Scrappy says, "Dinner is really good tonight."
While positive feedback is always a positive thing, she hadn't taken a bite. The crust was a whole wheat brand we'd never tried before and I used pasta sauce, which never quite tastes right on pizza. I thanked her and told her she really ought to try the food first so as not to seem sincere--especially if it turned out she hated it.
Luckily, she didn't hate it.
I wanted something summery for dinner even if the weather was anything but warm and sunny. Corn muffins and a mix of tomatoes, corn and avocados seemed to be the way to go. It worked for LV and Scrappy.
The other box of pasta salad wasn't quite as good. A little too slimy. But the seasonings went well with the steak, which had been in the oven for a long time at a low temperature.
Why keep buying the prepackaged pork tenderloin when I can mix up my own marinade for gigantic unseasoned tenderloin? This worked out well--better than the extra peppery variety I bought the last time.
Pasta salad mixes were on sale, so I picked up two boxes to give it a try. Something different than the usual sides to go with the usual grilled chicken. (I mixed in a bunch of extra tomatoes and green peppers.)
Last time I made sausage and peppers with the Foreman, I ended up burning a bunch of the sausage. Things worked out much better this time around. Plus, I didn't have to wash any pans afterward.
Yup, more oven-baked chili pork chops. This time I went for yellow rice and some boring frozen vegetables. LV was happy.
The grocery store had really big, fresh-looking cuts of salmon. I decided they would be good to grill up. The Foreman wasn't so cooperative, though. I think the cuts were too thick. And then the whole apartment reeked of fish. At least the salmon tasted good.
I wanted breaded chicken. Chicken Parm seemed like a good idea. It turned out well, I think.
While I didn't really feel like making dinner, I also didn't want to serve a completely plain frozen pizza. So, I tossed on the leftover meat sauce and served it with green peppers.
This was one of those days where I started pulling everything out of the fridge that needed to be used--spinach, apples, onions, pork--and started trying to mix it up in a way that would taste like I meant to put them all together. I used cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, and I don't remember what else. It had a sort of sweet and hot kick.
The meat sauce seemed to go over well last time (and it leaves plenty of leftovers for lunch), so I took the extra ground beef, browned it, and mixed it with a jar of sauce. Scrappy and LV got excited because it looks like Manwich, but it doesn't taste nearly the same. Sadly, for them.
There weren't enough buns leftover by the time I made burgers, so mine became a patty melt. This time I flattened it out a lot to be sure I wouldn't be eating mostly two pieces of toast. That seemed to work. Can you tell I hadn't met my quota of vegetables for the day before dinner?
The amount of enthusiasm Scrappy and LV show for eating these burgers makes up for the pain in the neck it is to pick out all the little bones. Mmm... Salmon burgers.
I don't make this nearly often enough. Every time I make it, it's totally worth the effort. This time, though, I pulled out pieces of chicken for Scrappy before I mixed up the sauce, remembering how much she tried to avoid eating it the last time.
