It’s a standard mayo-based tuna salad with celery, red onion, apples, dried currants (that may be too much for DH), and curry powder.
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Actuals for April 8 week, cooking for 2 in MN where warm to hot Spring weather has us with our windows open and enjoying some serious porch-sitting. Wed - Fri we cleared out a modest amount of junk and give-away stuff for our section of the city’s curbside cleanup, kicking up dust and uncovering some additional items we’ll never use again and are trying to sell. I acquired a cough and laryngitis so put off Friday’s planned grocery run, but there’s still plenty of food to keep us well fed. I also learned, to my great surprise, that all these years when my husband commented on spice / pepper levels he intended that just as him noticing, not that he disliked. He asked “do we have any hot sauce, peppers?” this week and is now adding tablespoons of Tiger Sauce to tamer main dishes (like oven beef stew). I just gained a whole new layer of flavors to experiment with.
Mon: Gyros on naan, with cucumber sauce, Feta, sliced ripe olives, tomatoes. Rice.
Tues: Leftovers clear out
Wed: Costco Chicken, sweet potato, asparagus.
Thurs: Oven Beef stew, Shredded carrots/apples/craisins salad
Fri: A pasta salad Tri-color rotini with turkey pepperoni, diced tomato, diced cucumber, sliced black olives. We add shredded mozzarella on ours. And had warmed baguette on the side plus red grapes. I used Copycat equivalents for the Salad Supreme Seasoning topping and the Italian Dressing.
Good thing I made notes the first time, since there was quite a bit of math involved. For about 6 main-dish servings I made a half recipe of the pasta/veggies mixture, a half-recipe of the Seasoning mix, and 3/4 of a half recipe (i.e., 3/8 recipe) of the dressing, which is plenty.
Sat: Beef stew, naan, fresh orange
Sun (today): Polenta-stuffed pepper shells, tilapia, fruit salad NOTE recipe has typo – should be 1.5 C cornmeal for 3 C water
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That kidney bean curry isone of my favorite things to eat. I hope you like it!
I’ll be looking forward to hearing how you like the Dinner in One recipes.
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This sounds like a nightmare 8th grade math homework problem.
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Looks seriously good
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Turns out either is correct!
“A crostata is an Italian version of the French galette that can be sweet and savory, too. We’ve baked sweet crostatas filled with apricot jam or strawberry jam, as well as an umami-rich scallion and soy filling.”
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I only do math on special equations.
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My favorite subject in school, got my degree in it and I still enjoy the exercise of calculation to get “for two” sized recipes for most cooking. But when trying to quickly pull together this dinner involving 3 sub-recipes with a total of 25 ingredients it was REALLY good to have the quantities for part-recipes already written down. The tasty results and not needing to go buy packets of prepared mixtures were worth it for me.
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Both of us have been away for several weeks in different places with a dog sitter in charge of our home and kitchen. It’s the beginning of our birthdays week, so on the way home from my flight into Providence before we got home we stopped for our first dinner out. We had a late lunch out on Friday and I made an ATK recipe for a rustic Italian bean soup with cornbread for dinner that night. We treated ourselves again for DH’s actual birthday on Saturday at the Bookstore restaurant in Wellfleet Harbor. Had the rest of the bean soup for lunch.
After another birthday lunch out today in Chatham at the Impudent Oyster, we had leftover steak sandwiches from steak and bulky rolls from the freezer - added some provolone and made coleslaw from a bag and Marie’s dressing. We did a freezer dive and an inventory of our refrigerator - we got groceries on the way back from lunch, so we have meals sorted thru Thursday:
Monday -
Lunch: asparagus/cheddar omelets with toasted English muffins, leftover Cole slaw
Dinner: Bone in pork chops cooked in Portuguese recipe with tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, bay and cinnamon. We like a curried rice pilaf with it. Will freeze half of the pilaf for another meal.
Tuesday -
Lunch: tuna melts and Pacifica roasted red pepper tomato soup
Dinner: A meatloaf from the freezer, DH will make Chef John’s mushroom gravy. I’ll make mashed potatoes and we bought a nice bag of fresh green beans.
Wednesday -
Lunch : Grilled cheese with butternut squash soup (boxed Pacifica brand)
Dinner: Leftover meatloaf, mashed potatoes. gravy and green beans.
Thursday - my birthday. DH is playing 18 holes of golf. I might treat myself to a solo late breakfast somewhere. We haven’t decided where we’ll go but an early dinner out…
Friday is a new day and we will have to take an inventory - we have a friend who can’t drive anymore and lives alone. We pick up her groceries and her mail for her on Friday mornings - sometimes prescriptions too and so we tend to get our groceries on Fridays, as well.
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I recently shared a Cincinnati chili recipe with my mom… original recipe called for 3 lbs of meat, but I had written down amounts for 1.5 lbs and 2 lbs. I do like the Recipe Keeper app because it does the scaling for you - but sometimes can give odd measurements like “1 cup and 3 1/2 tablespoons” .
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When I was younger, I would have dutifully followed those directions.
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I do when I’m baking. But cooking, especially when it’s spices… I feel like by now I know what I can safely eyeball or round up/down.
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I’m getting a bit better at sizing down recipes for one. I will still make the full four servings (or six or whatever) of some recipes because I like having leftovers to heat up in the microwave on the days I know I will be getting home from work late or if I have to heat up dinner quickly then run off somewhere. Every other day I like making something different each night but as @truman mentioned, you can get odd measurements. Thankfully I cook (as opposed to baking) where the measurements are forgiving so I can add a little more or less spice, etc. to suit my tastes.
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Greetings, People.
While stymied by slow asparagus production last week, it appears spring is here at last. I’ve been out picking every day.
In other gardening news, an apricot tree - which we planted about 3 years ago - has small fruit on it for the first time. I had promised my husband that with the first edible apricots I’d make a jam and try my hand at Sacher Torte. This could be the year – we’ll know come August.
Cooking for two adults in the PNW:
FRI: Leftovers from Marcella’s Two-Lemon chicken. Pasta with last year’s basil pesto. Green salad.
SAT: Roasted asparagus quiche (rolled from last week). Green salad.
SUN: Tsukune meatballs with pork, chicken, and zucchini. Pot stickers (store-bought). Rice.
MON: Tacos de Carnitas. Refries. Honey-roasted yams with a yogurt-lime sauce.
TUE: Asparagus pizza (white pizza). Salad greens.
WED: Beef and asparagus on the grill.
THUR: Blackened salmon. Spinach in some form.
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I love apricots so much! Lucky you.
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You know, I haven’t eaten too many apricots, and never fresh from the tree. I’ve always liked them jammed, however, for specific cooking or baking projects.
We planted the tree when one of the locals here mentioned he had had success growing them just up the road from where we live. Keeping our fingers crossed!
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Happy Friday! It has been dreary and drizzling the last couple of days but I welcome the rain since we didn’t have much snow last winter and the gardens could use the moisture in the soil. After a restful week my activities are picking up. I’m off to an Annual General Meeting tonight, possibly clothes shopping tomorrow, and brunch on Sunday. It’s nice to be busy! Onto my menus for this week:
Today: One of the rare occasions I have a brown bag lunch on Friday. The film society I’m in has their AGM tonight so I thought I’d go. The evening will begin with a meeting, then a wine and cheese, then a movie. I went to one of their AGMs 30 years ago and the meeting was interesting and I remember enjoying the movie (I can’t remember what it was now but I remember enjoying it! 
) but there wasn’t much cheese for everyone. So I am having a big salad for lunch and I will be prepared to have a snack when I get home!
Saturday: Haircut in the morning! My bangs are getting long so it will be nice to see again! Chicken cacciatore for dinner.
Sunday: Off to brunch with one of my meetup groups. We are going to a new-to-me restaurant and it’s an Indian restaurant so it will be interesting to see what they have on the breakfast menu. I will have a salad for dinner.
Monday: Scallop edamame salad.
Tuesday: Open faced sandwich with carmelized mushrooms and onions, topped with Italian Fontina and popped under the broiler 'til it gets all melty. Yum!
Wednesday: Stirfried snow peas and mushrooms with some kind of protein. Either boneless skinless chicken breast or pork tenderloin.
Thursday: I have a dinner out penciled in but I’m not sure if I will go or not. It’s another dinner out with a meetup group and they are going to a new restaurant this week. The restaurant’s dishes seem to be a fusion between Caribbean and Italian cuisines and I am not completely sold. So dinner tonight will be a surprise.
Have a nice week everyone!
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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga. First local strawberries this week; reflected in the menu.
Breakfast: Strawberry cornmeal coffee cake
Saturday, April 20: Poached eggs over vegetables, an Enchanted Broccoli Forest recipe from back in the day. Maybe rice on the side; maybe I’ll bake bread?
Sunday: It’s going to be cold. Pot roast, cheesy potatoes, veg left over from Saturday, sponge roll with strawberries and cream.
Monday: Smoked salmon hash; broccoli
Tuesday: TBD
Wednesday: Placeholder for a Family recipe
Thursday: Out for dinner with a friend
Friday: Clean out fridge for a trip on Saturday!
Have a good week, no matter what the weather has in store. Happy cooking!
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That hash looks mighty interesting. I just happen to have some hot-smoked salmon in the pantry…
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Those mushroom days sound tasty!
