@Estelll wow thanks.  P.s. I never even heard of balsamic citrus cream!

For the Lunar New Year my son and I went to our favorite Pho place. I was going to make pork dumplings and fried rice and spicy broccoli but DH wasn’t interested.  

Tomorrow we celebrate hubbie’s bday with his favorite (bland) meal. Pinto beans, buttered boiled potatoes, cornbread and a side of slice tomatoes. 

I’m not good enough or experienced enough to be a food or cooking snob-except- about cornbread. Good cornbread must be made in a cast iron skillet.  And that boxed stuffed that is more like yellow cupcakes with some cornmeal thrown in will not do. :/ It takes no time to make from scratch and is soooo good and the skillet gives it a nice golden, crisp  bottom and sides. Unlike cinnamon rolls where the battle is on for the interior pieces everyone fights for the corners and edge pieces.  

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY Y’ALL! :)

newest jen concoction - chickpea penne, chicken, cumin, garlic and coconut milk

 eightocci:

newest jen concoction - chickpea penne, chicken, cumin, garlic and coconut milk

That's for keeping What's for Dinner alive.  :)

Fast food for dinner tonight here.  Brown rice, Roasted Brussel Sprouts with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Chickpeas with sautéed green onions.  Finishing up a drama so threw that meal together quickly.  :)

 Schmetterling:
Fast food for dinner tonight here. Brown rice, Roasted Brussel Sprouts with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, Chickpeas with sautéed green onions. Finishing up a drama so threw that meal together quickly. :)

If you count these as "Fast Food", I guess 90% of everything I make would count as fast food, lol. 


Today we had a good, comforting, hearty Fasolada for lunch, but I decided to eat something lighter for dinner, which is sometimes the equivalent for breakfast or brunch for me, cause my sleeping & waking up schedule is totally chaotic! XD 

So I made two sandwiches - one savoury and one sweet - being undecided as I am. The savoury one was made with multigrain bread, feta cheese, egg, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, cayenne pepper & oregano. I ate that one first one freshly grilled & hot, and I kept the sweet one - which had just tahini & Cretan thyme honey* in multigrain bread, and was also grilled - to accompany my tea & dramas. 

And now I'm hungry again, and d@mn, a ball of fasolada is tempting, but not really a good idea for an after midnight meal!! :D 


*Tahini and honey is, let's say, the Greek equivalent of the American peanut butter and jelly.

It was 73 degrees F here yesterday.  33 degrees today and several inches of snow forecast for tomorrow.  Got a pot of lentil, kale and farro soup on.  The big bag of apples that my husband bought and swore he would eat, yeah, that didn't happen.  I picked through them and made chunky applesauce with the salvageable ones.  :)

 Schmetterling:

It was 73 degrees F here yesterday.  33 degrees today and several inches of snow forecast for tomorrow.  Got a pot of lentil, kale and farro soup on.  The big bag of apples that my husband bought and swore he would eat, yeah, that didn't happen.  I picked through them and made chunky applesauce with the salvageable ones.  :)

Excellent, when can I be there for dinner? Lol

Made butternut squash soup tonite with a bit of fennel and a dash of maple syrup.  

 JoanneSmith:

Made butternut squash soup tonite with a bit of fennel and a dash of maple syrup.  

Mmmmm...I love butternut squash soup. :)

Couscous with butter +  the last of the boiled chicken we had from previous days + salad (tomatoe, cucumber, lettuce, mozzarella and salad dressing) :D

dad learned of the addictive power of reese's heart shaped candy today. gave dad one to try. soon dad had hand out for another. gave dad some in his car. dad ate one more as i was leaving so left him two more. better than me eating the whole bag. wait i did finish off the bag. oopsie! > <

tmi but maybe my lady parts were asking for sweet and salty but fairly certain just bought because noticed on sale

currently cannot get motivated to go through store flyers, store electronic coupons and couponing apps. got to aldi the other day and baby foods i have used before reformulated with almost every single one adding apple. *huff!* need to come up with inexpensive options and quick. this happens to me far too often in my life (not trying to sound pitiful :) ): see jen find something she likes at a good price, see price change, see item moved in store, randomly some day in future find item again only to buy last on shelf ... then never see again!

getting by on cheap hotdogs and chicken nuggets just to eat something. money (fs) on saturday

@Eightocci's post reminded me of recipe I have that uses baby food in it.  {Hang in there @eightocci!!}


Elisa's Holiday Spice Bread (again-apologies to the metric folks)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease and flour two  9" X 5" X 3" loaf pans

2 cups self-rising flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

3 eggs

1 cup of canola (or oil of choice) oil

2 jars (4 oz each) banana or mixed fruit baby food ( I used mixed fruit and peaches)

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves in a mixing bowl.  With electric mixer on medium speed, add eggs one at a time.  Add oil and baby food and beat 1 min.  Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 50-60 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool in pans. Delicious drizzled with icing or served with ice cream. 

I balked at using a mixer for this type of bread and folded everything gently with a large rubber spatula to avoid toughening the flour the first time.  The second time I used a mixer with similar results.  It's quick and easy to make. :)

sounds yummy. have heard of people using banana baby food when making banana bread before. ohoh also have heard of making french toast with your recipe breads

about time i find gluten free goodies shoppes again. it can be costly to buy flours. why not grab myself a cupcake instead ... haha sweets control needed (see above)

Well, for dinner I actually had some Onigiri (one of my faves), then a little bit of rice (yes I know, more rice ㅋㅋㅋ), and then some miso soup which was really good ♥︎