What do your meals look like (show me pictures)....

acpgee

Grilled baby gem with ranch to start. Rice with Cantonese fish/shrimp paste stuffed peppers and aubergines drizzled with black bean sauce as a main. We are having some repeat dinners this week to use up stuff in the fridge before we go on vacation Monday.

acpgee

A grilled baby gem with ranch as a starter, again. Hubby made Dutch zuurkool stampot (=mash with sauerkraut) and I warmed up some salt beef and peas we had in the freezer in the microwave. When I bother to do homemade salt beef sous vide I do a couple of kilos in a bucket and freeze the portions we don't eat on day one.

LazyBlondeChef

Slow cooked leg of lamb with oven roasted vegetables: potato, carrot, Brussel sprouts & fresh thyme. Lamb slow cooked with onion, garlic and fresh rosemary.

acpgee

Our first dinner on vacation in Bologna. Ate at a traditional mom and pop trattoria. We shared the mixed veg antipasto followed by secondi and veg sides. Finished with shared panna cotta.

janicemlove

Roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon over rice.

LazyBlondeChef

Salad: iberian cured meats, manchego cheese, little gem lettuce, cherry tomatoes, castelvetrano olives spritzed with olive oil.

acpgee

Restaurant dinner on day 2 of Bologna holiday. Starter of vegetarian antipasti platter followed by steak with porcini. We also ordered the grilled vegetable side but won't be doing that again due to overlap with the vegetable starter.

LazyBlondeChef

Fish tacos with refried black beans.

acpgee

Day 3 of vacation in Bologna. Tonight we shared of starter of deep fried julienned vegetables with little deep fried meatballs. My main was grilled veal. Shared veg side of sauteed chicory.

MdmAcolyte

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans ~ It was delicious

acpgee

Day 4 in Bologna on vacation and the first time we had pasta at dinner time. We shared the vegetarian main as a starter, and I followed with tagliatelle with ragu.

LazyBlondeChef

Reverse seared steak finished with butter, garlic & thyme with pan fried potato, carrot & onion. After searing the steak we poured the remaining butter/herb mix over the vegetables. We also marinated the steak with a smoked whisk(e)y.

acpgee

Day 5 in Emilia Romagna and we went to Modena where we went to a Puglian cafe for lunch. A nice change from that heavy Bolognese food.

acpgee

Day 6 in Bologna. We are leaving soon and feel the need to try the local specialities we haven't had yet. Starter of crescentina with cold cuts and a mild cottage cheese. These are little pillows of deep fried bread dough people cut open and stuff with cheese and meat. Heavy starter so I hardly touched my main of pork knuckle. We shared a side of friggione (=stewed onion and tomato) meant to be eaten on it's own.

acpgee

Last dinner in Bologna. We told the trattoria we were sharing the pasta (gnocchi with gorogonzola) and secondo (veal with asparagus) and they split the portion into two plates. Sides of sauteed spinach and roast onion.

LazyBlondeChef

Chicken thighs pan fried in butter with fresh thyme, pesto spaghetti with artichoke hearts.

acpgee

Last meal in Bologna before heading to the airport. We shared the peasants vegetable side, and I had cappalletti with butter and parmesan. If you are in Emilia Romagna and want a cold coffee in hot weather a shakerato is great. Thats two shots of espresso shaken with ice with a tiny bit of sugar and topped with milk foam.

acpgee

We brought home a lot of charcuterie and a little cheese from our Bologna holiday. We weren't careful about checking sell-by dates and the two packs of smoked tuna need to be used up this week. I made a salade nicoise with one pack today. Will probably do sushi rolls tomorrow with the other pack. Any ideas for the two packs of smoked swordifsh slices that need to be used up before the end of the month?

LazyBlondeChef

Went out for cajun food for lunch today: crawfish étouffé over rice, garlic bread and gater bites. Since that was fairly caloric dinner was light with a veggie salad with sliced almonds and a very small portion of brisket burnt ends pulled from the freezer.

acpgee

We brought charcuterie home from vacation in Italy on Monday and some of it needed eating this week. I made nori rolls using smoked tuna, and brined beef slices with some miso soup.

LazyBlondeChef

Chilean sea bass and sea scallops with veggie medley sauté.

acpgee

Thai chicken green curry pulled out of the freezer, roast shallot, Chinese steamed aubergine salad (unattractive colour due to using soy sauce instead of salt0 and rice.

LazyBlondeChef

Reheated slow cooked leg of lamb from the freezer & mashed white potatoes (skin on) with lamb gravy (lamb juices pulled from freezer) and a Salad Starter (courtesy of Kroger) mediterranean salad dressed with olive oil.

acpgee

Antipasto dish of storebought smoked swordfish from our vacation haul from Italy. A few thin slices of bottarga a girlfriend brought back for me from vacation in Greece. Some tomato/avocado/red onion salad. Afterwards we had a primo of potato gnocchi with brown butter, sage and parmesan.

When I first started making gnocchi years ago it used to take half the afternoon. I have now got it down to 20 minutes. Cook the potatoes for 10 minutes or so in the microwave, remembering to prick them first with a fork a few times to prevent explosions. Use a potato ricer on halved potatoes inserted cut side down which also separates out the peels so there is no need to peel hot potatoes. I use half an egg to 2 baking potatoes or a whole egg for 4 baking potatoes. You can freeze excdess formed gnocchi in a floured baking tray before transferring to ziplock bags once frozen. Besides the egg I add just enough flour and knead lightly to make a workable dough (as little flour and kneading as you can get away with for the lighest gnocchi). Roll into sausages and slice every 2cm. I skip the step of making indentations with the prongs of a fork to form ridges to get them to hold more sauce as I typically want my calorific sauces to stick less instead of more. Drop into boiling water. They are done when they float back to the top.

cmsienk

Friday lunch: homemade chicken vegetable rice soup with a ciabatta roll

LazyBlondeChef

Went out for happy hour (Mexican food place) and had papas locas. Fries with beef, shredded cheese, guac and sour cream. I ended up only eating about half of it. My partner will eat the leftovers with a couple of fried eggs tomorrow morning.




I love that this restaurant uses fiestaware like I do
@cmsienk looks like you too like fiestaware

100_Rabbits

I was too lazy to really cook today. Frozen chicken and veggie dumplings in a pack of egg drop soup base, without the egg added. Threw in some green onion because I had it. It ended making so much I had to use a salad bowl for it. Not bad for 320 calories.

acpgee

Dinner party at a friends. Tapas spread. Their 12 year old did a dessert of apple crumble that wasn't photographed.

acpgee

Beef rendang cooked sous vide, Thai pomelo salad, rice. We had some leftover tofu so I air fried that and pulled out some roasted shallots I made earlier this week from the freezer to test whether it is a veggie side that freezes well. They warmed up well in the microwave.

CarolGaGal