Burgers

The local grocer sells ground beef in huge family packs. More ground beef means more burgers...

Breakfast for Dinner

When we went grocery shopping that afternoon, the idea of breakfast sandwiches for dinner struck me as a great idea. Two bites into my sandwich, I didn't think they were such a great idea anymore. Two or three years ago, my dentist pushed me into getting an inlay to replace a porcelain filling. The dentist before him had said I should get a silver filling--porcelain doesn't last, she said. But I grew up with my mom always showing me how horrible her mouth looked with so many silver fillings. Being vain, I chose porcelain, which, like the first dentist warned, didn't last. The second dentist swore inlay was better. Being uninformed, I went with the inlay. (Though, seeing as my insurance didn't want to cover it, I should have asked more questions.) Two bites into my sandwich, I heard a horrible crunch. What I thought was a white fleck of fat actually turned out to be a chunk of bone. Sweet. That inlay was no match for it.

Burgers

For the Fourth of July, we like to watch the hot dog eating contest on ESPN and eat hot dogs for lunch. (I don't really understand how it's possible considering that we're watching people dunk hot dogs in water and swallow them whole. It's really gross.) Then I grill up hamburgers later in the day. Those are tater tots on my salad.

This year I didn't want to go stand around, waiting for the fireworks (that whole 7 months pregnant thing...), so I told Scrappy to hunt down all the fireworks scenes she could find in her collection of movies. We watched those while we waited for the live fireworks on TV.

Pancakes

I don't remember making a pancake on a Sunday... Maybe this is mislabeled? I thought I made a pancake for dinner on a night LV was closing Hamptons. Perhaps I made more pancakes that weekend. One of my few cravings I had...

Pasta Salad

Green squash, orange peppers, grilled chicken and some fun pasta...

One Pot (I think)

I buy tuna when it goes on sale just so that when my refrigerator is empty I still have something to turn to in the cabinet as a meat product for LV. Can you tell we were running out of things to work with?

Chicken Strips Salad

I thought it was about time to make Ritz cracker chicken strips again. The salad made it look less sad to me.

Baked Ziti

Mmm... I can't believe I waited so long to be try making this again.

Chicken Fried Steak

I believe this cut was actually called chicken steak and that's how I remembered I had never made a second attempt at cooking chicken fried steak. The second time was easier.

Father's Day/Birthday

My mom wanted me to be sure I understood what a brat I was for not mailing a card to my dad in time for it to arrive on his birthday. Then I waited until two days before Father's Day to bake pecan sandies and mail them. Oh well.

Fettuccine

Mmm...

Blueberry Muffins

I think I made these with the bag of frozen blueberries. They sounded like a really good idea for breakfast.

Grilled Chicken and Veggies

I love Pathmark's produce section. I think I tend to over buy there... Hence, mixing fresh orange peppers, cucumbers and broccoli before it all goes bad.

Pork with Yellow Rice

For LV: Oven-baked chili pork with yellow rice and green beans.

Wings

This is me wondering what I can do with what's leftover in the refrigerator...

Chunks of Beef

This is me completely phoning it in. The beef was really good. The Ramen noodles, not so much.

Chicken

I like dinners I can make without really thinking, like this grilled chicken topped with Mrs. Dash and served over a bed of farfelle and mixed frozen veggies.

Tacos

Leftover Crisp

Trying to make the most of the leftover Manwich and slip in as many vegetables as I can, I decided to put frozen peas and lima beans on a tortilla with cheese and the leftovers. It needed a lot of hot sauce.

Happy Birthday

Wednesdays are not our day to have dinner with Scrappy, so I suggested they run out and get donuts. (Also, I really wanted to start the day with a doughnut or two.)

For dinner, LV and I went out. I had no idea he wanted to go there for the burgers when there were so many other things on the menu that I had no idea how to pronounce. If this had been last year's birthday, I wouldn't have cared about the dinner menu nearly as much as the beer menu. I can't wait to go back next spring.

Italian Sausage and Pasta

Rather than use ground beef again, Italian sausage sounded like it would be better option. With the asparagus and penne, it was really good.

Chicken Fajitas

Rather than look for a recipe, I bought a mix packet. It was really good.

Burgers

Mmm... This was a good batch of burgers.

This was me trying to make the frozen green beans more exciting.

Roasted

Big cheap steaks at the grocery store mean a long run in the oven at a low temperature. This cut was a little too thin and came out a bit blackened. Luckily, it didn't taste charred.

Fish Sticks

I found the lemon-garlic fish sticks in the freezer that I bought a few months back. When I opened the package, I thought they looked really gross. But I tried to make it work. It all tasted better than it looks.

Mother's Day/Birthday

My mom brought along this cake to Mother's Day brunch to celebrate my birthday. She wanted me to know how much she loves me? I wanted to get my brother on the phone for when everyone sang Happy Birthday because it was so much closer to his birthday than mine, but my mom was too anxious to eat cake...

(That's a mothers and mother-to-be cake in the background.)

Chocolates and Salmon Burgers

After my success with free handing the butterfly wings for cupcakes in December, I started to think about making special "Yay, It's a Boy" candies. I was able to find some molds that could work and some colors I thought would be good. But I had no idea how long I would be hunched over, carefully filling the trays.

In addition to the large suckers, I made small bottles, letter blocks, cradles and other baby related shapes.

Then, for some bizarre reason, I decided I was still okay to keep hunching over to pick out the bones from canned salmon...

Banana Bread

More bananas ripened more quickly than I could eat them. Hence, more banana bread. This batch was really good considering I had so much more practice with when to cover the loaf with foil. Mmmm... Breakfast for the week.

Boring?

We were running out of food, so I was left with corn on the cob and a box of macaroni & cheese to pair with the pork. LV looked at the plates and said, "It's all one color."

This reminded me of a mini lesson in an editing class once about how awful boring it would be to have corn with pasta with something else yellow. All the same color.

"It'll taste good," I say. Things that taste boring are always bad.

"I didn't say it wouldn't," LV says.

I try to explain the story. He listens, but it's pork. He just wants to eat.

Green Pepper Pizza

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.

Grilled Chicken, Muffins and Salad

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.

Suddenly Steak

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.

Pork Tenderloin

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.

Suddenly Chicken

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.)

Sausage and 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.

Pork and Yellow Rice

Yup, more oven-baked chili pork chops. This time I went for yellow rice and some boring frozen vegetables. LV was happy.

Grilled Salmon

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.

Chicken Parm

I wanted breaded chicken. Chicken Parm seemed like a good idea. It turned out well, I think.

Hamburger Pizza

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.

Grilled Pork Salad

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.

Pasta with Meat Sauce

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.

Patty Melt and Burgers

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?

Salmon Burgers and Salad

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.

Lemon Pepper Chicken Toss

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.