A week of dinners

Confession: I always like hearing what others are cooking and serving, to give me dinner ideas. Some weeks I’m super inspired with menus, and I have on hand all the ingredients I wish for. (Some weeks, not.)

Food is just really good right now, and we’ve been feasting.

Do you like ideas too? Last week, I kept track of what we ate for dinner each night, so I could share it with you – along with a few simple recipes – in case your culinary plans need to be re-inspired, as mine often do.

Monday

Tilapia. Baked potatoes. Broccoli with cheese. Applesauce.

For crispy baked tilapia, mix 3/4 cup cracker crumbs with 1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1 tsp each of garlic salt and oregano. Dip fish fillets into beaten egg, then into crumbs. Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with a Tbsp or more of melted butter. Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 min.

(I believe this recipe first came from Taste of Home. This amount of crumbs is enough for eight fillets or more.)

Bonus: When I dug up the gardens on Monday, in preparation for planting early veggies, I found some potatoes we missed last fall – just enough for dinner. They were big, firm-fleshed, still crisp. Can you believe it? They baked up perfectly.

Tuesday

Bacon burgers. Kraft mac-n-cheese. Fresh fruit salad.

A 94-year-old friend from church gave us a big Omaha Steaks order, including some wonderful beef burger patties. I pan-fried them, adding a brush of barbecue sauce and a sprinkle of shredded cheese. I lightly toasted the buns under the broiler, then stacked them with a little mayo and ketchup, the burgers, and strips of bacon. Bread & butter pickles on the side. They were super scrumptious.

For the fruit, I cut up what I had in my fridge: fresh mango, Clementines, kiwi, grapes, and bananas, with a sprinkle of sugar stirred in.

Wednesday

Dinner from a friend:
Chicken & biscuit pot pie. Salad. Home-canned peaches. Peanut butter bars.

My friend Laura made dinner for us on Wednesday night. Her pot pie had shredded chicken, thickened and savory, with mixed vegetables and herbs. Yum! The biscuits were tender and cheddary.

Her salad featured apples, craisins, pecans, and feta cheese, with homemade poppyseed dressing. The peaches were golden perfection, and the bars – well, take a look. Wow.

Thursday

Taco bowls. Orange Julius. Pavlovas for dessert.

The way I made my taco meat is this: Brown a pound of venison burger in a skillet, with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. Stir in a can of black beans and a can of diced tomatoes, and a little water. Most of a pack of taco seasoning. A teaspoon or two of brown sugar. The last two fresh mushrooms from my fridge, cut small. Let it all simmer for a while, till the flavors blend and it’s nice and thick and tasty.

We started with Doritos, crushed in our bowls, and added taco meat, brown rice (just 15 minutes in the Instant Pot), lettuce, tomatoes, avocado (only for me, because the others think it’s creepy), cheese (shredded cheddar or crumbled feta), a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, and Catalina dressing.

I hadn’t made Orange Julius for a long time – 2/3 cup orange juice concentrate, 1 cup each milk and water, 1/2 cup sugar, a dozen ice cubes, and a teaspoon of vanilla, all blended together.

Not having to cook every night enables me to be more creative on the nights I do. Taste of Home had a chocolate pavlova recipe I’d been wanting to try making with my daughter. Yummy.

In the interest of complete honesty, I must point out that since my daughter was playing happily outside, and had done enough work for the day, I made the pavlovas and she (later) diced those pretty strawberries to go on top. It was not quite the Sweet Mommy moment I was hoping. This too is normal.

Friday

Grilled pork chops. Southern baked macaroni. Cole slaw.

My brother and his wife gave us the best pork, as a pastor appreciation gift. We broke out some thick, marbled pork chops. I had meant to cook them in the crockpot, with barbecue sauce, but when I saw them I knew they deserved the grill instead. So we got it out for the first time this year, seasoned the chops with my mom’s five-spice blend (salt, pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, seasoned salt) and cooked them outdoors, until they were juicy and dripping and just a little burnt.

Not to rave, but we couldn’t eat them without crying out. The flavor exploded in our mouths and changed our lives. 😉

When I make coleslaw, I use whatever I have on hand, and I don’t measure. This time, it was cabbage, cucumber, shredded carrots, sweet red and yellow peppers, craisins, pecans, and poppy seeds – with a scoop of mayo, and a little each of honey, mustard, sugar, vinegar. Stir all together.

Saturday

Saturday is always pizza night at our house. Usually, I make my homemade stuffed crust version. Last week, my extended family ordered a pizza delivery for us from town. It was amazing, but I forgot to take a picture. We ate it with chips and applesauce, and a phenomenal ho-ho cake dropped off at my house by my friend Carrie.

Pictured here is another kind of pizza we ate recently for lunch: Yorkshire pizza, introduced to me by my friend Shaunda. Melt 1/4 cup butter in an 8×12 pan. Beat 2 eggs with 1 cup each flour and milk, and 1/4 tsp of salt. Pour over the melted butter, and top with pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Sprinkle with Parmesan and oregano if you want. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 min.

This is basically a savory Dutch baby, if you know what that is: the wonderful oven-baked egg pancake that puffs up.

You might be getting the picture that a lot of people give us food. When we have a new foster placement, that is 100% true. We are so blessed that I’m afraid to talk about it for fear people will be like “Pfff clearly she doesn’t need it,” and STOP. That would be horrible.

Without a sign-up sheet or organized plan, we’ve had five meals delivered in the past three weeks (greatest thanks to Rosetta & Hope, Shaunda, Laura, Carrie, Josh & April)… as well as an Easter ham loaf and donuts (Carla), and a boatload of homemade healthy snacks prepared by my friend Rachel and her daughter. (Precut fruit, veggies, and cheese, all in little baggies. Seasoned pretzels, wheat crackers, yogurt parfaits with fresh berries. And the cunningest little cups of peanut butter and Ranch and granola to go with everything…)

What can I say? We are eating deliciously well, but not by our own hand. If you have been involved in this, THANK YOU.

This post contains an affiliate link to an Instant Pot, which is well worth your money and which I throw in from time to time basically to annoy my friend S, who does not like them. xoxox

What are you cooking? I’d love ideas for the coming weeks.