what's for dinner | pad patter 3.24.20

My husband works at a food distribution warehouse. He schedules the deliveries that come in and is frequently gifted with new products to try. Today we have Lamb Merguez Sausage. It is a spice lamb sausage. I plan to pan fry and serve with pan cooked potatoes and eggs.

I too am trying to order deliveries from our favorite local restaurants to a show of support. My boss even gifted the staff with a generous GC for two of our favorites.

 

We had lobster tails! I bought them frozen for Valentines ❤️ Day and then we were invited out to dinner so we did not use them. Yummy, we have them every 5 years without fail!

For our standard fare, I make big batches of soup and freeze meal-sized portions. I usually make fresh biscuits and a salad to accompany the meal.

 

I clean out the fridge on Monday's and we have MOmma's Buffet...first done with chores and such gets first picking!
it is very low key and more so now. Shopping is a bit of a crazy one: I was so happy to go to walmart and get baby wipes for my daughter. She is such a trooper. I got 4 (in a big pack). I was so happy and some 2T panties for my big girl grand FROZEN ones cause she is trying to potty train!
I do usually have a schedule, and I think I am a bit twisted up not having one. I have a freezer of meat, and vegi's, just the cooking part isn't enjoyable...I keep thinking, is this being wasteful? Should I conserve?

 

Yesterday was the DS birthday (23) and DD was going to make him chicken pot pie, but we forgot to thaw the meat. So that was the plan today, but at dinner time she was sleeping so I made chicken pot pie. I mostly winged it but it came out good. I tell you though, that huge chicken pot pie Costco makes is much easier to just pop in the oven.

I plan to make navy bean soup tomorrow night.

 

We had homemade Alfredo sauce on some noodles that I had. I didn't have any fettuccine or tortellini like we usually use, so we made do
I'm cooking about every other day and doing fend for yourself, take-out, or leftovers on the other days. I'm feeling really sad for our local mom and pop restaurants.

 

No idea to be fair

 

Tomorrow I'm making Tater Tot Casserole because when DH went to the grocery store he came home with 3 dozen eggs because they were a good price. There's just two of us here so this will use up some eggs. Thursday we're having filet mignon and baked potatoes because it's our anniversary and I thought ahead to "hey, restaurants might be closed then". So we'll still have a special dinner, just at home.

 

We had bacon, eggs, and biscuits. I’m enjoying reading everyone’s ideas.

 

@BevG we had two birthdays in our house yesterday! It was my son's 14th birthday and my hubby's too! fun!

So, because of the birthdays, I asked my son what he wanted about a week ago and he said tuna. What? weirdo! So I made something I'd never made before... tuna melts. They turned out great and he was thrilled. Lol. Then of course we had cake too!

 

Yesterday we had BLTs. The day before, salad. We'd already been cooking most of our meals because we've been battling debt and it's expensive to eat out. I'm having to get different foods than usual, like pork chops and turkey legs instead of chicken and ground beef, but that's not so bad. I just might refer to some recipes.

 

We have pretty much zero pantry foods, so we've been eating lots of fresh veggies and meats since that seems to be what's easiest to find in the stores. My husband has been shopping at the small local grocers/meat markets instead of the big chain stores and has been coming home with really good stuff! Our meals have been simple though... a grilled meat (my husband is loving being able to grill daily) and a veggie side. We've been trying to vary our veggies... we tried Hannah sweet potatoes for the first time this past week and really liked them! I am supposed to be getting a meat and produce delivery from a locally sourced place tomorrow... I have beets in that order that I plan on "roasting" in the crockpot, so good... but haven't made them in years. Oh... and since we're grilling pretty much every night, we've been working our way through a bunch of the spice blends we had on hand, I tend to order my spices from Penzy's and they're always throwing in different sample packets into their orders. It's been fun trying them out!

 

Last night was Stouffer's French Bread pizzas. I'm used to going out to Harris Teeter's at lunch to get a salad and I'll pick up dinner fixings. But with not going out for lunch the last two weeks, no visitors for dinner, and Chase (14 y.o) being a picky eater we are eating frozen pizzas, sandwiches, etc. I'm thinking bacon and eggs tonight, but I'm guessing Chase is going to ask for a BLT ... minus the lettuce and tomato ... sandwich instead.

 

Last night was pork chops with veggies and roasted sweet potatoes, tonight was chicken curry with cauli rice.
tomorrow we have been invited out to friends. last day before the 3 week lock down.

 

Sort of funny - sort of not....
So DD and I braved Costco today and came home with a pre-made by Costco chicken pot pie (yes, I made our own yesterday and still had leftovers). The date said 3 days from now and I am thinking I will cook it on Saturday. Well somehow the hamburger that I also bought leaked red juice all over the outside of the pot pie - like it dripped from the top of the basket to the pie underneath the basket. And that hamburger even dripped on my kitchen floor when we were bringing the groceries inside. Arggghhh. So I decided to minimize raw meat exposure and bake the pot pie ASAP. So I guess we are eating chicken pot pie again for quite awhile it seems.