What's for Dinner, Sun., Oct. 1, 2017

[NJCher]

Steak. Sliced tomatoes with olive oil and basil.

Fresh corn off the cob, mixed with a few green tomatoes, olive oil, and a little hot chili paste.

For dessert, a slice of chocolate pound cake.


Cher

[Galileo126]

1. Lamb gyros

Made the tzatziki sauce this morning to let it set up. With lettuce, tomato and sweet onion. I have no desire to go to the market today just to get pita bread, so I'm using flour tortillas.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Chicken provencal

And since I had a zucchini, yellow squash, and 6 Roma tomatoes ripen the past few days - roasted veggies with fresh rosemary, parsley, and basil with some parmesan. Don't have any gruyere to stick with the theme.

Honestly - I'm in central NJ. If I realized it was going to go from 43 to 78 - we would be grilling. *smdh* House is colder than it is outside.

[irisblue]

3. coconut rice, green beans & carrots.

baked chicken breast, olive oil, salt & pepper rub.The smell of roasting chicken is such a childhood at grandmas' house memory.

[Runningdawg]

4. A homemade version of Hamburger Helper

A green salad with creamy cilantro dressing and garlic bread sticks.

[csziggy]

5. Penne pasta cooked like lasagne

I use a method I found decades ago - I don't cook the pasta ahead of time. This batch made three small pans (about 8x10x1.5&quot - two went into the freezer for later. Each is about six servings, so three meals for the two of us.

16 ounces uncooked penne pasta
1 pound ground round
16 ounces sliced mushrooms
seasonings to taste (I used Adobo seasoning (with garlic, onion and other spices) and an Italian herb mixture)
two 26 ounce bottles of pasta sauce
red wine (not measured, just enough to rinse out the pasta sauce bottles)
32 ounces ricotta cheese
16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
three eggs
basil (my husband sprinkled in how much he thought looked right)
Parmesan cheese, to taste

Cook the beef and mushrooms until there is no pink left in the meat; while cooking add seasonings. When ready, dump in the pasta sauce, rinse bottles with red wine and stir together.

While beef is cooking, mix the ricotta and mozzarella cheeses with the eggs and basil.

Layer uncooked penne pasta, sauce, cheese mixture, repeat then top with Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 325 F for 45 minutes to an hour. Let sit for ten minutes before cutting into servings.

For the frozen pans, either defrost and bake as above or bake at a lower temperature for longer. I always have to wing it. These batches are in aluminum pans so I lined them with plastic wrap before layering the pasta mixture. Once frozen, I will remove from the pans and wrap tighter. When I am ready to cook, I will peel off the plastic and put the lasagne into a glass pan to bake.

It was good tonight - it will be better tomorrow!

[dem in texas]

6. Made do meal turned out great

Had some cooked chicken that I needed to use. Also a jar of Herdez salsa verde that I had opened and only used a small amount, a jar of Mexican crema with only a little used, some corn tortillas that had been hanging around too long. With these things on hand, decided to make sour cream chicken enchiladas. The dish was very tasty, I am going to make it again and write down my ingredients and measurements. Had some lettuce, so made salad of lettuce, oranges, grapes and thinly sliced white onion. Made a scratch vinaigrette dressing, lightened up with a little water. Served with refried black beans. I wish that I'd had some ripe plantains to serve, would have been a perfect meal. Still made a nice Sunday meal. No dessert, we are cutting back on sweets (we'll see how long this lasts).