So...whats for dinner?
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No Christmas cards this year.
Took my mother Christmas shopping and out to lunch. Had broiled speckled trout filet, green beans and salad. Dinner tonight for me is the half I brought home. For DH pot roast and gravy from the freezer with potatoes and carrots.
Started out gray today but warmed up to 60 degrees and the sun peeped out.
The gas logs in the fireplace are lit and are creating a cheery blaze.0 -
Gumbo for Dinner tonight. Thinking of you Carole!
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A bad hand day here, so dinner was roasted green beans with shallots and ginger, a Costco roasted chicken, and rice. Simple meal, but we invited the kids and they were very happy. My kid is in finals right now and still recovering from her infections. I will continue to provide meals until her semester is done. One of the many advantages to living with your parents.
Lunch will be chicken sandwiches on the loaf of rye that I froze last week.
*susan*0 -
We probably would not be sending any Christmas cards either, if DH was not so loyal to the process. He writes a few lines about each family member, (I edit brutally...since he is a numbers guy and I am the word lady) and then he adds some pix to give it a bit of interest. He basically sends them out, after I check over the address list. There is no way we could send personalized messages in regular cards, and we, as yet, refuse to send a card with just our signature, since when we receive them, it purely signifies to us that the person has not yet expired. Though, I guess that is also news. ;/
Tonight we had another form of baked (soft) white fish (cod) over a mixture of spinach that I doctored up to be Greek-like. I am loving the soft food menu DH has to adhere to since I love eating fish over spiced up spinach....twice this week! DH is not as thrilled...but the poor guy is having a rough time with his gum healing process.
Tomorrow evening I am going to a holiday dinner/party with my former school staff, so I bet I will be facing lots of carbs. Hmmmm this will be a good test of my commitment to continuing to lose weight...so far it has been going very well. But it is so much easier when I control what is prepared in the kitchen. DH has also started to drop lbs....since he is a victim of what I cook. LOL
Off to watch Treme. Carole, have you ever watched it? One of our favorite shows...which has just returned for a new season.
Weather here is frightful....freezing and icy after some snowfall, then lots of sleet. I hope you are all warm and toasty despite the lousy weather patterns so many are having.0 -
I'm happy your DD is enjoying those nurturing benefits, Susan.
Hope the hand calms down soon.....0 -
I just ran 6 miles in 45 minutes. I do that 3-4 times per week and I move weights around the other days. I'm very careful about what I eat....and the weight loss is still almost nil....
I have a commercial driver physical coming up and I'm sure the doctor will growl at me yet again because I'm at 200 pounds instead of the hoped for 170 pounds. I also wouldn't be surprised if I end up on BP meds as my blood pressure is right on the pill/no pill line.
Tonight DD is cooking a chicken, brown rice and black bean dish.
Eric
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Well Eric I hope you don't have to go on pills but if you do you do. Just one of those things. I hope your physical goes well.
Lacey, it sounds like your taking good care of your DH. Whether he likes it or not! LOL
Susan that sounded like a lovely meal. Costco chicken is good! And not expwnsive. It sure makes for a very fast meal. Unless if course you get stuck in line at Costco or worse yet, end up buying way to much other stuff! LOL
AuntieN, I guess gumbo is ok. Or it would be but I am a heretic and hate okra....
Carol. No fair. Our High today was 7 degrees. It's now 3. Yep 3! That's Cold. Even for WI! My neighbors cleared my sidewalk and driveway for me yesterday, so I did not have to go out at all today. But tomorrow I have my preop physical so have to go out.
Laurie, my kids would eat the mac and cheese but didn't like the ham. That all sounds good to me.
Viv, I would like some of that warm weather. Who knows my DH may have to follow his job down there next year. He would almost rather do that than be one of the few engineers left to pick up all the slack that the transfers will make. Lots more work for half the amount of people. Yuck.
Supper for me today was pasta with the half sausage and pepper and onion I had left with the marinara sauce I opened up when I thought I had the ricotta to make lasagna! So i didn't have to throw anything away.
Much love to all. Stay warm! ( she says sitting with a sweatshirt, hat, footies, two blankets and 2 cats on her lap!) LOL0 -
So Eric, the other day on T V ( the font of relevant info:), I learned about muscle confusion....really mixing things up so your exercise efforts are not wasted. Are you confusing your muscles sufficiently? LOL
DH is doing that by attending our trainer's boot-camp like aerobics classes twice a week, during which she really mixes things up in addition to his daily weight and treadmill regimen. Actually you sound like you are wonderfully active.....more than my DH. You might just be on a wide plateau....and then drop some lbs. suddenly. I hovered around the same number close to. two months, then suddenly lost a lb each day forcseveral days. Weird. Good luck with the dreaded physical!0 -
I was reading this thread and liked the menu you al, had! My DH grilled squash, zucchini, white onions and green peppers, along with chicken. We made wraps with gluten free wraps we found at Publix (Florida supermarket). He had some vino and I had water. I am still on my last chemo and am not drinking coffee nor wine.
Love the chicken at Costco, but no Costco around where I live!0 -
Headeast, welcome.........I love your schnauzer pic! My screen name is actually that of our little schnauzer who died last year. She looked exactly like your pic, but no cropped ears....so she was quite an earful! Glad you are finished your chemo.0 -
Thank you, Lacey! Bella has the best disposition and she is always a very good girl, except when she finds my DH socks. I don't mind. She is teaching him to be more organized and leave his socks where they should be, lol!
I just bought a low carb magazine. I will let you know what I find. Need to lose my chemo pounds, all 30 of them!0 -
Welcome, Headeast. I'm trying to eat low carb in the effort to lose some weight. I reviewed my Dr Atkins' Diet Revolution and South Beach Diet.
The Atkins diet gets a bad rap because it does not recommend unlimited fatty red meat. If you look a the menus and recipes, it's a fairly reasonable eating plan. South Beach is more low fat proteins.
Today I was out and about all day so went for an easy dinner. We had grilled lamb loin chops, baked acorn squash and a tossed salad.
Nancy, I thawed out a chicken today and plan to make chicken sausage gumbo tomorrow.
Susan, hope your hand gets better.
Lacey, I haven't heard of the tv program you mentioned.
All you folks in frigid winter weather, stay warm.0 -
Fish tacos, chipotle slaw and black beans tonight.
So I am marinating a chuck roast in a mixture of tomato juice, soy sauce, cider vinegar, paprika, black pepper (lots of it), cardamom and garlic. This particular recipe has been floating around our family for years. I don't even know the origin. Normally, I marinate a whole brisket in this for several days, then braise the meat in the liquid. It makes for a quite spicy and flavorful piece of meat. I plan to use this chuck roast for the pasties. I'll add onions and potatoes to the meat in the pastry crust. It should be anything but bland. I'll let you know how it turns out!
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great idea!
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Boring old Indian night here again. I had planned to make a new-to-me Ginger-Green Bean recipe from Jaffrey's book, but lost my energy first. Totally forgot that I was out of tamarind-date chutney, so had to head over to the Indian store to get some dates. And then the two hours to make the chutney. Then the samosa meat, lentils, and rice. It really is delicious. Husband then went to the hospital for his first MRI. Home now, he didn't think this defined a good time at all!
*susan*0 -
I am making corn dogs in my crockpot! first time trying...I bought those new hot dogs from Oscar Mayer that do not have the artificial ingredients and uncured. We have been snowed in a few days so we'll see how they turn out. Just corn muffin mix, hot dogs and shredded cheese.
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Hi Naiviv and Headeast....
My employer catered in a Christmas lunch today and included were three hams. Someone pulled most of the meat from the bones and the bones are sitting in an aluminum "pan". If 5 o'clock rolls around and someone hasn't claimed them.....the bones and some beans will have a chance to mingle. :-)
Eric
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Mingling beans, hmm.
Making homemade spaghetti sauce tonight. Never done it. Is a jar of it in cabinet but I need some good smells in here. So tired of being inside. DH has my car going to work and nowhere to be anyway. Sleet piles slooooowly melting. Today was the 4th day ISD has had off. Doubt they had that many bad weather days planned and it's only Dec.0 -
Despite the note to save them....someone tossed the bones into the trash dumpster... :-(
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That is such a waste. Obviously Not a cook! I use a precooked bottle of northern beans. Dump them over a ham bone in my crockpot with carrots and onions and some spices and later it is so good and real easy. That doesn't make me a cook but for easiness and pretty great taste nothing beats that!
*edited to say CROCKPOT! LOL0 -
Tonight's meal was last night's meal, rewarmed. Tomorrow is treatment day, so hydrating, hydrating, hydrating.
A ham bone is a terrible thing to waste.
*susan*0 -
What a loss for the beans.
Love the new avatar Monica.
Susan - you crack me up. Thanks.0 -
My Costco chicken carcass is in the oven at 180º.... by morning it will be a lovely stock. I always like a bowl of chicken soup after treatment. I also find I have really pleasant dreams when the house smells of chicken stock. But a ham bone....
*susan*0 -
Nancy, that beef should be savory with that marinade. I would gladly be your taster for the pasties!
Lovewins, you'll have to give a report on the crockpot corn dogs. I like corn dogs and splurge on the rare occasion at an outing with county fair food.
Eric, what a waste. I know how you feel because that's the same regret I felt at Thanksgiving when BIL and SIL tossed THREE turkey carcasses into the garbage.
Susan, sounds like a labor intensive Indian meal. Entirely outside my cooking experience. Or eating experience!
After lunch out on Monday with my mother and lunch out at mediocre Tex Mex restaurant yesterday with my sister and her grandchild, I decided I did not want lunch out today. So I skipped the golf women's luncheon where the food would have been from the club buffet with unexciting choices. Then I ended up picking up a salad from Subway with tuna salad and lots of veggies. Cheaper and just as good as Monday's and Tuesday's lunches!
Dinner will be chicken and sausage gumbo over a scoop of brown rice and a salad. As I made the gumbo, I found myself wondering, Nancy, what your process is for making chicken gumbo. I skinned a whole chicken and cut it into pieces, browned the pieces in a little oil in a Dutch oven. Removed the chicken and sautéed chopped onion and celery. Threw in some chopped garlic to cook for short time. Poured in chicken broth, returned chicken pieces to the pot, put in a chunk of frozen home-cooked (smothered) okra and tomatoes, sprinkled s & p and cayenne pepper. Cut smoked sausage (turkey) into half inch coins and cooked it in skillet to render a small amt of fat. Then added sausage to pot and let the mélange simmer until the chicken was very tender.
A few hours later I removed the chicken and deboned it. Made a slurry of browned flour and water and added it to heated gumbo base in pot. The last two steps are adding some gumbo file to the heated base and returning the chicken pieces to the pot. Then serve and eat!
Laurie, you may not have eaten good fresh okra prepared so that it is tasty and not at all slimy.0 -
Carole, This is the recipe, halved, I basically use:
http://www.emerils.com/recipe/8077/Chicken-and-Smoked-Sausage-Gumbo
Having said that, when I made it the other day, I used stock from the freezer and a large chicken breast. I browned the sausage, removed it from the pan, then browned the chicken breast (cut into chunks). I added the chicken to the broth and cooked it for a while before adding the sausage. I used a combination of andouille and smoked garlic sausage. I think yours is way healthier than mine!
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Nancy, that's a basic chicken sausage gumbo recipe. Some people put okra in gumbo and some don't. I stopped making the traditional roux with oil years ago. I started toasting big batches of flour to use in mixing a roux with water. Then several Cajun food companies started selling the dry roux. And the oily roux, too. I got lazy and now buy the jars of toasted flour.
A popular Louisiana sausage maker, Richards (French pronunciation), makes a smoked sausage with turkey that is very good. Richards also makes Andouille and smoked sausage with pork. There's no sacrifice in flavor--in my opinion--using the sausage with turkey.
Today's batch of gumbo turned out really good.0 -
I've seen the roux in jars on one of our Southern travels but never tried. I should because I'm really impatient about things like roux and risotto (constant stirring.) Interesting about toasting the flour. Dsil and I make a pasta with toasted flour. I can see that it would be good for a roux. I always use okra if I have it.
The sausage sounds wonderful. I'm fortunate that a smokehouse here makes their own andouille and other sausages.
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Cooks Illustrated toasts the flour in the oven.... seems like an efficient and cheap way to get that brown roux faster.
*susan*0 -
corn dogs in the crockpot was a bust! Way too dry!
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I love cooks illustrated. And the two shows associated with it. But the remake so many recipes that really aren't bad to begin with. LOL
Supper tonight was tomato soup. I had two small berry size boxes of grape tomatoes. One red and one yelliw. I bought them for Thanksgiving and they were never opened. So i made soup because they were not going to last much longer! It turned out pretty well. But i only added cream to my bowl. I'll freeze the soup and add the cream when I actually use it. I think it freezes better. Also ate a small steak that I cooked in a hot cast iron pan. I want to be real careful these last two days cause I don't want any issues on Friday for my surgery. They moved my exchange up. Actually grateful as I was starting to freak. But at least I stopped my anti inflammatory and aspirin on Sunday. 3rd times the charm, right? Permanent implants here I come. Seven sx on my lefty while right sat for 2 years. So 3TTC x3! LOL. Tomorrow my friends and I will go out to dinner. We were all Girl Scout Leaders. Many years ago, at least 15 years ago the last of us had our girls graduate. but we've know each other for 12 years or more before that! . We meet every year for xmas. Much love to all0
