What's for dinner ~ Monday ~ April the 6th Edition

[Lucinda]

Hola everyone!
Hope you're having a great day. :)

Looks like it going to Bill's Ham and Bean soup and fresh Ain5 for us tonight.


What's for dinner where you are?

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Frozen pizza? Blue Box?

I'm in the middle of a family crisis, so no cooking going on here right now. I'm not even at my apartment. Ugh.

:hi:

[Lucinda]

3. I'm sorry! Hope it all sorts out quickly.

:hi:
I want some Blue Box now that you've mentioned it. :)

[kestrel91316]

2. Pho again. Got 6 more little 2 oz packets of sliced round steak in the

freezer, and LOTS of bean sprouts and basil and jalapenos and rice noodles. So I think dinner every night this week is gonna be pho.

Good thing I like it.

[Lucinda]

4. I can happily do repeat meals.

I think we're a rare breed. :)

[kestrel91316]

5. I'm single. MOST of what I eat is leftovers, lol.

[Lucinda]

16. I always did too.

:)

[hippywife]

6. Well, it was gonna be leftovers

but I forgot to stop at the store for more rice on the way home. Now I'm not sure.

Edited to add: I took out some Ain5 to use for a pizza crust since we had the corned beef Friday night instead.

[soleiri]

7. I made some pasta for the boys

before I left for school tonight.
I hate being gone 3 nights in a row.

I'm eating leftovers during my break, a lentil, veggie and rice bowl.
Which is what I'll be having mondays, tuesdays and wednesdays for the next 8 weeks.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. Ham steak

Cheesy rice and green beans.

IS there a special recipe Bill uses for his Ham & Beans?

[Lucinda]

17. His basic recipe:

4 - cans navy beans - precooked dried would be better but we never seem to plan that far ahead
1 - large can of chicken stock (or fresh when we have it)
1 - onion, chopped
3 - bay leaves
2-3 carrots, sliced
2- 3 stalks celery, sliced
garlic or garlic powder
Pepper
Butter
Olive oil
ham, diced - amount depends on how much we have on hand

(This also rocks with a slice or two of bacon snipped into small pieces added in at the beginning, while sweating the veggies.)

Put everything but the beans and broth in the stock pot, and sweat the veggies until the onions are translucent.

Then add beans and stock, and cook it down until the desired consistency. It will thicken as it cooks.

It's WAY better than I am making it sound.

[AwakeAtLast]

24. Oh, thank you!

I have been searching for a good but easy ham and bean recipe. This looks great! :woohoo:

[Lucinda]

25. We really love it. And it's very flexible.

Let me know what happens if you make it?

[grasswire]

9. cheese souffle and a huge green salad...

....with vinaigrette. I put lots of chopped flat leaf parsley in the salad -- yum I love that stuff.

Cheese souffle isn't very filling, though. There will be a refrigerator raid later, I suspect.

[Lucinda]

18. That sounds very very good!

[susanna]

10. Mondays are a tough one for me.

Full schedule at culinary school. The absolute last thing I want to do after 10 hours talking about and working with food is cook. :-)

So it was beer and a burger at a local bar. It was fantastic. I am at peace. And my feet are up. Yay.

[hippywife]

11. Culinary school!

You been holding out on us, girl. Glad you are finally at rest for the evening. You earned it. :hug:

[susanna]

12. Sorry if I didn't mention it, I might have been too tired! (LOL)

Seriously, in full disclosure: I started in September and it's now part of a career change in my youngish-middle-age, so it has been a bit of a blur. A happy one, but still a blur...

I have always loved the kitchen (and food) and at first I went just to fill the time while sending out unanswered resumes and being sort of bored around the house. About four months in, I decided I enjoyed the heck out of it and will keep going...maybe even try for a job soon. My instructors think I should. :-)

And yes, after several hours running around bakeshop tonight (I'm in Baking lab right now), the feet up thing feels pretty nice. For an oldish-sorta-lady such as myself, anyway. But in the end, it doesn't really feel like work. That's a good thing!

P.S. I fell down on the crepe challenge, but I did eat some during March! Long story, but some family issues kept me pretty busy. I will do my best to support this month. Which begs the question...can we "make up" missed challenges, teach? If we post a big long Mea Culpa? :hug:

[hippywife]

15. Just me being jealous, that's all. LOL

And no wonder you don't feel like cooking when you get home. You can do the crepes whenever you feel like it. We aren't so rigorous around here. :hug:

[susanna]

26. Thanks, hippywife!

Like I said, it really just started as something to do while job-hunting. I was actually scared out of my mind to go back to school! Once I got used to it, I started having fun. My local community college has both day and night culinary courses, which work out really well for the students who are working.

Do you have a tech or community college near you that has classes? You could try one out to see what you think... :-)

[Lucinda]

19. Sounds like a win to me!

What are you working on now in culinary school?

[WhiteTara]

13. I tried a zuccini "pie"

I thought it would be more like a quiche, but it was pretty sad. My Sweetie ate it and told me it was good. At least the salad was wonderful with sunflower sprouts.

[Lucinda]

20. Ooooooh...I've never had sunflower sprouts! What do they taste like?

[WhiteTara]

22. Summer. Long and crispy

loaded with water and so beautiful. Throw a few on some lettuce and lt looks gourmet. You can sprout them from hulled sunflower seeds.

[Lucinda]

23. I think I'll try some. I love sprouts on tomato and avocado sandwiches.

:hi:

[WhiteTara]

27. you'll want more!

:hi:

[eridani]

14. Sausage/veggie/noodle soup

From the freezer again.

[Lucinda]

21. Yum.

I'm longing for lighter springy foods, but this sounds good. It's been cold and snowy here!