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So...whats for dinner?

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  • specialk
    specialk Member Posts: 9,262

    elderberry - that is a dilemma! As someone who tries to cook almost exclusively gluten free, I will say that a lot of GF pasta is not comparable to regular pasta, but I love Caulipower linguine. It is really good - you can find it in the frozen section of stores. I don't like it too al dente so I cook it for 4 minutes instead of the recommended 3 minutes. When it is sauced it is hard for me to tell the difference between it and regular pasta.

    Speaking of GF pasta, I am going to attempt to make a restaurant copy of butternut squash lasagna with sage bechamel. It uses pasta (I bought Capello GF lasagna sheets yesterday), thin slices of pre-roasted b-nut squash, and a leek and sage bechamel rather than a cheese layer. It does have cheese on top but I am going to use a firm goat variety and DF parm. Will report back on results.

    Last night was Hawaiian meatballs and brown rice, with a side of steamed green beans. I used frozen beef meatballs, but any kind can work. Sauteed green pepper and onion until half done, then added pineapple until everything got some color. Removed that from the pan and heated the meatballs over low heat in pineapple juice until it had evaporated or incorporated. Added the veggies and pineapple back in and added BBQ sauce to coat with just a little extra. Cooked until the sauce had thickened to a glaze consistency, which only took a few minutes.

    carole - my small-ish Aroma rice cooker does not have a specific brown rice setting but does come with instructions for brown rice, and the cooker seems to have a sensor that tells it to cook longer. I got it at Target and it was very inexpensive, and I like that it is compact. I usually add a couple of teaspoons of extra water, otherwise I have found that when it stays on the warm setting too long it can make the bottom grains of rice a tiny bit crispy. I just checked on Amazon and there is a version of the Aroma one that does have a brown rice setting for $29

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 3,180

    I need to cook some more rice so we can eat the remaining chicken-vegetable-rice dish tonight.

    I have a friend that *hates* pepper, onion, garlic...and is a vegan....?????? I love all of those and I'm not sure how to make something taste good without those ingredients.

  • specialk
    specialk Member Posts: 9,262

    eric - same! I have several friends - and I think carole too - who don't love raw onion, which I get - it is a strong flavor. The friends do enjoy grilled or cooked onion though. The other night we had garlic fries, a la Gordon Biersch, with a LOT of garlic - good thing we both ate them, right?

  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,747

    Beans and Cornbread tonight, mmm….

    We had one friend at our Sunday & Game of Thrones dinners that didn’t eat vegetables but I had them as sides, so not a problem. Otherwise, I’m the picky one but that’s mostly because there was very limited variety growing up since my dad only liked a few foods.

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    Last night, finally, a delicious dinner after several ho-hums. My favorite eggplant dish, a simple version of eggplant lasagna. The three globe eggplants I bought at Walmart were young and sweet, no seeds when I peeled and sliced them. Layered with grated Italian cheese mixture, Rao's with Italian sausage. Side was our romaine salad with additions.

    More than enough leftover eggplant dish for another meal.

    I ordered a small rice cooker and am looking forward to using it. My mother always cooked white rice in large batches for our big family. She boiled her rice in salted water and drained in a colander. It was fail proof. I remember how dh's mother admired my mother's rice!

    Dinner tonight to be decided.

    Special, I cook with onion but liked it chopped fine. I don't eat onion rings.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 3,180

    Not dinner...but had a breakfast "if we have company, let's not serve this".

    I made an omelet--eggs, bell peppers, onion, garlic, hot peppers. I add a bit of whole milk to the omelet and keep a pint of milk around for baking.

    I didn't have any whole milk this morning, so I used oat milk. The taste was okay, but the texture was like runny grits.

    Tomorrow we will be going to Phoenix to introduce MIL to the realtor that sold our house, and on Saturday we will be bringing MIL and her cat to live with us full time in Snowflake.

  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,747

    Tonight is chicken, spinach, pearl couscous and asparagus.

    image

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,408

    Eric - hope the transition with MIL goes smoothly. Great picture Mae. My son won't eat onion unless is chopped so fine you can't even tell what it is before cooking.

    Yesterday I had a friend come to town for a dentist appointment & she wanted Fuzzy's Pizza. BE still my heart - my absolute favorite. I ordered a lunch special - 2 pcs and a salad - because I always bring one piece home. We got to visiting and I ate every bit of the large salad & both pieces of pizza (pepperoni & mushroom)

    Tonight I made fried rice with onions, garlic, water chestnuts, mushrooms & spinach. I had intended to add pieces of chicken, but they had been lingering in the fridge too long.

  • chisandy
    chisandy Member Posts: 11,408

    When we host a dinner party we usually have only one or two other couples, and I always ask about dietary restrictions. (One friend finds it difficult to afford to cook a keto-friendly dinner, so when we go there I just eat gratefully). My singing partner's wife up in Madison has a nightmarish list of dietary allergies: yeast, strawberries, fish, seafood and raw tomatoes. She is also a Type 2 diabetic, so there's that.

    Here's my Tuesday brunch--soft-scrambled eggs on high-fiber/low-carb toast with homegrown chives and shaved white truffle:

    image

    No, I didn't enhance the color--the yolks were deep-orange!

    Tuesday night I defrosted a striped bass filet and pan-seared it, alongside sauteed Brussels sprouts and a baked sweet potato (so big I had only 1/4 of it). Last night we went out to Calo (our longtime Italian restaurant down in Andersonville) for Bob's actual birthday, because he requested it. We shared sauteed garlic spinach. Bob's entree was linguine frutta di mare (clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, squid) and mine was mussels "bianco" (steamed in white wine & butter). Since it was his birthday, they brought over a slice of raspberry-cream cake with a candle in it. (Yeah, I cheated and had a piece of focaccia and a few bites of the cake...and three raspberries alongside it).

    Brunch today was a couple of Birch Benders keto toaster waffles with monkfruit "maple" syrup (supplemented with a few drops of the "real thing" brought back from VT pre-pandemic).

    Tonight after his Union Health shift Bob stopped by a nearby Costco and picked up a roast chicken, Caesar salad, antipasto meats (they were giving samples) and a bottle of wine. So dinner was chicken & salad. Dessert is a few pieces of Lily's sugar-free dark chocolate faux "M&Ms" and one square of Hu 70% dark almond crunch chocolate.

    Tomorrow night we'll go to the Palm (Bob's request) with the kids to celebrate his and Gordy's (upcoming) birthdays.

  • chisandy
    chisandy Member Posts: 11,408

    Special, on the rare occasions when I do cheat by eating rice I love the crispy bottom crust. It's prized in Korean dishes, and an absolute must for paella (it's called "soccarat"). In fact, if a tapas place's paella lacks soccarat, I'm not going back (or at least not ordering paella again).

    Eric, the closest I ever want to get to a flash flood is across the room from my TV screen during a news report.

    Minus, that Israeli couscous is a dead ringer for the Sardinian proto-pasta "fregola Sarda." On the most recent episode of "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy," set in Sardinia, they showed how Sardinian cooks make it from just semolina & water--they roll it painstakingly into little teeny balls. In fact, just like the Cajun prospective-MIL's skeptical question to her son "is her mama Catholic and can she make a roux?" fregola-rolling skill is considered a primary qualification for a woman to be considered "marriage material."

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 3,180

    Tonight we had the remainder of the Sweet & Sour Chicken on brown rice and some squash cooked in the air fryer.

    Tonight, Sharon also made pumpkin soup for when we get back from Phoenix.

  • chisandy
    chisandy Member Posts: 11,408

    Found out that once again, the latest batches of "pasture-raised" eggs are really no better than "free-range" (under a solid canopy, to boot) due to avian flu 2.0. Migratory waterfowl are the vectors again. And that's why even factory-farmed "battery" eggs have jumped in price, due to outdoor-access flocks having to be culled and resulting in increased demand for the cheaper eggs. This is one aspect of inflation for which NO politicians can be blamed...but one side still lumps all inflation together into a single policy "basket" (pun intended).

  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,747

    Tonight was another hungryroot meal, Thai Coconut Chicken with snap peas over Palmini “rice”. This is a really good one, I bought the sauce on Amazon so I can remake it whenever I like.

    image


  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,408

    I had to look up Palmini 'rice'. That was a new one for me.

    Today's meal was bits & pieces and nothing really healthy all day long - except 4 or 5 spoons of guacamole. Dulce de Leche ice cream, Spanish peanuts, 2 slices of swiss cheese. Had some orange juice that was way out of date so I had two Screwdrivers. When I wasn't out running errands, I couldn't keep my eyes open. Off to bed now & hope I can sleep tonight. Tomorrow will be a large salad - probably with Bumble Bee canned crab meat. Or maybe I'll use the crab for a crab melt.

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    Last night was beef pot roast with the traditional veggies and a brown gravy. There are leftovers.

    Tonight will be leftover eggplant lasagna and a salad with pear and blue cheese dressing.

    Come back, Wally. And others, too.

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 3,919

    Well it's been an eventful week here in Lake Woebegone . . .

    Early in the week DH ended up in the hospital with AFIB. After trying to get his heart back into rhythm with drugs, they ended up shocking it back to normal. This necessitated two nights and three days in the hospital to make sure everything was working properly. It was quite a revelation to DH, having never ever been in the hospital (unlike me.) He decided he didn't like it much. We are now a two cardiologist family. Geez. My meals during that time consisted of primarily cheese and crackers. His consisted of hospital food.

    Finally, after DH got home, last night I cooked pan seared pork chops, a yellow squash casserole and sautéed baby spinach.

    The local grocer had small (ish) chickens on sale for $6 each so I bought one. I'll cut it up and freeze half. The rest will go into chicken cacciatore tonight with a side of angel hair pasta. I'm going to try it in the pressure cooker for the first time. I usually always make it on the stove top. Cooking two nights in a row. Goodness. Who knows what I'll be motivated to cook next . . . .

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 3,919

    Special K - in answer to your long ago question - yes the dark chocolate peanut butter cups are from Trader Joe's and boy are they addicting!

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    Nance, sorry to hear about your dh's introduction to hospital stays. Glad he's getting back to stable. I haven't made chicken cacciatore in many years. I'll have to revisit some recipes.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 3,180

    Auntie, glad your DH is out of hospital. I don't blame him about not liking that.


    We're moving MIL today.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,408

    Nance - I too am glad your DH came through this ordeal even though he had to learn about hospitals "from the inside". I don't remember the TJ;s dark chocolate question, but I'm going to look for those.

    I too used to make chicken caccicatore frequently but haven't done so in many years. So I too will be digging out old recipes.

    As to the can of Bumble Bee Crab Meat... The last time I'd purchased this item (granted some long time ago) it was crab pieces. Now the best definition is "minced" crab, only smaller so more like 'mushed' crab. Since I was adding 1/2 a can to leftover fried rice, it was OK - but no real flavor. Obviously it would be useless in a green salad - you'd never even see it. So the leftover will become a crab melt on an English Muffin - probably with Monterrey Jack. I'm trying to use up the canned things I bought to have on hand for the hurricane season but I won't buy this one again.

  • WC3
    WC3 Member Posts: 658

    Tonight I made butternut squash soup with quinoa, diced water chestnuts, and raw pecan halves. I use the Imagine brand butternut squash soup which doesn't have dairy or soy in it. I've used precooked frozen quinoa before but it's a little expensive so I bought a bad of organic uncooked quinoa and boiled it in 1 cup water and 1 cup chicken broth with a few dashes of salt.

    I typically add a little sugar to the soup and salt to taste. It makes a nice soup for this time of year.

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    DH is cooking red beans with andouille sausage for tonight's dinner. I will give my new rice cooker a trial run.

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    The rice cooker passed its test even though I had to use the troubleshooting advice in the manual about undercooked brown rice. I added a little water and pressed the white rice button for some additional cooking. The rice I used was a generic brown rice and not the brown jasmine that I recently stocked up on. Brown jasmine and brown basmati are both much better than the plain brown rice. In my not so humble opinion. LOL.

    The directions for the cooker did not mention salt, but I added a small amount and next time will also add olive oil as I do when I cook rice on the stovetop.

    DH's red beans with andouille were very tasty and we have a huge bowl of leftovers. I realized several years ago that we should cook half a pound of dry beans. I may use some of the leftovers to make a red bean soup, which is not in our list of soups.

    Tonight will be leftover pot roast with some freshly cooked veggies as well as the cooked ones in the dish.

    I have fallen into my old habits and filled up the freezer drawer of our refrigerator.

  • eric95us
    eric95us Member Posts: 3,180

    I've never tried brown jasmine rice...just regular brown rice and white jasmine rice. The next time I get rice I'll see if I can get the brown jasmine stuff.

    MIL is moved up here now and last night we had Sharon's pumpkin soup. It's soup weather..28F this morning. :-)

  • bedo
    bedo Member Posts: 1,431

    A pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and a glass of ice water. I don't even remember the flavor, except it was 7+ dollars and had chunks in it. My cat had "Sheeba" pate for a change. She didn't appreciate it and cried for Friskies, which she got. too.




  • cyathea
    cyathea Member Posts: 342

    wc3, I wish I liked squash. It’s one of the few veggies I don’t like. But the water chestnuts and pecans with quinoa sounds delicious.

    Dinner was sheet pan Branzino, roasted new potatoes and carrots with lemon zest. We finished the last of the apple cake as well.

    I made an apple cake with walnut streusel on Saturday (half recipe from All Recipes) except I used two honeycrisp apples instead of one. I took Cook’s Illustrated’s direction for their French apple cake and microwaved the apples for 3 minutes and then drained the excess juice, substituting a tablespoon of apple liqueur. I also toasted the walnuts before adding them to the streusel topping. Both DH and I really liked it and DH isn’t a huge fan of walnuts.

  • minustwo
    minustwo Member Posts: 13,408

    Eric - glad MIL is sort of settled.

    Carole - thanks for the recommendation about brown rice. I'll definitely try since I've never switched to brown rice yet. Will look for Jasmine or Basmati brown rice.

    We lost power at 5pm, so dinner plans went array. Ended up with leftover spinach salad & I tried to replicate the Dole Spinach Miso kit which has been discontinued at my Kroger. I didn't have any red chard or carrots, but I managed to add slivered almonds & crispy won ton and I added some black olives. Not bad...

  • auntienance
    auntienance Member Posts: 3,919

    My personal favorite brown rice is Lundberg short grain. It’s plumper and nuttier tasting than others but it’s not easy to find. I buy it in 10 pound bags at Costco when they have it

    We had a large hamburger lunch out with friends today so dinner was simply cheese and onion omelets. I have a huck roast in the freezer that may turn into dinner tomorrow. For the first time in a long while we are supposed to have all day rain and cool temps.

  • illimae
    illimae Member Posts: 5,747

    Dinner tonight was almost 1/2 of a Chimichanga from Filiberto’s in Las Cruces, NM. I’d guess it weighed about 4lbs. So delicious I’m tempted to keep picking at it but I’m so uncomfortable that I don’t dare, ugh.

    image

  • carolehalston
    carolehalston Member Posts: 8,323

    DH has a woodworkers guild meeting tonight so he'll need to eat dinner earlier than usual. We may share a Subway sandwich.