For tonight’s no-cook dinner I made a chicken burrito bowl. What’s that you ask? It is everything you might find in a burrito served on rice! Mine included rotisserie chicken, black beans, corn, cabbage, salsa, avocado, green onion, and cilantro with a side of tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream. Yum! It was really good!
It is really hot here. Really, really hot. On Wednesday it was 97F and today it is over 100F. There will not be significant cooling until maybe Sunday. It is early in the season (it is not even summer yet!) for me to be trotting out my cool dinner entrees. But trying to keep the house cool and not run the downstairs A/C is paramount if we want reasonable electric bills.
Sarah made our Asian tofu bowls. It consists of extra firm tofu, rice, cabbage, edamame, cucumber, scallions, avocado, almonds, and nori all dressed with a gingery dressing. We also make this bowl with salmon and shrimp but this is the totally non-cooking edition. I imagine the summer will have many of these types of dinners.
This is the first of a series of HOT days. Our dinners for tonight are open-faced tuna salad sandwiches and an Asian salad.
Forgot to take a picture of Monday’s dinner which was hot dogs with spicy white beans and sauerkraut. I bought some Costco hot dogs and I was well satisfied with them. They were tasty and filled the length of the bun.
Now on to Tuesday…
Sarah and I were at Costco today and picked up a rotisserie chicken. Sarah disassembled it. We used a breast piece for tonight’s classic chicken and we will save the other breast for a chicken burrito bowl on Saturday. I found some asparagus on sale and cooked it with a little butter and water. It turned out great and was a nice change from broccoli.
On Saturday we ordered a pizza that we ate half of. On Sunday we had leftover pizza. I jazzed my piece up with an arugula salad. Very enjoyable!
When I was growing up in New Jersey we would frequently go to the Palace Diner that was within walking distance of our house. My favorite thing to order was their California burger and fries. A California burger consists of a burger patty and bun plus mayo and ketchup, tomatoes, raw onion, and lettuce.
In looking up why this is called a California burger I find that in mid-20th century, fresh produce was not available year-round in many parts of the U.S. Having tomato and lettuce on your burger was not common. In California itself they would put on avocado slices instead of the onion. I find that avocado on a sandwich makes it too slippery so I stick with the East Coast version. I am just a Jersey shore girl enjoying the bounty of California.
John did a perfect job grilling the burgers. Being from the mid-west he eschews the lettuce and tomato and just goes for mayo and ketchup. Sarah puts blue cheese on hers. We are definitely an ALL-American family.
I got behind with my posts but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been cooking!
6/1/26 Tilapia tacos
6/2/26 Chicken Parmesan
6/3/26 Kenwood shrimp
6/4/26 Sarah’s spaghetti and meatballs
Our last weeknight dish is going to be grilled hamburgers and salad. Hopefully I will remember to post it!
What can I say? I just did not crave scrambled eggs and toast. These nachos were much more exciting!
We had a lot of delicious food on our trip but it is great to be home and cooking our own meals. On Saturday John roasted an 11 ounce piece of salmon in a 400F oven for 13 minutes. He also made some rice. I made a mustard and caper sauce plus sautéed zucchini, onions, and garlic in olive oil.
Our dinner was just as good as dining out and we didn’t need to get dressed up for the occasion!
John and I have been away for almost the entire month of May. During that time we flew to Japan and spent a week touring around. Then we cruised from Sapporo, Japan to Kodiak, Alaska which took more than a week followed by stopping at several ports in Alaska for another week. Aside from the fact that for the last two weeks we had bad weather, the trip was informative, exciting, and filled with beautiful vistas. The food we had on the ship was very good and we always looked forward to checking out the next days’s meals.
Sarah picked us up from the airport and had thoughtfully bought a rotisserie chicken so we would have something to eat. What a thoughtful daughter! Having the ingredients for a homey chicken dinner made the transition from vacation to every day easy and delicious.
Omnivore 