What's for dinner?

Woke up today to a heavy snow at 5 am, (mostly gone now) but days like this I like to cook. So I made mini Danish with crescent rolls, and they were easy and yummy! And yes I made a drizzle glaze this time, for the first time, and it was easy and yummy too! I'll add that to the scones next time. And Need, hubs tried the shrimp and he liked it! Taking DD to lunch for Valentines day tomorrow, so no cooking for me!

Just wondering if anyone has tried Diamond art. For me it's been very relaxing and supper addicting.

You had me wondering if that was a new food service like Hello Fresh for a minute there Anxietynacy 🤔🤣

Pam,

Yay! Glad hubby liked the shrimp.

Anxietynacy: A friend has done the diamond art. Think he did his fav singer, Celine Dion.

Anxietynacy,

My youngest daughter just completed two diamond art projects. She enjoyed doing them.

So, it’s that time of day where I am going to open my fridge and wonder what in the world am I going to fix. I haven’t even thought about dinner tonight!

LOL 😆, maybe I should just make breakfast for dinner. That’s quick and easy. Plus, I am running low on groceries.

I zapped frozen leftovers tonight .
Pot roast and veggies. It was pretty good !

Chicken soup, chicken soup and more of it, and filled with just everything from noodles to chicken to carrots and peas. And then MORE noodles.

Hubs and I had to go into "town" today to meet the FA to hopefully get all our accounts transferred at last ( boy can other banks make it hard ) and we decided to eat at a local chain restaurant. The special was fried fish.. and we both agreed it was the WORST we ever ate, for about $40 counting tip. It was so dry, and I thought salty. We brought it home and gave it to the cats. At least they liked it, and at least the cole slaw was yummy. Now I remember why we normally eat at small non chain places. Except Olive garden,, we love that soup and salad!

I read fried fish and though "yum" until I read the rest of your post. That's why I stick to eating at home, at least my meals are cheap.

Pam,

I am with you on choosing local restaurants over large chains.

I am truly fortunate to live in a city that has phenomenal food! We never eat in chain restaurants with mediocre food!

New Orleans is a melting pot of cultures, so we have a wide variety of cuisines to choose from.

I love visiting New York because they also have incredible restaurants to dine in.

San Francisco is another great city for food!

Sorry that you and DH weren’t able to enjoy your meal. Hopefully, your cats won’t get sick! 😝

What are the specialties in your area that you enjoy? I know that you have spoken about the Amish food. Aren’t they good bakers, good pies and baked goods?

cw,

Cheaper and definitely better than eating out and getting nasty food!

I don’t mind paying for quality food because the ingredients cost more. Plus, nice restaurants have a nice menu of certain dishes that I may not cook at home.

Once in a while, I enjoy the change of pace and enjoy the ambiance and being served a meal that I didn’t have to cook!

Actually, there are great neighborhood restaurants in my city that serve excellent food. Mom and pop restaurants that serve wonderful food!

Our fine dining restaurants are top notch!

My favorite burger is in a dive bar that is crowded with people waiting to eat there no matter what time we go. It doesn’t matter if you get there before they open because there is already a line to get in!

Yes we have good Amish food at the nearby market, but here in Maryland we are used to really good fresh seafood. And local style "home cooking" for alot less than we paid today! At our age we normally can't finish our lunches anyway so we get 2 meals each from a lunch in most cases. we tend to go out for lunch instead of dinner, so it comes out very affordable. The small town near us has about 20 different places to eat from Fast food to mexican/asian/ you name it. Except for the FF they are almost all owned and locally opperated. We are right off a main highway, so that is why so many! The town is near Camp David and a state park. We live in the country, but its only a 15 minute drive to town, And we are near Gettysburg,, some wonderful places there also

Pam,

Yeah, your area has fantastic crab cakes! I love fresh seafood! We have great seafood too. Coastal areas are the best!

My daughter missed our seafood when she was living in Denver. She is eventually going to move back to Denver though because she loves it there.

Pam: I hear you on the chain restaurants. One time we got a Panera pizza, which we ended up throwing in the trash.

We have chain Mexican resturants here. I love the bright fun decor & a Margarita, sure, but I'd rather try more authentic Mexican & South American food.

I used to love Indian food in London. There were so many family run restaurants & many included their regional dishes & flavours.

I did try English cuisine too.. cottage pie, shepard's pie, cornish pastie (now a traditional pastie is a good meal) & clotted cream on scones. Simple fish (fresh) & chips in Cornwall was excellent! But smoked cod for breakfast was not really my thing.

Wish me luck. DH is making something new for dinner.. I see chilli & mushroooms.

Spinach lasagna. 😋 Yum!

Today was better on the food front! A local church fundraiser was a chicken fry , and we got 12 pieces, delicious!! Then grabbed some sides from the local mom and pop grocery, dropped 1/2 of everything off at DDs, meal for 4 and we all will have leftovers, for about 25$. Also gave them a loaf of chocolate banana bread and some home made jerky.. she was so happy to come home to a meal they didn't have to cook. And we helped a local church! The cats did enjoy the nasty fish, part 2 tonight so its all gone!

Pam: A gal from my work use to run church suppers with chicken or fish. Always delicious and very reasonable.

Our church fish fries for Lent are terrific! They have broadened their menu to include shrimp as well. Plus you can ask for grilled instead of fried. Wonderful sides with a dessert and a drink!

Oh, and several churches even have drive through service!

I cooked dinner for just myself tonight. I have been dieting and trying to eat healthier and cleaner for the past 1.5 years and have lost 60 pounds (and counting) and have drastically improved my bloodwork numbers, avoiding a diabetes diagnosis. Yay!

So earlier tonight I cooked a quick vegetable stir fry (shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, ribbons of zucchini and squash, thinly sliced red onion, skinny asparagus cut into 2-inch-long pieces, and thin slices of sweet red bell pepper) with already cooked (peeled, deveined, tails off) pre-seasoned shrimp from Kroger in some This Little Goat Went to Tokyo Sweet & Salty Everything Sauce all served over some Uncle Ben’s Ready Jasmine Rice…plus a mid-sized salad of tossed lettuce and baby spinach, chopped campari tomatoes, shredded carrots, a sliced and halved mini cucumber, a tiny bit of freshly shredded cheese, and a low-calorie Stonewall Kitchen sesame ginger dressing that I absolutely love. It was all so good and healthy, and I enjoyed it very much!

This, after living with and taking care of my 81-year-old mother and her every need, desire, and whim for the past 7 years (and counting) ever since my dad passed away and after she so ungratefully called me a horrendous, extremely insulting, completely baseless name just to lash out and hurt me nearly a week ago over something extraordinarily petty and insignificant while I was taking her to a doctor appointment. Her sanctimonious self-righteousness is overwhelming and emotionally exhausting for me, especially as her only child and remaining immediate family member. So I have removed myself from her by staying and sleeping in a different part of the house, especially since she refuses to apologize sincerely to me without caveats or a litany of further accusations tacked on. “I’m sorry, BUT…” is *not* a sincere apology! And is an apology actually a real apology when you have to ask, beg, and demand for one? I don’t think so.

So I exercised some much needed self-care by cooking a healthy, fulfilling meal for just myself instead of going through the daily, 2-3-hour-long “What do you want for dinner, Mom?” argument and cooking according to her preferences. And, as terrible and selfish as it all sounds, I enjoyed every bit of cooking for just myself and savoring every bite of *my* dinner. I am completely burned out (and deeply hurt) by my mother. So she’s on her own in terms of feeding herself…for now.

Seriously, y’all, that This Little Goat Went to Tokyo Everything Sauce is EVERYTHING! So, so yummy and so easy to use in a stir fry! I encourage you to try it. And, if you can’t find it in a store near you, it is available on Amazon as well as directly from thislittlegoat.com website. Plus, they have other flavors that I have yet to try but are definitely on my wish list.

Another cooking gem I recently discovered and used is Campbell’s FlavorUp! cooking concentrates, which come in 3 different flavors—Caramelized Onion and Burgandy Wine, Rich Garlic and Herb, and Savory Mushroom and Herb, A little goes a very long way and can be used on just about anything! Last week I sautéed a carton of sliced mushrooms in the Savory Mushroom and Herb flavor and, OMGoodness, those mushrooms were better than any I have ever had from a restaurant, even the fancy steakhouses! And, because these are all so low-cal, they work beautifully in my diet. I highly recommend these, and they can be found at Kroger, Walmart, Amazon, and other stores and websites.

Clotaire,

Sounds delicious! I cook healthy meals too.

I love making healthy soups! It’s relaxing to cook delicious meals that we enjoy eating.

How wonderful that you have lost so much weight! Congratulations!

I was clearing out expired items in the pantry and some never opened salad dressing led me to check the open bottles in my fridge, I was shocked to see one expired in 2021! I knew I hadn't used it for a while, but I never imagined YEARS past date... is this another sign of old age creeping in?

Cwillie,
I have started writing the date on stuff when i open them, Mayo especially lol

Willie, I think that's common. Mayo and mustard come to mind. Somewhere along the line I must have figured neither ever expired. Yep...............

cw,

Your story about expired salad dressing reminds me of my husband’s grandmother.

She served expired salad dressing for Sunday dinners. When we noticed it and pointed it out to her, she decided to rip the date off of the bottles! I never ate salad again at her home! 😁

She was an impulsive shopper. She overbought so many products, especially toilet paper. She had an entire closet full of toilet paper. She also bought a ton of ketchup. There was no way that she could eat all of the ketchup that she bought.

When she died she had tons of toilet paper in her closet. Along with clothes galore! She wouldn’t just buy one pair of black pants. She would buy a dozen pairs at the time! She also bought navy, gray, beige and white pants in bulk. Plus a bazillion blouses to coordinate with them.

Somewhat of a hoarder but very neat, clean and organized.

Left over pot roast made into soup. It's snowing and colder so soup is good this week. Just finished the hot, sweet, and sour.

My grandmother bought tea pots to last through WW2 and they lasted many years later. I think she bought linens too.

I will buy a few pairs of shoes or anything else that works well in different colours but then I have them for years. It's time to cull my wardrobe again for things I am not wearing here.

cw - On a different subject some time ago you mentioned having cold arms when you read in bed. I found that here more than my previous house, so I bought a few cute nighties with long sleeves but just thigh length from Amazon. Does the job well!!!

Old fashion bread pudding with raisins, for brunch, using up older bread