Yesterday was pretty simple. One of the dishes I was working on for this coming weekend is French Lentil and Lamb Stew. I tasted as I tweaked. Lunch - done. I know... it's better to sit down and enjoy your meal without distractions. But sometimes, life happens.
The Lentil Stew recipe, minus the lamb, is from Ina Garten, and you can click here for it. I reduced the amount of olive oil to keep this dish in E territory. I absolutely love this stew. It is also a great vegetarian option if you use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock in the recipe.
And can I point out that French lentils are earthy, green, and delicious? I think they are my new favorite legume. And one serving (1/4 cup uncooked, or about 3/4 to one cup cooked) provides 9 grams of protein!
 |
| French Green Lentils |
Because I like to serve lamb at Passover, I added the meat from lamb shanks that I had braised the day before, to Ina's recipe. This puts the dish into crossover territory since lamb isn't exactly a lean protein, but I did try to remove as much fat as I could. I am really thrilled at how this dish turned out. I just hope that the people from my small Midwestern town concur.
Dinner last night ended up being Italian Quinoa soup, because one of the salads for my weekend event includes it, and I had just cooked a metric ton of it. I threw some chicken stock, onions, canned tomatoes, lowfat chicken Italian sausage (Costco, have I told you lately that I love you?), quinoa, and Italian seasonings into a pan on the stove. E dinner - done.
Three hours later, I was hungry again, so I ate a delicious piece of S chocolate cake that was in my fridge. Because I could. THM Chocolate Zucchini Trimtastic cake.
This morning had me hitting the ground running. My FP breakfast was coffee with just a splash of cream and stevia, and a Triple Zero Vanilla Oikos Yogurt (another shout-out to my bae, Costco).
I paused from my food prep mayhem to make some THM egg salad for lunch. My hubby was hungry and he loves egg salad. Costco to the rescue once again! I always keep their organic hard boiled eggs in my fridge, so out came six of them. Three packages of two. I chopped them up along with some celery and some fresh jalapenos, and I made a quick dressing of Greek yogurt, mayo, and dijon mustard. Normally I add a splash of fresh lime juice and a tiny bit of stevia to the dressing, but I just didn't have the time today. Hubby made a sandwich with it with his off-plan bread, and I chopped up some romaine and tossed it all together and made myself a salad with it. Here's where I brought out a fresh lime... squeezed it all over my plate. Along with a berry and Greek yogurt smoothie, this was a yummy S lunch.
 |
| Egg Salad Salad |
Dinnertime arrived. Food prep was done for my weekend event with the exception of one salad that I will make tomorrow morning (some call it Israeli Salad; I call it Bob and Larry Salad - tomatoes and cucumbers).
 |
| Some will get the humor. Others will not. |
Sigh, what to make for dinner tonight? I had no protein thawed. My adult daughter had some cooked spaghetti noodles languishing in the fridge that she was not going to use. I don't often eat pasta, but I hate wasting food. So I heated the noodles in the oven, and meanwhile made a quick sauce by sauteeing onions, peppers, and mushrooms in a small amount of butter. I added a can of tomato paste, water, some chopped garlic, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, a doonk of stevia, and a splash of red wine and let it all simmer.
Here is how I got my protein in: I put a moderate amount of hot noodles on my plate. I topped the noodles with some lowfat cottage cheese, and then spooned the sauce over that, topping my plate with a garnish amount of parmesan cheese. It was pretty much the laziest lasagna ever.
Along with my Friday night Sabbath glass of red wine, this E meal was simply bliss. It's time to enjoy a night of rest and cribbage with the neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment