What's For DINNER Tonight?

[Performancemini]

H. got home again so late from his side-job that the supper wasn't very appealing anymore, even in the crockpot. So he did cereal again. I decided to night I will just make whatever's here and that looks good to me for myself and do something for him when I know he's heading home. Maybe some navy bean soup (the quick kind from a can-spiced up). (don't really like feeding him beans though, LOL!).

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I ate alone tonight too. I made Ginger Teriyaki Chicken and Rice. Hopefully he is home soon and wants it reheated. Normally I just wait but tonight I was hungry so I went ahead and made it.

 

[Performancemini]

Well I didn't have to eat alone. H. came home on time tonight. We made cheeseburgers, corn and cranberry sauce. He brought himself home a piece of pie from his favorite restaurant for homemade pie (lucky him!). Stove comes tomorrow. I am still a bit nervous about it. Probably won't use the oven for a while after 'the incident', plus I have to learn how to use the convection oven part of the oven anyway.

I put out a couple pork steaks for H. tomorrow night and a piece of salmon for me (H. doesn't like salmon). Maybe rice. I have a package of rose rice I haven't used. I have read that rose rice is quite nice, light and delicate. We'll see.

 

[chandab]

We ate at the Chinese restaurant in town tonight, we ran late, so just ate before coming home. They have such wonderful food, I'm still full.

 

[Jill]

I'm feeling extra lazy today. I think dinner will be frozen pizza, canned corn and green beans. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it, though

Hopefully, I'll do a better job tomorrow

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I haven't tried 'rose rice', let us know what you think of it. I love trying different types of rice, in fact I didn't care for rice until I discovered there were more than plain old "Uncle Ben's Converted rice (converted to what I ask you ?) and Minute Rice. Both of which are as interesting to eat as paste IMO. lol. I found a product called multigrain rice last time I shopped. I thought it would be a variety of rices but its actually rice with a variety of other grains. I'm curious to try it but haven't made a meal with it yet. I think it will be full of flavour tho and as long as my rice loving husband doesn't say "its not rice!" and dislike it it should be a healthy addition to our diets.

 

[Performancemini]

I usually just make plain rice, so it's boring. But there are a lot of recipes online and I am going to start trying some. I have used Arborio rice a lot. I have a recipe for using it in the oven. It ends up pretty creamy. I use Italian herbs in that one. That rice likes to absorb a lot of liquid. I have also used Basmati rice which is good. Jasmine rice is very nice. It is more delicate in texture and flavor. I really need to start getting more creative with the rices, because there is a lot you can do with them by adding seasonings and/or veggies, etc. compared to potatoes.

My new stove came. The delivery team from Sears were real nice. They hooked it up, leveled it and showed me things and explained and asked if I had questions. Then they turned the oven on and set the timer to burn off the factory oils or whatever (phew!). I cracked a window and turned on the ceiling fan-but like they said-you don't want that smell as a taste in your first food from there!

I still probably won't use the oven for awhile. I am nervous after my brush with the old one. But my husband said it WAS 14 years old.

 

[Jill]

I'm glad your new stove came!!!

Ours is a flat top hand me down from H's parents', but I love it and it matches our other appliances and counter top (blue corian (sp)). I hope it lasts a long time, but it's hardly new at this point in time!

Tonight here, it's going to be a store bought chicken breast that was pre-cooked and I sliced up (it was shrink wrapped but not frozen) with some chicken gravy (from a jar but I'll doctor it with some parsley, mushroom and minced onion), green beans (my "old faithful" since I never get tired of them and they are not very high in calories and nearly no carbs), and some mashed potatoes.

TOMORROW, I hope to make some homemade ham and bean soup which I will load up with celery, carrots, diced green peppers and onions, some chicken stock, carrot juice (makes it a little sweet), ETC. The first time I made it, H said he wouldn't want to eat it, but he ate like 3 bowls the first night! It is super easy to make and I think pretty healthy. He really loves it now and I haven't made it since I've been sending food over to our friend. She ate some bean soup that she liked a lot a couple months ago at a horse auction and I've been looking forward to sending her some of my homemade version of it ever since. It goes so good with cornbread muffins which I will be "making" thanks to the Jiffy box I've got on hand

I'm looking forward to dicing up the veggies for the soup! But, then, I shouldn't probably be flaunting all these fun things I look forward to

Our four legged babies, good food I can work on making, a roof over our heads, and fun books to read (or especially listen to) are about all it takes to make me feel happy

 

[Performancemini]

Well, the menu changed again last night. H. went to his side job and stayed late to get it finished (so I have no clue were he's at today!). I made my salmon (with brown sugar, mustard and a little Worchestershire sauce), instant mashed and cranberry sauce. When H. got home and did chores it was 9 pm-so I opened a can of navy beans, smashed 'em up some, diced up some deli ham, and added s/p, thyme, basil and cilantro. He liked that.

So tonight I must get those chops cooked (for H.). Not sure what I will have. Want to make the rice too.

 

[Jill]

I love salmon, as long as it's not smoked. I bet your dinner is really good!!!

Right now, I have a fruit dump cake in the oven and will be putting the already cooked chicken breast thing in to warm before long. Instant mashed (Idahoan brand that I make with milk (vs. water), parsley and butter) and just (again!) canned green beans, one of my best friends, and canned corn.

TOMORROW, I am going to do a better job. I'm already soaking beans to make this easy but good ham and bean soup

(we need a spoon smiley face for soup LOL!).

 

[Performancemini]

Made the chops for H. and made a salmon patty for me. Had california blend veggies. Did the rose rice plain. It seems to be kind of a sticky rice (unless I cooked it wrong). It was good though. Had a light flavor. I only did it plain and added a small pat of butter and salt and pepper to my serving.

Not sure what I will do tomorrow (need groceries). I need to get out of this house, but our whole drive is nothing but ice. H. has trouble keeping himself up on it. Don't know how he'd support me and himself to get me to and in the car. Gee, this winter! (and these crutches!).

 

[vickie gee]

Our "go to" fish dish used to be my copycat version of Carino's jalapeno trout. I fix it for my husband on special request when the supermarket has fresh trout.Today it got bumped into second place fish by barbeque salmon. My husband has been stopping on his bi-weekly trips home by a meat market that sells grassfed beef and every kind of meat that is hormone free, dye free, etc. This weekend he brought in 4 nice pieces of Norwegian salmon that were slightly under .5 pound each. I immediately dived into my cookbooks and in the South Beach Diet Cookbook found a recipe for the barbeque salmon. I cooked three of the pieces and saved one for me to try up a different way tomorrow. OMG, this was to die for! The recipe comes from the China Grill in Miami Beach. We each savored our piece and he has one left for lunch tomorrow. I will have to check out more recipes from this chef, Keyvan Behnam. We had corn on the cob to go with it. The sauce you baste it with while grilling is made out of blended barbeque sauce, rice wine vinegar, scallions, and ginger. It is served over a sautéed bed of cabbage, radicchio, mushrooms that are deglazed with sake. It is then sprinkled with chives and surrounded by dots of a Chinese mustard sauce made with mayo, Dijon, rice wine vinegar, and chopped scallions. Sounds fancy but it only took about 20 minutes to prepare and since I am such a foodie I already had the ingredients. I gained a few pounds over the holidays so I am thinking of trying lots more of the recipes in this cookbook. When I bought it some years back I was more like somebody watching exercise on tv while eating a box of cookies. Now I am going to actually use it a lot. I think the only other recipe I used out of it before today was for frittatas. Now that I am giving it a serious look I can see me seriously shopping for the ingredients in some of the other recipes and giving them a try. This salmon was mmmm, mmmm, good.

 

[Performancemini]

I like salmon and that sounds really Good! For the "bed" I would have to omit a couple ingrediants I can't have or don't like, but I don't think it would alter it too much.

I am using my Lifetime cookware PROPERLY now and tonight's supper was good and H. cleaned it up (he usually just doesn't seem to eat that good, and I think it's partly my preparation of it). We had pan-fried Sirloin steak (no oil-just Medium hot pan) with s/p and Worchestershire sauce. String beans cooked with just 1 Tablespoon of water (steamed them-yum! they were frozen and tasted garden picked!) and baked potatoes, finished off how we each liked them.

Tomorrow night I am going to make my favorite Easy Chicken Noodle soup.

 

[Jill]

That ham and bean soup tastes really good, but the beans are too hard. I used a bag of "15 Bean Mix", which to me is really pretty with all the colors. I did soak the beans a full day and had them in the pot with the rest of the ingredients (1# of ham steak, 2 boxes of chicken stock, 1 bottle of carrot juice, 1 drained can of diced tomatoes, 2 diced green peppers, 1 diced purple onion, 1 diced white onion, a bunch of diced celery, some garlic, some parsley...). Flavor is great, and in addition to the long-term bean soaking, the soup was on "LOW" on the stove in a huge pot from morning until late evening last night. It's on the stove again now, hoping I can soften up those beans. It really tastes good, but those beans are hard. I don't know what I did wrong, or if beans from dried are supposed to be hard? I don't remember them being hard when I used basic dried white beans for this recipe. So, anyway, it's up again tonight with either some fresh cornbread (what we made for it last night) or some other kind of muffin.

 

[chandab]

Meatballs tonight. Just don't know what I'm going to have with them. I'm sure hubby would say mashed potatoes and gravy, but I don't like gravy and not really in the mood for potatoes. Thinking Pasta Roni or Mac and Cheese.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I have heard that dry beans will not soften if tomatoes are added to early. I don't know if its true but I have had trouble with hard beans even after hours of soaking then cooking when I made baked beans and this is what I was told. Someday I'll try it again and see if its true.

We had ham and whole wheat/cheese biscuits last night with a ceasar salad. My son and his girlfriend joined us. Lots of ham left so we'll have something with ham tonight.

 

[Jill]

That may be what I did wrong. The bean soup did soften up yesterday, but I left it on the stove on low for hours (from the morning until dinner time, just stirring it occasionally). I think I'm having more of it for lunch today.

Tonight, we're having some store bought (shrink wrapped) smoked turkey breast that has this sundried tomato crust on it. It's good but a little spicy. I like it better w/o the sundried tomato crust and am thinking about simply rinsing it off! Green beans, corn, and sweet potatoes

 

[Jill]

Chanda, we're probably having meatballs tomorrow exactly with the same kind of pasta side. I am terrible at coming up with "new" side dishes, but the ones I like, I can eat over and over again and always love them.

 

[Performancemini]

We had the chicken noodle soup last night, which is somewhat creamy as you start with a teaspoon of oil and then soften some bits of onion, carrot, celery and garlic in it and then add flour and oregano and then the broth. It was good. I made baking powder biscuits to go with it. The new oven still leaves a hint of an odor in the air; but it is the newness I guess. Baked well. The biscuits were light, fluffy and flaky. Not carb friendly, but so yummy!

Tonight is pan-"fried" chicken and I think I will do mashed or boiled potatoes, maybe gravy and a veggie or two.

Tomorrow night will be fish. H. doesn't care for baked or pan cooked fish much, but if I get the flavorings right he eats it. He prefers fried of course and likes to get the fish at Culvers. I am not sure what I am going make with the fish. I don't think rice. I could do pan-"fry" the Ore-Ida fries or bake them or maybe I will do mac n cheese. That would fill H. up, since he won't eat much of the fish. And a veggie of course.

 

[dixie_belle]

Yesterday was a yucky day. I went out to the freezer and stood there in the door, scratching my head wondering what the heck I was going to cook for dinner (a typical occurrence at our house, sigh). I finally took two pork steaks out of the freezer. As they were thawing, I was then faced with the decision of exactly how I was going to prepare them (more head scratching). Finally I had a eureka moment. PORK FRIED RICE. I cut up the pork steaks into little tiny pieces, pan fried them, added some frozen corn, peas, carrots, rice, the little cheater package of seasonings, some eggs and soy sauce. It was an all inclusive meal and I didn't have to cook anything else to go with it. AND, there is plenty left over for another dinner.

So today I am off to stand in front of the freezer door.....again. Sigh.