menu for two

{the menu}

monday: meatloaf and sweet potato salad

tuesday: grilled cheese

wednesday: baked hotdogs

thursday: pizza

friday: apricot roast chicken and vegetables

saturday: gyro

sunday: applesauced pork chops

what actually happened

{monday} My regular meatloaf recipe, good as usual, except I didn't use a whole pound of pork, so it didn't stay together as well. The sweet potato salad idea came just because I've had a sweet potato sitting around on my counter for way too long. The salad itself was really delicious. I never have cilantro, so I used up all of my green onions (which were starting to look sad anyway). I also used red wine vinegar instead of cider as that's something I don't have either. Also, for myself, I added one quarter of a preserved lemon peel. Idle Husband doesn't like preserved lemon (I can sneak them successfully into flatbread, though!) so I didn't add it to the entire salad. I really like that pop of citrus with sweet potato so I kept it on my plate and added it as I needed it. I think it's nice, but it took me a while to embrace the flavour. It's a lot different than what you know lemon peel or zest to taste like, it's definitely an acquired flavour.
{tuesday} We had a few slices of meatloaf leftover, so I sandwiched them between bread and cheese with a squirt of ketchup and grilled them up the same as grilled cheese. Best idea yet. I swear, they tasted like little burgers. I actually started calling them flatburgers. It makes me want to make a meatloaf, cool it and slice it, and just keep it in the freezer for flatburgers. You don't need buns (something I never have), the meat is in a loaf shape so it fits the entire bread (none of that weird, now I'm eating bread and ketchup experience you get when you put an actual burger between bread in a no-bun situation), and I used the flat plates on my grill to squish them down and cook them which left a really delicious crispy exterior and everything was cooked together so we didn't experience any meat or cheese sliding out of the bread. I honestly think that if you add all the condiments in this including tomato and lettuce and then grilled it, it would be the best thing ever. I might put flatburgers on the menu one of these weeks to test my hypothesis.
{wednesday} This is the first day of Idle Husband's vacation! Don't be surprised if you notice more meat and more go-to, easy dinners for the next week or so. It's harder for me to plan and cook new meals now, so it's easier just to go with the dinners he really loves instead of taking chances with... eggplant meatballs (for example). I really felt like hot dogs and Idle Husband had bacon on the brain, so I combined baked hot dogs with a slice of bacon. I couldn't really taste the bacon, honestly, and I used chicken hot dogs, so it wasn't a case of pork on pork. I also bought a can of beans for myself and added those to the tops of my hot dogs only. It was good and filling. I could only eat two.
{thursday} I still wanted to be true to vegetarian day, so I made half the pizza using these salad pizza ideas (which I've wanted to try forever) and the other half I covered in meat and bacon as per Idle Husband's request (also known as the usual pizza we always have). My salad pizza was really good. I topped my side with tomato sauce, cheddar, purple onions, broccoli, a little garlic, and tomato slices. After it came out of the oven, I added thinly sliced lettuce, a little dab of ranch dressing, and some veggie spice. Delish!
{friday} I used this recipe as an idea for dinner. I didn't print it; I didn't follow it. I just remembered jam and did my own thing. So I spooned some peach jam directly over the chicken and rubbed it all around with some salt and pepper. I thought it was delicious. It wasn't a strong jammy flavour, it just had a mild sweetness to it. Idle Husband didn't like it as much. I don't know why. We also had salad (as usual) and I roasted up the last of the cabbage with the chicken. The peach jam really added to the roasted cabbage making it extra delicious.
{saturday} I was going to do vegetarian until I got the stink eye. Gyros it is.
{sunday} This was just an excuse to get rid of my last container of apple sauce. Originally, I was going to sear the chops in my cast iron pan, and let them finish in the oven while I made an onion/garlic topping with the apple sauce, but Idle Husband wanted to make them himself, so I had him cook the chops completely right in the pan instead. Then I served the applesauce as a condiment. He didn't try it, but I liked it. I did realize that I'm not a huge fan of applesauce. It's good, but I'm definitely not inspired or interested in it at all. I guess it's nice to have around if you want to use it as a substitute in baking, but I can never plan far enough ahead for that.