So...whats for dinner?
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Thanks, all, for the empathy.
Yeah, the insurance battle is still on going. OY! I may just stop the drug. Not worth the aggravation.
Illimae, good to see your post and hope you had a good holiday…and everyone, a hopeful 2025.
I'm making spinach mac and cheese with diced ham. I'm trying havarti cheese as I ran out of cheddar (oh the horror from a Wisconsin gal!!).
Hope all in the path of the storm stay safe. I do not like black ice but I so miss the cold and snow.
Tuesday, Seattle…🤮
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Carole, The general store is in Putney on the other side of the state. You must have been close to Burlington, one of my favorite “cities.”
Illimae, Maybe eating foods a twelve year old would like is the secret to staying young, lol.
Nance, Potato leek soup is so good. The rosemary olive bread makes it even better.
Wally, When I lived in Scotland the only cheese on display was cheddar. It was considered traitorous to buy English cheeses like Stilton or Cheshire.
Dinner tonight was steak, caramelized onions and sweet potatoes.
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Maggie, the only thing I worried about when I spent a week in England, was the mad-cow fiasco. Didn't realize what a big deal it was till they refused any blood donations because I lived in Paris (work) for 6 months and spent more than week in England. Can't believe I didn't think about the cheese!!!
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I bought leeks a couple of days ago for potato leek soup. Still to be made.
We had boneless chicken thighs last night in a lemony sauce. Side was cauliflower mash.
Lunch at Olive Garden today, the choice of a great niece. Her mother, my niece, and her other daughter with a 3 month old baby girl are included. It will be good to visit with them. Olive Garden wouldn't have been my choice.
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The lunch at Olive Garden was fun. Three-month-old Adelyn was a little doll as long as someone held her. The others ordered dinner meals so they would have leftovers to take home. I had a bowl of soup which was good and a helping from the salad bowl. Afterwards I went to my niece's place which is a nice house trailer and gave her and my great niece a crochet lesson. They struggled.
Dinner tonight will be leftover beef stew and possibly a salad with avocado.
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Carole - I hope you enjoy Angelica Kitchen. It was a revolutionary restaurant in its day. I lived across the street from it, 35 years ago lol.. when I was pregnant, and lived on their tofu lasagna and corn bread. Oh my gosh where have the years gone Lol… if it comes onto kindle the Flexitarian Table is a lovely book as it offers both vegetarian and meat based dishes. Olive Garden sounded fun , and crochet. One of my favorite pastimes. We might need a new thread ……
illimae - I love the idea of eating like a 12 year old. For me it would be bacon cheeseburgers, if I only ate meat..Maybe I could simulate it with portobello mushrooms and tempeh bacon… Oohh I feel an experiment impulse coming on.
Tonight it’s leftovers, I made a mushroom and onion tofu quiche, roasted Brussels sprouts on Sunday and black beans with garlic and carrots tonight . Funny combo, but it worked.
Anyone have a vegan cheese they like ? I haven’t found any yet worth eating.
Hope anyone in the path of the storm is safe and warm.1 -
Carole, I can knit but am not very good at crocheting. My sister crocheted and completed hats and other items much more quickly than I could. I’m glad you found something to eat at Olive Garden.
Rhonda, I was always looking for good vegan cheese since my son is allergic to casein and DH is lactose intolerant. The best I found was at a farmer’s market in Ludlow Vt near Okemo ski resort. The producer was called something like Mansion Pantry; they used nuts as their “milk” base. I have yet to find any decent vegan cheese in the grocery store. Your portobello burger idea sounds promising.
Dinner tonight was shepherd’s pie. I put leeks in it so DH claims it must be Welsh shepherd’s pie.
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Rhonda, what an interesting personal history to have lived across the street from Angelica's restaurant.
My laptop tells me we're having Cold Weather. It's currently 32 degrees. I ran a dribble of water in the sink last night but have turned it off. Low 20's and teens are the danger zone for frozen pipes for us. If I were building a house, I would make it freeze proof.
I love cheese but it does not play a big role in the WW eating plan. I fantasize about a diet that emphasizes bread and cheese.
My menu plan for tonight is nonexistent at the moment.
Minus, I hope you are staying warm and cozy.
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Heavy fog here this morning so I hope the bridge and the ferries will cooperate for our trek to Seattle.
Still battling insurance. I think my doctor's office thinks I am officially neurotic…how can a pharmacy be so incompetent is beyond me.
I taught myself to knit and crochet when I was 7 or 8 years old. My mom knew nothing and I wanted to do it. I also taught myself to type (old remington my father bought at a yard sale) in 6th grade. Didn't want to waste a class in Jr. high or high school to learn it. Can we tell I'm a type A?
No idea what dinner will be or when it will be…maybe the last of the mac/cheese/ham or a can of soup.
Except for being non-vegan, cheese has very little, if any lactose…for those who care :-)
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Hope your trek to Seattle is safe and stress free, Wally.
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Most cheeses have low amounts of lactose but beware of fresh mozzarella, burrata, ricotta, feta and mascarpone. It was a great day when lactaid pills were invented. Casein, milk protein, shows up in the strangest places as calcium caseinate so I got very good at reading fine print on labels. With DS grown and gone I'm glad to be done with that.
Wally, Hopefully you'll have a good trip to Seattle regarding both weather and results. I'm sorry about the continuing insurance problems. I've always prevailed in the end even though it has taken time.
Dinner tonight was leftover shepherd’s pie.
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Wally - hoping you were able to make the trek. Carole - trying to stay warm. 30 degrees the last two nights. Supposed to be worse by the weekend.
I took my car in Monday to have struts & springs replaced & an alignment. The car is a 2003, but it's in great shape with only 125K miles. Since I don't want to learn all the new technology I decided some years ago to keep this one up. I love my CD player and the fact that I still have a REAL key.
Dinner last night was a hamburger steak with fresh mushrooms, Simply Organic mushroom gravy and boiled new potatoes accompanied by 2 glasses of red Tempranillo wine. Tonight I had 1/2 a deli meat turkey sandwich and the leftover boiled potatoes. Desert was some more of my See's Victoria Toffee. This one pound box will never last even until February.
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Last night's dinner was homemade beef veggie soup and a cornbread pancake. DH is happy with Jiffy cornbread so I used a box that evidently should have been tossed out. Afterwards I checked the date and it was 2023. I'll check the remaining two boxes. Plainly I have not done my pantry review. LOL.
I read today that butter should not be left out on the counter for longer than four hours. We violate this rule.
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Thank you, ladies, for the good thoughts.
Our trek was flawless. Shocked even me. We made it to the early ferry by minutes; had an hour to shop at the Asian Market and got to the dentist an hour early…and they TOOK US right away!! Back on the ferry and home by 3. Sad that it takes so long to get there for a 5 minute appointment. Good news/bad news. DH can never wear a partial because of the jaw bone and slow healing. Not what we had been told initially. If he had had to have the other side removed, he'd be on liquids for his remaining years. The dentist said he can proceed with his cancer treatments and just monitor the jaw/healing….and hopefully nothing horrible goes awry. The good news is that we don't have to come back. Anything low-key can be dealt with locally. WOOHOO.
Casein is a protein and can be allergenic. Lactose is usually an intolerance (a sugar molecule that as we get older, we lose the ability to process) and it depends how little enzyme we have as to how much/reaction we will have. Soft cheese has more lactose; harder cheeses virtually none. If someone has a protein allergy to dairy, lactaid would do nothing for them.
Iast night was the last of the mac/cheese/ham thingie and WINE!
Tonight will be yakisoba noodles and I'll do a pan fried egg on top …I thawed nothing for a protein.
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Carole, When I lived in Ireland and Scotland nobody refrigerated butter, eggs, jam or fresh veggies and fruit. Most refrigerators were dorm size so people shopped frequently and only things like meat, milk, juice and leftovers went in the fridge. It rarely gets hot there so it worked. Having a full size refrigerator which is still small by US standards is more common now.
Minus, I'm glad they can keep your car going. Here's a copycat recipe for See's toffee. I've never tried it but it might be a fun project with your neice someday. It does require a candy thermometer which can be a bit tricky but I mastered the art when I was a preteen.
Wally, It’s great the stars aligned for your trip and you don’t have to return. Hopefully your DH’s jaw will remain stable and he can continue to eat your delicious meals.
Jumping in on the insurance whine, after driving cross state to have my blood drawn it was sent to the wrong lab thanks to a vendor enclosing a different clinical trial's requisition orders in the collection kit. They are trying to find and reroute it but I don't have much hope. At least this mistake didn't cause physical harm but the time and aggravation sorting out medical/insurance mishaps wears you down.
Dinner tonight was homemade pizza.
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Butter - I read the same recommendation about how long butter can sit on the counter. I'm not going to change my practice. There is ALWAYS butter on the cupboard. I don't like cold butter so a cube always sits at the ready. That means in Houston that the butter is VERY soft. Maybe that's OK since I use it so regularly.
Maggie - thanks for the copy cat recipe for Sees "brittle" recipe. I'm not likely to try to go this effort. Also there is a vast difference between the Sees Peanut Brittle and the See Victoria Toffee. I don't like any other "brittle" - and certainly not any other toffee.
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Maggie, the same was true of Paris and eggs. I think in the US, they get "washed," which removes the natural protective coating, so refrigeration is necessary. They don't do that in the EU.
I'm so sorry about your insurance/blood test angst. UGH…words fail me. I hope it all works out.My butter sits out too…sometimes it is for months and other times for a few weeks.
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I'm glad for all the support on butter out on the counter. LOL. DH would definitely rebel if I refrigerated his already-soft-for-spreading butter.
Glad the trip to Seattle went smoothly.
Rhonda, you have become an influencer. Last night I cooked Nora Taylor's Sweet Potato Curry with Chickpeas for dinner. Also brown jasmine rice. The recipe was relatively easy and we both liked the dish. I was a little concerned about 3 T. of red curry paste because dh does not like too much peppery taste but the coconut milk must have overcome the spiciness. This was a first for cooking raw sweet potatoes in a sauce. They aren't nearly as sweet as when baked. I considered adding cauliflower but decided to stick to the recipe. But cauliflower would go well. The only ingredient that raised a red flag with my WW app was the full fat coconut milk. I have leftover red curry paste, probably another 3 T.
Wally has been an influencer, too. She made me aware of the recipe book 660 Curries which I have on my Kindle. I have started reading it again. One amazing thing about the recipes is the long list of ingredients but I am seeing a pattern just as there is a pattern in Cajun cooking.
No menu for tonight yet. I'll confer with dh when he comes home from the gym.
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We, as well, keep butter on the counter.
Wally, glad for the flawless trek and the mostly good new.
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We also kept butter on the counter, DH would not have had it any other way lol. Now he eats spreadable Earth Balance vegan butter, and that we refrigerate. Thanks all for the cheese, casein annd lactose explanations and alternatives. When I first went on a plant based diet the suggestion was to cut way back on dairy, and others said eliminate it. I’m slowly allowing myself some, a little Parmesan here and there on pasta, a blue cheese or goat cheese crumble on salad once in a while. Trying to keep my body as clean and toxin free as makes sense, I feel so strong and healthy even as I manage the cancer treatments, but all things in moderation is part of my new path forward. Small joys, lovely tastes, good meals are so happy making …. And small bits of cheese can’t hurt too much.
Carole - so glad you liked Nora’s recipe. The full fat coconut milk is so yummy! Her cornbread and curried tofu and peas is also really good. So happy to share and be shared with, love this thread and community. A big hug and thank you to all for sharing your adventures with food, menus and recipes !
Vegan choices are not always tasty lol as we expect food to taste.. we all have different expectations of tastes and reasons for eating what we do. Culture, lived experiences, growing up, good food memories. And then health wise, making changes, sticking with them and adapting, WW , plant based, whole food, organic or not, meats processed or not, fish farmed or wild, and then the diets KEto, paleo, Mediterranean, etc.. I happen to love the taste of raw Kale, and not many do. But coconut milk is my new chocolate !
Wally glad the trip went smoothly at least, and DH stays stable as he goes through his treatments.
Minus speechless as well on the insurance mishaps, it does wear you down. Just always something to deal with and make a phone call about. And with the start of the new year, deductibles resetting and billing starts ..
Pet scan results were very good, no evidence of new disease! Existing tumor which was 10cm is now hardly detectable at all, just the skin invasion/thickening which is significantly reduced, which showed on the MRI as well. So improving and no progressions, onward. It’s been a good couple of days in treatment land.2 -
Rhonda - yay for the good scans! And Wally - yay for the successful trip. Maybe one less stress for you.
We are dealing with a foot of snow from Sundays storm. It has semi paralyzed things here. Grocers can't get trucks, mail can't be delivered. It's a mess. I did manage to get to the back doctor Tuesday then stopped at the store where I bought the last bag of yellow onions. Not one banana could be found. No milk or bread. Fortunately I wasn't shopping for bread or milk. I finally manage to get bananas today. It's common here for there to be a run on bread and milk when there's snow forecast, but onions?
Last night was Farfalle with broccoli and lemon butter with the addition of toasted pignoli. We had breakfast out today so no lunch and probably a light dinner. Most likely omelets. I did buy a chuck roast because they were on sale so I'll probably make a Mississippi roast for tomorrow
Ugh don't get me started on insurance. Our plan repeatedly charges us for something that is totally covered with no co pay. I have to file an appeal every. single. time.
I never thought about leaving butter out but I may reconsider that now.
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DH spent an hour on the phone with BC/BS this morning. Here's the conundrum. A doctor's staff won't file a charge to Medicare if the procedure isn't covered. Our 2nd insurance (full policy) pays what Medicare doesn't pay but first Medicare has to reject the charge, which is not possible if there is no filing. So dh has to make a claim to Medicare himself. Everybody knows there was a procedure that somebody has to pay for. The runaround is all about the insured person getting disgusted enough to pay the bill. I have to say that we have very few experiences like this and we shouldn't, considering the monthly premiums we pay for health care. Normally everything is paid on doctors' visits, tests and surgeries.
We had the what's for dinner discussion and—surprise, not really—dh suggested pasta. He'd noticed the jar of Rao's alfredo sauce in the pantry and the cooked linguine in the freezer. So dinner tonight will feature pasta.
I found Red Zinger herbal tea today at the supermarket and just had a cup. So comforting.
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Rischaller - congrats on the good news.
Carole - I've actually left a couple of Dr practices over the years if they won't file medicare directly.
Lacey's card included pictures. I was astounded to see the sizes of her grand babies who are now teenagers. They celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary last year and are still just outside of Boston. She had cervical spine surgery last summer and while the recovery has been slower than she wanted - apparently her DH has been a "saintly" care giver.
I know a number of us read novels in addition to cooking. I ordered myself a treat for the holidays - "The Pat Conroy Cookbook". He's the author of The Prince of Tides and The Lords of Discipline, etc. Since his chosen favorite place is Beaufort, SC - there are some delicious low country recipes. But he grew up in 23 different cities as a "military brat" before he went to the Citadel, and traveled extensively since - so there are recipes from his time in France & Italy & England & San Francisco & Bangkok, NYC, Atlanta, etc. The fun part is all the stories he tells about the food in each location & his life there (cooking life, family life & writing life). He had never even boiled an egg until his first wife went to law school & pointed him to the kitchen and told him he was responsible for family dinner every night. Apparently his friend who owned a bookstore said "I hear Escoffier is good" - so that cookbook was his first introduction to cooking. (my oh my). I have yellow sticky notes on at least 10 pages.
I had planned to cook Boom Bah Shrimp from the Trader Joe's prolific freezer section - but it's too late & too cold. So dinner will likely be either grilled cheese or deli turkey sandwiches. Maybe with soup & maybe not.
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Carole, Indian recipes tend to use a set of many different spices but once you have them the cooking is easy enough.
If you call Medicare they will send you the form for filing your own claim. I had to do that for DH's new glasses after cataract surgery since no optician within 100 miles participates in the program for the one free pair Medicare pays for. That required a durable goods claim form; the medical one is different. It's a pain to sit on hold and play 20 questions but I make those calls with a cup of tea (I love red zinger) and something easy to read.
My blood ended up at a lab running a clinical trial for Duchenne MD. They are destroying the sample and sending a new collection kit since nobody knows how the blood was stored. The wrong instructions were enclosed by the kit provider. Everyone said they had never seen this happen before but for some reason oddball medical things happen to me. At least this only cost me my time and blood.
Rhonda, Great news on your scans. You are so right that taste is acquired. Having to eat the same protein daily (eggs, chicken, lamb/mutton depending on DH's job) made me branch out and try recipes from other parts of the world to make meals taste different.
Nance, Snow where it rarely falls does paralyze things since they don't have the equipment to deal with it. It's good that you got a chuck roast on sale despite the slim pickings at the store.
Dinner tonight was chicken in orange sauce, asparagus and mashed potatoes.
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Maggie, your medicare comment has intrigued me. I was told if medicare doesn't approve something, supplemental is not obligated to pay. Sounds like that is not always the case. I may PM you for more info. We paid out of pocket for DH's glasses after his cataract surgery….hmmmmm. Eye care is not covered..so I thought.
I added shrimp to our leftover yakisoba. YUM.
Tuna steaks tomorrow. Day after, I'll make unrolled stuffed cabbage soup using the last of my ground goat.
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Wally, Medicare did not pay for the vision exam after the surgeries (cataract removal and YAG on both eyes) but they pay 80% up to a certain amount for glasses, the only time they cover eyewear. DH reused his frames so the cost was within the limit. Medigap will only cover what Medicare does but I have teacher retiree insurance grandfathered in which works like part F but covers twice the number of hospitalization days and other things not covered by Medicare. Carole may have a similar policy. As of 2025 state retirees have to join a Medicare Advantage PPO or leave the NH retirement health plan for regular Medicare or a commercial MA plan. BC/BS sometimes processes the claims wrong which means time on the phone but it gets sorted out eventually. Except for the drug plan changing my steroid inhaler landing me in the ER I haven’t had to appeal denials like I did when I was working. A good one was refusing to pay for surgical pathology because they had paid for biopsy pathology.
That shrimp yakisoba sounds good. It’s been a while since I’ve cooked shrimp so I’ll have to rectify that.
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Our 2nd insurance is BC/BS Federal Basic, a full insurance, not a gap insurance. DH worked for the Corp of Engineers and kept his insurance when he retired. We rarely have a problem with a medical expense not being paid. We have no dental or vision insurance. Everything is out of pocket. On the plus side, there's no worry about a surgery or procedure being quickly approved.
Maggie, I have a whole cabinet shelf full of spices for Indian cooking. I have to start using them instead of just reading recipes. LOL.
Meanwhile I want to jumpstart my weight loss again. First, eating leftovers with full fat coconut milk and Rao's alfredo sauce.
We're having a gloomy rainy cold (45 degrees) day. I plan to venture to the gym for some exercise. It's definitely not a day for walking in the neighborhood.
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That is great news on the scans, Rhonda!!!! :-)
We keep our spices in alphabetical order. If not, we'd spend "forever" trying to find them. Our spice trove greatly expanded when we were being strict vegans. We learned a lot about spices during this time. We've now become less strict, but after adding back chicken, fish and eggs (and once every few months some beef), 80%+ of what we eat is from plants.
It's sunny, calm and cold. I think it will get slightly above freezing today. It's after 10:30am and it's still in the 20F degree range. I had a fuel leak in my 1957 truck. 30 seconds to find the problem and 2 minutes to fix it, but even that quickly, my fingers were cold.
If anyone is in Southern California, stay safe.
I see the blame game is going on. It's now too late for the "blame game". That should have been going on before the disaster—mitigation and preparedness (There is a hazard, what can be done to minimize that hazard and what do we need to do to handle the "leftovers" from the mitigation efforts). The response is not the time to be "They should have done this or done that." After the response, recovery, is when the blame game should be played out in full force. This is where the improvements happen. As always, wisdom is gained only after it's needed.
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Eric - I usually eat like you do. Mostly plants (including - ahem - pasta & rice) with regular cheese & milk and chicken, fish & eggs maybe once a week. I might have beef once a month.
Carole - I love the idea of loosing weight with Raos and full fat coconut milk. Or how about heavy whipping cream? Since I usually only eat one meal a day, I tend to ignore most strictures. But lately I've discovered several after dinner "creamy" drinks and those are definitely adding pounds.
Wally - I have standard A&B Medicare and a Medigap policy that pays the other 20%. I rarely have to pay anything except the yearly deductible (I think $257 this year). Like Carole - no dental or vision. But I do remember that I got one pair of new glasses paid for after cataract surgery.
COLD for Houston. We had 2" of rain yesterday so with a high of 42 today and heavy winds. I had to take the soaking blankets off the flower beds & dry them. I lost most of my Kalanchoe & Aloe Vera in the big freeze of 2021 and they were just preparing to flower for the first time since then. Likely 31 tonight so I needed to put them back.
Yesterday's meal finally ended up 1/2 a deli turkey sangy on pumperknickel. I like to eat by 5pm and that didn't happen again tonight. SO I think it will be a fried egg sandwich tonight. Or maybe macaroni & butter.
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Eric, Your comment was spot on. I think we are a bit arrogant in assuming we can always withstand/control the forces of nature and predict/prevent what will happen. I am all for zoning/building codes and engineering projects to mitigate disasters but new ordinances grandfather in previously built properties. A 100 year weather pattern is only a nanosecond in geological time.
Minus, Starting to cook with Escoffier must have been quite the challenge. I’m enjoying Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie books because they are set in the neighborhood where I lived in Edinburgh. I hope your plants don’t freeze.
Carole, The full fat coconut milk and Rao’s alfredo are great for low carb diets.
Dinner tonight was eye of round braised in mushroom gravy, baked butternut squash and boiled potatoes.
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