Food! Food! Food!

During this pandemic, one of my highlights in our seemingly endless days in self-isolation is food… Food isn’t all that important to Laurie so meal plans are usually my choice, but of course veto power rests with her.  Some of the meal planning decisions are simple.  Does Laurie have to cook…or is it something that I can grill or fry?  She doesn’t grill or fry and I don’t use the oven.  Plus, if something has to be lightly breaded/coated, those tasks are also in her bailiwick!

So here’s a recent pictorial summary showing some of our meals…along with a couple of breakfast leftover ‘spinoffs’. 

When neither of us feels like cooking and Laurie feels like something both simple and light, we resort to a cheese and meat plate, usually with crackers.  In this case we had 2 types of salami, prosciutto and 4 types of cheese…buttermilk, sharp cheddar, Gouda and Manchego.

On morning as I perused our refrigerator for breakfast possibilities, I came across a bit of leftover chili without beans and a leftover all beef hot dog.  Mix, heat in the frying pan, pour it over a slice of buttered bread and add an egg… Breakfast excellence!

A recent visit to Costco, (A face mask required business), yielded a huge package of “Tuscan” seasoned pork tenderloins.  I grilled this first batch, ensuring that I had enough for leftovers.  They were moist and had a nice flavor too…

These were the pre-packaged ‘Reser’s Main St. Bistro Baked Scalloped Potatoes’ that we paired with the pork tenderloins.  Since they were pre-cooked, it didn’t take long (22 minutes) for dinner to be served!  We did opt to heat them in the oven vs the microwave, so that the top would be browned.   

This is Laurie’s plate with the pork tenderloins and baked scalloped potatoes ‘paired’ with a couple stalks of celery.  OK, what the heck, so we were a little light on vegetables.  Wait!  Potato is a vegetable too!

On another morning, I made breakfast for us.  We make a ‘full breakfast’ about once a week.  This is Laurie’s modest breakfast…

My breakfast that morning was a bit larger.  Instead of bacon, I took several of those leftover pork tenderloins and sliced them in half so that they’d be thinner and would heat up nicely in the frying pan.  Of course I did ‘have to’ make a sandwich out of a couple of them.

On another occasion, I found a box of ‘TGI Friday’s Cheddar and Bacon Potato Skins’ in the freezer.  We’d purchased them at the local Ingles Grocery Store.  They were OK if not great, dispite adding spices, but they were easy and filling.  There were way too many to finish at one sitting.

Yes…finally, a relatively healthy meal!  We paired seasoned pre-packaged Mahi-Mahi filets from Costco with fresh frozen green beans.  We’ve tried several of the pre-seasoned frozen fish options from Costco, including the salmon, cod and halibut and we’ve been quite pleased.  I don't remember the brand name for the Mahi-Mahi.

I know that this isn’t a pretty picture!  We’d eaten half of this small deep dish sausage pizza before I remembered the camera… Yes indeed, this was another frozen dinner.  In this instance, this Lou Malnati’s pizza was part of a father’s day gift from our son and his family.  Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria in the Chicago area is famous for their deep dish pizzas…and they make a great thin crust version as well.  My favorite kind of meal…free!  Thanks!

Well…what did you think I was going to do with all the leftover potato skins?  When it was time for me to make myself yet another morning breakfast creation, I heated the leftover potato skins in the frying pan with butter and more shredded cheese…creating a little cheesy crust.  Add 2 over-easy eggs and Tabasco and I was good until dinner.  The extra cheese and butter did improve the potato skins.

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave