What's for dinner?

Finally stopped raining here after nearly 8 days of solid rain and colder than normal temps. (So that means it was in the 20s and low 30s at night and 40s during the day here in Michigan.) Sun was shining and it was 70 degrees all day today - grilling time!

Grilled pork steaks, mashed potatoes and veggies are on the menu tonight.

We went to an Italian brunch buffet. Dinner is going to be a light salad, if even that!

Had a pork roast that was marinaded in crock pot, a rice medley, crescent rolls and a lettuce salad as the asparagus wasn't tall enough to harvest again.

My fast food, not junk food, summer dinners: a variety of steamed veggies, 3 Trader Joe's Chinese dumplings, and a dipping sauce. My dipping sauce: a tablespoon of any kind of Trader Joe's nutbutters, thinned with cocunut milk, a dash of Thai chilli sauce. OR start with about 3 tablespoons of Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce, thin out with apple or rice vinegar, dash of sesame oil, sometimes with tamari sauce. I use a metal veggie steamer basket. Veggies to steam: broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, snow peas, sliced onion rings, cauliflower, Trader Joe's frozen Edame, string beans, oakra, or whatever you have. You also can toss in some frozen shrimp or chunks of frozen chicken breast, tempeh, or tofu.

Alternative, too hungry and hot too cook dinner: line a dinner plate with romaine lettuce leaves. Add a pile of raw veggies: red pepper strips, carrot sticks, celery, cherry tomatoes, brocoli, snap peas. Dip into a homemade salsa (red beans, black beans, chopped fresh tomatoes, frozen organic corn, hot sauce, or use a dip of humus.

any other lazy cook ideas?

JeanneGibbs - I do that often, too! I keep picnic-y foods like summer sausage, cheese cubes, cottage cheese, celery/carrot sticks and crackers on hand all the time to munch on if I don't feel like cooking - which is quite often these days. From now until we go on vacation this summer, I'm going to be slammed with work and preparations. We are having some work done on the house while we're gone, so I have to de-clutter (a good thing) and start moving furniture either out of the house or into dad's old room in preparation for the work, not to mention I've picked up another 10-12 hours of work from new clients, which will help finance the trip.

Sleep? What's that? LOL

Home made green pea soup, leftover stir fried veggies, and an ear of corn. Think I am turning into a semi vegetarian.

Good for you, Susan! Freezing makes a lot of sense. Tonight I was late getting home from grocery shopping, and we had what I call a bites and nibbles dinner. Chicken sausage chunks, sardines, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, fresh pineapple, fresh raspberries, mixed nuts, and wonder multi-grain crackers. Sort of a cocktail party without the cocktails. :)

Tonight was spaghetti w/meat sauce, and I made a huge batch, so after Mom and I ate, I bagged up the remaining pasta and sauce in freezer bags, so we have ready-made meals for the future when I'm busy. I try to do that whenever I can. I'm used to cooking for a crowd - I had 6 people in the house to cook for before I moved in with Mom - so I just cook a good sized batch of almost everything I make and freeze the leftovers. Beats sticking them in the fridge and forgetting about them - and then having to pull them out later when they look like a science experiment gone wrong!

Jeanne, that boarder must feel like they are in a bed and breakfast! I am always so impressed with what you put together! I used to do so much more being daughter of home Ec teacher and all. But now kids grown and these old folks here just want ordinary stuff.

Used the Trader Joe's garlic sauce tonight. Awesome! I browned pork tenderloin medallions and chicken breast tenderloins along with fresh mushrooms, dumped the sauce over the whole works, and placed it in the oven while broccoli tossed in olive oil, lemon pepper, and celery salt roasted. Served with garlic mashed potatoes (planned over from the other night), pickled beets, sliced tomato, and sweet pickles.

Bring on the next sauce challenge!

i usedta make loaves of whole wheat bread with sausage and cheese in it . mom would fry it for french toast. i never tried it but im bettin it was pretty fullfilling .
made edna some more rice and pineapple but ill bet shed like rice and apple even better. edna is a good cook . i cant believe shes eating my gruel now ..

My border has a lot of faith in my culinary creativity. Once in a while she buys a jar of some sauce that looks interesting and is confident I'll figure out what to do with it. Tonight's challenge was Caribbean Mango Sauce. I seared some hake fillets and onions, covered them with the sauce, and finished cooking them in the oven. Also had roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon pepper and roasted sweet potatoes tossed in olive oil and maple syrup. Mixed kiwi, pear, and dried cherries for the salad. Pretty darn good dinner.

Tomorrow's challenge is a jar of Trader Joe's Many Garlic Sauce.

I stopped for breakfast at Perkins on my way home from Ma's nursing home. I ordered eggs in a hole. Yep, they are Egyptian Egg Toast. We always called them Eggs in a Frame. They were OK, but not as good as I remember from childhood.

cooking is a challenging hobby , book . i usedta cook meat in a skillet , slip it onto the counter , then use the same skillet for the vegs , pasta , whatever , then reassemble. this way you dont soil every dish in the kitchen for one little meal . later i got into cooking the exact amount of food so there were no leftovers. you have to consider how hungry everyone is and how well the meal will go over.
my leftovers get slipped right into the new dish anyway so it wasnt a matter of waste , only the challenge..
i like one dish meals too , like bread rolls with the meat , cheese and vegs inside. chili dogs with beef , cheese , onion , smashed red beans in the sauce -- pretty complete meal ..
usually i keep my frying skillet in the fridge, beats washing it daily.. ditto bread sheets..
cooking should be fun , not hard work..

Fave sis told her daughters that I'm cooking. Both girls couldn't believe it. Hello?! Just last week, I texted fave niece and fave sis on how to cook the hot sausages. Oldest sis (living with us) said to microwave it. I don't think so. So, I asked sis and her daughter. After given options, I chose the frying pan. This way I can burn it the way I like it.

Fave niece is working tomorrow, Mother's Day. So, she dropped by with dinner - Panda Chinese take out. Love the fried rice, the dry noodles (not oily), favorite beef broccoli and hot spicy chicken. Yum!

And, she brought me a Mother's Day gift. Guess what it is? A Presto Electric griddle with a 10.5 x 20 inch cooking surface. She says that now I can cook my sausage and the eggs at the same time. She told me how to clean it, and Do Not plug it in until it's completely dried, etc... Hmmm... I'm not that good yet where I can cook several things at the same time.

i aint gonna eat. lilly told me i have , big mistake girlie . aint using sun screen either. stone dust works better.
ill eat some choc baking chips and watch shirley manson perform in that infernal black a - shirt..

Bar-be-que beef sandwiches, peas, and noodles.

Fed dad earlier so I could enjoy dinner with my husband. Just a salad with leftover grilled chicken.

Fish tacos -- awesome! I wanted to use some tilapia filets I had in the freezer, and also wanted a dinner that could at least partly be made ahead and put together quickly at dinner time. I tried a recipe from a website: allrecipes , called Grilled Fish Tacos with Chipotle-Lime Dressing. We had it yesterday and today. The fish reheated just fine in a frying pan and it was as tasty the second day.

geez,
i was going to get turkey necks today to cook with beans. the s**ts were 4 bucks a pound. i bought chicken livers instead. i need iron , not windpipe and bones..
looks like another ambien night. they only put you out for 5 hrs but its a deep cycle sleep that really freshens you up..
i see pink at the base of my nails. freaking anemia with 7 weeks of treatment to go.. hemoglobin low, fading , fading , fading. no wait, thats the ambien knocking my dumb a** out..

Yesterday was my birthday so we had take out Chinese and a mini Bushwacker cheesecake.

Great idea! I am planning on making Spaghetti with Garlic bread and Salad. Everyone's dinner plans is making me hungry! :)

Booklvr - the egg dish you're talking about is what my parents called "Egyptian Egg Toast". Don't ask me why - I have no idea how it became Egyptian! We never put cheese on ours, though. Hmm...that sounds good for breakfast today! I guess I'd better shower first though...just had a new client come on board last night with my business, and I'm going to be swamped today.

Salmon cakes, green beans & potato salad

apple cake with walnuts beats the heck outta carrot cake imo. some instant potato flakes makes any cake more moist. a dollop of miracle whip never hurt a cake either. icing is so easy to make you can do it with a bowl and spoon. conf sugar , vanilla , milk. the trick is to apply the liquid a scant few drops at a time. if you ever get it wet it doesn't come back out of it .. then you play with cocoa, cream cheese , burnt butter additions..

Tonight's dinner was suppose to be tuna sandwich - which the tuna was already made. I came home tired and hungry. Sandwich and/or hot dog was out. So, I grabbed the microwavable - heavy version (not noodles) but with meat in it. Instructions said micro for 10 minutes in half power. 10 minutes?! So, I micro in high for 5 minutes. Took out the veggies/potatoes. Then micro high another 1 minute. sigh... I have no patience with cooking.

Last week, I went to the store to buy ingredients needed for chicken soup. I hesitated on the cabbage and potatoes. I told sis that I stood there staring at it because I don't know how long it will take to cook the cabbage/potatoes. I stood there wondering which would be faster to cook the potatoes. Micro or over the stove. In the end, I just took both. I will try to cook soup this weekend.

FYI, fave sis was shocked when I said that I was planning to make breakfast from a youtube video...on cooking bread on a pan with a hole in the middle which you crack an egg and put it in the hole, then flip it over, add on top cheese until it melts. Sis said, "You?! Cook?!!!!" {{[chuckling}}} Out of 8 kids, I'm the only one who doesn't cook at all. Anyway, I've perfected my fried rice and eggs. I'm bored with it. So, I've been looking at YouTube for other 'easy' breakfast menus. I'm going to definitely have to throw in some kind of meat with that egg in a bread hole.

By the way, we ate at a restaurant that served tofu. I was so surprised that it had taste. So, I found a very simple recipe on how to cook tofu. I just need to figure out Which kind of tofu (it said firm) and how to incorporate it into my meal.

I don't have a real stove with an oven. So, one time, long time ago, I made a cake by steaming it. Because I was steaming it, I don't recall if I used eggs. I know that I skipped the oil and replaced it with ... orange soda. =) I'm thinking of doing it again. I tried googling on baking a cake by microwave. Nope. Can only bake a cake in a coffee mug. So, I will need to see if it's feasible to steam a cake using one of our extra rice cookers that have steam capability. I'd love to make carrot cake and throw in some walnuts in it.

my aunt throws a few red hots candy in her fried apples. dolls em right up..
well she did until we disabled her cook range. im gonna tell her gwb done it then prop her up to email him.
im still sending king ramsces hate mail to this day over that snookering I took on those hideous looking pyramids. he had himself entombed with cigars that were promised to me. I hammed his wives but would sure like to have had one of those cigars directly afterward.

I had sofosbuvir , simeprevir , and ribavirin for supper. ambien for dessert. soon after falling asleep ill prob'ly go steal a cow to eat.

Only one store stocks them that I have seen - Sobey's - which is Canadian. When making soup, I pour it all through a sieve and then pick out the bones. Tedious, I know.

Prayers for your mum. A broken hip on top of the arthritis. I remember you posting about it. It was decided to go with no surgery, if I recall it right. Hope she is starting to heal. Poor lady!!! It must distress you to see her like this as well as being very hard on her.

My experience with turkey necks is boiling them up with onions and celery etc to use in turkey stuffing. Yes, the meat does fall off the bones, but then I have to be sure I get all those darn little bones out of the broth! It makes for tasty stuffing, though.

I haven't seen turkey necks for sale (other than with a turkey) for years. Are they common in regular grocery stores where you are?

In addition to the arthritic pain (not helped by this rain-drenched week), Mom broke her hip on Easter. That is painful. And being bedbound presents its own opportunities for pain.