I’ve been mulling tonight’s dish for quite sometime.  I knew the mulling was over the other day when I bought the ground turkey on sale.

DINNER - Turkey Meatloaf - Meatloaf is one of my favorite dishes.  I used my regular meatloaf recipe and substituted turkey and adjusted the amounts for the 20 oz ground turkey package.  It was OK, a little bland at first, but it grew on me as I was eating it.  I served it with a side of sour cream mashed potatoes and a D made side salad.

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It was a dark, stormy night… well, it was a cold, rainy day anyway.  I spent all day out in the cold rain and by the time work was over I was ready for a nice hot meal.  As I roamed the meat department of the grocery store I realized I didn’t have the time to make the comfort food I craved.  I decided to settle on something hearty, easy and reasonably priced.

DINNER - Baked Chicken Breasts - They were on sale, $1.99 / pound.  They certainly are easy and hearty.  I pulled back the skin and bathed them in olive oil, salt and pepper.  Then I sliced some shallot and garlic thin, arranged them on the meat and covered it back up with the skin before baking them.  I was planning on a side of Tuscan blend veggies, but pulled the wrong bag out of the freezer.  California style vegetables will work just fine, thank you.

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We all know times are hard right now.  I try to save a little money everywhere I can, especially at the grocery store.  So when I went into Safeway yesterday and saw they had 20 ounce packages of ground turkey at 2 for $7 (as opposed to 2 for $11 regular priced) I just had to go for it.  Now I have 2 1/2 lbs of ground turkey to eat… umm.

DINNER - Turkey Lasagna - One of the packages of ground turkey was Italian seasoned, although I failed to see any seasonings on the meat in the pack.  I sweated 1/2 of an onion & 1/2 of a yellow pepper that was sitting around the fridge bored, added the turkey plus garlic and more Italian seasoning just to make sure and 3 diced plum tomatoes and a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes for sauce.  While the sauce cooked I boiled the noodles and doctored up a carton of lowfat ricotta cheese with an egg, grated Parmesan cheese and lots of fresh ground black pepper.  I layered it all up in my new LeCreuset deep dish baker and baked it 20 minutes while I made up a Cesear salad, minus the croutons (we’re on diets!).

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As readers of this blog know I’m on some reasonably strict dietary restrictions.  At last night’s Oscar party I blew it big time… carby beers, chips with dip, sandwiches and even a few sweets.  On top of that we got home late and I didn’t get around to making my breakfast and lunch for today.  As such I ate both meals out, which is not good for the diet.  I felt I needed a strong lowfat, simple meal tonight to get back on track.

DINNER - Lemon Chicken - A boneless, skinless chicken breast seasoned with thyme, garlic, onion, olive oil and lemon juice and slowly cooked on the stove.  It turned out surprisingly moist.  I served it with a side of steamed broccoli.

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We haven’t had lovely, low fat chicken in quite awhile.  However when I asked D what he wanted for dinner he mentioned scallops.  We haven’t had scallops in weeks, so why not?

DINNER - Scallops Provencal - Bay scallops lightly breaded and cooked in white wine, parsley, garlic and shallots and served over brown rice.  D made a spinach salad with pecans, pears, feta cheese and dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette.

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I had a hard day at work.  I really wasn’t in the mood to cook anything so I was thinking, “What can I make for dinner that is yummy and doesn’t require much from me?”  Luckily it was a nice day, almost spring like, which made me think of lighter fare.

DINNER - Shrimp Salad - Not the shrimp & veggies in mayo shrimp salad, more like the chef salad type of shrimp salad.  (The word salad in the same sentence 3 times - a record?  probably not)  A bed of bagged salad mix dressed in a mixture of 1000 island and ranch dressings and topped with shrimp, tomato, cucumber, avocado and shredded cheese.  I added sliced celery and radish to the salad because I like them.

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I’m having trouble coming up with low fat, low cholesterol, low carb dinner ideas.  I was at the store today and I passed some boneless pork loin chops.  They looked good and I figured I could do something with them.  Of course I figured I could do something with the sole last night and THAT didn’t turn out.  OK horsey, time to get back on and ride!

DINNER - Apple Cider Pork Chops - After trimming the fat off the chops I seasoned and browned them in a bit of olive oil.  I removed them from the pan and added onions, apples and garlic until nice and brown.  I was supposed to add some apple cider, but it was drunk while I was at work.  I mixed some chicken broth, cider vinegar and honey and used that instead, then added the chops back in and cooked them until done.  I served it with a big side salad with French dressing.

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FISH FAILURE!  I know that with new ingredients and methods some cooking failures can be expected.  Especially now that I’m cooking, if not blind, then with reduced vision (and fat).  Tonight’s fish was the perfect example.

There was some very nice Dover sole on sale.  What to do with this thin white fish?  Beats me, but I’ll take some home and come up with something.  My something was fish mush.  Oh well, I will not be defeated by fish.  Sole is still on sale and I will try again (with a different recipe) later in the week.

DINNER - Dover Sole - Thin slices of Dover sole marinated in a garlic herb sauce and baked.  I served it with a side of roasted Brussel sprouts.  Fish mush doesn’t deserve a photo.

Nothing special about dinner tonight.  As I was perusing Safeway for dinner eats I came across some boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the discount meat bin… 50% off!  I didn’t mind buying them because I knew I was going to cook them right away.  I didn’t really have any ideas, so I just made something up.

DINNER - Tomato Chicken - Boneless, skinless chicken thighs, heavily seasoned and browned in a bit of olive oil.  After browning on both sides I added a small can of tomato sauce and put them in the oven to finish cooking.  While the chicken was cooking I sauteed some onion, yellow bell pepper, sliced garlic, mushrooms and zucchini in olive oil to serve on the side.  Nothing special, just a quick, easy after work meal.

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Being President’s Day I had the day off.  I have some leftover whole wheat buns in the fridge and have been talking about trying buffalo burgers for the last several weeks, but sometimes things don’t go as planned.

We went to Costco this afternoon and while we were there D mentioned he was hungry and wanted a burger.  I informed him I was planning on buffalo burgers for dinner, but he said he was hungry now.  As we were leaving Costco he said we’d stop at a little place by our house because he knew he could get a decent burger there.  I was bummed, I was looking forward to a burger but didn’t want to totally go off the dietary restrictions by eating a beef hamburger.  I was steeling myself up for Chef salad or something like it when I glanced at the burger page of the menu, and there it was… buffalo burger!  WhooHoo!, and I’d almost have to have fries with it… come on, it’s a burger!

DINNER - Burgers - I had an 8 oz buffalo burger (I know, 8 ounces!  that’s larger then I would have gotten away with at home) with some of the best fries in the area.  D had a cheeseburger and fries.

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