Salad with Shrimp, White Beans, Feta and Avocado

Yay, a made-up salad I actually liked a lot. We’re returning to the land of both healthy and low-carb dinners now that we’re trying to shed holiday weight, and here’s the first entry. Took some of my inspiration from Greek flavors (the dill, lemon, feta) and some from a salad I used to order at Chop’t (jalapeno, cucumber, etc.).

Sauces for Prime Rib

I served the prime rib I made for Holiday Potluck with three different sauces.

*Horseradish cream: Easy and kind of special/festive.

*Whiskey cream sauce: I saw the Pioneer Woman make this on her own holiday special where she served prime rib and thought it sounded like a winner. Everyone liked it. I erred on the side of using more cream.

Jus: I deglazed the bottom of the roasting pan (prime rib doesn’t generate a ton of drippings, though) with a can of beef broth and served the jus warm. This was probably my favorite of the three, though I think it was the least popular.

Prime Rib

Turns out prime rib is really, really easy. Which is good because it is quite expensive. I went with a very basic preparation and served it with three different sauces (recipes to follow). This was a great reference point for me.

 

Things to Do with Leftover Prime Rib

Oh hi, readers. Since it’s the holidays, we’re barely eating at home, let alone coming up with new recipes, so this blog has been pretty dark. But I did make an epic prime rib for our annual holiday potluck (recipe to come), and definitely overestimated how much meat we needed to feed 12 people. So we’ve been dining on prime rib for days. Here are some of the things we’ve made.

 

Prime Rib stock (simmer bone with some leftover meat, celery, onion, salt and pepper for two hours).

Prime Rib bolognese (something similar to this recipe)

Prime Rib ramen (Slice beef thin; marinade in ginger, sesame oil and soy. Sautee for a minute or two, then add your favorite ramen additions and your noodles/broth packet).

Prime Rib tacos (chop up meat, sautee with taco seasoning and some water). Stuff in taco shells with cheese and veggies).

Prime Rib nachos (use the same meat – top tortilla chips with same meat as tacos, cheese, jalapenos and scallions).

Prime Rib Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (cook meat on flat top with onions. Serve on rolls with cheese).

It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Well, it finally stopped giving – finishing it off with today’s ramen for lunch.

Smoky Two-Bean Soup with Chicken and Greens

I whipped this up in like two seconds as A) a snack because I am freezing and B) to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken.

I bought a smoked rotisserie chicken at the store, and that obviously lends a different flavor to the stock you make from it. I tried to think of soup ingredients that would complement that flavor (and that I had on hand). That’s where the red beans came in (also for color).

Dijon Cognac Beef Stew

We’ve been in stir fry and salad city in an attempt to lose weight over here, so not a ton of new recipes to post. I made a new spin on salmon salad, but I’m not sure I really liked it enough to chronicle. Here’s the recipe in a nutshell: Seared salmon, spinach, mustardy dressing, cucumbers, dried cherries, cheddar, leftover asparagus and zucchini. It was a little weird.

But it was John Stew Night yesterday, and he made this nice recipe from Smitten Kitchen, with minor changes. We liked it – very mustardy. Sorry no photo (yes, I’ve been slacking lately on photos) – we ended up having friends over for dinner who were dropping off their dog for dogsitting, so I got distracted.