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What Did We Eat Today?

Athena

By Athena
in Food & Drink

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Quof
Quof

Running errands today, I found myself near my favourite cupcake shop. I'm rarely in the area when they are open, so I decided I needed a treat.  Customers were lined up out the door, and I didn't see

chessiegal
chessiegal

Dinner was wonderful. For 2 old foggies who usually spend New Years Eve in our jammies and go to bed early, what fun to have dinner in the French Quarter. NOLA was as wonderful as I remember it. Food

ennui
ennui

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

Grilled pork chops in my UN sauce, sweet potato casserole, and spinach. It was really good but I destroyed the air in our house by burning the last pork chop in my Grillade.  They never put an exhaust fan in our kitchen so I only have the fan over the stove (it just recirculates the fumes). Interesting that our inspection guy never mentioned this 24 years ago 😡

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Bastet

Bastet

I'm having a pork chop tonight, too -- I just put it in to brine.  I'll do it on the grill pan as it's too cold (well, for L.A.) to go outside and mess with the real grill.  Spinach here, too, so great minds think alike -- the side will be sauteed spinach and mushrooms.  The salad some sort of slaw I need to go survey the fridge contents to figure out, as I'm out of salad greens mix and didn't make it to the store today, so all I have is cabbage (red and green).

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

(edited)

I made a big pot of minestrone soup today. Yum!  I loosely followed the recipe in Joy of Cooking, tossing in aging vegetables from the fridge, some not from the recipe. Carrots and celery, leek, broccoli and zucchini, and cabbage. This is not a vegetarian recipe.  You start with a little bacon, which I think makes it special.  Also navy beans, cooked from scratch in the pressure cooker. 

Edited by EtheltoTillie
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Bastet

Bastet

On 3/14/2024 at 11:51 AM, chessiegal said:

I added blackened shrimp, which was overcooked (boo!).

Boo, indeed.  I don't like overcooked anything, but overcooked shrimp is a particularly aggravating offense (and it happens quickly, so I get it, it's easy to do, but it's one thing if I get distracted and screw it up and another if someone I'm paying for food serves it that way).

I went grocery shopping this afternoon, but have concluded I am not in the mood to cook tonight, so I just ordered Thai food: chicken satay, papaya salad, and pad gra prow with shrimp.  More food than I'd cook, so I'd have leftovers even if I skipped the appetizer, but I almost almost always get one when I order in, as I consider going out/getting delivery a treat meal, and I really like leftover satay, so that's a good option.  I almost went with chicken for the pad gra prow (or however one chooses to spell it; none of the restaurants here can reach a consensus), as that's easier to reheat than shrimp, but I'm craving the combination of shrimp and basil.

There's a new-to-me Asian fusion place nearby I want to try, so I considered that, but I'm in the mood for one of my old standbys tonight as it has been a while.

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chessiegal

chessiegal

When I went to The Fresh Market yesterday (Mondays are BOGO on their fish cakes - we like their salmon cakes) I picked up Hungarian Mushroom Soup. I'd bought it before, and for some reason didn't think it was as good as the soup we get at a favorite restaurant, but I had it for lunch today and it was really good. I'm glad I tried it again. 

Bastet

Bastet

On my last trip the market, Bertolli frozen meals were on sale for half off.  They have more sodium than I'd want to eat regularly, and use white pasta when I prefer whole wheat, but when they first came out I liked them as an occasional option for when I didn't feel like cooking but didn't want to order in.  But not only did they get more expensive, they started coming with significantly less meat, so it's been a long time since I last tried one.  Given the sale price, I bought a bag of the chicken florentine with farfalle to see how little chicken was in it this time around.  (That one and the shrimp penne with asparagus are the ones I liked back in the day.)

I made it last night, and, holy crap, if this stuff was on sale for a frakkin' dollar I wouldn't buy it again just on general principle.  There were maybe half a dozen pieces of chicken in the bag (and the bag is supposed to be three servings, but I say two), and the pieces are literally half the size they used to be.  They cut down on the spinach, too.  So it's basically a bag of pasta and sauce.  Yeah, no.

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isalicat

isalicat

22 hours ago, Bastet said:

So it's basically a bag of pasta and sauce.  Yeah, no.

This is a common theme with packaged food now - in order to not raise the price so much that people (to be frank, mostly people that never cook because they don't have time or are not able to for mobility reasons) can still afford to buy the product, they decrease the expensive ingredients (i.e. meat/chicken/seafood) and keep the weight the same by just upping the filler part. I occasionally buy a shrimp concoction for Friday dinners because I get home late on Fridays and am often too tired to contemplate cooking: the meal I get is now down to three or four pathetic little shrimp - the rest is inexpensive veggies like broccoli and onion and some pasta (which I should not be eating anyways!).

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

12 hours ago, chessiegal said:

@Bastet I have a bag of the Bertolli chicken florentine in my freezer now. In the past I've added more chicken and veggies. I call it an emergency meal and don't eat it often. 

That's what I've done with the Bertolli products. I believe it's called shrinkage. So I added shrimp to the shrimp & asparagus. But the last time I bought it, there was so little pasta in it that I decided it's not enough for two people (heck...barely enough for one).

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Bastet

Bastet

On 3/20/2024 at 2:19 PM, isalicat said:

This is a common theme with packaged food now - in order to not raise the price so much that people (to be frank, mostly people that never cook because they don't have time or are not able to for mobility reasons) can still afford to buy the product, they decrease the expensive ingredients (i.e. meat/chicken/seafood) and keep the weight the same by just upping the filler part.

Oh, certainly -- these frozen Bertolli meals are part of a widespread pattern.  They're just the one whose trajectory I've experienced as I generally stayed away from such things.

On 3/20/2024 at 3:24 PM, chessiegal said:

I have a bag of the Bertolli chicken florentine in my freezer now. In the past I've added more chicken and veggies. I call it an emergency meal and don't eat it often. 

For $1 (on sale; regular price is less than $2) I can keep a box of Pasta Roni in the pantry as an emergency pasta meal to which I can add meat and vegetables.  I'm not going to give Bertolli $5 (the best sale price here; $10 is regular price and I usually see them advertised for $7 [I'm rounding from the .99 stores use]) and still need to add stuff, even rarely.  For that money, I want it to truly be a convenience meal -- something I do nothing to beyond heating and eating. 

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isalicat

isalicat

22 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Beef stew and mashed potatoes. I used up the last of the Yukon potatoes, and tossed some "almost old" Campari tomatoes into the stew. 

I have entirely switched from using potatoes in my beef stew to using turnips - you get the same addition of something bland and "potato-y" but with a little less carbs and more vitamins. I also throw in a quartered orange (leave the peel on) for the first hour of simmering (at the same time as I add lots of red wine and the water or beef stock), then take the orange all out - gives a lovely flavor and the acidity brings out the flavor of the meat and makes it more tender.

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PRgal

PRgal

On 3/26/2024 at 5:19 PM, isalicat said:

I have entirely switched from using potatoes in my beef stew to using turnips - you get the same addition of something bland and "potato-y" but with a little less carbs and more vitamins. I also throw in a quartered orange (leave the peel on) for the first hour of simmering (at the same time as I add lots of red wine and the water or beef stock), then take the orange all out - gives a lovely flavor and the acidity brings out the flavor of the meat and makes it more tender.

Squash works too (though I think it's higher in carbs than turnip)!  

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isalicat

isalicat

6 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Squash works too (though I think it's higher in carbs than turnip)!  

Yes! only though, in my opinion, if you are going to finish the whole stew the day/night you cook it. Squash gets too soft/mushy (at least the kind I would use - something without tremendous flavor, like butternut or whatever that yellow type is called) in reheating, whereas turnips, like potatoes, are starchy enough to stay as distinct chunks or cubes or whatever. Stew is so lovely for playing add and subtract with...I experiment with herbs a lot and also using different kinds of wine.

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Bastet

Bastet

I have some shrimp that need to be cooked tonight, and the last serving of a batch of pesto I made a couple of weeks ago needs to be used soon, too, so I'm going to make whole wheat penne with shrimp, asparagus, and pesto.  Salad will be spring mix of greens with avocado, scallions, and a lemon vinaigrette.  Simple, but I'm looking forward to it. 

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

Forgot to post about our Easter dinner (that we had on Good Friday as Sunday involved too much time in DC). It was a typical ham, sweet potato casserole, etc , dinner but the highlight was Tuxedo cake from Costco. I haven't had it in years & it's delicious! Our daughter said it's very similar to Tiger Cake that they get in MN. Thin layers of chocolate cake with layers of chocolate mousse and, I think, a vanilla mousse or white chocolate mousse. Serves a lot of people and only cost $17. We five had "seconds" the rest of the weekend 😁.

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Anela

Anela

I’m going to make dad a chocolate cake for his birthday. I might try one I have saved in my email. I’ll find it. 
I’m making a small cheesecake for my own, and tonight, I made this - I keep forgetting I can’t just paste links here, on my ipad.  I need to use the thing above.  https://pinchofyum.com/healing-chicken-and-rice-soup I add tamari to my congee, but with this, I preferred it without. I’m going to add the lime juice individually instead of into the whole thing.  
 

my dad tried to make bread today, because we’re broke, and needed some.  It was slightly clunky, and cakey, but not bad.  I think his round loaf looked better, and I’ll try it with my soup. 

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BooksRule

BooksRule

I had grits for breakfast with a sprinkle of salt and some real butter (not that plant-based 'light' spread I usually buy) and it was tasty. 

I'm probably going to have a fairly heavy supper, so I'm having a bowl of fresh pineapple for lunch. One of my local grocery stores had whole pineapples .99 each a few days ago and I bought two.  I figured that whatever I couldn't eat fresh I could freeze for later.  I also found some fresh strawberries that weren't too expensive, so I've enjoyed fruit salad for several days this past week (adding sliced banana for a trio of fruit flavors). I added some plain Greek yogurt as a 'side dish' a couple of times. 

Not sure what I'm going to fix for supper, but probably either some corned beef hash (made with canned corned beef--nothing fancy) or my version of General Tso's chicken (basically a mishmash of chicken tenders cooked and cut into chunks and sauteed onion and sweet peppers over rice with some General Tso sauce drizzled over all. 

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isalicat

isalicat

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

I didn't feel like cooking the other day, so picked up a rotisserie chicken. There was enough chicken left over to make chicken noodle soup, so that's what we're having for dinner tonight. It made huge pot, so I'll freeze some.

I get a rotisserie chicken from my go-to market about every three weeks - there is enough for three dinners plus two lunches (there is just me at my house) at $8.98 and they are delicious! Saves me so much time and effort on the nights I have rehearsals and its really very economical given the price of everything else.

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chessiegal

chessiegal

A few days ago, I made Roasted Beet Salad with Goat Cheese, Walnuts & Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette for lunch.

Roasted Beet salad

It was the reason I was roasting beets that I talked about in Chit Chat. It was good.

For dinner, I made an ATK recipe for chicken noodle casserole for 2. It was so easy - it's a one pot (skillet) meal. Sauté diced shallots with sliced mushrooms, add chicken (I used leftover rotisserie chicken) and flour, half and half, chicken stock, egg noodles, and cook until noodles are done. Off heat, add cheddar cheese and frozen peas. The recipe may be behind a paywall but here is a link. 

Chicken Noodle Casserole For Two

I'll definitely making it again.

 

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BooksRule

BooksRule

I went to a conference last week, so I ate a lot of pastries, snacks, sandwiches, etc. and didn't do much better this weekend (I pulled a muscle in my back, so I mainly snacked instead of actually cooking).  So I'm trying to do better this week.  Fresh blueberries and Greek yogurt for breakfast, tuna salad with crackers for lunch, and a boneless pork chop (seasoned and baked) with a green salad for dinner. 

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PRgal

PRgal

52 minutes ago, BooksRule said:

I went to a conference last week, so I ate a lot of pastries, snacks, sandwiches, etc. and didn't do much better this weekend (I pulled a muscle in my back, so I mainly snacked instead of actually cooking).  So I'm trying to do better this week.  Fresh blueberries and Greek yogurt for breakfast, tuna salad with crackers for lunch, and a boneless pork chop (seasoned and baked) with a green salad for dinner. 

To up your veg intake, try tuna salad on romaine (unless you don't like romaine)!  And microwaved blueberries over Greek yogurt is DELISH!  Gives it a jammier texture. :) 

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BooksRule

BooksRule

2 hours ago, PRgal said:

To up your veg intake, try tuna salad on romaine (unless you don't like romaine)!  And microwaved blueberries over Greek yogurt is DELISH!  Gives it a jammier texture. :) 

I love romaine.  I had a bunch of it in my green salad.  I never tried microwaving blueberries.  These were some fresh that I had frozen so they were still icy when I ate them at my desk at work (with the yogurt).  I'll try your way next time.  It sounds good.

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Anela

Anela

(edited)

I made tofu breakfast burritos, and just made orzo pilaf (1-1/4 cups orzo, 2-1/2 cups of water, sliced mushrooms, red pepper, a small onion, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and some parsley). 
 

i have a chicken to roast for dinner, and I’ll make soup, too.  I had an island punch smoothie, last night, when I went food shopping.  Guava was my favorite type of yogurt (with apricot) when I was a kid, and I liked it at first, but it tasted strange in a big smoothie.  

Edited by Anela
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isalicat

isalicat

I'm sure some of you have had this dish previously, but I had not and it was *amazing* - to wit, I was at a fancy luncheon given for the top donors for a chorale (I am a singer in the chorale and on the Board of Directors - not a top donor, unfortunately, because I'm not rich enough to be one of those!) and amongst other delicious things we were served what I discovered was butternut squash filled ravioli in a cream sauce - there was definitely nutmeg involved - otherwise I can't tell you much except where do I get a recipe??? Or just buy them if anybody knows of a store (maybe Trader Joe's?) that makes butternut squash filled ravioli? (I'll figure out the sauce myself).

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DearEvette

DearEvette

1 hour ago, isalicat said:

amongst other delicious things we were served what I discovered was butternut squash filled ravioli in a cream sauce - there was definitely nutmeg involved - otherwise I can't tell you much except where do I get a recipe??? Or just buy them if anybody knows of a store (maybe Trader Joe's?) that makes butternut squash filled ravioli? (I'll figure out the sauce myself).

I remember feeling the same way when I first had it.  It was many years ago at a favorite Italian-American restaruant.  It was around Halloween and they had a very seasonal menu.  On theirs it was sweet potato filled rather than butternut squash, but it had the white sauce, with the hint of nutmeg and sage.   And they topped their with toasted bread crumbs.  It was a such a different taste and the ravioli pasta was thin and a little transluscent. The taste profile was incredible, between the slight sweetness of the filling, the savory of the sauce and the nuttiness of the nutmeg, and the toatiness of the bread crumbs plus the texture of the silky pasta.  At the time it was the only place near us that had it so it was a limited treat.

If you have a Wegman's near you, they have butternut squash ravioli both a fresh kind in the fridge section and a frozen kind. And the ravioli is not too thick, which ruins is for me from some other brands.  Also there are tons of sauce recipes.

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Bastet

Bastet

Butternut squash ravioli isn't on anywhere near as many menus this time of year as it is during fall and winter months (I just checked my three favorite Italian restaurants, and none of them are offering it right now), but it's popular in those months.  Butternut squash can become too sweet for me in a hurry in some dishes (especially soups), but I do like it as a ravioli filling.  Recipes vary from restaurant to restaurant, of course, but there is virtually always sage involved, as that's such a good pairing.

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

I made sweet potato/green pepper quesadillas last night.  Very tasty--from a Hello Fresh meal kit.

Today I had shrimp pho from a Vietnamese takeout spot near my office.  I have lots of broth left over--they give it to you in a separate container.  So I will take it home and freeze it.  It's so flavorful with different spices.  I could use it with a pack of ramen noodles and some shrimp, chicken or steak. 

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