I’m ridiculously excited to make taco salad for dinner tonight. I just suddenly had a craving for it, and the anticipation of fulfilling that craving is wonderful! Yay taco salad!
So what’s everyone else having?
I love taco salad. Had it last week. Must have lettuce shreds AND avocado AND ranch dressing. Tonight is a blue cheese burger (no bun), sauteed mushrooms, and a salad (with avocado and bacon bits and homemade vinagrette)/
I’ve never had it with ranch dressing, I’ll have to try that sometime. I love taco salad with thousand island though. Yum. Now I’m gonna have to make that this week.
Tonight, we’re heading out for sirloin at my favorite steak place where the dinner menu is steak, steak, shrimp, or steak. Seriously.
Roasted pork loin with rhubarb chutney, mashed potatoes & rutabagas as a side.
Have the steak.
No idea what’s for dinner tonight.
There’s a place down the street (one of the few places to eat here) that has a nice taco salad. Half their menu used to be Mexican food; but now it’s burgers, and breaded seafood from bags. ick The SO and I are from SoCal, so we’re used to better Mexican food than we can get up here. (Anecdote: I chatted with a woman from Vancouver, BC at a gas station one day. She mentioned how much she loves a certain place in Ferndale. I didn’t tell her that I only find it tolerable, and that the SO thinks it’s one of the worst places.) Bobby’s Dry Dock’s Mexican food was not bad, considering where we are. As long as they haven’t changed their taco salad, it’s really good. Of course we can always have their excellent burgers. (I want to know where they buy their avocados!)
For other Mexican food, we’ll make it at home. The SO loves my chiles relleno, and the makeshift chicken enchiladas and the chicken taquitos came out great. The chile colorado (my first attempt) was very nice, even though I used dried spices I had on-hand. Pork roast becomes carnitas tacos. Fried tacos? Yum! Hm… Might be getting near time to make a pot of refried beans and some Spanish rice.
Homemade pizza and homemade strawberry ice cream. nomnom
shrimp florentine with roasted garlic, lots of extra spinach.
A tvp ‘meat’ sauce over a rice pilaf with the last of the Passover matzoh. Not bad!
Homemade velvet chicken with sweet peppers, white rice on the side.
Chinese buffet (better than it sounds!).
Ah, the Midwest, where the vegetarian option includes shrimp.
For me, half a peanut butter sandwich & a banana.
Egg and potato curry. With added black beans. There’s enough for at least two days 
Fried rice with pork and asparagus. Homemade.
Cheap stale ramen, my own tears, and gin.
(not really)
I ate so much taco salad that I’m never eating taco salad again. For…a month or two, at least.
Tonight was a roast beef sandwich and salad.
Everyone else’s dinners always sound so much more interesting than mine!
We invented a new dish this evening, and it was killer:
Orzo with Breaded Chicken, Broiled Asparagus, Olive Oil & Lemon
Up front I’ll say that this is not a diet dish, and that I’m not a real fan of asparagus, but this combo was excellent.
One chicken breast, cut in half, pounded to about 1/4" thick, salted
Flour
One egg, beaten
Panko bread crumbs (I would not substitute on this) mixed with grated Parmesan cheese
Butter and olive oil in equal amounts for frying
One bunch of spring asparagus, trimmed
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 cup orzo pasta
boiling water
About a tablespoon best quality olive oil
About a tablespoon butter
Juice of half a lemon
Roll the asparagus in olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Turn on your broiler and preheat a broiler pan.
Put on a pot of water for the orzo. When it comes to a boil, add the orzo and cook for about 12 minutes.
Meanwhile:
Place the asparagus on the heated broiler pan and stick it under the broiler. You’ll need to turn the asparagus a few times while it’s cooking. Cook until tender, but not mushy.
Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet on medium high. Dredge the chicken pieces in flour, then egg wash, then in the Panko/Parmesan mixture. Add pieces to the pan and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until not pink.
When the orzo is done, drain and return to the pot. Add olive oil, butter and lemon juice; cover to keep warm.
Cut up the asparagus into 1" pieces, ditto with the cooked chicken. Place in a bowl with the pasta and toss. Top with more parmesan, if desired.
Intrigued?
Spouse is out of town, so scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese was about as motivated as I could get.
Jambalaya