8 posts tagged “dinner”
This one is easy enough to make. I started with peeling and chopping the rest of the purple carrots and sauteed then with a couple of the spring onions from the basket. Note: the purple leached out of the carrots and turned everything a weird purplish color, which looked kinda gross but tasted just fine. I would probably not use these again for mixing into anything, but they are fine on their own or roasted. After the veggies had softened a bit, I added a carton of chicken stock, about a half a bag of frozen peas, a few of the leftover potatoes from the previous night and the chopped up chicken and brought it to a boil. Also added a bunch of salt and pepper too. Then I mixed up the Bisquick dumplings, added them to the boiling soup, reduced the heat to low and cooked it uncovered for 10 mins, then covered for 10 mins. Then it was ready to serve and that's when we noticed how purplish everything was!
I scrubbed and cut the beets and peeled the carrots and tossed them into a roasting pan with some fingerling potatoes from the farmer's market and a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I seasoned the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and put a little leftover compound butter under the skin to keep it moist and hopefully add some more flavor to the meat. Then I placed the breasts on top of the veggies and put the pan into the oven, baking them at 475 for about 15 mins, then turned down the heat to 400 for another 30 mins. I checked the internal temp with a meat thermometer at that point, and they were not quite done yet (they were big breasts on the bone), so I left them in and started the beet greens. I used the rest of the compound butter and added a couple garlic cloves to a skillet and then added the beet greens and a bag of arugula that was hanging out in the back of the fridge. I added a couple splashes of balsamic and sherry vinegar, salt and pepper and then tasted. It was a little too sweet for me, so I squeezed the juice of a tiny little lemon (probably about half a normal lemon's worth) over it, which added just the right amount of acidity. Turned up the heat on the chicken to a low broil for a gew minutes to crisp the skin again and voila, dinner was ready!
I substituted a bit, but it still turned out great! I forgot to get bacon, so just used a little butter (then omitted it at the end), used a whole onion and two large carrots cut into chunks, instead of pearl onions (yuck!) and sugar, and a little apple brandy instead of cognac. Also, I floured the meat cubes before I fried them, instead of adding flour later, and just used regular beef broth instead of low sodium. And I was lazy and got pre-packaged fresh herbs for poultry and just left out the sage. We served it over egg noodles last night and we'll have leftovers with some baby red potatoes tonight.
Also, in trying to figure out what kind of wine to use, we found out that "Burgandy" is basically pinot noir. The first bottle we got was a Bordeaux, which is a Cabernet blend and not really suitable for the recipe. So we used that bottle to make a mulled wine to drink while we waited for this to cook :)
Beef Bourguignon
3 easy hours
Serves 6-12 - makes 3 quarts
Canola oil
4 bacon slices
3 1/2 to 4 pounds beef chuck or round, cut in 2x2 inch cubes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Cognac
1 bottle dry red wine, such as Burgundy
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can low-sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Bouquet garni (1 fresh rosemary sprig, 8 fresh thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves, tied together with a strip of leek)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups pearl onions, blanched and peeled
(2 cups carrots)
1 pound white mushrooms, stems trimmed
Pinch of sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish
Place a large Dutch oven over medium heat; drizzle with a 1/2 count of
oil. Fry the bacon until crisp and then remove it to a paper towel;
you'll crumble it at the end and use it for garnish. Add the beef to
the pot in batches. Fry the cubes in the bacon fat until evenly browned
on all side; turn with tongs. Season with salt and pepper. (don't skimp
on this step - it's key)
After the meat is browned, put it all back in the pot. Sprinkle the flour over the meat; then stir to make sure the beef is well coated and there are no flour lumps. Pour in the Cognac and stir to scrape up the flavorful bits in the bottom of the pan. Cook and stir to evaporate the alcohol. Pour in the red wine and beef broth; then add the tomato paste and bouquet garni. Stir everything together and bring the pot up to a simmer. Cook until the liquid starts to thicken and has the consistency of a sauce; this should take about 15 mins. cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour.
Uncover the pot and add the garlic, pearl onions, (carrots) and mushrooms, along
with the pinch of sugar to balance out the acid from the red wine.
Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat up slightly and simmer for
30-45 mins longer, until the vegetables and meat are tender. Remove the
bouguet garni and then stir in the butter to finish up the sauce.
Shower with chopped parsley and the reserved crumbled bacon before
serving. Deep and rich in flavor.
Well, we had a pretty full, yet not too busy weekend. On Saturday, we went to the zoo for my company picnic. Except that the picnic was on Sunday.... it was very confusing to me that I could have misread "Sunday" as "Saturday" every single time I looked at the invite to make sure where and what time it was supposed to be. Luckily, the guy at the zoo was equally confused and let us in for free anyways to go check and see if we knew anyone at the BBQ that was going on that day. Since we were there already and the weather was really nice and mild, we made the most of it and walked around for about 5 hours. Then we went to Blue C Sushi (say that 10 times fast!) down in Fremont for dinner. Man, I miss living so close to cool things....
Sunday, we decided to go back out to Leah's work with the dogs and see if the blackberries were ripe yet. Lucky for us, there were quite a few more than last weekend. We ended up picking just over a pound of them. I think tonight we'll try to make some kind of cobbler with them for dessert. This is the route we walked, it seems it is just about 1 mile total. The big "W" shape is Leah's work building and that's a lake/pond next to it.
We've also both lost 15 lbs in the last 4 weeks, so we decided to treat ourselves to some new shoes! Nordstrom has the Mary Jane style crocs, so we each got a pair of black ones to have for simple and easy slip-ons that we can wear anywhere and not get weird looks, unlike when we wear the bright orange and blue regular-style fake crocs we have now that don't match any clothing we own.
I watched an episode of Everyday Food we had saved on Tivo that was all about light and healthy meals. They made a Caesar salad with spicy shrimp that looked really good, so we went to the store and got all the stuff to make it. Except the dressing in the recipe was horrible. We doctored it up with some grated garlic, dijon mustard and citrus vinegar and it actually tasted like a real caesar dressing, nice and spicy, but not very heavy. Plus we made extra shrimps and had them in salads for lunch today.
I am going to keep harping on this, but I really think the single biggest thing that we have done to help us stay on track for our diet has been to cut out soda completely. I think we probably average an extra 400 calories a day that we can spend on REAL food. I feel less hungry and less cranky than any other time we've started on this same exact diet, despite being more stressed about work stuff. I am able to make healthier choices and stick with them. I am getting a good feel for what my total caloric intake is, and how much is carbs vs protein vs fat. The last couple days seem to have been really good food-wise, and so I tracked them in Fitday to see if my estimates were correct.
Tuesday (long busy day at work, grab and go foods mostly):
Breakfast: Starbucks lowfat berry muffin and small coffee
Lunch: Starbucks Sesame Noodle Salad and iced tea
Afternoon snack: 8 peanut butter pretzel nuggets
Dinner: Taco Bell chicken ranchero soft taco, chicken grilled stuft burrito (both fresco-style, which means salsa instead of cheese/sourcream/sauce) and iced tea
Evening snack: celery with peanut butter
Totals: 1656 cals, 28% fat, 55% carbs, 17% protein, 22 g fiber
Wednesday
Breakfast: Kraft Easy-Mac and piece of toast with peanut butter
Lunch: Grilled chicken breast and prawns teriyaki (no sauce), rice, small salad w/ light vinagrette, iced tea
Dinner: Quorn "chik'n" patty on toasted wheat bun with ketchup, mustard and a tomato slice, corn/tomato/avocado salad with lime and cilantro, baked beans
Dessert: microwave-poached pears with vanilla sauce
Totals: 1654 cals, 28% fat, 49% carbs, 23% protein, 27 g fiber
This gives me hope that we are getting into a good routine now and making healthy choices without having to go out of our way. I don't miss soda at all now after last Sunday and we can go out to eat and not worry so much.
This was the lunch special "Chef's Salad" with smoked salmon. Looks super tasty to me, I wish I could have gone for lunch. It's in Mukilteo though, which is close to Leah's work, but too far for me to make it there except the occasional early Friday. He's not open on the weekends anymore :(
From left to right:
1) Saturday dinner: Shrimp sauteed in a mojito simmer sauce, salad and green rice (rice cooked with cilantro and spinach).
2) Sunday breakfast: Scrambled eggs with sauteed cherry tomatoes, ham and gouda on toasted bagel squares
3) Sunday dinner: Porkchops cooked in salsa, corn "off the cob" with butter, pan-fried green rice cakes (made from leftover green rice)
4) Dessert all weekend: Banana pudding with Nilla Wafers. SOOOOOOO good, we ate it ALL in 2 days!
I read about a restaurant that was going to host a grilled cheese and beer fest tonight. I didn't feel like going downtown or paying a bunch of money, but it sure sounded good, so I decided to make it at home instead.
I stopped by the store and picked up a loaf of my favorite bread (sesame-semolina), some white cheddar, gouda and fontina cheeses and a six pack of Pyramid Apricot Weizen beer. I had some salad fixins in the fridge already. Leah had hers with some tomato basil soup. Overall, it turned out great, even better than I thought. I made it with grated cheese instead of slices, which I think made a big difference from other times I've tried to make "fancy" grilled cheese.
Blackberries were on sale too, they will make a nice dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
