So...whats for dinner?
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Yikes, Sandy...I obviously missed the pages which described the condition/procedure that left you in a hand cast. I hope it is not long term. Now I am even more impressed with your egg foo yung prep efforts!
Carole, thanks for asking Nance about the “unstuffed peppers”. I forgot to ask, and was also curious about that dish. I’m glad to learn that others enjoy less than a variety of salads with their meals, since our salads are often the same, partially due to our taste preferences and also my prep timing issues!
Off to a local bakery to get a treat to put a candle in for DH! Rainy day here in mid NH with sun peeking through at times. Hoping the rain is not heavy when we head to Meredith and Laconia later
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Lunch at the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.
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Here is the basic unstuffed pepper casserole except I skip the spinach and sub cheddar for the mozzarella. I also use cooked brown rice.
https://brooklynfarmgirl.com/stuffed-pepper-casserole-6/
Tonight is a large chef salad with a basic vinaigrette and a piece of garlicky bread - simply a grilled buttered piece of baguette rubbed with a garlic clove.
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lacey - Happy B-day to your DH! Yay!
eric - Jellystone Park - yay! Have fun!
auntie - yay for that recipe - appreciate that it is deconstructed, I always make a mess getting the stuffing in the peppers and my DH is ok with little pepper pieces, not so much the whole pepper - it meets my diet restrictions with brown rice and I will use almond milk based cheese! Thanks!
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First time on this thread. I was just thinking it might be nice to have a thread like this to share recipes, especially easy dinner ideas. I have always loved to cook but just not as much now. I’m still cooking but often simplified - all relative I realize. I have looked the past year for prepared options on those nights my DH and I don’t want to cook but not much luck. But yesterday for dinner we had pasta from Trader Joe’s that was a ricotta and lemon zest stuffed ravioli that we tossed with basil pesto. Super easy and quite tasty. We had been out of town and it is always so hard to make dinner when you come back so we got this ahead of time. Perfect! Tonight will be a salad with some turkey for protein. I’m trying to learn how to cook where you can have stuff more readily available. The way I cook now is Meal by Meal. Any suggestions of how to have stuff ready would be appreciated.
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katy - welcome! This is a wonderful group, happy that you're here. My DH does not come home at the same time every night due to job demands and a long commute with bad traffic. One of the ways I deal with this is to prep things ahead that I can combine quickly for dinner. We live in Florida so often we eat main dish salads for dinner when it's hot. I like to buy skin on and bone in chicken breasts, rub them with olive oil, season and roast. When cooled I line up ziplock bags, remove the skin and pull the chicken off the bone in chunks and distribute to the bags in portions for two. I put those in the freezer for quick thawing when needed. I have a stock of assorted hearty vegetables like carrots/peppers/broccoli that can be used in salads, stir fry, etc., as well as bottled sauces - taco sauce, Thai sweet chili, jarred marinara. I like to keep frozen quinoa or brown rice and I always have an assortment of pasta - dry and frozen, like stuffed shells or ravioli. I also keep cooked tail on shrimp for a quick thaw, then pull the tails off and use in salads, or with Asian veggies and a sauce over rice. I also add shrimp to marinara with red pepper flakes for a spicy pasta dish with angel hair. I like to have frozen meatballs on hand too for pasta or meatball sandwiches with melted provolone on crusty rolls, and also usually cook an extra steak for later use in another dish. I just found cooked chicken burgers from Aidells at my local grocery store,they are really good with mushrooms, bacon, cheese, BBQ sauce on a soft roll, and I do sweet potato fries with that. I also like to keep turkey kielbasa which I slice, sauté to get a little color and add veggies, a sauce, and serve over rice. Hope this is helpful
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Katy - welcome. Jump in and join us. I live in Houston and try not to turn the oven on during the steamy, hot summer months.
Nance - that green pepper casserole sounds like something my ex-DH would love. He liked stuffed peppers. I liked stuffed cabbage. That was the only meal when my son was young that he got a separate dinner (usually hot dogs). Since we each were eating something different that the other didn't like, it didn't seem fair to force him to eat either one.. I know he doesn't cook and from what he tells me, his current wife doesn't cook either. Maybe that's what I'll give him for Christmas. Meanwhile he's buying me a steak at Capital Grille on Friday.
Special K - what a wonderful prep list. I'm thinking of all the fun things we can share with Katy.
Eric - Any fire damage in the park? and how's the smoke? I understand Glacier is a nightmare. I ate at the Old Faithful Inn ... hum... I think it was 1959.
Lacey - sorry about your kiddo's loss. Did I miss that it's your DH's B-day? Somewhere I read about celebrating half B-days at 6 months. I think that sounds like a great idea. Ilimae was it you on another thread? Or celebrating & treating ourselves every day for a week (or even two).
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Well then here's one for you Minus (I skip the brown sugar though)
https://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2016/08/one-pot-unstuffed-cabbage-rolls.html
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Tonight was pork chops, red potatoes and Brussels sprouts.
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tonight I made air fried chicken thighs for the first time. Was actually pleased with the results as chicken was tender yet outside was crispy. Followed a recipe I found online. I tend to follow the recipe as written the first time making it but will make tweaks the next time.
Along with the chicken was roasted zucchini and a garden salad.
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Welcome, Katy! Here you'll find a mix of folks who are serious foodies & cooks, not above resorting to prepared foods, or devotees of the creative use of leftovers...but the one trait we all share is that we love to eat.
Lacey, as a result of a couple of spills I took (both due to shoe malfunctions) this past spring I tore my TFCC (triangular fibro-catrilagenous complex in my wrist) and fractured my scaphoid bone (in the hand adjacent to the thumb. The TFCC tear was a long time coming: I have a congenital "positive ulnar variance" (i.e., born with an ulna bone--the one on the outer side of the forearm--that was 4mm too long) that had been "nibbling" at the TFCC, asymptomatically, for years. But first falling on my outstretched hand and then propping my entire body weight up in bed, using my L hand, to turn on to my L side, caused the ulna to stab the center of the TFCC disk...the part that gets no blood supply and thus can't be repaired, only debrided.
So on 7/10, I had three surgeries (they gave me the bulk rate discount): TFCC debridement, scaphoid bone screwed together, and my ulna sawed in two, shortened from the middle by 4mm and then screwed together with 6 screws & a plate. (The first two procedures were "keyhole," done arthroscopically. But the ulnar shortening osteotomy was an open surgery). Spent the first week in a plaster splint wrapped in lots of cotton batting and an ACE bandage, swapped a week later for an EXOS removable cast-brace: heated, molded to my arm until it cooled and "set" (sort of like a Shrinky-Dink), which I could remove at first only to shower. Gradually, I could take it off to eat, type, and generally just do gentle range-of motion hand & finger exercises. But knife work and donning bras and pants were pretty difficult.
Today, I am officially EXOS-free! I am not to do heavy pushing & pulling or lifting more than 10-15 lbs. (not that I even lifted two), but I am to use my arm & wrist even though it hurts. ("Hurt" isn't "harm" is how the surgeon put it). PT/OT starts next week!
Tonight I need to eat soft foods, as root canal #1 was completed and #2 started. So, fettucine Bolognese. (sauce from a jar, noodles from Whole Foods' pasta counter).
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Thank you so much SpecialK, those are some great ideas for me and I’m sure I’ll use a lot of them! I need to retrain my cooking brain on thinking ahead and keeping it simple. Tonight I made an entree salad and had the deli slice a thick piece of ham for the protein, that I could dice So much easier than me grilling chicken or something else to add. Both my husband I are protein cravers and lots of veggies. It was a good salad and simple to prepare.
Illimae- looks like a nice dinner! What was the wine?😆
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Lol, katyk, I scrolled back to my photo to see if the wine glass stem was showing. It was not but funny you should ask. So, my somewhat shameful secret is that I love franzia chillble red (in the box), it's sweet like juice but cheap and unrefined. Oh well, I like what I like.
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katy - you’re welcome! Cooking extra protein and having it on hand is really helpful.Tonight is a good example - I had spicy Italian chicken sausage to use with baby bella mushrooms and marinara over penne. I cooked the whole package of chicken sausage removed from the casings and set aside half for another dish before adding the mushrooms and sauce. Two meals with the effort of one prep. Another short cut is when making baked potatoes, do a couple extra and use them to make home fries for another meal. The ham is a great idea, you could also add roast beef and turkey, a couple of different cheeses, hard boiled eggs and have an easy chef salad.
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So I got out the jar of sauce "alla Paisane" with pork & sausage bits, and cooked the fresh pasta per the package directions (3 min. in the Fasta Pasta, the equivalent of boiling on the stovetop in 3 qt.s of water for 3 min.). Then I tossed in the skillet with the warm sauce. Yuck! So mushy it was like school cafeteria canned Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. So I started over, this time with DeCecco dried nests of egg pappardelle. So much better.
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Hi Katy!
I didn't see any recent (within the past couple of years) fire "black" within the park. The late 80s burn is recovering...the trees they planted are 15-20 feet tall.
There are several fires near the park, so the air is kind of hazy.
Dinners have been simple...hamburgers, spaghetti, rice & beans, macarroni and similar stuff. We've been out for two weeks with every night spent in our tent trailer and we are pushing it's limits...34F degrees in the mornings. It's around 80F for low temperatures at home.
Tomorrow we start south to head home... We're hoping it will take a week to get there.
Typing on a phone is slow....
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Katy: I agree with Special about extra protein on hand. I poach large batches of chicken breasts and freeze them separately for future use. I also roast a fairly large pork loin and then freeze at least half in several packages Good for tenderloin patties w/brandy cream sauce, stir fry, etc. When I cook fish like salmon, I always cook extra to add to salad later in the week. And I use eggs a lot. I'll have to dig out our "founder's" salsa chicken recipe to post for you.
Nance - the one pot cabbage sounds delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Eric - sound like a wonderful, long, lovely ramble. I can't even imagine 34 degrees right now. Our days will be 100 or more again this week. and of course it doesn't ever cool down at night in Houston. Carole - I don't expect it cools down at night in Louisiana either. When do you go back?
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Hi, Katy. I had to go back a page and find you. SpecialK is definitely a good person to tell you about planning meals. She's a pro. I'm in awe of the variety in her menus.
Thanks, Nance, for the link. The unstuffed peppers dish looks like a "hot dish" to me! Otherwise known as a casserole. I'm sure I would like it and dh would, too.
Minus, it will not be cooling down at night in Louisiana until late October or even November. It does cool down wonderfully here in northern MN. Lately it is low 60's when we wake up and will soon start dropping lower than that. In addition to sheet and light comforter we keep a fleece blanket handy. I do love sleeping with a window open and no a/c.
Tonight's dinner will be chicken breast.
The tomatoes are turning ripe on the three tomato bushes in Mary's garden. I have huge beautiful home-grown tomatoes, FINALLY, in August. One bush is Lyman's (Mary's dh), one bush is mine and the other is John's (elderly Texan).
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carole - what a nice compliment!
minus - no evening cooling here either until late in the year! We are going north for a vacay for the first week in Sept - will be nice to get out of this sticky heat
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Tonight at Cellars is the "BBQ Festival 20/20:" tasting 20 wines (that go with BBQ) for 20 bucks, plus an all-you can-eat buffet featuring ribs, pulled & fried chicken, brisket, and various salads, sides and mini-desserts. I will get quizzical stares for eating ribs with a knife and fork (still have to avoid using my left incisors & cuspids, and chew mostly on my right side). But seeing as how I don't have dental insurance and my two root canals cost more than two months of Gordy's rent, I'm not gonna do anything to endanger those teeth. Anything my endodontist says, I reply "yes, ma'am."
Been in the 60s overnight and grazing 80 in the daytime. Finally seeing blue skies, as the haze from the wildfire smoke was pulled east by the departed storm fronts. But ragweed is off the charts this week, and molds and other weeds are way up there too.
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Illimae - I did not see the stem of the wine glass, just looked like a nice dinner that needed a glass of wine!😀. At least that is how I think. No need to apologize for what you drink. All that matters is you like it. I’ve been drinking rose this summer. Was so happy when doc said it was o.k. to enjoy a glass of wine.
Thanks for all the great meal prep suggestions. I will put them to good use. Tonight making a big batch of meatballs. Will use some tonight for meatball subs and tomorrow a banh mi bowl (cooking light recipe) which has rice, veggies, and an Asian inspired sauce. So got two nights planned!
Great suggestions from all, thank you
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Panko breaded pork tenderloin tonight with the last of the local corn on the cob :-( and a sauteed squash medley with onions and tomatoes.
Beautiful here too yesterday and today but back to heat and humidity this weekend. At least we've had periodic rain, too late for the garden, but the grass looks beautiful and needs to be mowed weekly. Unheard of here in August.
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Tonight DH made 15 Bean soup with Ham Hocks, it was so good. I already stashed some in the freezer for later 😋
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illimae - funny - I've been thinking this week about beans with the left over ham & ham hocks I have in the freezer. I just need to pick up some celery, since I really like that addition.
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Ilona, looks yummy!
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The meatballs last night made a good meatball sub. I made a tomato sauce starting with Pomi - I love that tomato sauce. It’s just plain tomato, no salt or anything else, so you can season it how you like. Had a side salad and had some cherry tomatoes from the garden. The grandchildren were over for dinner last night and loved it. Now I have leftover meatballs for another dinner
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Going to have to dive into the freezer to see what strikes my mood to cook for dinner tonight.
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So... the thawed boneless chicken breast half became three small flattened fillets. I breaded them with panko and browned in olive oil and butter. Meanwhile two sweet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil had roasted in the grill/oven during Happy Hour. Salad was sliced tomato and cucumber from Mary's garden. Sweet onion addition to dh's salad. Easy and satisfying. We split one of the baked sweet potatoes so one is left over.
Today's weather is iffy with possibility of rain, but we're signed up for couples' golf and dinner with the group afterward. The restaurant is the Y, not a favorite of ours but the room is nice. We'll try again to find something on the menu that lets us understand why some of the other folks like the Y.
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The BBQ buffet last night was potato salad, avocado/asparagus salad, slaw, New Orleans BBQ shrimp over rice, honey-bourbon wings, bacon-wrapped dates, ribs, BBQ pork sliders and brisket. Caramel brownie & lemon-bar squares, petits-fours sized. I dissected that wing and that rib as if I were a surgeon--pretty difficult with a dinner and not a steak knife, but got 'em down to the bone. I'll tell you--not being able to pick stuff up with your hands and chew it off the bone, cob or a sandwich makes for great self-discipline and portion control. By the time I finished, I was full...with half the amount of food I usually eat at buffets.
Not sure what I'm gonna make or order tonight. Made an egg Benedict for brunch. Bob had torn into the challah overnight (like a bear at a campsite), leaving me just enough to arrange on the plate as a base. Tried out my new "poach pods;" let the egg cook a bit too long for a Benedict (but just right for a plain poached, fried or soft-cooked egg, with the yolk sort of gelled in the middle). Sliced a Brandywine tomato, picked some basil, topped it with a thin slice of Serrano ham, then the egg and nuked a packet of Christian Poitier hollandaise, which I sprinkled with cayenne.
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Made beef stroganoff but with lean ground beef. First time I ever sautéed mushrooms and they came out perfect.
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