Whenever I make Chinese food at home I’m always on the lookout for a third item.  There is always the featured food and usually rice, but I want 1 more thing; a salad or eggroll or pot sticker.  I like the frozen eggrolls, but D doesn’t care for them so that’s not an option.  I decided to try something different tonight.

DINNER - Stir-fried Beef - Thin sliced lean beef marinated in a soy sauce blend I made up stir-fried with broccoli, water chestnuts and green onions.  I served it over rice (of course) and along side an Asian-style soup.

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Last time I bought ground turkey for burgers I froze both the pre-made patties an the buns.  Tonight is the first night of trying them out.

DINNER - Turkey Burgers - Ground turkey patties on buns with cheddar cheese, sliced sweet onion, tomato and guacamole.  Served with a side of French fries and a dill pickle.

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I’ve been out of town this week so this is my first night back in the dinner game.  I’m suffering from some pretty serious seasonal allergies the weekend so I’m not in the mood for anything to involved.  Yesterday I picked up some bread that would be perfect for chicken salad, so since I’m going to buy chicken anyway….

DINNER - Stuffed Pasta with Chicken Cream Sauce - A couple of weeks ago I mad 3 batches of a Turkish stuffed pasta and froze 2 of them.  I cooked one tonight and topped it with a chicken cream sauce made from roasted chicken breast, Parmesan cheese and cream.  A sauteed zucchini, mushroom and shallot blend joined the stuffed pasta.

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I’m going out of town next week and I need to make a couple of meals with a lot of leftover potential.  I made the Seafood Paella yesterday and with tonight’s dinner D should have enough leftovers to keep him fed through the week.

DINNER - Pot Roast - Chuck roast slow cooked with white potatoes, carrots, onion and celery in a red wine sauce.  Of course there was a side salad!

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I get dinner ideas from everywhere, but like many people sometimes I get them from cooking shows.  Last week a Jewish woman from New York was cooking lunch for the contractor and made a paella-type dish with lobster,smoked sausage and peas.  Lobster is expensive and D isn’t crazy for either smoked sausage no peas, so I adapted the recipe a bit.  It was OK but it needed something, a bit of Old Bay seasoning or some citrus note.

DINNER - Seafood Paella - Well, paella like!  Saffron rice with onion and bell pepper cooked in a shrimp stock then finished with chunks of cod and whole shrimp.  I served with with a tomato avocado salad dressed with a homemade lemon vinaigrette and sitting on a bed of romaine leaves.

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As you might have read in yesterday’s post tonight’s dinner features the second of 2 packs of ground turkey.  I had a hankering for this dish when I spotted the ground turkey on sale and I suppose this is why I bought it, that and it was half price.

DINNER - Meat Loaf - I usually say turkey meat loaf, but this is a bit like saying tuna fish.  Ground turkey, tomato sauce, oatmeal, onion, bell pepper and egg mixed together and topped with a chili sauce / mustard blend.  I served it with parsleyed red potatoes, onion gravy and a side salad.

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Safeway had buy 1, get 1 free ground turkey the other day.  Tonight we’re having the one I bought.

DINNER - Spaghetti with Meat Sauce - Homemade meat sauce with ground turkey, onion, peppers, garlic and all the usual stuff served over spaghetti and topped with Parmesan cheese.  A Caesar salad game along for the ride.

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I wanted some roast beef for French dip sandwiches last week.  I stopped by the grocery store deli and it was $10.49 / lb.  With my current budget that’s a bit much so I stopped by the meat section.  Sure enough top sirloin roasts were on sale for $2.99 / lb.  I grabbed a nice sized one and decided to roast it myself.  For the price of less then 1 pound of deli roast beef I have enough for a mess of sandwiches and tonight’s traditional dinner.

DINNER - Roast Beef - Slices of medium rare roast beef served with roasted red potatoes with garlic and rosemary and steamed mixed vegetables.

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We had shrimp cocktail the other night as part of our appetizer dinner and as I was eating it I realized I wanted more.  Not more right now, more as in more meals featuring shrimp.  At that point I realized we hadn’t had our favorite shrimp dish in quite awhile so we were a bit overdue.

DINNER - Shrimp Pilau - Onions, bell pepper and celery sauteed in bacon fat mixed with seasoned shrimp, rice and crumbled bacon.  I served it with a side salad topped with some leftover avocado.

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I know it’s hard to believe but sometimes I don’t feel like cooking, especially after I’ve had a few cocktails.  I’m not saying that’s what happened tonight, I’m just saying.

DINNER - Various Appetizers - Sliced ham and Gouda cheese with crackers, shrimp cocktail, hummus with bread and cherry tomatoes.

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