So...whats for dinner?

Yay for raindrops clearing pollen....that's happening here today also.

Debbie, I happened to see another date filled smoothie recipe that you might enjoy. Here's the link....which has the "recipe" at bottom.

http://www.snack-girl.com/snack/date-contest/

Eric, so glad you made it home.

Hope all is going well for you today, Special.

Tonight we are having dinner in Providence. DH just reviewed the restaurant's menu. Great sounding food, but I will easily be able to avoid over choice...there are about three entrees that don't contain dairy. I'm with you Carole....moderation is the key. I hope my functional med clinician likes that mantra when I let her know in a few weeks that I do not intend to keep to this no dairy business. It would feel very differently if I were a person who experienced digestive issues from dairy. 

Had a great shopping trip yesterday...got a number of spring/summer tops, capris, shorts, etc....Now I really do need to do a closet clean out! Hahaha....house clean out is more like it! I should invite some out of towners to be houseguests....that always prompts some clean out motivation!

Not sure if I mentioned that we have a new Wegman's store nearby. Have yet to check it out. I hear that some of their organic produce is more reasonable than WF's.

Special - thinking of you & hope you're resting.  I'll check the TE thread.

Debbie, I have those days, too, when my hand seems to move to my mouth compulsively!  It's not my favorite kind of eating but it just happens.

I made an early Walmart trip this morning and bought a bag of their fresh green beans, all snapped and washed, to cook for tomorrow's Mother's Day dinner at my mother's house.  I'm also cooking a smoked picnic ham since ham is a meat that everyone eats, including the picky children.  My younger sister is bringing her delicious mashed potatoes made with cream cheese and also baked beans made with trusty old canned Bush beans, doctored up with bacon or sausage.  One brother is bringing tossed salad and a SIL is bringing banana pudding made with sugar-free pudding and some kind of bread, probably those tasteless warm-up rolls.  No gourmands in my family! 

An alternate dessert choice will be a box yellow cake that I baked this morning, iced with the pre-made milk chocolate icing.  I slaved over that cake!  It won't be too much of a temptation for me because I prefer dark chocolate.  But my mother likes the milk chocolate.

I also baked some carrot cake cookies from scratch, following a Cooking Light recipe. I sampled one, to the tune of 4 pts!  It tasted really good but the texture is odd.  Rubbery.  The cookies are supposed to be made into sandwich cookies like whoopee pies with a cream cheese icing.  I skipped the icing.  I think I'll write a letter to Cooking Light about the texture.  DH really likes carrot cake.  That's why I made the cookies.

Dinner tonight will be the pork piccata recipe I've cooked a number of times, made with medallions of pork tenderloin.  Not dh's favorite but I like it.  He favors pork chops over the lean pork.  I'll also steam some yellow squash.

SpecialK, I hope you're feeling good.  Greetings to everyone else.

Special.  Glad you are doing so well....  

I put a whole chicken into the Dutch oven, added lots of beans and buried it all in BBQ sauce.  Corn, a fruit salad and sourdough rolls should round it out.

I have tried 3 times to post from my phone and each time I get to a certain number of words and I can't type another word. This only happens on bco.  I've tried different keyboards and it happens with all of then. Weird!

Spoiler alert....very long, somewhat inane, post......

Eric, hope the rolaids work! Whenever I ended up having to attend a sports game thru dinner, I opted for a soft pretzel (if available..maybe an east coast thing) which is easy on the esophagus and stomach! 

Special, you are a dream patient! Continue with a seamless recovery. Apologies for my about to be posted info which includes lots of tasty things....maybe read later!

Last evening we headed to Providence for dinner, and instead of going to the Italian section of town, we went to a farm to table style restaurant which was delightful. I had a salad of pea greens (never had them before, and may never again given their short season) with pancetta bacon pieces, pine nuts and a citrus dressing, that was delicious. Entree was rack of lamb with a puree of something I forget, and a coriander sauce. It was supposed to be a different sauce that I am allergic to, so they changed it up.:)

We had a parsnip cake for dessert. I might have been wary of that except that last winter I went on a parsnip cake baking kick so I knew it would be good. And theirs was much better than mine! 

So tonight I was inspired to cook a decent dinner....having had dates and nuts for a couple of nights! Local market was having a sale on beef filets, so I stopped on the way home from Joann Fabrics (needed to buy some Bruins fabric to make a taggie for DS2's friend who is a new father and a crazed Bruins fan) and bought two filets. 

DH grilled them perfectly with his special remote timer (lord knows when he acquired this, but it does a great job!) and I made my favorite spinach salad with mushrooms, red onion, walnuts and cranberries, sautéed some chard with garlic, onions,  mushrooms and crushed red pepper, and the real specialty was some forbidden rice (an aromatic black short grain rice)my sister hunted out in VT and sent to me after enjoying it in a restaurant near her. We had some kalamata olive artisan bread, too. While I have rice or pasta rarely, I would recommend seeking out this forbidden rice. So delicious! Makes a meal special!

Tomorrow we are meeting our DS2 in the Seaport area for an early dinner at Gather restaurant. Their menu looks interesting. Today I received a lovely gift from DS1 and DDIL....however, since I neglected to mention to them that I was off dairy for the past month, they sent a lovely selection of cheeses. ;/ DH will have a ball eating them, and I will have to decide if I disclose my dietary reality or not. It was a lovely gift. Such an annoying mother who can't really have flowers or cheeses...maybe skittles or diamonds? 

Very excited that today a single hummingbird showed up at our hummer feeder. We put it out earlier in the week and saw nothing. Usually never see them here at home. We figured the little guys were well on their way to NH to their summer homes, where we feed them daily. Well, when I saw the little ruby throated male, I was ridiculously excited....ran outside to alert DH...who ran inside to see him. We clearly need some excitement in our lives....but nature is so cool!

Happy Mother's Day to all the "nurturers" on our thread! You are all that!

Hello to everyone! All the food sounds amazing.  Today was my Mother's Day. My DD1 and DS2 came from Madison. DS2 got here, talked got half an hour and went upstairs to sleep. ( he works 3rd shift and the came right here after my DD picked him up from work.). Then my DD and i went to Barnes and Nobel as its the knly Bookstore closer than an hour and i cant get there alone as parking is impossible. We spent hours browsing and of course buying the hard copy of my series. It had been over a year since I did something like that. So fun. Then those 2 and my DS1  and my DH took us out to Twisted Willow. A beautiful farm to table restaurant in town. Everyone chose the French onion soup it's a favorite and they do it right.  I had pork ribs that were amazing..i almost had the salmon but the pork was so beautiful.  With golden potatoes and caramelized onions.  My picky DS2 had a homade mac and cheese. LOL  My DD had her cheat day so she choose the rib too (she's training for a kickboxing tournament). So did DS1. Only DD2 was missing. I hope to see her tomorrow. For dessert we had the smores for the table. For Mother's day they added the raspberries to the tray. I just ate those plain. I wanted choc on my marshmallow. LOL.  But it's so much fun to do that at the table with everyone sitting around talking.  All to soon we had to leave so they could head back as my DS2 had to work 3rd again today. So loads of fun. Sure beat the Mothers Day I spent all alone a couple of years ago! LOL.  

Much love to all and Happy Mothers Day. Whether you are a mother to humans or furbabies or doing the Mother duties, I hope your day is a great one. 

Happy Mothers' Day.

I usually eat odd dinners - all vegetables or a pork loin only or popcorn & apples.  Today I fixed a "real" meal for myself - ribeye steak, fresh steamed broccoli and boiled new potatoes.  Then I had to eat a bunch of Dark Chocolate covered Goji berries w/raspberry.  Yum.  I used to find them only at HEB but saw them at WalMart last week.

Special - glad to hear you're still taking it easy.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

I had fried rice noodles (seasoned with plentiful turmeric, black pepper, lime, tomato, garlic + onions) and lettuce! The colour is beautiful yellow-orange with dots of black pepper! Ready in 10mins, meat free and delicious! Plus I've read black pepper helps the absorption of turmeric (curcumin) which has an anti-cancer effect!

Thanks for starting and contributing to this topic.. it's nice having something light and also interesting 'suggestions' to spice up one's meal!

yen - sounds delish!  This is a thread full of fantastic people and, you are correct, it is nice subject matter!  This is a supportive group - we gather in the cyber "kitchen" when necessary and share strength.

carole - your pic is great!  I have been wanting to try a lasagna type dish that uses long thin slices of zucchini instead of the pasta.  After seeing your shot I might try it this week!

Carole, it's too bad the beet option doesn't work well for you since that definitely provides the best color change from the yucky green. I wonder if a lot of raspberries or bing cherries might help change the color? Or....might you be able to tolerate a cooked beet in the smoothie better?  Or, horror of horrors, how about red food coloring!?

yensmiles - welcome

Carole - could you post the recipe for the yummy looking veggie lasagna? 

Oh Lacey - the harbor!!!  I so would like to live by the water.

Laurie - how are you & kids & DH.  Thinking about you.

Oh my goodness, I'm having red meat two nights in a row!  I'm trying the Eye of the Round recipe - pre-heat the oven to 500 & end up letting it sit.  Sure smells good but I know I can't peek for at least another 39 minutes.  Having a gin & tonic while I wait.

Hi Yensmiles.  Welcome.  I too hang out here *because* it is a low key "kitchen like" environment.  I love to talk and catch up on things when I cook.

We (I went with her) just got back from the oncologist....all normal except the slightly low vitamin D.   :-)

Here goes an effort to post a link for the Creamy Artichoke and Asparagus Lasagna in the April 2014 issue of Cooking Light:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-artichoke-asparagus-lasagna-50400000134220/

I hope it works! 

DH is having a breaded pork chop for dinner.  I will probably just have some of the salad I mix up for him.  If he wishes, I'll bake a potato for him.  I was starving to the point that I felt light-headed as I drove home today about 2:30 pm.  It so happened I "conveniently" drove by Bear's Restaurant, a favorite hole-in-the-wall poboy place.  I stopped and had a "dressed" roast beef poboy.  A delicious drip-down-your-arms sandwich!  With a ton of sliced roast beef cooked from scratch in the Bear's kitchen.  So that will be my main meal.