So...whats for dinner?

eric95us

That does look good Illimae.

We haven't been eating much. It's been hot, which slows my appetite a lot, and Sharon has been at the end of her rope when it comes to the heat, so she hasn't been eating much either.

I've been reading a lot...and doing lots of yard work....We had a couple of big wind storms blow through here and I've been cleaning up the dirt/trash/leaves/small twigs that blew into the yard, as well as fertilizing the lawn and hedges and fixing the lawn sprinkler heads. We have a block mason coming over to fix a cement block wall that nearly blew over. I also was at test daughter's dad's house yesterday with my chain saw. A tree had fallen around and over his car but had not damaged it. A wrong cut would have let the tree--a thousand pounds or more--fall on the car so we had to go slowly. It took quite a bit of thinking to figure out how to cut the tree up without hurting us or the car.

Chi, I'm glad you're heading back to normal. I'd go nuts if I was all "bound up" like that...and the tooth...grrr..I'm not sure if a toothache or an earache is more bothersome...they are both right up there.

My mom also did the corn flakes trick with the chicken. My grandfather (her dad) and my dad both ate corn flakes, so she had a ready supply for the flakes too small to eat. Her other idea was to mix flour, salt and pepper together and dredge the chicken in that before baking it. I liked it both ways.

Moon, that most certainly has to brighten your day. What a smile! :-)

I love corn. DD and Sharon loved it too but it would take DD forever to get it out of her orthodontia. We can get corn here that is "picked that morning" so it's pretty fresh.

ChiSandy

Just found out that my bone healing might be slowed by the prednisone I had to take for my asthma, and the ibuprofen for my root canal pain (to avoid having to take opioids, which actually don't work as well). I'm off the prednisone, since the cold that caused my asthma flare is gone; I hope I can get back to just Tylenol (better yet, nothing) for the tooth stuff soon. The nasal steroid is what stands between me and either another asthma flare or sinus congestion that exacerbates the tooth pain.

Yet another example of not being able to fix one thing without breaking something else...it ain't just about breast cancer any more.

Made an egg & egg-white omelet for brunch with Swiss, spinach & mushrooms and a cappuccino; supper was an iced cold-foam latte, kasha varnishkes, my homegrown cherry tomatoes, and wild-caught sardines in olive oil. (We won't talk about the half a Krispy Kreme, pain au chocolat and Dove miniature).

carolehalston

Friday night dinner at LaPasta was just so-so for me. I settled on Chicken Piccata with a risotta side. The sauce on the two round chicken fillets was quite salty and had cooked green onion in addition to the capers. The white rice risotta was mixed with wild rice and was not wonderful or awful. The mixed veggies were overcooked.

Some of the other meals looked delicious, especially the fettucine alfredo with Italian sausage that the man across from me ordered. He is thin and ate about a quarter of it, declaring that he would make at least two more meals from it. The man next to me had a baked entrée with red sauce and cheese. It looked good, too.

My challenge at La Pasta is trying to order something that will taste good and not break the WW points allotment TOO much.

Last night we had my eggplant lasagna made several days ago and it was delicious. Our side was a yummy tossed salad with romaine, tomato from my patio plant, a good cucumber, avocado, Greek olives and gorgonzola crumbles. Dressing was vinegar and bottled Caesar dressing.

Tonight will be pork tenderloin marinated in garlic, olive oil, and fresh rosemary. The side will be Pike's corn on the cob. Pike is a local farmer who sells his sweet corn out of pickup trucks here and there. Everybody swears by the sweetness of his corn. I plan to try a recommendation for microwaving the corn in its shuck, with the big end cut off. Supposedly you grasp the shuck carefully and pull it off. All the silk goes with the shuck. Supposedly.

auntienance

Carole, I cook corn that way all the time and it really does work. Just make sure the stalk is completely cut off so the husk and silk can slide free.

Chicken and leek pie for dinner.

carolehalston

Nance, what about cooking time for the corn?

auntienance

Carole, it depends on the size of the ear but it's about 1 1/2 minutes per ear. Longer if you like it softer.

auntienance

You can tell if it's not cooked enough, the husks won't come off easily.

carolehalston

Thanks, Nance.

MinusTwo

Carole - I cook my 'naked' ears wrapped in wax paper in the microwave - 4 minutes for 2 ears.

I think people here would be interested in your avocado egg salad concoction you posted on another thread. Will you share it here?

eric95us

It's 10pm and it's 103F/40C. I just got back from running 5.8 miles/9k and Sharon won't let me sit on the sofa...or any of the chairs...or on the bed..... Hmmm...... :-) I guess I did work up a bit of a sweat.

Lupper (lunch and super combined) was courtesy of Subway.

carolehalston

Minus, I'm happy to share. I mash up 1/4 ripe avocado and then mash up a hard boiled egg into the avocado. No mayo necessary but you could add a little if you wish. Delicious variety of egg salad sandwich with some sliced home-grown tomato, if you're lucky enough to have one on hand. I sprinkle some sumac berry seasoning and Aleppo pepper on the egg salad. I LOVE the sumac berry seasoning and use it a lot.

We share food tips at WW meeting and one woman who hates mayo said she used avocado as a substitute in egg salad. Eggs are zero points in the current WW program.

Last night's microwaved corn on the cob was delicious and the method worked perfectly. Not a single strand of silk! The pork tenderloin was good, too, cooked on the grill to about 145 degrees. DH always gets out a jar of apple sauce to eat with pork and I had a little, too.

Tonight will be dinner out in Bemidji following my WW meeting.

ChiSandy

Salvaging some food that defrosted today (fridge/freezer began slowly dying over the past few days--we didn't notice till 2 days ago, when the icemaker disgorged meltwater out the dispenser--was able to catch most of it in a pot). Whatever we weren't able to transfer to the barebones basement fridge/freezer got cooked tonight and the rest discarded. So I pan-fried a barramundi filet (Old Bay, Italian bread crumbs, lemon juice), sugar snap peas (fresh but tough) and the remaining kasha varnishkas. About to make a batch of seltzer and bring it downstairs (the white wine's down there already).

I ordered a new fridge for Sat. delivery, but keeping my Fri. service call (earliest I could get). Abt's repair tech says there's a chance that the condenser coils could be in severe need of a cleaning, but nobody here is capable of pulling a 36" full-depth fridge away from the wall, disconnecting & capping the waterline, and removing the drip pan & coil cover to clean them. Vacuum cleaner crevice tool couldn't get in there, of course. (We tried). If the service call does the trick, then we'll cancel the order & delivery of the new fridge; if the tech says the cleaning won't cure it, and parts have to be ordered or more labor is necessary, then we'll throw in the towel and they;ll apply half the service call fee to the price of the new one (same price as the one we have, which we bought exactly 7 yrs. ago). The avg. lifespan of a 3-door fridge is 5-8 yrs, and fridges in general 13--including the simplest ones w/o icemakers or dispensers--so Consumer Reports advises that if a major repair is necessary more than halfway through the expected lifespan, it makes more sense to buy a new one. We've already thrown $500 in parts & labor at the one we have.

eric95us

Wow...until recently, the newest refrigerator in my home was over 30 years old.

DodgersGirl

ChiSandy— feeling your pain as my 29 year old fridge died one week after my hysterectomy this winter. Family shopped for new fridge and I watched via FaceTime. We were without for about 10 days. Deep freeze and ice chest carried us thru.

I LOVE my new refrigerator but hated throwing out so much food.

Best wishes to you

carolehalston

Our Sears side-by-side is 20 plus years old. At some point the icemaker mechanism failed. DH ordered one and did the replacement himself. It wasn't an easy job but he got it done. With the help of language!

Dinner at Ruttgers restaurant last night was fun and interesting. The restaurant is in a building at Birchmont Lodge, part of a resort on the north end of Lake Bemidji. On a Monday the patio dining space was packed. We waited about 30 minutes and got a great table overlooking the lake. The weather was delightful though a little cool. I could have used a light jacket.

DH ordered a half rack of "St. Louis" ribs with baked potato and house salad with blue cheese dressing. I had a Red Lake walleye fillet, panfried, with baked potato and house salad. The salad came with a warm roll and butter. The food was good except for the baked potato, which wasn't soft. Perhaps I should have chosen the MN wild rice side but I'm not crazy about wild rice and really enjoy good baked potatoes.

All in all it was a delightful dining experience. I had two glasses of cabernet and dh had a dark beer.

Red Lake is on an Indian reservation. The Indians allow themselves to catch and sell walleye fish, whereas sale of walleye isn't legal outside Indian reservations. All the walleye in supermarkets is Canadian.

My WW weigh in was good. I was down 3 lbs, a result which validated some of my meal decisions last week, including my meal at La Pasta. I am only 5 lbs from goal weight but those 5 lbs won't be easy.

Dinner tonight will probably feature boneless and skinless chicken thighs out of the freezer. Probably breaded and cooked in the oven/outdoor grill. Two remaining ears of corn and a salad. I will be playing golf today so an easy meal will work well.

MinusTwo

Gee - my Whirlpool is only 15 years old - but I don't have any bells & whistles either on the door or inside. Edited to add, I DO have an ice maker in the freezer compartment. Doubt you could live in Houston without one. I finally had to give away my Grandmother's 1950s Admiral with a drop down door for the 'ice' compartment. It had been moved to the garage around 1990 but I could no longer get a door gasket. Here's a fun YouTube to remember...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_UlJXBACeE

I finally did have to replace my upright freezer this year, but since it was from 1973 I guess I won't complain.

MinusTwo

Carol - congrats on the weight loss. Every time I have a large bowl of popcorn for dinner - always seriously drenched in melted butter & lots of salt - I end up one pound less the next day. Go figure. Both the ribs & the Walleye sound delicious.

Dunch was fresh steamed veggies - zucchini & corn cut from the cob - topped with Campari tomatoes. Evening snack will be a bowl of Honeydew melon cut in very small pieces. Takes longer to eat that way.

auntienance

Pasta al pomodoro crudo tonight with some grilled garlic bread. The raw tomatoes were quite delicious in the dish as only summer can make them.

Severe storm last night, took out 2 1/2 trees and uprooted a large bush, none near the house thankfully. Waiting on the insurance adjuster. One of the trees landed smack on top of the garden and took out all of the tomato cages. The only good thing is that we got over 3 inches of rain with it, which won't help the smashed garden.

auntienance

Yes Carole, congratulations!

illimae

Tonight is a tenderloin steak with mashed cauliflower, broccoli and garlic bread.

ChiSandy

Severe storms this afternoon--I got soaked going to the "pot doctor" for my initial MMJ card certification appt. (and got some high-quality CBD oil & cream--my primary's P.A. said I should ask her). Cast-brace & liner got drenched too. Stormed so hard that it tripped the GFCI in my garage and I had to park on the street, unlock the side door, reset the GFCI (took 3 tries), dash back out to the car and drive back into the alley & garage. Hope it hold for Bob when he gets home tonight. Meanwhile, brought some fresh eggs I bought on the way home down to the basement fridge--and there's a puddle in front of the drain by the washer & dryer. Oh, joy. Just to make a latte took two trips up & down the stairs, so no way I'm having anything for dinner that needs to come from (or have leftovers go into) the basement fridge. Spent some quality time drying my cast-brace & liner too.

So I'll either have instant cold mix-it-yourself quinoa-pesto salad or nuke some Indian food & rice. (And have Bob take the leftover rice downstairs himself--he has two good arms for carrying stuff and using the banister). All those trips to & from the basement are getting kinda old.

Eric, my in-laws had the same single-door fridge (with a tiny freezer inside) for 40 years. Until we moved into this house 30 yrs ago, none of the fridges we had in Chicago were newer than 20 yrs. old. When we lived in Seattle, our married student housing apt. had a dorm-sized half-fridge with an even tinier freezer, which held an ice tray and a couple of Popsicles; after three years, the university put in normal top-freezer (but not frost-free) fridges.

SpecialK

I had good luck with my Kenmore 1990 fridge, even though it went with us on each military move and was either in the house or garage depending on where we were. It finally bit the dust here about 5 or 6 years ago. The guys that hauled it away were shocked at how heavy it was - that thing was a tank. It was a maximum capacity fridge with a top freezer. My washer and dryer were purchased at the same time and had no major repairs but I sold them to the woman who was leasing our townhome in D.C. in 2006 as she didn't have any - so at that point they were 16. The ones I bought for this house in 2006 are still going strong and the only repair needed I did myself with a $10 part I ordered off Amazon, which was the door sensor on the dryer. The Jenn-Air fridge that came with this house was total crap - as were all of the other Jenn-Air appliances that I have replaced one by one. All that is left is the wall oven and I need it to break asap so I can get a new one with built in microwave. The Jenn-Air microwave built in above the oven no longer works, but it is all built in together with the wall oven - which will prob last another 10 years just to make me mad, lol! In this house I was limited on fridge replacement to counter-depth and certain size dimensions because they custom built cabinetry around the fridge, same with wall oven and micro - built into the cabinets. All the appliances in the kitchen are KitchenAid but I will need a contractor with the oven/micro replacement because the sizes are just a little off. They also did that with the TV spot - took me two years to find the right size console to fit into the recessed place the original owner had custom built for their rear-projection TV. However annoying, first world problems, right? The fridge I bought for the garage to replace the Kenmore lasted 4 years and the repairman was astounded that it was a catastrophic failure and he said I would spend as much to fix as replace - he said he had never seen that type of issue happen with a fridge that new. We have extreme temps here so the next one I bought was a "garage-ready" and it seems to be doing fine so far.

Dinner last night was a salad of romaine and napa cabbage cut into thin ribbons, topped with julienned carrot, scallion, roasted chicken breast, julienned red pepper, sliced almonds and a dressing of rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, almond butter, sesame oil, olive oil, hot sauce, and honey.

chisandy - sorry about your rain issues and the many trips up and down the stairs, has to be frustrating and tiring.

carolehalston

Last night's dinner was in the "skimpy" category. I got home from golf about 5 pm. DH was next door on Mary's deck enjoying Happy Hour. My vodka martini was in the refrigerator, minus ice. I hurriedly prepped the boneless chicken thighs and got them into the grill/oven. Then hustled over to join the others.

The only side was the two remaining ears of corn cooked in the microwave. I was too "relaxed" and/or lazy to make a salad.

Tonight's dinner will probably feature a ribeye. DH will do grill duty and I'll sautee yellow squash and zucchini with onion and make a salad.

Thanks for the congrats on the weight loss. As most of us know, the scale can move up so much more easily than down. It's an ongoing challenge.

illimae

Tonight is a grilled tuna steak with brown rice and asparagus, so yummy!

auntienance

Oldie but goodie - Swiss steak, mashed potatoes, fruit salad.

ChiSandy

Nuked a cup of Annie's Naturals white cheddar mac & cheese, adding black truffle oil (not salt, it's high enough in sodium as it is) and grating some fresh nutmeg on top. Veg was five of my homegrown heirloom cherry tomatoes. (Breakfast was 2 olice-oil-fried eggs, half a regular-sized heirloom with basil EVOO, and a piece of wholegrain bread to sop up the yolks and juice). Eating shelf-stable stuff that produces no leftovers is getting kind of old.

Had Part 2 of my root canal today--good news is that the endo got the correct tooth, not-so-good news is that it's still somewhat infected. She doesn't want to put me back on oral clindamycin, so she went in, removed the filling and packed it with antibiotic-infused material and some more antibiotic before placing a new temp filling. The needles hurt like hell going in, but not for long. Anesthetic wore off more quickly this time, but she used less of it. Not as painful as last week (fingers crossed). The 2 oz. of plain Eurotart fro-yo I treated myself to after the xylocaine wore off felt so soothing! Sticking with 2 Tylenol + 2 Advil every 6-8 hrs. as needed (but a little CBD oil under the tongue at bedtime--tried that last night instead of my usual Baclofen & Xanax, but got the order reversed--should've been the last thing after tooth care & mouthwash. Had very little sleep, R knee & shin ached and my hand & arm were very "angry" inside the cast-brace).

Gonna make Bob bring up the wine tonight--tired of yo-yo'ing up & down stairs, terrified of falling. He won't get home in time to fetch the cans of cat food from the fridge, though (sigh).

Think I will order out or go out tomorrow night, but appetizers only so I'm not stuck with leftovers.

MinusTwo

Sandy - so open new cans for the cats. So what if you don't use the leftovers tonight? Your DH or your housekeeper can ferry the 1/2 cans up or down tomorrow.

MinusTwo

Only got around to one meal today - one Oscar Meyer Bun Length hot dog on the last cheapo hot dog bun with French's yellow mustard. Too tired after water aerobics to fix the other options - even though some were leftovers.

carolehalston

The occasional hot dog is a treat for me, Minus.

Last night's grilled ribeye was more delicious than usual. DH cooked it perfectly. I could easily have pigged out and eaten the whole thing instead of my half. Side was yellow squash and zucchini with onion, slightly overcooked. I sprinkled a little grated Romano cheese on my squash. DH got all the onion.

Tonight will probably be pasta with Rao's and tossed salad. I'll use the frozen turkey Italian sausage in the freezer as an addition to the Rao's. Easy and enjoyable meal. Grated Asiago to spinkle on the pasta.

ChiSandy

Well, my go-to-the-basement-fridge plan is out: just threw out my back. God said "here, hold my beer..."