No dinner plans so I went to the store to see what was fresh / on sale.  I wandered around the meat aisle until I finally decided on the $2.99/lb pork loin.  I can get 2 meals out of it… not too bad.

DINNER - Garlic Herb Pork Loin - Pork tenderloin rubbed with garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and olive oil and roasted.  I dished up a side of my version of succotash - white corn, diced zucchini, red onion and red bell pepper.

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I’ve been wanting to make tonight’s dish for a week now but had trouble finding a key ingredient… chicken!  Well I finally found it and we’re having it for dinner tonight.

DINNER - Chicken Stew with Biscuits - A cross between chicken pot pie and chicken & dumplings, chunks of white meat chicken with green beans, onions and carrots topped with biscuits.  I served it with a wilted spinach salad with a brown butter honey dressing.

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Chicken Breasts!  I found them at another store not in my neighborhood and on sale too!  Thanks QFC.

I made crepes earlier in the week and had some leftover batter.  I made a bit more and whipped up a new batch for dinner.  I screw up about 1/4 of them so I have to make sure I have plenty of batter.

DINNER - Chicken & Mushroom Crepes - Herbed crepes filled with shredded chicken, mushrooms and a cheese blend.  As a vegetable along side I roasted zucchini spears and artichoke hearts.

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WTF 3!

So I get off work around noon today and I think I’ll head over to Costco for a few items;  coffee, peanut butter, and those damn bone in skin on chicken breasts I can’t find at Safeway.  Guess what?  NO BREASTS!!  Bone in skin on thighs?  You bet.  Legs?  Wings?  Hindquarters?  Of course, but no breasts.  We ask a friendly meat clerk and he tells us they won’t carry bone in, skin on chicken breasts until “grilling season”.  I guess people only grill chicken breasts outside, they don’t roast them in the oven in the winter.  Sorry Ina Garten, 42% of your recipes are useless in the PNW 8 months of the year.

DINNER - Top Sirloin Steak - Grilled top sirloin steaks (grilled in the house, in the winter Mr. Costco meat buyer!) served with roasted white potato spears seasoned with rosemary and garlic and a tomato-free side salad.

Yes, that is shredded cheese and bacon bits on the top of that salad, gotta make up for the fact there are no tomatoes somehow!

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Just a quick note about last night… I picked up Chinese takeout from the grocery store deli because I wasn’t in the mood to cook.  It happens some times.

I thawed out a couple packs of freezer meat this week and tonight is reserved for pack 1, boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  I looked through my recipes and picked one featuring thighs that I hadn’t made before.  Here it goes!

Linguine with Chicken Ragu - I guess ragu means a meat and tomato sauce.  This sauce featured the aforementioned thighs along with shallots, garlic, white wine and crushed tomatoes.  Served over linguine with a side salad.

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WTF 2.

Once again I went into Safeway only to find they have no bone-in chicken breasts.  I did come across some ground turkey though.  After deciding on the turkey for burgers I make my way to the bread aisle for buns and guess what?  That’s right, no buns in the pack / style I want.  They have buns, but I like the larger buns in the 4 packs (there is only 2 of us).  They only have this in the whole wheat variety (yuk!).  I had to buy an 8-pack… I hate freezing bread.

DINNER - Turkey Cheeseburgers - Turkey burgers with cheddar cheese, sweet onion, tomato and lettuce.  I served it with tater tots and just remembered I forgot the dill pickle spear just as I was typing tonight’s blog entry.

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WTF Safeway?  We were running a few errands and I convinced D to stop by the store so I could run in and pick up some chicken breasts for dinner.  I ran in and WTF… no bone-in, skin on chicken breasts.  OK, I thought, it’s Sunday, maybe they’re out so I went for ground turkey for burgers… none of that either.  Is this the USSR?  I expect major brand name nationwide grocery store chains to have BASICS in their store all the time.  Get with it.

DINNER - Cod and Chips - Alaskan cod deep fried in a beer batter and served with wide French fries, cole slaw and tarter sauce.

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Not long ago I picked up an expensive crepe pan on sale.  I try to make crepes as often as I can, but you need a couple hours for the batter to rest and I need stuffing ideas.

Last week I had a crepe request and I came up with a stuffing recipe.  It worked surprisingly well and I think I’ll use it again with differing kinds of meat and seasonings.

DINNER - Shrimp Crepes - Herbed chive crepes filled with bay shrimp, shallot, zucchini matchsticks and a blend of cheeses.  Served with a side of roasted asparagus.

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Cheap meat!  The price per serving on tonight’s meal ended up being about $2.  That’s not bad considering it’s hearty, good tasting and not related to bologna or ramen.

DINNER - Roast Chicken and Vegetables - Roasted chicken thighs served with roasted white potato wedges, carrots and zucchini.

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There was a bit of ground turkey breast in the fridge that needed to be used up.  Generally when I’ve got a bit of meat lying around the answer to “What am I going to do with this?” is something Mexican, Asian or Italian.  Guess which one I did tonight?

DINNER - Spaghetti with Meat Sauce - Ground turkey breast, onions, mushrooms and a homemade tomato sauce over thin spaghetti.  Topped with a bit of cheese and served with a salad.

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