What's for dinner? Feb.6

So what are you having Lenora?

(Hi, Becky!)
Crockpot chicken
Mashed potatoes
zuchinni or broccoli with Italian tomatoes (depends on which looks best at the grocery store)
Raw veges/salad
Applesauce
Rolls

Which of course means that tomorrow we'll have either chicken noodle soup or creamed chicken and biscuits...the noodle soup would be better for my eating plan...but we all LOVE creamed chicken...

Decisions, decisions!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

keeping it simple over here... baked potatoes, bacon and probably sweetcorn. Couldn't find any nice cobs here so it'll likey be canned though I did quite well with veg at the supermarket.

need to replan my meals because I didn't want any of the things I put down before we went away! Just bought some fresh minced beef and onion pies so that'll probably be for later in the week.

Lenora - what goes in the creamed chicken?? I have a premonition it involves soup, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway!

Kerri.

We had chili last night--new recipe that came out pretty well.

I've got a lot of leftovers right now, so tonight we may just work on those. Or I might make a potato and cabbage soup that I know my husband probably won't like, and he can eat the leftovers.

Yesterday's dinner was scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and tomatoes. DS isn't here for dinner this evening, and for once I am actually cooking something nice just for me - I don't usually bother. I found half a swede and a couple of carrots lurking in the fridge so I've used those, plus some potatoes and garlic and I have a big pot of soup on the go. I've deliberately made extra, so it will do for tomorrow's lunch or dinner too.

We had a bread bowl with dill dip, lasagna, salad, and breadsticks last night. There are enough leftovers for dinner tonight, and I am going to freeze a couple of lasagna servings for later use.

Last night we went to SIL's house for a Super Bowl party and I already had a turkey thawed out before we decided to go. I cooked the turkey anyway yesterday and carved it, so tonight we will have sliced turkey with gravy, rosemary garlic roast potatoes, asparagus, and possibly some cornbread-sausage stuffing.

Last night we had pizza dip, potato skins, nachos, chicken wings, and brownies.

Crockpot roast, salt potatoes, and salad and/or veggie.

Chicken broth base, leftover lentils, leftover rice, can of tomatoes, can of beans maybe, last of the celery before produce day tomorrow. Sprinkle sprouted lentils and mung beans over the top for crunch.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Being forced to grocery shop rather than have groceries delivered at least meant that I got to explore the world of semi-homemade food.

Tonight: spinach/cheese rigatoni baked with marinara sauce (that was homemade, at least) and mozza cheese; salad with nuts, berries, feta

Also on the roster for the week:
Corn chowder
Lasagne (still haven't made it, too many flu-weakened tummies last week)
something with the bag of shrimp I picked up
Cinncinati chili
Zuch. quesadillas
Something involving chicken -- either "indonesian" chicken from Barefoot contessa or chicken and dumplings, probably from southern living or Cooks Illustrated
Risotto Florentine (has spinach and cheese, plus cannelini beans)
Rice with broccoli and tofu (we've an abundance of white rice thanks to the flu season)

tonight is rice with cheat's curry... that'd be the kind where the sauce comes out of a jar. I haven't managed to plan more than a few hours ahead of where I normally do (except I forgot I'd need to take the meat out - better do that in a sec!). I think the flavour was tikka masala since the balti one I also had was quite spicy the last time and just or me and the kids there's no point.

Kerri.

We had a really nicely sized chunk of breast meat and a good bit of rice left over so I'm making chicken enchiladas and spicing up the leftover rice with a can of tomatoes and (mild) chilis. I have the carcass simmering right now, with veges and seasonings, so the DDS and I will still get chicken noodle soup on Wed. when DH will be late/not home. ("One day" road trips often turn into "overnighters" when he's going in to "fix" a system!)

Tortillas (whole wheat) are less than half the points of biscuits, too, which will nicely balance out the cheese I'll be adding!

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Cooking for myself again this evening so I'm having salad. I can't be bothered to make anything more exciting. I still have leftover soup, but it was too salty - I didn't add salt, just vegetable bouillon, but it was far too salty for my taste I hate it when I go to the bother of making something and it's not nice I wish I'd just opened a can!

It's at least not hot, and hasn't been. So we're having meatloaf, potatoes, and carrots tonight. I also plan to make snickerdoodles for dessert.

Tomorrow I have a really insane plan of making homemade lasagna with homemade noodles. Keep in mind I don't own pasta maker, so this involves a rolling pin. But DH loves my homemade noodles, and frankly so do I, so off we go.... I'm using sauce from a can though. I'm not that insane.

if you make something that's too salty the potato will soak up the excess. Particularly good if you have something which is a little rubbery and inedible. Or add instant mash to fill it out if you don't have anything else!

Kerri.

there's already lots of potato in it, so I didn't think it would work. I haven't got any instant mash either. I hate Smash and my regular supplier of the nice stuff I do like hasn't sent me any recently

are my least preferred type of vacation!

Kerri.

I must spend far too much time on here, or maybe I just type faster!

mince beef and onion pies with chips broccoli and gravy for us tonight.

tomorrow is something with noodles or pasta. All suggestions welcome!

Kerri.

I figured if I put a venison roast in the crockpot,I could go about cleanin the freezer.Got my shoes on ,not feeling motivated,between the birds(8)and the dogs(4}and mr bunny getting fed and played with half my day is over.Since the last of 5 children have moved out, my ambition has declined to gettin the laundry and supper done and thats about it.no job,children , only me and DH,why is my house a wreck!I love to sew(haven't sewn in months)and read(last book "the pupose driven life" goes unfinished.

is homemade black bean soup from a wonderful recipe in Cook's Illustrated. I may pick up some crusty sourdough rolls to go with it, and maybe a salad of some sort.

Last night we had those turkey mignon sandwiches again. They are a true family favorite.

We're in a bit of a desperate pinch this week so I'm breaking out the "last resort" supplies, which this time meant some leftover frozen ham from Christmas. I'm thankful I had it! Half of it went into a quasi-Polish sorta...thing. Savoy cabbage, ham, a can of diced tomatoes, a little vinegar, some Old Bay and some herbes de provence. Served over rice with salad. The kids didn't care for it (which is weird because they love cabbage, go figure) but it was good, and filling.

Tonight I'll figure out what I can do with the remaining ham. Then I have only one day to figure out till payday and I can go shopping.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Frozen fish pie (from the supermarket)for me, probably with peas.

I was chatting to my mother - picking her brains about how to be a company secretary actually - until 6pm which is when we normally have dinner, so I skipped the pie and went straight to pasta. By 6:20pm we were sitting down with pasta under a bacon, mushroom and white sauce concoction. Need to add cans of cream to my list because I don't normally bother with a white sauce but there were no cans left - odd. Always good to have a backup plan... or two or three!

and cans of cream are fine for cooking with. I've even licked bits off my finger and it seemed okay, but I wouldn't really fancy it 'fresh' over fruit or whatever. But for cooking it's a perfect pantry standby.

pie tomorrow then, which is a bit of a pain since I'm out from school time till lunchtime with the school library and my usual classroom helping. No phone calls from 5-6pm! Dad has a tendency to call me at 5:30pm if he's driving home. I think he knows Mum would be cross if he called her then since their dinner is also at 6pm, so I'm often to be found juggling my cooking with a phone under one ear. Do all men make phone calls the moment they get in a car??

Kerri.

Yep, looks as though it's really going to happen. Plus salad for DH and zucchini for me. That's salad in a bag for DH though-- I'm not THAT energetic.

We're having chicken, potatoes and carrots. We've been having a lot of potatoes and carrots lately because they were on sale.

probably linguini...I haven't decided on "Italian" or "Asian" as far as the seasoning/sauce goes, but we'll have a salad and fresh French bread (rising!) to go along.

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

Grilled turkey tenderloins
zuchinni parmesan
rice pilaf
heart shaped, pink frosted sugar cookies (It's DH and my 22nd anniversary of being together)

We had sausage, lentil and apple casserole from a recipe on this site
http://thehappyhousewifesrecipes.blogspot.com

We had it with mashed potatoes, but it would go with rice, or nice bread equally well.

We both really enjoyed it, so I'll be making it again I'm really pleased DS14 liked it, as he usually is not a fan of lentils.

It was just DH and I tonight, so I made fried cod fillets, potatoes with tomato and onion and griddled courgette and fennel. With salsa verde. It was good. We had wine too

Previous nights have been grilled plaice with saute potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli, lamb chops with carrots and spinach followed by DMIL's panetone bread-and-butter pudding. DMIL cooks tomorrow night

ZIllah

Actually it was a godsend--one of those things I put in the back of the freezer and pull out as a Hail Mary when times are tight, which they are. I'll get three meals out of that batch.

First night it was Polish Stir-Fry: Savoy cabbage, can of tomatoes diced, onion, ham, served over rice. Last night was Southern Stir-Fry: Ham, collards, sweet potatoes, onion. Today the remains went into the crock pot for split pea soup. Tomorrow we get paid. phew.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

which reminds me... one is still in the oven since last night - darn it! The kids ended up sharing one. Chips, gravy and savoy cabbage to round it out. The cabbage had been sitting there since before we went away so it was a bit soft and sorry for itself, but the broccoli will last a bit longer. I'd like to get some purple sprouting but DS doens't like it much, complains it's bitter. I probably need to smother it in gravy or butter to get his attention!

my menu planning has died a bit of slow death this week, so I'm going to put some time into that today. I think our appetites were all a bit messed up by going back to Singapore somehow, but I think we've mostly recovered. There's a slight croak going round but DD and I seem to have lost ours in a couple of days so hopefully DS will lose his that arrived today. It's no fun to eat when your throat has that closed-up feeling that often heralds a bout of the sickies.

more news on tonight's dinner when I have it!

Kerri.

I asked my Dad to pick up two chickens for me from Brian the Butcher and he wouldn't take the money for them (my Dad, not the butcher ) Bless him, he knows I'm skint at the moment.

Tonight's dinner - roast chicken, roast potatoes, six runner beans that were lurking in the fridge, half a can of peas lurking likewise, and either broccoli or cauliflower depending on what's in the freezer. Then it'll be cold chicken tomorrow and chicken soup thereafter.

well okay, it was actually turkey pieces in with our stir-fried egg noodles and mixed veg. I was looking for beansprouts but they were all a bit slimy and brown so I had a look at the mixed bag of 'stir-fry veg' and they were better. It was beansprouts with shreds of carrot, something green and some onion chunks which I removed (they weren't exactly shredded!). I put in 4 good handfuls so I reckon we got quite a bit on the veggie front. Leastways, I did, but the kids didn't finish theirs. I should give up on expectations because whenever I expect them to enjoy something they end up not. It was lovely, just they were being difficult.

bought a couple of different varieties of nice taters today - baking taters and little ones for boiling whole (lazy taters I call 'em!). Not sure which we'll have yet. Probably depends what we end up doing this weekend. Might have sausages with them, or maybe some fish. We got in a few fishy meals while we were away but I think we're getting withdrawal symptoms (me and DD - DS doesn't like anything but tuna).

Kerri.

I'm making her hot dog stir-fry with rice, but no celery because we don't have any.

I looked at the recipe at first and thought "Ew!" Then after I looked at it long enough, I decided it sounded good in a really trashy sort of way. DH likes anything with hot dogs so it's worth a shot.

Tomorrow is DH birthday so I am making a Key Lime Pie for him. And tortilla soup. He loves it and I haven't made it that often, as we have not had really cold weather here Southern Texas but this morning we woke up to 29 degrees! But tomorrow I am sure it will be 80 degrees or something insane like that! That is how our winter has been!

Next weeks menu:

Pork Roast with potatoes
Pulled Pork Sanwiches and coleslaw
Roasted Chicken with spaghetti and zucchini
Breakfast for Dinner
Baked Potatoes with broccoli
Beef Enchiladas

I feel a bit "ahead of the game" for once!

Jana

Beans and rice with sausage and cajun seasonings. And I got some free candy yesterday (someone at school was advertising something or other, I dunno, they had candy!) so that's dessert.

We were out all afternoon, so I left this going in the crockpot. It was disappointing - the chicken was very dry, I think I should have cooked it on low, whereas I opted for medium. The sauce was nice though. We had it with pasta, but neither of us ate much of the chicken. The dog is getting the leftover chicken for her dinner tomorrow. I reduced what was left of the tomato-ey sauce and we'll make pizzas tomorrow (well, we'll top the ready made bases I have in the cupboard )

I didn't have the energy for chicken and dumplings, but I might cook the chicken before bed tonight and finish it tomorrow.

I love the Quick Bean Lasagne recipe from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. An old cookbook, but a good one! (I modify a bit -- she uses a few too many ingredients because she is obessively low fat in her approach and has to make up for it with extra stuff.)

I'm intrigued by the lentil, apple, sausage dish, Honey! We can get tasty poultry sausage (we're kind omnivore minus mammals these days) so I'd like to try it.

And now, popcorn and Peter Pan with the girls!

Chicken and fish remain - seafood too? No beef, pork, or veal though. Did I get it right?

I don't have that cookbook Shaun - suppose you can't post the recipe for the lasagna.

We had take-out from Mama Mia's - our local pizza and wings joint on Main Street that makes a lot of other good food too. I had a chicken parm sub and everyone else had cheese pizza and chicken fingers. Yum.

Still planning for next week - roast chicken tomorrow and pulled pork sandwiches another night (crockpot).
Andrea

anything with sausages in generally gets eaten - my simple version of cassoulet is a favourite (sausages, bacon, some form of bean - I use cannellini because nobody here likes tough beans - garlic, dash of Worcester sauce maybe, and a can of tomatoes). Not sure if I've put that in the recipe box before - all sorts of things are popping up out of there that I barely remember knowing about yet have my name on!

I'd better think about dinner pretty fast actually becaues it's heading towards 9am, my parents are coming in 2 1/2hrs and we haven't even eaten breakfast. They're helping me rescue DH's car from his ex-office but I still have yesterday's laundry to do as well. AND figure out dinner so I don't end up making my mother cook or dragging them to the nearest pub! Again...

Kerri.

Here's the recipe

We had it again this evening, this time with rice. I think I would probably prefer it without the apples, but DS14 likes them in and if it gets more fruit down him, so be it

We always eat a pretty big "breakfast" after church (pancakes, bacon, and eggs today) which means that dinner is usually on the light/casual side. Also, since this IS my "day of rest" and cooking is NOT a joy for me, I reserve the right not to do anything requiring more than 30 min of prep on Sundays!

This evening we're having Italian sausage sandwiches...probably with raw veges and applesauce.

Blessings,
Lenora
"...if woman's work is never done, why bother about how much of it [isn't] getting done at any given moment?"
~ Claire Fraser in The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

- how very daring of you. I know it's you because I know how you got there, Mrs Scrumptious!

the only thing I don't get about that recipe is the tinned lentils. Lentils, even puy lentils cook so quickly that tinned lentils have about as much point to them as a chocolate fireguard. Might stick that on the list in a few days when we're not in danger of overdosing on sausages!

bbq chicken stew with rice tonight... the sauce is chicken stock with mustard, Worcester sauce, tomato paste, brown sugar and curry powder. Other than that it's chicken (or turkey or pork) pieces, onion and sweetcorn. Again, I think I've probably put it in the recipe box in ages past.

I'm thinking of something with leeks at the moment, and cheese somehow... some kind of gratin dish probably. Or I might just break out the box of battered fish tomorrow! Better settle down to some menu planning this week or I'll be chucking out disgusting veg come Thursday (dustbins get collected then).

Kerri.