Topic: What are you eating / What did you eat.

[8ullfrog]

Just got in from walking the dog, 42f. I wore mittens.

Tonight we had meatloaf pucks. They're from a book and I'll post the recipe up tomorrow, but I don't want to look for the book right now.

Essentially you take ground beef, frozen corn, taco seasoning, beans, and diced tomatoes, and form them into pucks. Bake, then top with cheese.
You use a muffin tin to bake them, hence meatloaf cupcakes. One of the reasons we like this recipe is that the one time mom attempted a meatloaf in this apartment, it came out half dessicated, half liquid. David Croenenberg could have designed the thing.

The pucks are easy, relatively quick, and make for kickass leftovers. You can break one up and toss it in a tortilla and you've got pretty much everything but the hot sauce for a burrito.

[8ullfrog]

Apologies, I have not found the book yet. It fell on my feet that night and I put it up somewhere so it wouldn't do that... and yeah, can't find it.

Did simple tacos tonight, had half a can of diced tomatoes from the meat pucks, turns out that's FANTASTIC in tacos. Kind of like a salsa that isn't spicy. Made the flavors of the tacos pop, which is good because I'm out of taco sauce.

I used sriracha, so they were certainly fiery, but now I'm out of that too.

So, I've learned diced tomatoes make for a great taco accouterment. I know I've seen them on tacos before, but I've never used them. I feel exceptionally stupid.

I made fresh meat for the tacos, but the leftover meat pucks also make for fantastic taco filling.

[6pairsofshoes]

Earl Grey tea and cream scones with orange marmalade.
Not original, but reliably good.

I made mushroom risotto: it's good & cheap and enough for 3 meals.  That's about the point where you get sick of it.  Last night we finished it off.  Kind of makes me want to avoid rice for a while.

[goldshirt*9]

nothing and no coffee allowed till Saturday.

[6pairsofshoes]

Sorry about the coffee.  Are you fasting for a procedure?

I just baked blueberry muffins.  Had to have some, so I split one with my husband.  I'm looking forward to breakfast when I get to eat a whole one.  Now I'm too tired to make dinner.  Ha!

[goldshirt*9]

Sorry about the coffee.  Are you fasting for a procedure?

No I have disposable stiches in my gum after my tooth was taken out and was advised no hot food/drinks for 48 hrs, also swill with salt water every 2 hrs with salt water I missed the coffee more than food 

I just baked blueberry muffins.  Had to have some, so I split one with my husband.  I'm looking forward to breakfast when I get to eat a whole one.  Now I'm too tired to make dinner.  Ha!

Use to bake Muffins but they were mass produced, Blueberry my Favourite even though i'm not a cake person.
Sitting here with my first coffee foe 2 days and some Panettoni to dip into it.
Heaven I'm in heaven,

[6pairsofshoes]

Earl Grey tea.  Although, technically, it's what I'm drinking.

I'll have a blueberry muffin in a little while, though.

[6pairsofshoes]

More tea and a vanilla panettone.  Livin' large.

[8ullfrog]

I've mostly been making meals by rote, not really adding or subtracting anything.

Dinner was fun last night because mom wanted the old perfect tortilla pans. With the toaster oven, they cooked a lot faster than the conventional oven.

Not much to write home about, we had taco bowls. They were... okay. Mom's been on an excercise kick so she's been hungrier than previous, but that's to be expected. Effort out, food in.

Today for lunch I made a Jack's frozen pizza. It's pretty much a tortilla in pizza dough form, covered with a smidgen of red sauce and some cheese. I added an additional layer of pizza sauce and mozzarella. Nothing exciting, but it was decent. I had two pieces.

[6pairsofshoes]

We had turkey chili for dinner.  It's relatively easy and one batch is enough for 3 dinners for the two of us.  It also freezes well, although we have a small freezer.  It's a recipe from Pierre Franey in the NY Times.  I halve the amount of ground turkey and it's still just fine.

[8ullfrog]

I've been watching a poor man eat entire menus of fast food restaurants, and his main complaint against Del Taco was their removal of the ground turkey taco.

I mean he savaged everything else on the menu as well, but his main complaint was that they took away his turkey taco.

I can't say I honestly see a decent turkey chili. I'd be willing to try just about any recipe, but ground turkey is fart meat at best.

[6pairsofshoes]

We regularly eat turkey burgers (I make those from ground turkey and freeze them) as well as ground turkey in chili.  I don't eat red meat so it's the only option for me other than vegetarian chili.  I suspect that those who are accustomed to ground beef as a staple might find it less appealing.  My regular carnivore husband doesn't find it lacking at all.

[8ullfrog]

I believe my dislike of turkey burgers stems from the chef - A particular uncle. He made them SO BLAND.

I imagine if he'd just thrown in paprika they would have been ten times better. Let alone the staples, Salt, Pepper, Garlic. One cooking channel I follow calls it SPG, and it took me a while to recognize what he was talking about. He'd say "Toss in your SPG" and I'd wonder what he'd said.
Another chef calls it BFF for Best Fing flavor.

I spent a 20 minute ride of boredom today watching a deli prepare breakfast, it was kind of zen. Plus, I got a slurpee on the way home.

[6pairsofshoes]

I use this one.
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a19664658/best-turkey-burger-recipe/

I add a little panko bread crumbs as a binder.  Add also a quarter cup of minced shallot.  I freeze these using a biscuit cutter to shape them and use parchment paper to separate the patties when I freeze them.  I can get about 8 burgers out of a pound of ground turkey.  I planted some parsley once and it's decided to pop up in random places in my back yard so I usually go there and pinch some to add to this.  It's really nice with the fresh parsley.

[6pairsofshoes]

Last night I was too tired to cook so resorted to a Safeway store brand cauliflower crust 3 cheese pizza.  The crust is basically mushed up cauliflower and rice flour.  They are surprisingly tasty and take about 10 min. to bake.  I don't really like frozen pizza but this is edible.  I think it's gluten free, although that's not a concern for us, but makes it an option for when family members visit.

This morning I'm having a raspberry buttermilk cake slice for breakfast.  Frozen raspberries came my way and I was scratching my head as to how to deal with them.   I used a streusel topping of ¼ c brown sugar, ¼ c pecans, ¼ tsp cinnamon.  I used butter and flour on the baking pan (instead of spray) and dialed back the heat to 350 because I have an oven that heats to just about shy of the Hiroshima bombing temps.  Baked 25 min and let cool in the pan for 5 min before I tried to cut it.  Damn.  It was good.

Non-sticking cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping/I used an alternative described above)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

Cream butter & sugar together, add egg & vanilla.  Alternate mixing dry ings into the butter/sugar mix with buttermilk until blended.  Spatula the mix into 8 inch square baking dish and distribute the frozen raspberries on top, then the streusel topping.  Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 25 min.  If your oven is more normal, they recommend a higher temp.  Why ask for trouble is my motto.  Be prepared to resist eating the whole thing in one sitting.