Thursday, June 4, 2020

I always get ideas from bloggers’ menus when I get in a rut! I also like to see what others order for take out to give me ideas for my next take out order or for me to try to re-create at home! I thought I would throw several photos at you today and maybe you will get an idea or two.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those struggling now with the virus, protests, loss of jobs, food insecurity, and so much more. All of our restaurants and grocery stores are closing by 8:00 p.m. in our area to get people home in time for the curfew that is set at 9:00 until at least June 8. I saw a question posed on Facebook yesterday about grocery closing times because a mom wouldn’t have the cash to buy her baby’s formula until later in the day. I saw another post saying that all of these nights of protests including helicopters circling the sky above are causing lack of sleep for children. It is our right to protest and it is important to do so, but we must have leaders come together to create solutions.

We realized that we hadn’t had our favorite Mediterranean/Persian food takeout since maybe February. This is on regular rotation normally. It is kind of expensive, but we are able to split two or three meals between the four of us. We are so lucky to have an awesome Mediterranean/Persian, Thai, and Cuban restaurant so close to us. We ordered two chicken kabob meals with rice and vegetables and an extra kabob of salmon. We added a Greek salad and split all of it. My son Mason loves their salmon and salad. He is the more adventurous eater of the two of my sons.

One of my cooking goals recently was to experiment with orzo. I bought a bag of it for 99 cents at Trader Joe’s on my one pandemic trip. I boiled it according to package directions, rinsed in cold water and then tossed with feta, cucumber, tomato, EVOO, lemon juice, S and P, and Greek seasoning spice that I had in a shaker just like my cajun spice. This is really good and I made it a second time already.

So, I told you on Tuesday that I returned the air fryer. The 2 ingredient bagels turned out great in the air fryer but they are also great in the oven. Just google 2 ingredient bagel recipe and you will find this. You use Greek non-fat plain yogurt and self rising flour and sprinkle with Everything but the Bagel seasoning if you like.

I used my Trader Joe’s lemon bread mix. It is so good if you happen to get to a Trader Joe’s. It’s one of their seasonal products. Some say it is similar to Starbuck’s lemon cake but I haven’t tried it. I have been wrapping up at least half of everything and freezing it for a rainy day.

I told you about a month ago that my goal was to make more salads for dinner. The boys loved this! I made homemade croutons and homemade honey mustard dressing and the boys said they loved eggs in their salad.

I made homemade fettucine alfredo one night with Texas Toast. We always have a box of Texas Toast in our freezer.

This is a great recipe to copy. I made Outback Steakhouse’s Alice Springs Chicken. It is basically grilled chicken with bacon, cheddar cheese, honey mustard sauce and mushrooms. I left the mushrooms off this time because I forgot to order them. I did buttermilk mashed potatoes and green beans on the side.

I have been having this combo for lunch some days. Do you like cottage cheese and tomatoes? It’s so good!

This was a Dinnerly box meal but I kinda added to it a bit. It was pesto ravioli. It came with cheese ravioli and a small block of parmesan along with a pouch of pesto sauce. I followed directions on that but I stole some of the pesto to put on top of salmon. I will definitely do that again! It was so easy and the pesto worked well with the salmon. And, the standard green bean side. I love the frozen haricot vert green beans from Trader Joe’s, by the way.

So, we have been eating pretty good around here. We have also had the tacos, spaghetti, BLTs that are often in our rotation.

What have you been eating lately? I need ideas ALWAYS!

Thanks for reading today. You are the best!

Amy