Half the pizza was had tonight, and the rest for lunch tomorrow, but for some reason I have an tremendous hankering for baked French onion soup. Usually I have to tell myself, too bad, you ain’t got nothin’ like that. But I do! I have a cylinder of frozen French onion soup, and though the original packaging was thrown out, I make it often enough that I remember the 40-40 rule – plunk it into an oven-proof bowl and 400F oven for 40 minutes.
Last night (and leftovers tonight)- an ‘enchilada’ bake: layered enchilada sauce (mixed with hot sauce), flour tortillas, cheese, and seasoned black beans corn and spinach. Baked until hot and bubbly.
This worked great as a no/low effort meal (and I’m always looking for ways to keep dinner prep from being a 1+ hour obligation after work). The only steps were:
- mix hot sauce into enchilada sauce to taste
- toss beans and corn and spinach in a bowl with a packet of ‘fajita seasoning’
- grate the cheese (pre-grated and coated cheese does not melt correctly and doesn’t have the right moisture. I know I could save time and effort here, but every time I try a bag of cheese I am disappointed)
- assemble
- chop a bunch of green onions to cover the top after it’s done cooking
Is it this one? I get it (rarely) at Costco or Trader Joes:
If so, you’re correct!
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Place 1 soup, cheese on top, in an ovenproof bowl.
- Heat for 40 minutes or until the cheese becomes golden brown.
And I do the same, I have 2 cylinders left in my freezer, they all got de-boxed so I could shove them wherever I had space.
That’s exactly the one, though the packaging here is different. They come in boxes of two frozen soup cylinders each.
It’s good stuff, though I typically don’t have it very often, but I try to always keep some in the freezer.in case of a sudden urge! 
The perfect bowls to bake them in were once kindly provided by Pusateri’s, the upscale boutique grocery that I sometimes mention. They once sold meat pies in those bowls. They’re glazed ceramic and exactly the right shape and size and have an attractive seashell textured exterior – perfect!
Yeah, the Costco ones are 6-packs, the one I see at Trader Joe’s are two-packs. And I agree - perfect to keep tucked in the freezer for when you want that timely single serving of French Onion soup.
I made a chicken casserole from a long ago recipe. It’s basically shredded rotisserie chicken with cream of chicken soup and sour cream. It’s topped with crumbled crackers and baked. I was surprised how much we really enjoyed it.
I’m desperately out of groceries and absolutely have to go out tomorrow no matter what, but fortunately I still have beer-battered haddock, fries, malt vinegar, and both regular and chipotle tartar sauce, so fish’n’chips it will be!
Sunday dinner was paella with shrimp, scallops. chicken and chorizo.
We often do “Sunday salad”, which is just a nice refresher at the end of the weekend, with veggies and maybe a protein like beans or tofu.
I almost always make my own salad dressing, as I find it both cheaper and tastier than most bottled dressings.
My typical base for dressing is a bit of dijon mustard, salt, olive oil, and vinegar (either white wine or red wine).
Last night I added some maple and a bit of cumin, and it gave it a wonderful richness. Just enough maple to temper the vinegar, and just enough cumin to give a deeper flavor without making every bit taste like cumin. It’s a new favorite combination.
Meatballs in garlic tomato sauce and some mixed vegetables.
That sounds lovely – you should have posted a picture, except I’d probably have drooled all over my keyboard! 
That’s like a combo of all my favourite foods!
Dinner tonight was a turkey sub, which was nice to have after getting a mislabeled sub last time that turned out to be roast beef. I like roast beef subs, nuked and slathered with Dijon, maybe even with sauteed onion and mushroom if I have some, but I was so in the mood for a nice cold turkey sub with some sliced vine tomato that it was disappointing.
Tomorrow will be fish & chips again, for no other reason than today I picked up some delicious deli-made creamy coleslaw in a yogurt dressing, and it’s a perfect balance to fish & chips with all the other garnishes.
Eh, I have no luck taking pictures of food that turn out looking good. It probably would have just looked like a bowl of oatmeal or something 
Tonight was linguine and the last of the batch of meat sauce I made early last week. That means tomorrow I shop and Thursday I cook!
Lox on toasted sourdough crostini with dill and drizzled with honey-mustard sauce, and some steamed baby Yukon gold potatoes.
I know, taking pictures of food is a difficult art form. A while back I posted a picture of a Montreal smoked meat sandwich I’d made which looked great to me and was delicious, but in the picture it looked kinda sad!
Tonight will be spaghetti. I always like to add something substantial like simmering the sauce with meatballs, or adding whole mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter over the top, or both. On this rainy night I have neither, so I will open a jar of Stefano marinara with sausage & mushroom, a decent and convenient compromise. And since I finally remembered to restock my supply of Provencal garlic butter, it will be had with garlic toast and, of course, lots of parmigiano reggiano.
Stefano comes from Montreal, Canada’s food Mecca, and is the only mass-market pasta sauce I know of that’s better than Rao’s. The other two are local deli-made sauces. Actually it may be a stretch to call Stefano “mass market” as it’s a fairly small business operated by two guys who originally owned a couple of restaurants.
Left over corned beef and taters. I might make some gravy, TBD.
Coincidentally, that’s similar to what I made last night-- sort of a Bolognese sauce with hot Italian sausage and mushrooms. I browned a pound of sausage (loose, not in links). Removed from pan and sauteed the veg-- a mirepoix of red bell pepper, onion and garlic. Added Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, oregano, smoked paprika, salt. Then the sliced mushrooms. A little tomato paste fried in the oil with the veg. A splash of red wine, reduced. Then sausage back in and a 28oz can of Mutti crushed tomatoes to simmer.
Served over penne with lots of grated Parm on top. Since Italian sausage and mushrooms are my favorite pizze toppings, I consider this my ‘pizza pasta’ 
Dinner tonight will be be comfort food based on … beans! But these are Beans a la Wolfpup – Bush’s Homestyle with bacon simmered in sauteed onion with hickory smoke barbecue sauce and pork breakfast sausage. They will be had with shoestring fries done in the air fryer.
If I didn’t mention it before, the three things that make that air fryer worth its weight in gold are 5-minute frozen shoestring fries, chicken wings, and homemade fries. The latter take some prep work including soaking in water beforehand but the results are fantastic! If I had some Russet baking potatoes I’d do those instead of the frozen ones.
Dinner now long since over I’m feeling somewhat peckish and thinking of what small thing I have to satisfy. Hark! I have fresh bread, butter, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and bacon! The makings of a BLT!