So...whats for dinner?

Reader425

Minus thanks for the clarification on the spaghetti squash recipe. I think I like yours better! Will try to remember to report back.

My dad lived to be 95 and for his entire work career he ate two lunch meat and cheese sandwiches (probably on Wonder Bread) 2 pieces of some kind of fruit, washed down with a thermos of coffee with lots of half and half. So I always enjoy reading all the different longevity tips, especially from those like Prince Philip. Everything in moderation - even moderation!

ChiSandy

LOL, Illi!

Wallycat, it's amazing what cats will and won't eat. Small mammals are supposed to be hypersensitive to capsaicin, even though it won't harm them. I used to put out birdseed, but the squirrels were constantly raiding the feeders (the plexiglas baffles did not deter them). The local birding store, Upstart Crow, suggested a powder called "Squirrel Away," made from dried ground ultra-hot chiles, to mix in with the birdseed. The birds can't taste it but the squirrels can, and will do everything they can not to repeat the experience. Sure enough, the next morning I witnessed a squirrel desperately lapping up air conditioner condensation water that had dripped onto my deck.

But cats do seem to know what is harmful. Tonight, I had leftover grilled seafood & spinach, both of which were redolent of garlic. Happy walked over to mooch scraps or lick the plate, but gave one sniff and walked away. And years ago, Gordy was finishing eating a beef pot pie when my dear departed tuxedo kitty Pickles came over to investigate. Gordy offered him the remainder, and Pickles actually fished out the pearl onions and lined them up on the edge of the plate before tucking into the carrots & gravy.

carolehalston

Last night was a shared grilled ribeye and baked potato with butter.

I meant to look up gigante beans. Beans, cabbage and shrimp is a novel combination for me.

I tried spaghetti squash twice and twice dh and I agreed we didn't love it.

The price of organic seems to be edging down closer to the not organic. In our climate bugs are so happy that growing an organic garden must be a real challenge.

wallycat

Carol, the Gigante are from Rancho Gordo (ouch on their price increase; mine are from last year...and still pricey) and named Royal Corona (how apropos). I think they are a huge, dried lima-type bean.

Cats! My dearly departed Wally(hence my screen name) ate refried beans

ChiSandy

Bob is coming home from Hospital Hell Weekend too late for us to go out to dinner--so he will have his leftover mostaccioli marinara and I will nuke some wings with celery & blue cheese. This morning was a fried egg with bacon (first bacon I've had in over a month) and low-carb toast with Stevia-sweetened apricot jam.

Thinking of starting a thread about vicariously sharing restaurant meals, called "Where Ya Eatin'?" but I suspect until we get a better handle on Omicron only a relative handful of us living in lower-transmission and more-mitigation-compliant locales can indoor-dine-out safely, it would be premature and lead to envy, resentment & recriminations. One of the reasons I love this and the "life after..." threads is their amity and universality. Hate to see it devolve into the ideological blame-game the "How has the Pandemic affected you..." thread has become.

illimae

Sandy, I’ll be there for it, if/when you start one, although dinning out will be especially rare when we’re finally on the mountain for good. I’ve been preparing to handle cravings for pizza and Chinese in house, as those aren’t available for at least 20 miles outside the nearest town.

Planning on Zucchini boats tonight. Had a late breakfast, no idea about lunch, maybe just a snack of fruit and nuts.

MinusTwo

Guacamole for breakfast after I walked my 6 miles. Meatloaf for dinner after I read the morning paper. Not doing much else today.

I called around to 5 or 6 of the "better" restaurants to inquire about masking. Out of 6, only 2 responded that their employees were masked. So those two will get my business & my money. Dinner w/my nephew's family will be at one, and lunch with my ex-DH will be at the other.

ChiSandy

WOW, Minus--I had no idea how clueless your city is. My sympathies!

MinusTwo

Oh - Houston's one of the better places to be in Texas. Over 3/4 of the retail employees still wear masks and a little more than half the shoppers. If I drive an hour North to Montgomery County, no one wears masks anywhere. Remember, our gov outlawed mask mandates.

carolehalston

Very few masks here on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, 40 minutes to New Orleans and an hour plus to Baton Rouge. I carry my n95 mask with me and put it on before entering stores. I do little shopping except for groceries.

ChiSandy

Gordy & Leslie (and their pooch) are about to leave in 10 days for the Hill Country outside Austin (for Christmas her family rents a ranch with two cabins on AIrBnB). En route, they will stop in NOLA to taste suggested menu items for their upcoming wedding in April (what they'll do with their dog while they're at the venue is beyond me). If this Christmas is like last year, the family will interact with each other but likely not do any indoor sightseeing.

Was gonna nuke wings tonight, but I found a frozen Cajun chicken "power bowl" with cauliflower rice at Target, so I'll nuke that tonight. Since it's the last night of Hanukkah, I'll also fry a potato latke (was gonna buy the broccoli or spinach version, but they also have potatoes and the same net carbs per portion), possibly with sour cream to lower the glycemic load. On the fence about applesauce, even unsweetened. Will also sauté whatever remaining snap peas I didn't gut to add to Bob's leftover chicken Vesuvio last night. I was shocked by how many of the supposed snap peas in Target's "steam in the bag" bag were actual peas. I also noticed that within a couple of days, the shishito peppers and strawberries I bought there got moldy. I don't trust their produce any more. BTW, they were charging TWO BUCKS MORE than Jewel or Whole Foods for a dozen Vital Farms eggs...with a pull date of this week. At least there's a Jewel-Osco in the same Evanston strip mall as Target, so it's no big deal to make two stops.

The white truffle is beginning to lose some of its "mojo"--I'm changing its paper-towel wrapper daily and keeping it in the fridge. It's not quite a week old. I think the problem is that I'm shaving it over the food but then grabbing my coffee and (sometimes) feeding Heidi (who is always late to dinner) before I sit down. I think what I need to do is have the food piping hot, sit down and shave the truffle just before I dig in. No such problem with the black one--it's still pretty robust and should last 10 days. You can also add black truffle towards the end of cooking--can't do that with white. When both have nearly "faded," I will use them to make compound butter logs with fresh herbs for freezing.

BTW, just read that there is a cream cheese shortage in the Northeast, especially in NYC. It's hitting mostly bagel shops, which buy vats of Philly and mix it in with flavors to give customers a variety of "schmears." Maybe it's just me, but do bagels have to be the size of truck tires and require a baseball-sized scoop of cream cheese? And what's with abominations like chocolate-chip-cookie-dough, sriracha and cranberry cream cheese??? (While we're at it. bizarre bagels too. Want tomato-asiago? Buy pizza. Want blueberry? Get a frickin' scone). The thought of putting fruit in proximity to lox makes my stomach churn.

illimae

Zucchini boats with spinach and northern beans.

wallycat

Illimae, WOW on the gorgeous spinach color! We had leftover shrimp with the cabbage/beans. Tomorrow I am thinking mac and cheese.

Sandy, I never look at the expiration dates of the eggs. I've only ever had 2 eggs be "bad" regardless of the pull date.

ChiSandy

I once picked up a dozen supposedly pasture-raied eggs at a farmstand in southern IL to bring as a gift to vegetarian friends who could only afford the battery eggs. They were in commercial styrofoam cartons from supermarket brands--which the farmstand salesperson said were irregulars bought cheap due to printing defects. Next morning I set out to surprise my hosts with omelettes. Cracked the first egg into the bowl, and then the second--it was sulfurous, with greenish white and green-black yolk. I took a large saucepan and filled it with cold water--and all the eggs floated like dead goldfish. Couple of years later, same thing happened to a couple from a dozen I had kept for two weeks past pull date--and one more was light as a feather when I picked it up. Now, when I am about to use eggs that have gone more than a week past pull, I always put them through the water test. Quite a few stand on end at the bottom of the pot--good for scrambling but definitely not for poaching. (A fresh egg should sink to the bottom and stay there on its side). I've taken to inspecting every single egg I buy to make sure it's not cracked or sticking to the bottom of the carton--I'd been burned that way before. And I won't buy eggs that have a printed pull date sooner than two weeks away. I find (at least where I shop) that the fresher ones don't cost any more.

carolehalston

The zucchini boat and spinach and beans looks appetizing. I have heard of "beans and greens" but have not made it. Seems like a good combination.

Dinner last night was a large tossed salad with mixed spring greens and favorite additions. Also warmed up chicken enchilada casserole. Warmed up might have been better than first time around.

Tonight is leftover red beans and rice. Perfect timing since it's Monday.

Summer in December continues.

eric95us

MIL is back in the hospital. C-diff. Again.

Duffey, her cat, is over here, but wasn't a "happy kitty" about being put into the cat carrier. He's been here often enough that he was immediately comfortable around our house.

I talked with MIL's doctor, and they felt it would be a good idea to sanitize MIL's house. So, while she's in the hospital and the cat is at our house..... :-)

MinusTwo

Eric - sorry to hear about your MIL. So.... guess who gets to sanitize???

My meatloaf was absolutely the best I've had in years. I had some sauteed celery & onion in the fridge for a stir fry, but mixed it in with the ground chuck instead. I usually mix bread crumbs with one egg - and used the only bread I had - dark pumpernickel rye. Turned out to be a fortuitous combination.

bitchonwheels

I live outside Chicago and it’s rare to see anyone without a mask in a store or restaurant. My 30yo daughter lives in Michigan and both she and her husband are fully vaccinated and had breakthrough cases a month ago. My 42yo son in Indiana had a breakthrough case last week. I received my booster 3 weeks ago but am still nervous about the holidays. As for dinner I’ve been trying some different things since I’m sick of the usual. Last night was a skillet dinner with ground Italian sausage, tomatoes, okra and rice. Tonight I boiled some cabbage and added a box of au gratin potatoes to it along with turkey kielbasa and leftover cubed cheese - it’s baking in the oven now. Flying by the seat of my pants with clea out the fridge and pantry meals!😂

MinusTwo

BitchOnWheels - welcome to the table. I'm doing pretty much what you are - inventing meals based on what sounds good in the weekly grocery adverts & what's left in the fridge.

eric95us

Me

carolehalston

Eric, sorry that your MIL continues to have health issues that cause her to be hospitalized.

Minus, I admire your meal "rotation." It has to be a challenge to make interesting meals for one.

Now I'm out of left over warm ups. We had the red beans and rice last night and enjoyed it with hot cornbread out of the oven and butter. There's at least another meal of red beans.

Woke up this morning to find summer in December has departed for a few days before we get back to 80 degrees again. It looks like Louisiana winter outside, gray and damp.

I went to several stores yesterday and must have stood out wearing my mask.

wallycat

We had mac and cheese with a side of stewed tomatoes (DH's childhood --he was always served tomatoes and he continues to insist on it).

Oh my! 80 degrees....I am not a spring/summer gal. I marvel at those living in hotter climes.

Eric, so sorry on your MIL situation. Fecal transplants are a real thing and have saved lives from C. Diff. I'll stop mentioning it again. Hope things turn around for her.

Betrayal

wallycat: Mac 'n cheese with stewed tomatoes is a childhood memory for me as well. We put the tomatoes on top of the mac n' cheese on our plates.

Eric: They do have fecal transplant pills now. Ask about them for MIL. Unfortunately C. diff is ubiquitous in the environment once introduced and no easily dislodged by cleaning. Sorry you get to be the cleanup crew.

MinusTwo

OMG - stewed tomatoes.... My father loved those so of course we had to have them regularly as a side veggie - served w/a meat dish or course since he was a confirmed "meat & potatoes" man. Of course these were from a can and none of us kids liked them. Maybe they're better if their home cooked?

eric95us

Sharon jokingly offered her mom the "raw material" for a transplant.. :-) MIL's comment in return, also joking, "It probably wouldn:t work. She's been giving me s--- her whole life and look what's happened!" :-)

Dispose of the un-cleanable "contaminated" chairs, 1:9 bleach to water, a garden sprayer, a mop and a bunch of rags....followed by a "fog machine" spewing out a "fabric friendly" sporicide to get all the hidden places.

I guess my gov't job training will come in handy.

Thinking about Dec 7, 1941. Back then, Hawaii was on an odd timezone, 6-1/2 hours behind east coast time, so the attack began around 2:25pm "back east". I wanted to go to the Arizona memorial at the Arizona state capitol, but was unable to do so. Maybe next year. My dad was in the Marine Corps from 1934 to 1964, so he, like very many others, had first hand experience with WW2.

ChiSandy

Welcome, my Chicagoland BCO sister B.O.W.! The fact that your kids are in MI and IN goes a long way towards explaining their breakthrough infections: those two states have much higher COVID transmission rates than does IL and certainly Chicago. (As of this aft., IL has 5.6% positivity, Chicago 4.2%--but Will & Kendall counties 8.5%--and IN? Don't ask). My DH Bob smokes a couple of cigs a night out on the porch or deck (despite being a cardiologist--"physician, heal thyself"). Pre-pandemic, since his hospitals are in the S. Suburbs (we're on the N. Side), he would get his gas & cigs just across the line in Hammond, IN because the taxes are so much lower than IL's (much less Cook County's & the city's). He would occasionally even go to "the boats" (before Rosemont got casinos) to do a little gambling. But nowadays, I have forbidden him to cross the state line--we can definitely afford to pay more for his cigs and Costco prices for gas--he buys less than half a tank for his little hybrid anyway, to keep the car's weight down & maximize gas mileage. Lately, the new Hard Rock Casino in Hammond has been advertising "Extra Cleaning" (which is "pandemic theater," as surface-droplets, aka "fomites," are no longer considered a significant form of transmission) and...are you ready for this?..."Masks Optional!" Sorry, but only a true COVIDiot would consider the latter a deal-sealing incentive to go there--the place is undoubtedly a Delta-variant (and probably now Omicron) Petri dish.

When I was in elementary school back in Brooklyn, I remember learning about Pearl Harbor via articles, lectures and "filmstrips" (remember those, fellow Boomers?)--because even though it was 20 years earlier, WWII hadn't yet made it into our antiquated (courtesy of NYC's cash-trapped public school system) history books. It was in that Social Studies niche between "history" and "current events." I vividly recall a TV documentary about it called "Not a Moment to Lose."

Yesterday, when the mercury was still hovering around freezing, I went into the garden and harvested all my remaining chives, plus bunches of parsley & mint, a large branch of rosemary, and a few sprigs of oregano & thyme. The landscaper wanted to cut it all back, but because the weather will warm up into the 40s & even 50s again by Thurs. I told him to let Mother Nature do her thing with the tender herbs--in years past, I recall seeing parsley in subfreezing temps and rosemary peeking through snowdrifts. I told him to go ahead and cut back the strawberries, as the blooming season is over and the runners are well below the surface and will survive even a short subzero freeze, like they did the two we had last winter. We're going down into single digits tonight, so I've switched to long PJs and a sweatshirt for sitting in the front room (which leaks air). I may keep the bottoms on under my jeans when I have to suck it up and go out shopping again for the few grocery items I couldn't find at Whole Foods or Target over the weekend. And I will venture out sockless in UGGs--they'll keep my feet warm w/o painfully cramping my toes--corns & ingrown toenails--the way socks do. I've trudged through deep snow in them in -10F weather up in Marquette, MI in the U.P. with my sockless tootsies staying warm & snug.

Definitely postponing going up to Madison to rehearse with my singing partner--he has his hands full with voice-over work, his print-shop job, and his wife's severe fibromyalgia.

Dinner tonight--unless Bob gets home early enough & insists we bundle up & brave single-digit near-zero wind chills to walk the 2.5 blocks on foot to Regalia--will once again be leftover wings & spinach salad. For brunch today I made a rolled French omelet with my last 2 jumbo eggs (a week past-pull-date), butter, grated Gruyère, and herbs from the garden (plus store-bought tarragon, which I've never been able to grow). With coffee, it was filling enough that I didn't need keto toast or bacon. (There's chopped bacon in the spinach salad anyway). ATK's recipe calls for 2 eggs + a yolk and cubed frozen butter beaten into the eggs exactly 80 strokes, but that's too labor-intensive & fussy; besides, I have little use for a leftover egg white.

My Butcher Box subscription came today--I'd re-set the frequency to the maximum 3 months. Running out of freezer room, so I sent my HK home with ground beef, salmon burgers, a NY strip and a couple of ribeyes. It's cold enough outside that it's sitting sealed on my deck beneath the table, camouflaged by snow tools and a trash can. (Pirates seem to be striking the front porches, so we dragged it inside, through the house to the kitchen, and out the back door). I suspect that by the time we unpack it tomorrow morning, the dry ice may still be partly intact. It's nearly as cold outside as my freezer compartments.

illimae

Mostly veg tonight, roasted carrots, squash, zucchini, onion and a tiny sweet pepper with sautéed parmesan & roasted garlic asparagus and a few seared sea scallops.

Reader425

Dinner, Last night and tonight, was crockpot chicken tortilla soup from the BC focused "Fix it and forget it " cookbook. I also made this decadent moist cornbread recipe (includes sour cream and cheddar). It's more like a desert so I don't have it too often.

DH's Dr. raised his diabetic meds a bit today; I see my Dr. Next week. More dietary modifications are coming I'm sure. I wish diet changes were easier! Not an original thought for sure. Illi your veg- based meals inspire me, as has Sandy's weight loss.

ChiSandy

Illi, looks delicious! That mini pepper looks like a habañero--thank goodness it wasn't.

Tonight, I tried a Martha Stewart frozen short rib meal (lower-sodium, low-carb). Though it had quite a bit of gravy (most frozen meals seem to be primarily sauce), it had nice-sized chunks of carrot, onion & rutabaga. Needed salt. But it was quite good. Sopped up the gravy with a keto Hawaiian roll. Did have some of that leftover spinach salad, and made raspberry vinaigrette.

Turned out not to be as cold out as predicted (only going down into the mid-20s overnight), but the Butcher Box's contents should still remain frozen till we unpack it tomorrow and try to find room in the freezers. (Will go through them and cast a critical eye on the dates. I know there are a couple of things I bought at Trader Joe's just before the pandemic--will likely toss them).

WC3

I had a turkey sandwich from the market deli. It comes with two sides of your choosing. I chose the spinach pesto pasta and the Greek orzo salad. I also bought a large chocolate chunk cookie, which I can typically make last a few days but I've had an appetite spike these past few days.