March 2017, What's cooking For Dinner?

I pulled a boneless/skinless chicken breast out of the freezer this morning without a clue of what I was going to make. It was just about thawed and I put it into the refrigerator, hoping I'd come up with an idea. Went to watch some show on PBS....turned it on and one of my favorites, Ellie Krieger, was on. I like that she's a nutritionist and she does have some good tips for lighter eating.

She was making a farro chicken salad lettuce wrap ~ I have farro. I have chicken. I have lettuce.

Ta ~ Da !!!!

Somehow it just 'came to me' to make an Asian Chicken Farro salad for our supper.

Boy, I just love it when a plan comes together! LOL

I am going to try a new recipe too: ginger-sesame salmon salad. It has greens, fried wonton strips and a few other things.

My chicken farro Asian salad was a huge hit! The first time he tried farro he wanted to know all about it. I told him it was an ancient grain and full of protein and it was a whole grain so it also has a lot of fiber ~ it was when he was first starting his lower calorie eating. I guess he found out it wasn't all that terrible and I've been able to make it a few times without any groaning and complaining.

I poached my chicken breast and let it cool, then shredded it for the salad ~ it tastes different when it's shredded than when you cut it into cubes, IMO. I chopped up some celery, carrots & green onion ~ toasted some slivered almonds (crunch & even more protein). The farro I have is from Trader Joe's and only takes 10 minutes to cook. I like it better than the quinoa I've made other times....it's got more texture, bite and flavor. I mixed all that together and tossed it with an Asian type dressing.....some Hellmann's, a few drops of sesame oil, some grapeseed oil, honey, sambal oleck (chili paste), soy sauce and rice vinegar. When the ingredients were coated I dropped in some chopped romaine lettuce and tossed it altogether without adding any more dressing. There was enough dressing on the salad base to nicely coat the lettuce.

Since I was putzin' around all afternoon I didn't really have any lunch (I just grabbed the last hard cooked egg and sprinkled a bit of s&p on it) so I didn't feel bad about having a fresh bakery roll with my salad. He passed on a dinner roll but I noticed when he was cleaning up the kitchen he ended up having a piece of bread and butter. (Caught him! LOL)

Jimmy ~ farro looks a lot like barley. It's a whole grain, tastes kind of like whole wheat. It is just kind of a nutty taste. I think it would be good in a soup. I think it would hold it's shape and not get mushy (although I've not tried that application). It's not expensive so it would be easy to give it a try.

Then again, I'm the one who thinks KALE is wonderful. I don't know that I'd trust my taste if I were you! LOL

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I made grilled burgers. I sauteed some mushrooms to go with my patty. Had leftover green beans and I got one of those packages of Uncle Ben's ready rice. I've heard the 'already cooked' rice is good so I decided to give it a try. It wasn't bad. The $2 package had just enough for two servings. A bit expensive when you think about it but it sure was convenient ~ reheats in the package in 90 seconds.

I once tried a flavored ready-rice and thought it was awful. What flavor or what brand did you use?

I just read a kitchen tip for removing odors from your fridge that works better than baking soda: lump charcoal. Sounds interesting if you can keep the black dust from getting around.

Bugs, I got the Uncle Ben's Ready Rice ~ Long Grain & Wild (with 23 spices and herbs ~ most of which were not evident to MY taste).

The texture was good and it was quick.

I'd get it again.

Thanks Jimmy! I thought they were talking about charcoal briquettes.

No cooking tonight. Joe and Katie are at the beach. I guess I will eat leftover meatloaf.

I have a Breville toaster oven. It is about 7 years old. It still works fine. Breville has come out with a new model that air frys, proofs, dehydrates and something else. It is also bigger. I would love to have it but my old unit still works. It is one of those want vs need problems.

I split a chicken breast and just did a simple pan fry, asparagus & baked sweet potato.

Same old, same old......

Good for you, Jimmy!

UNCLE JIMMY wrote:Tina babe went shopping in PA today with my cousin, and she brought me back chili cheese Burgers with coleslaw, assorted Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and cookies from a bakery. I am so full, I'm sick.

That was a reward for a good report from the cardiologist this morning. My BP was the lowest since battling it since I was 16 years old. 112/74. Also, I got a call 5 hours later, that all my blood test results were great.

AWESOME!!!!, Jimmy!!


Beth, How is Dane doing? How is he feeling?

Sounds awful!

Cyn, thanks for asking....he's back to 'normal' (or as 'normal' as he can be)......

Went to the surgeon for his post-op check and got the go ahead to "go back to work". I said, "Yeah! Go get back to work!" and Dane just looked at the doc and said, "I'm RETIRED.....". The doc kind of smiled and said, "well, go back to whatever you WANT to do." Hahahahaha

Seriously, he's none the worse for being sliced and diced. No problems and you wouldn't notice the scar unless you were really looking for it on his neck.

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No cooking tonight. DD#1 and family got to Florida yesterday and headed down to Sarasota area for a few days at the beach. Josh, our 17 yr. old, is NOT a beach fan. They took a shuttle from the hotel to the beach around 11:00 a.m., got all set up with umbrellas, coolers, food-on-demand, and settled in. At 12:30 (after they ate lunch) Josh wanted to know if it was time to head back to the hotel. He had had all the 'fun in the sun' he needed. I mean, there's no wifi, no computers, barely a signal for his phone.....what's a guy suppose to do?

So, Andrea texted me to see if we wanted to meet them halfway for supper and bring Josh back with us. He can go to the movies with his Grandpa and I'll make him help me finish up his mom's birthday cake on Saturday. At least he'll be able to work on his computer and do whatever geeky stuff he enjoys hooked up to the house wifi. Tori will stay at the beach with her parents and look for sea creatures and buckets full of sandy shells. They'll be here Saturday afternoon and then stay for 3 or 4 days before flying home.

So, supper was at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. The dinner rolls flew off the plates ~ good stuff. I had an excellent rib eye and didn't feel a bit guilty at being able to have a baked white potato. OMG, it tasted so good!

When we were kids we didn't have any of the stuff kids have today. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves. Our parents made us rather self-reliant. Something that is lacking in today's young people.

You had vacations? We didn't until I was in the ninth grade when we rented a beach house. No, I lied. I remember going to Niagra Falls. We did go to Disneyland a couple of times but that was about it.

Bugster2 wrote:You had vacations? We didn't until I was in the ninth grade when we rented a beach house. No, I lied. I remember going to Niagra Falls. We did go to Disneyland a couple of times but that was about it.