menu for two

{the menu}

monday: no dinner

tuesday: filet mignon

wednesday: chicken fingers

thursday: greek panzanella

friday: pork souvlaki

saturday: honey mustard chicken

sunday: carrot ginger soup

what really happened

{monday} We were out thrift shopping (yay!) and had a late lunch at Red Robbin, so I didn't make anything for dinner. That place will fill you up no problem. I really think Red Robbin has the best burgers and the steak fries are great. I've never been disappointed with them. I had the Banzai Burger and Idle Husband had the Bacon Cheeseburger with yam fries. Their tower of onion rings was really tempting us, too, but we both knew we'd never be able to finish it plus a burger and fries. Secretly, I want to order just the onion rings if we go again. I feel an onion ring craving starting to build up (stupid onion ring picture).
{tuesday} We stopped at Superstore casually the other day just to get some Greek chips (bad), and we happened to come across the motherload of beef tenderloins. I haven't seen them there since I found that one for Idle Husband's birthday. We bought two just so we'd be guaranteed to have plenty of filet mignon steaks around just in case we wouldn't find tenderloins for another 6 months. We also decided to forgo vegetarian Tuesday so we could properly celebrate the renting of our old house. Huzzah! We collected our first month's rent. Anyhoo, I also threw together a sort of onion and mushroom topping to go with the steaks. It was all very delicious.
{wednesday} homemade chicken fingers as scheduled! I did not bow to temptation and bake up some more of the store-bought ones. I also used up an old potato for some baked fries. Doesn't it make you sad to cut up a potato that's happily growing on your counter? It kinda makes me sad. Poor potato. He never saw it coming.
{thursday} I bought french bread this time instead of baking it myself. It was less hassle and I didn't feel guilty about it since crusty french bread is only $1 at Superstore. I did, however, feel like the salad was too bready. I used the right amount, but the bread overwhelmed the salad portion. So I either didn't use enough vegetables or I should reduce the amount of bread cubes next time. Also I friggin' love that salad dressing recipe. It's just oil, vinegar, and dijon, but I love it so much more than store bought. I've been trying to find a good dressing lately, and anything I try, I get so sick of after a couple weeks of using it. I think I'm going to start making my own.
{friday} Idle Husband wanted to give me a vacation from making dinner so we had beef Shawarma (the only one worth having, just fyi). I had actually planned for the souvlaki dinner, so I put all the marinating ingredients with the pork and shoved it in the fridge for Saturday.
{saturday} Pork souvlaki is the best thing ever! I must've cooked more pork this time, I don't know what happened, but we didn't finish all of it. There were only about four large chunks left, but it was just really surprising that we didn't stuff it in. They were really great cold as a snack at lunch, though!
{sunday} I decided to scrap the honey mustard chicken. I can make that some other day, and besides, I was really not in the mood for chicken. Unfortunately, that meant that I didn't take out any chicken stock to make carrot soup. Did I tell you that when we moved, I went microwave-less? Yup. We had a big one that took up half my counter space at the old house and when we decided we were moving, and everything was a done deal, I started keeping track of exactly how much I used the microwave each month. Quite honestly, some months I wouldn't use it at all. Sure, I'd have weeks where all I did was defrost things in there, but those weeks were few and far between. I don't like cooking in it (that was mom's go-to appliance. Sorry, mom, but you kind of scarred me for life with microwaved brussel sprouts -- though her microwaved BBQ chicken was pretty good) and we rarely have leftovers, so I decided to only use my toaster oven for reheating instead. Dilemma! All my stock is in plastic containers and I didn't think it would be very smart if I put plastic in my toaster oven (that sucker gets super hot, even when it's just on toast). I put it in a double-boiler type contraption at first until Idle Husband expressed concern over melting plastic, so I abandoned that for submersing the container in boiled water instead. It worked like a dream. The rest of this soup was easy. Four carrots boiled in the stock until they softened, some ginger slices, puree, serve. My carrots weren't that tasty, so I added some sugar to the soup. Carrot soup should taste sweet in my opinion.