What's for Dinner

 As we being this Thanksgiving week (or week before this Thursday for the non-U.S. readers) I thought the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving theme might be appropriate.

Another week begun with the promise of a plan, and another week that I decided what sounded tasty Monday morning held no appeal Monday evening. And it all went pretty much downhill after that. 

This is what I thought our dinners for the week would be:

Spaghetti (TheHub requested), tossed salad garlic "bread" sticks

Melt in your mouth chicken, tomato slices, sautéed spinach

Chili relleno souffle, tossed salad

Beef and mushroom soup, coleslaw

Some kind of big salad dinner (nothing sounds really good right now)

Buffalo chicken casserole, green beans

Takeout

And this is what we actually ate:

Monday: By the time suppertime rolled around, I realized I had several partially cut veggies looming in the crisper. Instead of tossing them they became the focus of our meal

Sautéed chicken and veggies in teriyaki sauce (You can find a pretty decent Keto teriyaki), tomato slices 

Tuesday: TheHub had to work late and gave me a pretty early heads up that he would not be home early. We had planned on running by Costco to pick up AA batteries. I have an overabundance of Luminara candles and they all needed them. Since my intent is to blow out Christmas this year, I plan on using all of them in all the places I could never use real candles.  

TheHub had already said he wanted to get the hotdog meal at Costco and since that was not going to happen I called a take out order when he left work for him to pick up on his way home.

Gyro salad from Purple Onion

Wednesday:  We did go to Costco. I have found if you wait until about 6:45 the people who were stopping by on the way home from work are gone and the folks who were shopping after dinner are not there yet. Since covid, I arrange all of my shopping trips everywhere for the least populated times. Normally I would go to Costco by myself in the morning, but TheHub wanted to look at a couple of things also. At least he agreed to my requests concerning crowds and timelines.

He did mention earlier in the day he no longer wanted the hot dog meal, but wanted fried chicken. I was planning on making chicken anyway, but I don't cook fried chicken. I just stuck a piece in the oven for me and we picked him up some of the good stuff for him on the way home.

Fried (or un-fried) chicken with caulitato salad

Thursday: I have no idea what happened to Thursday. The day zoomed by, but during one phone call from TheHub he mentioned spaghetti again. It was not a big deal because I had everything I needed for it, but I noticed a pattern this week. Normally it is like pulling teeth to get him to suggest something for dinner. This week he was pretty specific about his meal wants.

Spaghetti (or zoodles) with meat sauce. salad

Friday: Pre-covid Friday night was out date night. We went to a restaurant, had a drink then had a leisurely meal. We have continued to make Friday our date night, but now it is driving someplace and doing take out. We bring it back home, eat and then watch a movie or episode of The Crown on Netflix. 

Mooyah burger or Keto "burger".

Saturday: Game Day and Roll Tide!  After a couple of quick morning stops we settled in to watch football games. Alabama played at 3 and Auburn played at 6, so our dinner had to be something that would basically cook itself during the 4th quarter of the Alabama game that we could eat quickly as Auburn began its game. I have a hard and fast rule about dinner. We absolutely do not eat in the den in front of the TV. All meals are eaten at a table with music playing and the television off. I will make an exception during a football game and let it stay on so TheHub can hear what happens; hence the really fast dinner!

Chili renello casserole, salad

Sunday: We had online church, zoom Sunday school, and a spat. After skillfully avoiding each other for the brunt of the day (this is when I appreciate have a house that is too large for us) we both apologized, but by that time I had done a lot of anger cleaning, including the fridge and had started a pot of soup with anything lingering in the refrigerator.

Vegetable soup

And here are some possibilities for this week:

1. Crustless pizza, salad

2. Some kind of soup (totally uninspired right now)

3. Melt in your mouth chicken, spinach salad, mashed potatoes or caulimash

4. Sliced turkey from the deli, dressing (bought frozen), green bean casserole, cranberry relish, collards (cooked  a couple of months ago and frozen), pumpkin roll (from Aldi) pecan pie.

5. Something cooked on the grill with a salad (Pretty sure I have a steak in the freezer)

6. Iron Bowl *meal. Potentially hot dogs and snack foods

7.Take out

Have a good week on plan, off plan, or with no plan at all!

* Iron Bowl is the grudge match between Alabama and Auburn. It determines the superiority of the fans of the winning teams for a year, or so everyone thinks. Though I am an Alabama fan I am not sure how the play of 20 year old young men affects my life in any way other than having fun during the actual game. Roll Tide Roll! And life will continue no matter the outcome.

Remember, you still have time to join in the blogger Christmas card exchange. It's as simple as sending three and receiving three. There are no other rules! Just email haljam27@gmail.com to join in!