What's for Dinner, Tues., May 3, 2022

[NJCher]

Tortellini primavera. Carrots, snap peas, asparagus with cheese tortellini. Also has fontina cheese.

A green salad will go nice with this, so I'll use my red tip lettuce, cucumbers, and scallions. Vinaigrette.

Dessert: ice cream sandwich, coffee.

[irisblue]

1. Green Olive Tuna Pasta

https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/pasta-with-tuna-tomato-green-olives

Ingredients
4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 to 3 large cloves garlic, minced
Generous pinch hot red chile flakes
3 Tbs. finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 cups very finely chopped canned tomatoes with their juices
1 tsp. fennel seed, crushed in a mortar or spice grinder
1 can (6 to 7 oz.) imported tuna packed in olive oil, well drained and very finely minced
1/3 cup pitted and quartered green olives

Salt
3/4 lb. dried penne, rigatoni, spaghetti, or perciatelli
Nutritional Information
Preparation
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Heat 3 Tbs. of the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over moderate heat. Add the garlic, chile flakes, and 2 Tbs. of the parsley and sauté briefly to release the fragrance of the seasonings. Add the tomatoes and fennel seed. Bring to a simmer, adjust the heat to maintain the simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and well blended, about 10 min.
Stir in the minced tuna and then the olives. Season with salt and remove from the heat while you cook the pasta.
Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water. When the pasta is a few minutes away from being finished, return the tomato sauce to moderate heat and add enough of the hot pasta water — about 2/3 cup — to thin the sauce to a nice consistency. Keep the sauce warm over low heat.
When the pasta is about 1 min. shy of al dente, scoop out and set aside 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water and then drain the pasta. Return the pasta to the hot pot and stir in the sauce. Cook together over moderately low heat for about 1 min., stirring and adding some of the reserved pasta water if needed to thin the sauce. Take the skillet off the heat and stir in the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil. Serve the pasta immediately in warm bowls, garnishing each portion with a little of the remaining parsley.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Sauteed veggies

Beets, collards, carrots, green beans, cabbage.

Dessert: tomorrow I get ice cream. But I think I lost about 4-5 pounds over the last 2 weeks on this anti-inflammatory diet. More protein, less sugar, very lite on cookies and bread, no donuts. Wow they were making me sick.

Dessert: tonight. It's been a quickie cornbread for 2 nights. Maybe I should have an apple.

[Emile]

3. Left over pizza warmed up in the air fryer.

[spinbaby]

4. Salmon

I had a couple of apples that were getting a bit old, so I sliced them up and am baking them under a nice piece of salmon. Everything sprinkled with lots of lemon, salt, and pepper, of course.

[MissMillie]

5. shrimp

I cooked for and ate with Dad.

I marinated the shrimp in some olive oil and McCormick "roasted garlic" seasoning blend, put it on skewers, and then stuck it under the broiler.

rice pilaf and steamed broccoli on the side


Dad has ice cream and cookies for dessert.


Here in my home, the fridge is LOADED w/ leftovers, from Chinese food, to pasta, to egg salad, to hot dogs. Al can pick what he likes.

We have brownies for dessert.

[iamateacher]

6. Gazpacho, tzatziki, humus, tabouli, naan, falafel

A summer dinner

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Godfather Sandwich with au jus gravy

Shaved roast beef on garlic bread with fresh mozz and roasted peppers.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Blackened lemon-pepper catfish, rice a roni rice pilaf,

sauteed vegetables (onion, carrot, zucchini, red bell pepper, snap sugar peas), and a roll. Last night it was the same meal but with teriyaki pork chop, boneless for the meat. Tomorrow I'll be having Grecian chicken for the meat. The veggies, rice pilaf, and a small can of refrigerator rolls make at least five meals. I will be repeating the three proteins to finish it all up.

I do like my own cooking, and I like being able to control my portions. What I've gotten to dislike intensely about eating out is that the portions are ridiculously huge. No wonder so many of us are overweight or obese.

Anyway, the catfish came out absolutely perfect, and I'm still luxuriating in the after taste.

[NJCher]

10. it was explained to me

the portions are ridiculously huge.

that's a way to justify high entree prices, at least around here in the Northeast.

An entree might be $24, but if the restaurant patron sees it as two meals, it then is $12 per meal. And even better, it's already prepared, so no work to the customer.

The advantage to the restaurant is that there are only so many times they can turn that table each meal time. By having the higher price, they don't have to rush the customer in and out.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. I sort of get it, except that a lot of restaurant meals

simply don't reheat very well.

When I can, I order off a senior menu, or a children's menu, or only an appetizer -- and even they are often more than I can eat. If I'm lucky, I'll be eating out with a friend who cheerfully shares.

Nearly two years ago my appetite simply went to almost nothing. I couldn't eat very much, and just stopped eating when I felt full, A novel concept, I know. But I listened to my body, and wound up losing nearly 50 pounds, putting me back to a normal BMI for the first time in decades.

Even before this appetite loss I was frustrated by the huge restaurant serving sizes. I do enjoy eating out. I especially enjoying eating things that I can't readily make on my own, and I appreciate the work that chefs and cooks do. But I hate waste. I especially hate wasting food. When I was growing up we went hungry all too often, and that affected me a lot. I have been relatively poor at various times in my life, both growing up and as an adult. I wouldn't wish hunger on anyone.

During the pandemic I pretty much stopped going out, like so many people. I actually like to cook, and like my own cooking. That's a good thing, right? I often make large amounts of something I can freeze up in individual portions, such as my Chicken of Muchness or a bean and ham soup. By doing this, my per meal costs can easily be as low as $2.00/meal. So a $12.00 meal strikes me as very expensive. Although I will certainly pay it at times.

This coming Sunday I'm taking a friend out for a birthday dinner. Hooray! He is turning 82, and is a wonderful friend. I'm taking him to a local Italian restaurant, and the cost will be around $30/per person, maybe more. Which is more than fine. It's his birthday and I believe in celebrating. Depending on what I wind up ordering, I may perhaps bring part of the meal home. But honestly, I'd really rather the portion sizes were smaller so that I wouldn't have to do that, wouldn't wind up throwing out half of a meal.

I was recently at a Mexican restaurant that I like. I thought about ordering the chimichanga, which they do quite well. But they serve two, and in all honesty I would eat half of one. I suppose I could tell them just to give me one, and go ahead and charge the full amount. I would actually be fine with that. It's the waste that makes me crazy, not the cost.

[Demsrule86]

9. Two hotdogs with all the fixings, baked beans and mixed veg...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I LOVE hotdogs.

All I ever want is some mustard. Baked beans are a fabulous side dish.

There are several places I happily order hot dogs. One is on Amtrak. The hot dog is on the children's menu, but they always let me order one. Hooray!

The other is on Holland America, at the Dive In which is next to the pool. They also offer burgers. On my first cruise (and I've been on all of two at this point) I discovered the Dive In, and I just adored it. Sometimes I'll get the dog and fries and sit outside, depending on the weather. Other times I'd take it back to my cabin. Either way a hot dog is wonderful. I haven't actually fixed any for myself at home recently, and I need to do so.

Thanks for reminding me.