What's for Dinner? April 3rd

I did actually get to the store yesterday and we had tilapia for dinner last night

tonight:
Pork chops (and applesauce )
herbed noodles
broccoli
carrots/cucumber

Chocolate pudding pie! ('cuz I'm hungry for it!)

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

as in the fish?? How'd you cook it??

We had... oh yes, another day switch. Was suppsoed to be rice with Chinese dishes but then I was chatting away to my accountant till half five and it was too late, so I gave up and switched for some garlic chicken kievs, garlic wedges and corn.

rice and earlier planning are on my menu for tomorrow!

Kerri.

Beef casserole, done in the slow cooker.

it's great in the slow cooker because you don't have those huge lumps of meat that both you so much - they just fall apart into tiny shreds. I used to put a lump of flank steak in the slow cooker frozen with a can of tomatoes and assorted flavourings and it would miraculously turn into something quite edible. Now that's *real* magic!

Kerri.

Yeah, that didn't happen last night. We ordered pizza instead. The chili thing is going to happen tonight.

Well, we had chili Becky! Turned out good - just throwing things togehter, really.
Andrea

DS isn't here for dinner this evening, so I don't what I'll have. Can't really be bothered just for me. Any ideas?

DH is gone tonight and DD11 has guitar lessons at 6:00 so we'll probably eat soup and sandwiches.

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

One large male leaves the house and we can't even be bothered to feed ourselves!! Good job I've mostly stopped worrying about that or I'd have starved long ago!! I admit I tend to leave certain things for when DH is around - things that involve a fair bit of effort, or foods he loves but the kids aren't really keen on. No point doing garlic mushrooms when he's away because the kids really don't like mushrooms much and I can't overindulge or it sets my insides off!

I'd better figure out what best to do with my tofu in the next hour or so or dinner will change again. I sometimes do it with beansprouts and black bean/garlic sauce but I haven't got any beansprouts today. Most of my veg are pretty useless with it. I could do a version of ma po to fu which is a spicy Sichuan dish with minced pork. Maybe. I'll let you know what I did later!

Israel?? Who'd've guessed at that!?! You can't possibly leave something unknown once you start wondering about it, can you Becky!?! You're worse than I am.

Kerri.

In the end I did cook even though it was just for me I had lentils, rice, beansprouts, pickles and mango chutney.

No idea about tonight yet.

pasta with bolognaise sauce for the uninitiated! I have not stuck to a single item on my meal plan for the last week. I thought I had it cracked today, but when I had to move dinner forward an hour and couldn't find my mid-size casserole dish I had to switch from tuna casserole.

I now have blank spaces to fill in my book, so I'd better come up with some more brilliant plans of dishes I intend to cook but probably won't!

Kerri.

I had a microwaved doner kebab and an orange The orange was tasty, the kebab wasn't.

Old standby, yep. We've been rotating a lot of the same meals because DH is a picky eater and I am a cheapskate, so these are the meals we can agree on. Anyhow, dessert is a mango for me (some type of Mexican mango I've never tried but it was in the supermarket next to the ordinary mangos and I thought it looked good), and an orange for DH.

Sausage in batter and chips (fries)

Grilled Ham Steaks
Zucchini parm
Brown rice pilaf
vanilla bean ice cream with fresh, warm maple syrup

Then it's off to HS Parent Group, followed by the School Board Meeting.

Ciao!
-Jo

you really shouldn't post just in front of people like Jo and Lenora. It's not that I'm a big fan of brown rice but somehow the battered sausage and chips just doesn't sound as... fancy I s'pose!

Equally, don't post after them as I'm about to! We had my new favourite standby for the day I've actually done grocery shopping - fresh egg noodles with various shredded veg (I added some bits I had too) only this time we tried it out with cooked prawns. It's the only way I could have considered using them but they just weren't right. I'll stick to chicken, with or without avian flu!

tomorrow we're having a massive peperoni pizza I just bought and salad. There's fruit and yoghurt for dessert which is usuall the furthest I go. Other than the Coke my shopping trolley was mostly healthy things. Oh, and some gingerbread bunnies for a little fun since the kids are off school this coming fortnight. We have meetings so I need bribes!

Kerri.

I seem to do really well with the menu for a week or so, then have a few days when I can't be bothered. Tonight I have no idea what I am going to eat, maybe a quick salad as I have stuff that needs using up.

Take Me Out! He's on THE LIST. And I know he had $$ in his pocket, and I just don't feel like cooking tonight. I want someone else to make me some:

Sourdough Baguette, warm and crusty from the oven
Salad with blue cheese dressing
Red pepper crusted scallops
Linguini with garlic-butter sauce
Steamed veggies
and one small nice glass of wine.

If all else fails we'll have appetizers at home:

cream cheese and hot pepper jelly on crackers
shrimp cocktail
crab cakes (frozen)

Hmph.
-Jo
Bad Attitude Woman

Hmmmph. Hope he takes you out Jo.

We are having Subway - inspired I know! But Friday is our night not to cook too. I will make some veggies to go with. And some wine.

So no worries Kerri!

We're having angel hair pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. DH is also having salad but not me.

I am not one of life's worriers, and I've eaten beef, lamb and cicken at all the wrong times, and whilst I'm not exactly perfectly healhy there's nothing I can blame on the meat just yet. Maybe it'll turn up in 20yrs, or maybe the kidneys will have packed in before then. In this particular case the 'flap' is even more ridiculous, since as you say Becky - it can't possibly caught by eating it because nobody would eat raw poultry anyway and cooking kills it. Nobody has caught this that hasn't had direct and often prolonged contact with sick birds. I know a health crisis when I see one and I usually know what to do. SARS was a major issue for us in Singapore - it was huge. We're apparently expecting a massive epidemic of influenza in this area with hundreds expected to die. Bird flu is way down on my list of worries, although obviously I do pay a bit of attention to the news. As someone said, sick birds don't fly, or this would have spread like wildfire and killed millions of birds by now. It has spread geographically because one or two tough birds fly before they get too sick then drop dead.

sorry if this has put everyone off their dinner. I need to take the garlic chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow's roast dinner!!

Kerri.

...as soon as we have it here in our poultry I will stop eating chicken and eggs. I know cooking kills it, but I don't want to handle a raw infected bird either It was shortly after the BSE scare that I went veggie for several years. I don't like meat much anyhow, and for me these things are usually the last straw.

This evening's dinner will probably be mushroom gravy with mashed potatoes and broccoli.

Avian flu-or-not!

I've been doing some flu pandemic preparation around here...I'm not an alarmist by any stretch of the imagination but too many reliable sources say "it's coming" for me to ignore it.

dinner tonight:
marinated chicken
rice
broccoli
...something else yet-to-be-named

and dessert? I think I'll coax DD15.5 into making an apple crisp. I've got a bowl of apples that need used up!

Bob got the first dandilions of spring today...She gobbled three without stopping, and is contentedly watching me type from her warming rock!

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

We had chickpea curry with basmati rice.

Roast Chicken
Three Color Couscous
Sauteed Broccoli
Maybe a salad

so DH got Chinese takeout (all the fish and chip shops seem to be closed on Sundays). I was up to my eyes in a contract most of the day so he made lunch for me as well as volunteering to drive round looking for dinner!

Need simple meals next week again because there are a number of meetings and other disruptive chaos expected, so I need ways to be as flexible as possible, particularly since I shan't know how many will be eating at any time.

Kerri.

I forgot to take mine out of the freezer last night again! Consequently, I don't know what's for dinner tonight, though I did my grocery shop today so there should be plenty of choice. I'll report back later

Steak tonight with broccoli, baked potato, and mushrooms.

Tomorrow is a ballet day so,

Crock Pot Spaghetti Bolognese

Wednesday will be:

Motzerella and sun dried tomato stuffed chicken breasts that were marinated in rosemary balsamic
Brown rice pilaf, and green beans

Thursday and beyond-Who knows?

I had lentil and bacon soup.

I remembered to take the chicken out of the freezer, so tomorrow we'll have roast chicken, with roasted parsnips and carrots, yorkshire pudding and whatever other veggies are on hand.

As in hot dogs. With beef-flavored ramen noodles. Am I trashy enough, do you think?

At least there are carrots and celery involved in this process.

You're not too trashy if you include veggies Becky!

Jo, I am interested in the crock pot spaghetti and also the stuffed chicken breasts? Are they quick and easy? That is really what I need nowadays - though I love to cook!

Why, when we have finally added poultry to our diet, does it have to become a problem? No fair!

But tonight we're having oven-fried catfish (pecan-cornflake coating), probably spinach salad, and probably asparagus or broccoli.

Thursday -- hmmm, either spinach quiche or zucchini quesadillas, depending on how the day goes

Friday -- I have some turkey meatballs in the freezer, and I'm wondering whether I can just pitch them in the crockpot with some pasta sauce for DH and girls to have on noodles later. I'm planning to go help a friend at her egg-decorating party.

Saturday -- too much to ponder! pizza?

Sunday -- hurray! we are going to a friend's house, and all I am bringing is a tart.

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

Jo, I'd love to see the recipe for the crockpot dish. Drew's, hmmmm - we don't have that round these parts. Maybe a similar dressing like Ken's Steakhouse or something?

Shaun, how do you do the zucchini quesadillas? Saute the zucchini first I'm guessing? I've made lots of quesadillas but never with lots of veggies.

Love this thread, b/c it gives me ideas!!
Andrea

We had chicken and ham (leftovers) with egg fried rice, chicken flavoured ramen noodles, beansprouts and mushrooms.

We're having home made vegetable soup with shop bought bread rolls (I haven't mastered making bread, yet )

A big, fat hunk of it is about to come out of the oven!

Baked patatoes, green beans, salad/veges and rolls, too.

DH went straight from work to the hospital where MIL has been admitted this afternoon for tests. I have no idea what time he'll come in.

Other than our week of vacation, this is (was) the first time in two months where he is in-town three nights in a row durring the week for dinner....and he can't come straight home.

Sigh.

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

PS. Could I sound any whinier???

How I love risotto. Throw in a little something, anything, and you have a yummy dinner. Tonight: the remains of a big sale-box of fresh spinach and a can of cannellini beans. All were pleased. Pan "roasted" asparagus for a side.

Regarding the zucchini quesadillas:
I think there is a recipe for my "Zesty Zucchini Burritos" in the recipe box, which is basically the way I make the zucchini for the quesadillas. Carmelize some thin onion slices (half rounds), then at the last minute turn up the heat and pan-roast the zucchini (I do half-moons). (That is, let it get brown without stirring, then flip to quick-brown the other side.) For DD 6 I try to leave the onions out of a quesadilla, but really they are just sweet and good. DD2, who is not so much on the lookout for alien invaders in her food, doesn't mind the onion at all, b/c she doesn't notice it.

Shaun
www.homeschoolblogger.com/shaunms

Most of this week has been a blur really... but I do remember the last two meals. Largely because I didn't have to cook them! The night before last we went shopping and DH grabbed a couple of rainbow trout and a couple of salmon steaks and we divided them between us - DS and I had the salmon and DH and DD had a whole trout each. DH did them in tin foil with spring onions, s + p, and garlic for the trout - into the oven and it was rather lovely. Miraculous considering I don't think I like salmon! We had boiled new potatoes tossed with a little pesto (didn't have fresh herbs and this seemed like a good alternative - it was!) and salad with garlic croutons. All absolutely lovely and my fish-hating son loved his salmon!

Last night was one of the few nights we thought of proper English fish and chips and were able to go and get it - normally we think of it on a Sunday night and all the chippies are closed! Not well thought out and DS had said he'd have anything for dinner but no more fish - he managed quite well though!! Fish and chips doesn't count as 'real' fish to him!

Sunday is leg of lamb with ... ummm... well parsnips for sure, and maybe the cauliflower, but I'd better find some broccoli to add to that and a white sauce. I'll do gratin-style for those with the white sauce, then it doesn't have to be perfectly timed! No idea about tonight or tomorrow night, and next week we're away for several days, so either we'll eat easy options in or we'll go out, depending entirely on the weather.

Kerri.

From the More with Less cookbook. Even though I just found out you're not supposed to have meat on Good Friday! What is that all about? I never heard of that before.

Basically it's mince (ground beef) with ginger, cinnamon, curry powder and something else I can't remember without checking....oh, yes, turmeric, and garlic, tomatoes and peas. It's supposed to have potatoes in it too, but I find if I put the potato pieces in the pot with the mince etc, they don't cook to my liking. I either cook the potatoes separately or we have it with basmati rice. We have chopped hard boiled egg on top too.

That sounds great Honey!

Thanks for the recipe Jo - that sounds so strange to combine the white wine with milk!! Doesn't it curdle or something. I will try it next time I"m feeling adventurous!

Thanks also for your tips Shaun - those are on my list to try too - though my DD7 will most likely ask for a cheese quesadilla instead.

We are out at friends tonite for burgers - to a party tomorrow nite and then I am making brunch on Easter.
Andrea

I cooked a Ham Butt in the crock pot yesterday. But, the rest of the family had other plans that I didn't know about. So, no family dinner last night. Tonight we'll have that Ham, scalloped potatoes, peas and homemade rolls. I think I'll make an easy cheesecake with fresh strawberries for desert. Now if they have other plans, well, I'm going to quit cooking!

if I ever get off here and get moving! Let's see, Lamb, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, broccoli and cauliflower in a white sauce, some yorkshire puddings and gravy. Bearing in mind I'm still a beginner at this whole Sunday roast thing! And we're having my parents join us too, since they're taking the kids off our hands from tomorrow (we're going away for 4 whole days and a bit!!!).

But I really have to move...

Kerri.

Beans and rice with hot dogs, maybe.

I have not been doing a lot of cooking in the last few weeks what with the oral exams and all!

the veggies weren't great but nobody really eats a roast dinner for the veg, let's be honest. The roast potatoes and parsnips were gorgeous too. My father barely commented, but then he prefers to think of me as being someone who can't cook, so he can taunt me with it. Mum's the real cook though and she said it was delicious, so that's good enough for me. And it was even on time!

for the next few days we're self-catering in a well-equipped little place, but it might be regular pub meals if they're nearby, and lunch self-catered perhaps. I'm taking the usual suspects down though - don't want to be forced out in a hailstorm or torrential rain!!

Kerri.

Kerri.

We had the sausage/lentil/apple/onion casserole thing, of which I ate too much and now feel uncomfortably full.

Tomorrow we have a big family dinner at my parents', which is scheduled to be roast turkey a la Christmas dinner. Mum has even bought Christmas pudding!

Have a great trip Kerri! Don't forget your brolly

Last night was rice and beans. Tonight I'm making a shepherd's pie, with mashed cauliflower instead of potato, and peas.

I left the cooked ground beef, mushrooms and onion in a dish on the counter and popped upstairs. When I got back the dog had eaten it.

So, I had cauliflower for dinner

Hmmm, last night I made pizza, and 2nite perhaps tuna wraps...I need to make sure I make decent meals for my DH...his physical results show high cholesterol, and he's only 27! I always thought u had 2 b over weight to have that, but I stand corrected.

My mother is visiting and taking us out.

Vegetarian chilli and rice with roasted vegetables (peppers, onion, cherry tomatoes, courgette)

I guess I'll think of something!

Roast pork stuffed with whole wheat and apple stuffing
escalopped potatoes
spring greens salad
homemade rolls (scalded milk is cooling now!)

apple-rasin crisp w/ whipped cream for dessert (because I don't feel like fooling with a pie crust!)

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