The Bookworm Challenge discussion

What could be better than books? Sometime food is.

I know there are a few people on here that are obsessed with things other than books...mostly food, so, let's get our heads out of our books and talk food.

The topic is not restricted to dinner, you can discuss other meals and snacks as well. Restaurants are ok. Grocery shopping habits...sure, why not? Just go with it.

Last night - TACO SOUP

My wife has discovered this new 'soup' and we've been eating it I'd say once a week (which is a lot for us). It's easy, cheap, mostly healthy, and the kids even like it.
The strange thing - it's a slow cooker recipe (which typically means disaster).

From what I've seen (remember, I'm not the cook), you dump a can of tomato sauce, lots of beans, tomatoes, onions, and a taco mix into the crock pot. Place a chicken breast on top and let cook for hours and hours.
We throw some cheese and sour cream on when we serve it up. You can use nacho chips as a spoon if you wish.
It's not fancy lookin' but with little time to stand around cooking it's a great meal for our family right now.

Tacos (or more accurately burritos) at our house last night. I make it all from scratch.

Tonight probably carrot-infused turkey-burgers and roasted spud-bits.

We WERE going to have Tilapia with Lime Butter Sauce served over a bed of rice...but we're out of cooking sherry, a key ingredient, so we had a bed of rice with some Steamfresh veggies sprinkled over top.

Shells stuffed with ricotta.
Not only was it delicious, but, it was cheap. Everything happened to be on super sale. $2 for ricotta, .88 cents for shells, .97 cents for tomato sauce.

Leftover roast beast w/ mashed potatoes.
Never as good the second time around.

It can be better the second time around. Just fry it all together...mmm fried beast and mash.

You ever do that with spaghetti? Fried spaghetti?

We had Denny's...as in the restaurant. Kids eat free on Tuesdays. So, breakfast for dinner it was.

Mmmm....brinner!

I'm old and not supposed to eat fried food. I had baked spaghetti at a pot luck one time. It was pretty good.

I believe the generally accepted rule is that everyone (including the 'old') are not supposed to eat fried food...but, who can resist?

Friday - Taquitos. Yes, we've been on a 'mexican' theme lately. They were tortillas filled with cream cheese, sour cream, chicken, spinach, salsa...then FRIED (see general rule above), then baked to heat the inside.
Ooh, they were good. Very rich.

We had Yankee pot roast Sun. and Mon. night.

Tonight is chicken enchiladas - baked, not fried.

Can't wait, can't wait.

Also can't wait for Thurs. night, as that is "being-taken-out-to-dinner-by-one-of-Husband's-sales-reps" night. Nothing like eating on someone else's dime to whet the appetite.

As Homer Simpson once said, "I'll have the most expensive thing on the menu, stuffed with the second most expensive thing."

Last night: night out with co-workers at Beauregard's Thai Room. Siam Sampler (appetizers), Beauregard's Pad Thai, Thai iced tea, and home-made coconut ice cream for dessert.

Yankee pot roast eh? Did you refry it Monday night?

Mathew - What makes the iced tea Thai style (adding some pad thai sauce)?

I'm going out Thursday too, on the in-law's dime (haha) to http://www.lonestartexasgrill.com/ , yep Mexican again! My daughter picked it for her birthday b/c you get to wear a big cowboy hat and stand on a chair while they sing you happy birthday.

Yesterday we had 'The Porkchop Stuff'. It is a family recipe passed down from generations past...ok, fine, it's a weight watchers recipe from the early 80s. Not sure why it is a 'weight watchers' recipe, it's not all that healthy?!
The original recipe is pretty much: put a pile of porkchops in a roasting pan with a small onion, a small green pepper, a can of tomato soup, a can of mushrooms, some curry powder, some chili powder, and a squirt of ketchup...then cooked for three hours. You eat it over rice.
My wife has 'updated' it by added lots of green pepper and fresh mushrooms...a bit healthier and tasty too.
The best part about The Porkchop Stuff is the smell. I love the smell of curry and the smell of chili...imagine it mixed. Mmm.

The Porkchop Stuff sounds delish. We had the trusty standby, Breakfast, for dinner. Biscuits and gravy, bacon, sausage and scrambled cheese eggs....yummy.

I raided my freezer and ended up having spaghetti bolognese (home-made of course), then I got a little peckish and had some cheese on toast!

I've heard it's beef stew tonight...mmm.

Last night we had something I could make. Pasta with Alfredo sauce...even though it is something I can 'cook', my wife ended up doing it...what? I was busy watching TV, er, the kids. Ya, the kids.

Pasta with some sauce out of a jar (or can for that matter) is one of my favourite things to eat. I think it is b/c we used to eat it a lot when I was a kid. It's so basic and boring, but, I could eat it almost everyday...now that I think about it, I almost did when I was going to University.

Tuesday night, my husband made a stir-fry, tilted the wok too far, and slurped peanut oil onto the hot burner. The entire house instantly filled with smoke. It's no fun having the windows open when it's 20 degrees outside.

Last night was Sloppy Joes. NOT Manwiches! I use my Aunt Barb's recipe of ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Nothing burned and the windows remained closed.

Mmm Manwiches.

Today at lunch my wife roasted up some vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, red pepper, onion) threw them on a pizza shell with olives and, er, other spices (?)...and it was to die for!

As I was leaving for work (I have to work tonight..that's where I am now, can't you tell?) she made up a pan; lemon slices on the bottom, green beans coated in a lemon garlic (& other spices?) mixture, with chicken breast on top. It's baked up and eaten....it is also to die for. We call it The Green Bean Lemon and Chicken meal.
That name is really lacking eh? Not like Aunt Barb's Sloppy Joes, or The Porkchop Stuff.

Random stir-fry at our house tonight, without smoke or flames.

Since all the annoying college students are gone for Spring Break, we're headed to 30-Cent Wing Night at the Dutch Haven tonight. Nothing like eating out for under three bucks. They're not the best wings in town, but you can't beat that price.

Hangar 9 has the best wings, but theirs are $8.95-All-You-Can-Eat, and since I can only eat about
eight...well, you can do the math better than I can.

I was that lazy last night not only did I get takeaway pizza but I even had them deliver it too!!

Best of all that's today's lunch and dinner sorted too! :-)

Last night - Quesadilla (cheap cheddar cheese & a can of mixed beans to fill it...mmm.) It was actually pretty tasty, but, sounds...for lack of a better adjective...'ghetto'.

Tonight - 'Spanish Rice'. A big pot of rice, ground beef, tomato sauce, orange & red & green peppers, onions...and other things I suppose (again, I'm not the cook my wonderful wife is).

Oh, oh, the other night my wife made a chicken gnocchi soup (in the style of Olive Garden)...and it was soo soo good.

Wes Burgers last night. MY FiLs specialty--turkey burgers with grated carrot, eggs, and whatnot in them, served on a whole wheat English muffin.

Tonight is taco night at our house.

My husband was late getting home last night, so he brought Burger King. The newly health conscious ME, ordered a salad - http://www.bk.com/en/us/mobile/menu-n.... As you can see, it's supposed to have APPLES. Apparently, this Burger King ran out of apples, and substituted grape tomatoes. Not the same. They tasted horrible with the dressing and the dried cranberries.

Don't you agree with me that if a fast food joint is OUT OF a key ingredient, one that is mentioned in the title of the meal, as in "Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Salad," they should be responsible enough to tell you when you order the damned thing?

Yes!

And maybe they could send someone over to the grocery store to get some?

BK, as I call it, has never managed to survive in our town. Twice Burger King has opened and twice it closed...maybe they had a similar problem with inventory. They ran outta whopper for the Whopper Jr?

We had Arby's the other day...mmm. I like Arby's; the roast beef sandwich with horsey sauce and the curly fries.

Last night we had the ever popular pancakes and low salt bacon.
We've been eating the half salt bacon for years now, and every time I eat bacon with 'full salt' I really notice a difference.
Oh, and we had maple syrup with our pancakes. Canadian maple syrup (which in reality tastes almost exactly like Aunt Jemimas syrup).

I love horsey sauce! It really opens up the sinuses. We save all our extra packets (the way some people collect duck sauce), and in the summer, we have the stuff with fried zucchini. (It's the ONLY way to make a vegetable unhealthy!)

I just watched the episode of The West Wing where the President is perturbed because the White House is serving syrup from Vermont, and NOT New Hampshire, where he hails from. It pretty much all tastes the same to me.

On a syrup-related note, I noticed on the ingredient panel of our bottle of Log Cabin that a suggested serving is 1/4 cup. Seriously? Who uses that much syrup? Wouldn't it be running off the edge of your plate?

I have to say that if Aunt Jemima tastes the same as maple syrup to you, either a) you aren't getting the good stuff when you buy your maple syrup, or b) they have seriously improved the fake stuff, which I admit I haven't had since I was a kid.

Today is Easter, so we usually have "dinner" at lunch time, followed by hours of that groggy, "ate-too-much" feeling, and then sandwiches for dinner.

Our holiday meal got off to a fast start with my youngest eating his ham in 30 seconds flat, and asking for another "thing" (serving) of ham before the rest of us had even been served. It kind of went downhill after that, culminating with my husband flinging maraschino cherries at the oldest boy.

It was sort of a relief to pen myself in the kitchen, listen to ELO, and do the dishes while everyone else fell asleep in front of The Hobbit.

Peace be with you Melki. We had our holiday meal yesterday. Much more relaxed than ever. However, I am still cleaning up today :)

Melki, that sounds exactly like our Easter dinner. My youngest gets his plate, scarfs the ham then asks for 'more meat'. Only my Father in law had eaten anything by that point...he may also have been saying 'more meat' at the same time too. Ah, 64 year olds and 4 year olds.

You'll be happy to hear the 'meat' was US ham. Yep, my Mother in law insists on US ham...claims it tastes better than ham from up here?

My wife also made a great carrot cake (another idea for turning your vegetables into a 'bad').

Mmm, today for lunch my wife made macaroni and tomato juice. I had three bowls of it.

Hmm. Easter. We ended up having lunch in a cafe, because it was raining enthusiastically on our redwoods adventure. Second Son ate his weight in club sandwiches. Bought a whole pie to take away and have for dinner, which was turkey burgers (with carrots in them), and of course pie. Did have chocolate Easter eggs, but they were from the bulk bin at Winco and were by no means up to my standards for chocolate. Everyone else enjoyed them, though.

Monday - Cauliflower & Cheese soup from scratch with homemade corn bread on the side...my wonderful wife again.

Tuesday - $2 Tuesday...almost like the KFC deal, but, from the grocery store. Chicken 'fingers' with potato 'wedges'. We take them home and throw a bunch of cheese and artificial bacon bits on the 'wedges' and reheat.
Terrible dinner, if looking from a health perspective, but, tasty if looking from a low class tastebud (which I have millions of!)

My husband made one of my favorites - Thai Peanut Chicken and Noodles. Mmm-mmm!

Yum, Melki!

I made pasta with asperagus and red peppers, and threw in some chicken because I was hungry.

I, yes, I, made something the other day....wife was out of town and left me with the kids over multiple meals. Lunch was the classic PB&J with celery and carrot on the side...candy for dessert.
Dinner was tacos...candy for dessert.

Yay, tonight is taco night! Not an effortless meal, but I don't have to think about it, and everyone likes it.

Had Chinese Delivery at the in-laws last night.
-Chick Fry Rice
-Soo-Guy
-Gen Tso
-Noodle w/ mixed veg
-Chick Ball
-Honey Garlic Rib
-Fortune Cookie (mine said, "others will appreciate you for you sense of humour"...and no, I'm not joking!)

Cheesecake for dessert...mmm.

Friday - Pizza and Peach Cobbler!

One of those busy days where the cook has no energy left by the end of the day...except to make a quick peach cobbler.
I took the reins and ordered pizza.

It's funny, there is this small pizza place in a village out of town that my wife and I love. One of those places that has been there for thirty years. We rarely order from there b/c it's a trip out of town to get it. But, I happen to be going there on Friday night and said I'd pick up pizza. The only thing about this place is the service. Here is what I mean.
I go in..
"What do you want!" screams the cook, at me!
"uh..."
"COME ON! I'm busy, It's a *$^% friday night here!"
"Uh, the special?"
"Fine...give us...uh, who knows we are busy here! Maybe twenty minutes, maybe forty"

When I go back in about thirty minutes later, he is in a 'good mood', telling some customer that his wife painted his 'man cave' yellow..using questionable language whilst describing the colour. Then he gets mad at me for not having any change...and they don't do debit or credit cards - CASH ONLY! And, he hates makin' change!...and I didn't see him wash his hands after taking my money either?
Anyway, the pizza was soooo good. The peach cobbler was too. Good combo.

Ribs, really juicy ones.
Little potatoes roasted up with cheese and imitation bacon bits on top.
'Sweet Kale Salad', one of those bag salads that is full of 'super' foods (although, this one is really yummy).
Tap water - we are on a budget.

Pancakes.

Then we were still hungry, so we had microwave popcorn while we watched The West Wing. (A poignant episode about dead soldiers. I caught my husband wiping away the tears. I bawled like a baby the first time I watched it.)

And a miniature Peppermint Patty for dessert.

French dip sandwiches with roasted veggies. Home-made chocolate cheesecake for dessert. An excellent birthday dinner, in my opinion.

I like your dinner more...

Matthew's dinner sounds great.

We had WesBurgers (turkey with grated carrot and mushroom in it) and salad. I was seriously hungry when I woke up at 1 a.m.!

I actually had something worth bragging about - Chili-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables!

Recipe here: http://www.organicgardening.com/cook/...

Print out the recipe and try it! It's simple, delicious, and great for warming up the tummy on a cold rainy day.

That does sound good Melki, I'll print the recipe off for my wife.

Saturday we went to our friend's house for dinner (salmon and roasted potatoes).
My wife made dessert - chocolate cake.
But, it was one of those 'old aunt whoevers' chocolate cake. So the thing was pretty much chocolate and butter. It weighed about five pounds and you only needed about two forkfuls before you were full...then five minutes later you were back for more.

Today my wife made a 'Szechuan Chicken and Vegetable' pizza. It was made of random things from the fridge. BBQ chicken from yesterday, some zuchinni slices, canned pineapple that was from last week, the last of the cheese, the rest of the red pepper I used on the weekend, and a generous pouring of szechuan stir fry sauce. mmm.

I went for sweet potato chips (fries) and breaded chicken for my dinner last night all washed down with a vodka or two. Rather enjoying sweet potatoes at the moment, far more filling than normal ones :-)

And that was good going by the wife there Bookworm, good bit of food waste prevention!

Mmm sweet potato chips...washed down with vodka (haha).

Wed - BBQ chicken, baked sweet potato, BBQ asparagus.

Thur - BBQ steak, baked potato, BBQ mushrooms

Yes, the nice weather is here...time to BBQ.