On Wednesday Sarah made a delicious lasagna. The large 9×13 dish held enough for two dinners.
Sarah made a traditional lasagna with ground beef, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses. It was delicious. We were really glad to have a second lasagna dinner on Thursday!
This is an easy chicken dinner you can make it in 15-20 minutes using shortcuts. First make a packet of chicken gravy (like McCormack’s). Then cut off a breast of rotisserie chicken and slice it into pieces. Put that into the chicken gravy that you’ve made. Turn to low to warm the chicken. Steam some broccoli and add a pat of butter when serving. Get a packet of Idahoan mashed potatoes. Follow the directions on the packet. (The directions are to dump the contents of the packet into 2 cups hot/boiling water and stir around. Let it sit for a minute and then stir again. That’s it.)
Put the chicken and mashed potatoes on a plate or bowl. Cover with gravy. Add the broccoli to the plate. The end.
This isn’t a fancy guest-grade dinner but it is super easy, quick to make and pretty tasty plus the potatoes are lump free!
According to my Weekly Menu we are supposed to be having a chicken dinner. I changed the plan because I was craving pasta. John cooked up a bunch of penne and I cut up the broccoli into very small pieces and put the pieces in a colander. My idea was to strain the pasta and at the same time blanch the broccoli. Ta da! It worked perfectly. I added a half cup of reserved pasta water and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into the penne and broccoli mixture. Each bowl also had a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
A perfect, easy dinner for when you are craving pasta! The chicken can wait until tomorrow.
This is a recipe that I adapted from the NYTimes Cooking site. Because we almost exclusively use rotisserie chicken for our chicken dishes, I omitted chicken thighs that needed to be cooked and subbed in thick slices of rotisserie chicken breast. Plus I also omitted a bunch of anchovies and added 1/2 teaspoon of fish sauce. Here is a link to the original recipe.
Here’s my adapted recipe –
This dish is spicy and salty with plenty of umami. There is no need for any extra salt as the miso provides all the salt you need. Definitely serve the chicken with rice as there is plenty of sauce for it to absorb. The picture of the spicy chicken and mushrooms is not mine but is a picture that accompanied the original recipe.
This is a NYTimes Cooking recipe that you should be able to access since the link has a “share” on it..
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1024082-gochujang-potato-stew?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share
It is pretty much carbo heaven since you have a combo of potatoes, beans, and rice. There is also quite a bit of salt in it. I woke up today with puffy eyes. It is really tasty comfort food that I am willing to make every once in a while.
This is such a quick and easy dinner! Bring 3 1/2 cups of salted water to a boil and add 1/2 cup polenta in a steady stream. Stir for about 20 minutes until it thickens. Stir in a tablespoon of butter. We take turns with the stirring. Sauté shrimp in olive oil for a few minutes on each side while the broccoli cooks in a blend of a melted pat of butter and a sprinkling of water and salt.
The polenta will be quite loose and is almost like a thick sauce for the shrimp and broccoli. Leftover polenta will turn into a solid brick which is pretty yummy too.
Since Sarah had an eggplant and some mozzarella that needed using she found a recipe from Food Network and made herself an eggplant parmesan in the oven while we made our dinner on the stovetop.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/no-fry-sheet-pan-eggplant-parmesan-3543388
This is a new recipe for a vegan dinner that I saw on the New York Times Cooking site. Much like everyone else I am trying to eat in a healthier manner. I am including the recipe below but I did not make it absolutely the same. First of all, I am just cooking for John and me so I cut the amount of chickpeas down to two cans. We like lots of sauce so I upped the stock to two cups and I opted for kale instead of spinach. Everything else I left the same.
It tasted very good. John suggested we put it into our dinner rotation which is high praise indeed.
Ras el hanout chickpeas and greens
Chili made with ground beef and Muir Glen Chili Starter
Tonight is Sarah’s night to cook. She had found a large can of Muir Glen chili starter for $.99 and some ground beef on sale so she was eager to make chili. She added some garlic and onion plus some chipotle chili powder which gave the chili a pleasant smoky/spicy taste. She sautéed the garlic and onion and browned the meat before adding the chili starter. After a short time of simmering the chili was ready. She really made a great tasting chili!
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Hello and happy 2026! John and I have just returned from some extensive traveling. We landed at SFO tonight during a heavy rainstorm which made the flight more stressful than usual. When we got in the house we were not prepared for cooking dinner so we called for pizza delivery. Tomorrow the cooking will start.
Omnivore 