Category Archives: Main Dishes

Karl’s Pride Grilled Seafood Lettuce Wraps

Like many of my dishes lately this one comes from a discussion with my wife Jan. She is on the Noom program and instructs me on changing my cooking style to meet her needs. She has also been posting my dishes on the Noom group chat and she got a very positive response from the Noom councilor for my grilled shrimp tacos.

Karl’s Pride Grilled Seafood Lettuce Wraps

Karl’s Pride Grilled Seafood Lettuce Wraps

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under California Fusion, Main Dishes, Seafood

Karl’s Mandarin Chicken Pea Top Stir Fry

When we lived in China we were introduced to a vegetable that was not commonly used in the U.S. pea tops (sometimes sold as “pea leaf”)—the tender ends of the pea shoots. Pea tops is not something you will find in Western supermarkets, you will only find them Asian markets—in season. Frequently, I would use these in a soup, but today wife Jan asked for them in a stir fry. Lately, there has been a bowl of Mandarin oranges on my counter and—as I was gathering ingredients for my stir fry—I decided, “Why not throw a couple into the mix?”

Karl’s Mandarin Chicken Pea Top Stir Fry

Karl’s Mandarin Chicken Pea Top Stir Fry

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes

Karl’s Grilled Shrimp Tacos

This meal started with my wife Jan noticing that I had a ripe avocado on the counter. “We should have tacos, hmm, grilled shrimp tacos,” says she. I know that she is also very fond of grilled corn, so I suggested grilled corn salsa to go with the tacos. Thus a meal was born.

Karl’s Grilled Shrimp Taco Filling

Karl’s Grilled Shrimp Taco Filling

Continue reading

3 Comments

Filed under Main Dishes, Shrimp

Karl’s Thai Red Curry Chicken Soup

In the morning, I had decided to reheat the leftover chili for dinner. When my daughter Eilene finally woke up, she said, “Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that my friends are coming over tonight”—dinner for six, not three. I could have thinned out the chili with more beans, but one of her friends does not like beans. After a discussion, we settled on Thai red curry chicken soup.

Karl’s Thai Red Curry Chicken Soup

Karl’s Thai Red Curry Chicken Soup

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Soups

Karl’s Mandarin Mapo Tofu

Mapo tofu is wife Jan’s favorite dish, so this is a common meal in our house. The tradition way of making it is with just tofu and sauce with just a bit of pork, green onion, and of course Sichuan pepper. I usually make a stir fried bok choy dish as a vegetable side, but over time I have gotten lazy and combined the dishes into one—adding the bok choy directly into the mapo tofu. Today, Jan asked me to buy some mandarin oranges and I thought, “Why not add them to the dish?”

Karl’s Mandarin Mapo Tofu

Karl’s Mandarin Mapo Tofu

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Main Dishes

Karl’s Noom Friendly Vegan Sukiyaki

Daughter Eilene is visiting her sister tonight and this allows us to have something for dinner that she doesn’t like—mushrooms. Last week, I made a Noom adapted sukiyaki that wife Jan really liked. She asked that I make it again, filled with mushrooms.

Karl’s Noom Friendly Vegan Sukiyaki

Karl’s Noom Friendly Vegan Sukiyaki
This dish is Vegan except for the optional addition of a ramen egg

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Main Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables

Karl’s Grilled Seafood Soup with Farro

Wife Jan is on the Noom program and is still giving me lists of recipe names from her app. Many of these recipes are directly from Prevention, but I could not find this one on-line so I decided to wing it. Starting with the idea of a grilled seafood soup—the recipe name my wife gave me—I thought about what would go into it.

Karl’s Grilled Seafood Soup with Farro

Karl’s Grilled Seafood Soup with Farro

Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under Main Dishes, Seafood, Soups

Karl’s Weekday Sukiyaki with a Noom Twist

Wife Jan and I were wandering around the local Japanese market and she said it had been a long time since I had made sukiyaki. This is one of the dishes my mother, Claudia, would make as I was growing up. Since I was making this as a weekday dinner, I pared down my original recipe to feed three people—you may also increase the number and kinds of vegetables to feed more if necessary.

Karl’s Weekday Sukiyaki with a Noom Twist

Karl’s Weekday Sukiyaki with a Noom Twist

Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Beef, Main Dishes, Soups

Karl’s Chicken Chili with Beans

Wife Jan has asked me to make blue cornbread. In and of itself cornbread is not a meal, it does though pair very well with chili. Wife Jan is on the Noom program and is pushing me away from red meat—so I am switching one of my chili recipes to chicken. This is a weekday meal, so I am taking a few shortcuts—like canned beans. I also have chili powder left over from the last time I made chili.

Karl’s Chicken Chili with Beans

Karl’s Chicken Chili with Beans

Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes, Stews

Karl’s Za’atar Chicken Skewers

When I asked wife Jan what she wanted for Mother’s Day dinner she looked at the list of Noom recipes she had given me. One of the few that she listed that I have not already done was chicken skewers. Looking at the Prevention recipe—Most, if not all, of Noom’s recipes are direct links to the Prevention site—it struck me as under-seasoned and dry. Jan suggested that she really liked za’atar, so I went with that. Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend of thyme, oregano, marjoram mixed with toasted sesame seeds, salt, and frequently sumac—although each country, from Morocco to Iran, has their own distinctive blend.

Karl’s Za’atar Chicken Skewers

Karl’s Za’atar Chicken Skewers

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Chicken, Main Dishes