 weeks in the fridge.

So tonight is yesterdays dinner I had planned to make I got really sick
I need to take the left over soup veggies from the other day and blend them down and add it to broth to freeze (like a light soup)

penne with sausage and broccoli: italian sausage, onion, red bell pepper, penne not cooked , garlic, 2 cups chicken broth, heavy cream, parmesan, fresh basil, 2 tsp balsamic vinegar, s/p. [i][u]If anyone wants the recipe I am happy to share it

tomorrow: 1 fleishnacka, terrine (I will make that tomorrow morning) after I make the blueberry pancake for family.

I need to make the terrine before the veggies go bad
I need to make the asparagus too
I am going to freeze the chorizo for another day's soup.
If I can find a nice mango I will make mango salsa for this week

I am thinking the following
Oven baked blueberry pancake for tomorrow morning

Streusel muffins/apple cheddar muffins for freezer

2. Raviolo - ravioli dough with a spinach mixture (ricotta and parmesan/touch nutmeg) and an egg yolk in the middle of the spinach mix - top with ravioli pasta and seal - they use brown butter but I think I will do something else.
3. crab cakes with avocado salsa for an appetizer - I have tortillas to use and some pepper, veggies, black beans, cilantro tacos
4. Moroccan vegetable soup - trying a new recipe: carrots, rutabaga shallots cumin Harris chickpeas saffron israeli couscous top with cilantro (it sounds interesting) If I can't find rutabaga I will have to figure out a substitute
5. goat or feta whipped .. topped with tomato thingy on a couple pieces french bread oven crisped and red paper/red onion/capers from Ina garten

Making wedding soup for freezer (and sharing) this week.
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Sun Feb 04, 2018 2:58 pm

figured out this week: (hopeful)

Sunday: spinach wilted salad with bacon and red onion
penne w italian sausage
prep early afternoon

tuesday: flieshnacka
cauliflower gribbiche

wednesday: vegetarian
appetizer: bruschetta with peppers didn't like
tomato crostini with whipped feta
Moroccan soup

thursday : blueberry pancake with fresh fruit - vegetarian (I need to buy spinach,need to buy feta, make pesto without nuts-dd younger is horribly life threateningly allergic to nuts and any nut dust)
make terrine salad this day for Friday

Friday:
wedding soup
terrine salad
tomato slices with pesto and parmesan

Saturday: appetizer crab cake with avocado salsa
taco's with black beans, corn, tomato, olives, green onion, dd olders coleslaw with lime dressing, avocado, red onion, salsa

Sunday: Mediterranean Kabobs and pita with cucumber sauce with plain yogurt. meat for family. me feta i think
Last edited by blessedw2 on Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:11 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Harriet
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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby Harriet » Sun Feb 04, 2018 7:59 pm

blessed, about the microgreens, you use seeds that are sold for the purpose of sprouting/microgreens because if you used a regular packet of seeds, such as a little Bur pee packet of broccoli, you just couldn't afford it. Those are bred for the best mature harvest of a certain mature trait, and cost a lot more, might even be hybrids. The important thing about sprouting seeds is that the seed supplier guarantees cleanliness, that the seed pod itself is organically handled, guarantee against mold. Completely different criteria.

I might go with one of the water-only methods sometime and see which I like better - I really don't know if growing in the coconut coir (brown outside fiber) is best or not, since it's all I've done. A lot of people do the water-only, using sheets of material to grow on, that are just neutral, and the little plants won't have so much as a brown speck on their roots, so you could eat root and all.

Oh, how I love pancakes. HRH makes them sometimes from buckwheat flour (a mix of that with regular flour tasting super good and still a soft pancake) and he always puts blueberries in mine. As a matter of fact, you make me hungry for them!

Hoping, hoping that you feel better, dblessed. Even when not feeling well, you do a great job of planning.

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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:34 am

thank you sweet Harriet!

dd younger and I really like buckwheat pancakes as well - I never thought of adding regular flour as well - then maybe dh will like them. I will add some to the pancake I will be making because I always feel guilty eating flour only pancakes as I know it isn't as healthy.

As you can tell my dh is my simple but picky eater :lol: usually kids are that way. He grew up on boxed and packaged foods and lots of hamburger/hot dogs/corned beef has, etc. He worked at a fast food restaurant from 14 on and his stable were those foods. I remember eating at his d mom's house the first time I helped in the kitchen and she gave me an envelope of dry spaghetti sauce that you mixed with a stick of margarine, a small can of tomato paste and water and I was shocked. It was good but I wasn't used to that as my grandma was a straight from fresh person as she grew up in a country village with a couple gardens etc. (I guess we would call it a homestead now). very d mil was a wonderful baker and loved to cook but with 5 kids and multiple additions to the table and working and sewing almost every piece of clothing for her family etc. she didn't have the time. (plus she was one of the best mothers - she made parenting an art)

I do worry about the problems with sprouts as there have been many warnings from tainted product. I wonder why that happens? The sprouts sound delicious - I will look into them! Thank you!

today I HAVE to use the bananas that are starting to go bad.

I put my menu on 3 x 5 cards and taped them to the fridge so if anyone doesn't want to eat vegetarian or meat they can adjust ahead of time.
I am thinking of making a section of those cards as future ideas of what to cook together - veggies etc. instead of planning over and over. I noticed now that i plan the veggies first before I have an entree planned / my entree is also filled with veggies now and not just meat based.
Last edited by blessedw2 on Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:36 am

b: ezekiel bread and cream cheese on chives (I want to give up the cream cheese as I know it's not good for me but it's hard to change this for me)

lunch: oatmeal, yogurt and dd's grain granola

dinner: fleishnacka and salad moved it to tuesday. it was good but I and dd are not big meat eaters any more but this is a very traditional village recipe.

maybe have a veggie plate available with white bean/basil dip we buy (so we don't fill up on the nacka
Last edited by blessedw2 on Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Harriet
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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby Harriet » Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:57 pm

First meal of adding mung bean sprouts to our menu. Very pleased - a tofu stir fry homemade, for me. HRH had only veggies out of what I'd gotten prepared, steamed, because he had a take-out meal to which to add them. The bunch of red carrots from WF - variety "rainbow" - have lasted through 3 recipes, good every time. I would definitely buy them again. I bet they would be even more interesting in color if cooked half-and-half with orange ones, but I believe the orange should be cut thinner in that case. These red definitely soften up faster than any carrots I've cooked. Crisp raw, though.

Pleased with the Q'ia hot breakfast cereal called Superseeds for hurried mornings when a microwave answer is best. I realize I am adding several things so might get a good impression no matter what, but I believe it's a pretty good choice. I try to add 2 kinds of diced fruit and a teaspoon of flaxseed meal, with 3 drops of my monkfruit/stevia sweetener. The problem I have is getting everything ready at the same time. You're supposed to allow it to set for 2 minutes after it's cooked because the chia seeds in it need time to hydrate, but you don't want it cold, of course. If one of my fruits is from frozen, I try to warm that up in the microwave first. Sometimes I have to warm the bowl of cereal again, but that doesn't seem too much of a problem - I make sure to use at least the larger amount of water suggested.

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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:08 pm

i had no idea that walmart carried those items d harriet!

dd younger has the same problem re: getting everything being finished at the same time re these ingredients
she made a granola like what you made - she had oats added - with the super seed and ancient grain blend from trader joes, dried fruit (but the gogi berries (sp?) burnt a bit and same with the cocoa nibs) - she and I add it to yogurt.

the tofu dinner sounds delicious!
it is always a joy to be here with you!

blessedw2
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Re: What's for Dinner?

Postby blessedw2 » Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:46 pm

today I will be making the 1. vegetarian Moroccan soup with harrisa
and the burrata (really easy)
------------------------------------
1. I had to change up the soup a bit bc I didn't have rutabaga

It called for a pd of carrots and a pd of rutabaga and shallots 1/2 cup
but I didn't have rutabaga and I only had one shallot.

moroccan soup (like a stew) my recipe is different because the amount of different veggies added.

1 pd. carrots 1 “ pieces about
1 pd. butternut squash “ “ “ (it’s just an approximate) - I just used what I had
1 large onion chopped
2 celery chopped
season (I bet I could have added potatoes)

sauté in olive oil to get tender enough to be able then cook in stock

add 1 tin of garbanzo or chick peas that are rinsed
add 2 garlic cloves chopped
2Tbl harrisa
1 tsp. cumin

toast with veggies

add 1/3 cup dry white wine and cook down a bit

add 1-1/2 to 2 quarts chicken stock or veggie stock that is heated
a pinch of saffron
(if you want meat - you can add meat of one roasted chicken)

bring to boil
turn down to simmer
and cook until veggies are nice and tender and flavours melded

separately make about 1-1/2 cups couscous

put 1/4 to 1/2 cup of couscous on the bottom of soup bowl, top with soup and then chopped cilantro

serve


According to the recipe I need to make couscous separately, chop up some cilantro as garnish.
when the soup is done put couscous (cooked) at the bottom of each bowl - top with soup and garnish with cilantro
(the spices I think can clear up any cold :lol: ) I have no idea how this will turn out - spicy but we liked it! .

Now for the french bread to be cut on a diagonally , rubbed with garlic and a touch of oil - toast in oven

2. https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/to ... ipped-feta (no pine nuts as dd younger is allergic to them).
also bruschetta with peppers and capers

3. dd younger bought us 1 chocolate strawberry each.

I need to write the above recipe for the soup bc we will have it again.
it is always a joy to be here with you!


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