A couple of skewers of grilled chicken souvlaki, tzatziki, and Greek style rice.
This always means a nice breakfast the next day because it also comes with roast potatoes, which is too much food, so I save them. For breakfast next day, I make a couple of eggs sunny side up, bacon, toast, the roast potatoes crisped in the air fryer, and a couple of tomato slices. After that I don’t need lunch and just a small dinner!
Went out for pho made with braised beef shank and brisket.
Following up on the chicken souvlaki (it was delicious!) and breakfast later on with the roast potatoes, I just took out a bunch of large pre-cooked frozen black tiger shrimp and put them in a covered bowl in the fridge. The simple plan for a small dinner tonight is just a somewhat oversized shrimp cocktail and a Greek salad (lettuce, feta cheese, black olives, red onion, cherry tomatoes, etc, in Renee’s feta Greek salad dressing).
Deep fried chicken and tater tots. Not healthy at all but delicious!
Tonight will be … Christmas dinner. Really. Big thick slices of turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and lots of gravy and cranberry sauce.
How come? I have no idea. This is a seasonal festive dinner prepared by one of the local supermarkets starting from about mid-December and usually ending around the New Year. But they apparently made a few more recently and I grabbed one and am having it tonight! Yes, freshly made and best-by date is a few days away.
I suspect that if I had that all the time I’d get sick of it, but that there is one version of a ‘perfect’ meal. Tasty, aromatic, filling, a little decadent, and it evokes (at least to me) holiday and family in positive ways. Food for the stomach and the spirit!
Sure. that’s why it’s seasonal. Just like eggnog. But I was happy to see it because I had not had it in a while and it really is nice stuff!
I’ve ordered in Greek food. Should be here in about a half hour.
Wife’s away. I had a hankering for some chicken parmigiana, but didn’t feel like getting too crazy with the cooking, being a weekday, and all by myself.
We had frozen panko-breaded chicken breasts. I had some fresh-made pico de gallo left over yesterday from attempting to reproduce an amazing tacos de arranchera meal I had in Mexico last week (another dinner story) and leftover plain cooked penne pasta from a meal the day before yesterday. I love it when a meal comes together from leftovers and make-do ingredients.
I popped a couple breaded breasts in the air fryer. While they were cooking I sautéed the pico de gallo in a pan with some olive oil, adding oregano, Italian seasoning, and some fresh thyme. Once the residual water in the pico de gallo cooked down I added a tablespoon or so of tomato paste and fried the mix up a little. Then I added a 15oz can of crushed tomatoes, cooking it through and adding salt and a little granulated garlic to taste (I had fresh garlic, but I was determined to make a delicious meal with no chopping of veggies tonight). Sampled the sauce; it was amazing.
Once the breaded breasts were done, I spread some sauce on them, grated parmigiano reggiano over them and added some provolone (no mozzarella). Back in the air fryer oven for a few for the cheese to get melty while I mix the penne noodles with some of the sauce, heat it up, plate it with the chicken, and cover with more parm.
Wow, really hit the spot, and I have just enough leftovers to make another meal.
Rainy and cold, so I popped a chuck roast into the slow cooker this morning. Rubbed with Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming blend and black pepper. Tossed in some onion, baby carrots and an airline bottle of cheap cab. Ought to be done in about an hour….
I wanted something with heavy flavors but less spicy than my usual options.
So I had a couple of defrosted bone in chicken thighs (Red Bird), that I marinated overnight in a mix of grainy brown mustard, black pepper, olive oil, cider vinegar with the lovely additions of fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, and a couple of tablespoons of domestic parmigiano reggiano. It’s in the air fryer right now, and I baked a nice garnet sweet potato to go with.
Ostrich steaks with a smoked paprika rub, home fries, cuke, avo and heirloom tomatoes over microleaves with balsamic. Chocolate mousse for pudding.
Last night was basic grilled cheese. Factory white bread, a little dijon mustard, cheddar cheese, grilled in butter.
I also made a tomato dipping “sauce” by throwing together one jar of diced tomatoes, a few pickled jalapenos (chopped), two scallions (chopped), salt, sugar, and olive oil in a pot and let it stew together while I made the sandwiches. I added a tiny bit of corn starch at the end to thicken it a little.
Tonight will be baked lasagna with beef and ricotta cheese. Simple but lovely comfort food. And a glass or ten of whatever red wine is handy. A Valpolicella would be nice, but I don’t think I have one. I’ll just have to rough it, I guess!
I’m thinking a roasted chicken breast and a nice salad. I’d love some bread, but nobody around here makes a decent baguette, it’s all ciabatta crap. I don’t like the texture. If I’m feeling motivated, I might make some linguini alfredo.
Change of plan. Lasagna is deferred to tomorrow. I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t very hungry until I realized I had made a big batch of dim sum early this morning – my new anti-spatter screen works very well, thank you for asking! The dim sum prep requires the frozen dumplings to be browned in hot oil on the flat side and then covered and steamed for several minutes until the water boils away. Yum! 
They need to be anointed with Huy Fong chili garlic sauce and served with a bowl of soy sauce for dipping.
So, a late dinner tonight will be a small shrimp cocktail.and baked French onion soup. Tomorrow, lasagna for sure!
Tonight was a vegetable frittata.
We had cheddar bay biscuit chicken pot pie. It was nice comfort food on a damp, gloomy, snowy day.
Tonight was linguine with homemade meat sauce. Lots of garlic.
Tonight was corned beef, cabbage, and mashed potatoes with gravy. The corned beef was lean, cut thick, and very tender. Not too salty. The meal was delicious. There’s enough left over for dinner tomorrow.