So...whats for dinner?

minus - I will likely send the leftovers home with DD/beau, but if you want to come I do have guestrooms! I will likely not eat much of what is served - I can make the chex mix gluten free, the fruit is ok, the vegs can have a DF dip, and the shrimp is fine. The rest I can skip, and often when I have cooked a lot of stuff for a party I seem to have little interest in it afterward, lol! DH has lost all the weight he needs to, but I still have some to take off, so I am going to be disciplined. Easy to say that right now when the food is not out with everyone eating...

I seem to get a lot of phishing stuff from CVS and Lowe's - but they misspell even the subject line of the email, or it has capital letters in the wrong place - I'm like, you're gonna have to better than that if you're trying to fool me...

I'm home and pretty fine except for the extreme fatigue from spending days in the hospital. It's amazing how tired you can get just laying around all day. I managed to sweep the salt off the front porch and empty the dishwasher and that's about the extent of my energy. It did feel good moving around though. Getting a whole night's sleep helped with no one waking me up every two hours to poke me, prod or take blood from me. (I must be a quart low by now.)

I haven't much interest in eating right now and really wouldn't have to think about it today because a friend brought a chicken and noodle dish dinner for us but I think I'm going to make a chicken leek pie. I also have some fresh asparagus so that sounds tempting too. I need to make a trip to the store for some lower sodium options. I hate having to think about this stuff. I hope I don't have to feel guilty about eating anything that tastes good.

Thank you all for your good wishes!

I don't know where one finds barramundi but I'd like to try it.

Nance - welcome home. I understand about sleeping in your own bed. Nap when ever you're tired & don't push too hard. That's what we're retired for...

Minus, I adore the no-knead bread! I do use the 450 temp and it has worked very well. I've even made no-knead dough to use as a pizza crust!

I added broccoli with cheese sauce as a side for my crab omelets.

Ok, so I made that exact bread during the lockdown because I was bored. DH was doing the grocery shopping at that point, to keep me safer, and got us started on the Publix bakery “everything" bread. I decided I could make my own with frozen bread dough and everything bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's. Turned out great, and started looking at no knead bread stuff online. The YouTube is by Jenny Jones, who had a talk show way back when. The recipe was easy, went just as the video. The resulting bread was beautiful to look at - I took a photo of it.

However, it was almost impossible to slice even with my very good serrated bread knife, and, honestly, it didn't taste good enough to ever make again. I don't know if it was just me, or possibly less than stellar bread baking skills? Lol! I baked my own bread all through college because it was cheaper and it turned out great - but wasn't the no knead kind. Wally, are you using that recipe or a different one?

Tonight was just a salad and leftover barramundi. Whole Foods has it in the frozen section, but they are out of it at the moment. I wish our Costco carried it.

I grew up eating taro and cassava. (We lived in Brazil.) I’ve been afraid to buy it here for fear it wouldn’t be fresh, but Serendipity09 has me thinking it is worth a try if only for nostalgia. I have many happy memories of tropical freshwater fish, fruits, and veggies. When we were there, we craved “American” food, and now it’s a treat to have the everyday food that we had there. Life is funny that wsy

DH answered the What's For Dinner question. I told him I would stop at the supermarket after my exercise at the gym, and he said, "Let's have ribs for dinner. I'll cook them." Very low on my list of possibilities but I wrote Ribs on the grocery list. He always finishes ribs on the grill, so the idea of his cooking them wasn't new. As it turned out, I precooked the ribs as I usually do. They were very good. Side was the leftover baked sweet potato, peeled, split, and warmed in butter in a skillet. And a large tossed salad.

The round loaf of bread is pretty but the crust does look hard. Crusty has its limitations.

We're going out to dinner tomorrow night at a very nice Italian restaurant. A Valentine's dinner proposed by another couple with whom we enjoy eating out. So dinner tonight should be something "light," whatever that means. Maybe a dinner salad. Pizza wouldn't be light, would it?

I would never have seen barramundi in the supermarket because I don't buy frozen fish or any frozen seafood. Speaking of seafood, fresh lump crab meat was $37 a lb. in Rouse's yesterday. I bought it as high as $25 a lb., but $37 is an eye opener. The restaurants must be forced to use a lot of filler because crab cakes are a popular menu item.

Serendipity, please feel free to educate us about your Brazilian food.

For those of you who remember Susan, I found a printed message from her in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. She listed the recipes she had tried and continued to use. She was out of our league in her cooking but always generous in sharing her expertise. I hope her little granddaughter has lasting memories.

Nance, is low sodium the main requirement of your recommended diet? No (or little) red meat?

Wallycat, I'm with you on the flash frozen fish. When we lived in California we could buy fish just off the boat but don't have that coastal access here! So dinner last evening was pecan crusted tilapia (thawed just before cooking), a new brand of French fries on which the judgement is still out, slaw, and green beans. Happy to have fish in the freezer! Tonight DH will be out so Granddaughter and I may have chicken nuggets and left over slaw and green beans.

I've seen frozen barramundi at larger Whole Foods stores, and once at Trader Joe's. Ate it once over a dozen years ago at "Sixteen" restaurant in the He-Who-Shall-Go-Nameless Tower downtown.

Last night I split the leftover lamb chop in two, and reheated it with the leftover veggies. Bob brought home steamed lemon-garlic asparagus and sausage with peppers from Pompeii near Union Health. So I combined the two dishes, and we polished them off.

Going out tonight for early Valentine's dinner. Bob is working tomorrow and has office on Mon. night; and he wants to stay home Sunday night for Super Bowl (though we may go out for brunch anywhere I can get a big omelet or quiche and a salad). Last night our local NBC station's "The Food Guy" featured a local landmark Tuscan restaurant, Coco Pazzo, for its 30th anniversary. When I saw the antipasto platter, the wood-roasted and the huge bistecca alla Fiorentina seared and then wood-roasted-finished bone-in ribeye, I knew I would be able to enjoy myself and keep it low-carb. The earliest table we could get is 8:30 (they close at 10 but tables are booked for only 90 min. anyway). Bob wants to go first en route home to the IN casino to place a bet on the Rams for Sunday (he won't use apps because he feels they're addictive. I know he really wants to buy cheaper gas & cigs there too. Before we got Omicron (and the treatments for it), I put my foot down and forbade him setting foot in IN because its COVID rates are so much higher (and vax rates so much lower) than IL's, especially Chicago's. Heck, one of the casinos there advertises "extra cleaning" but also "masks optional," even at the peak of Omicron. He says he should get home by 7, but considering Fri. night rush hour traffic on the Dan Ryan Expway (and often lane closures due to "police activity") he's gonna be cutting it very close: the restaurant is a half-hour drive from here. And the snow should be starting shortly after we sit down to eat. Hope the parking valet cleans it off the car.

Brunch was an avocado BLT with yellow heirloom tomato on low-carb hi-fiber toast. First BLT I've had in a couple of months.

Nancy, to lower sodium without making food bland, try fresh herbs (dried if you can't find fresh) and various citrus juices to add acidity. Acidity--Balsamic, champagne, red & white wine & apple-cider vinegars--will add flavor and create the impression of a better-seasoned dish. And if you do use salt, use kosher or flake sea salt--the larger surface area of the crystals are more flavorful so you use less. Use them for finishing, not during cooking--remember that as foods cook, moisture evaporates and the salt already added is more concentrated to the point of being too salty. Those imitation salts (mostly potassium chloride) are just plain gross. After my dad had his heart attacks, my mom tried that ("Co-Salt") and we all hated it--it was better to use herbs & spices (carefully) instead of fake salt. Seasoning blends like Mrs. Dash are jacks of all trades and masters of none--customize your seasonings to the dish. And instead of soy sauce, try a low-sodium tamari (I like San-J) or coconut aminos.

Lemon zest is usually the secret weapon in cooks' arsenals--in both savory & sweet cooking--as well as cocktail-making.

Dinner at Coco Pazzo tonight. Started with a mixed antipasto (wood-roasted veg,, olives, Parm-Regg, salami, red pepperoncini, prosciutto and coppa. Pasta course was spaghettini alla vongole--I had about 1/3 of Bob's Manila clams and he had the rest plus the pasta. For the entree, we had the bistecca alla Fiorentina (Porterhouse, fileted at tableside) with arugula salad. We have quite a bit of leftovers for tomorrow night!

Carole, if I lived where you live I wouldn’t buy any frozen fish either. Fresh is definitely where it’s at. However, since I’m landlocked those opportunities rarely present themselves. I did find barramundi yesterday, not at Costco but at Fresh Thyme. Later I also saw it at my local grocery store so if I like it, I now know where to get it.

I cook with herbs a lot both fresh and dry so I’m no stranger to that way of cooking and I use a lot of lemon juice and zest especially on vegetables but also chicken, always fish (my preference like yours Carole) and even pastas. My biggest challenge will be deli meats and other ready to eat things. It’s just a mindfulness thing that I need to get used to. Other than my affinity for baking, I really eat a pretty healthful diet. Can’t say the same for my DH who has an affinity for hamburgers. He is probably going to suffer from changes more than I.

I miss Susan. She was such an inspiration to me.

I do plan on chicken wings for super bowl. They will be baked and I’m not sure if I’ll do Frank’s or not. Even if I do, I always cut the butter in half anyway. By the way, I absolutely am not giving up realbutter.

Yes I miss Susan too. I was fortunate to have dinner with Susan & Lacey when I was in Boston several years ago. Also got to meet Eric & Mae - and a number of other BCO folks who don't post on this thread. That was "before" when the world was still traveling regularly. It's always a treat to meet BCO folks in person.

I have a 35 cubic foot freezer. Two other large freezers at others' houses have also been "recruited" into the effort. :-)

Ten years has passed since Sharon's BC diagnosis!!!