dry spell

I've been low on ideas lately. On Sunday, we were busy all day and by the end of the day nobody wanted to cook. We ended up with takeout Thai food, again. On Monday, Mike worked late, so no family meal, and we worked on leftovers. Last night, we snacked on a baguette, brie, and wine, to unwind, and I still felt on strike from cooking. We managed to avoid junk though by making a big salad with raspberries, cucumber, and a bit of the leftover grilled flank steak and onions. Satisfying. Tonight, I still need an idea desperately. All set for tomorrow though, since company is coming!

BLOCK PARTY!

We had a nice welcome to our new neighborhood with our 1st of the apparently annual block party. I forgot to take any pictures, but after a few hours of watching kids frolic in the blocked-off-street, we had a feast! We'd been informally instructed to "bring a dish and your own stuff to grill". I brought only fruit, and our sausages, and began salivating when I saw what the neighbors contributed. Tomato-mozzarella-basil stacks, a delicious "taco salad", 2 kinds of homemade cabbage slaw, pasta salad with feta, and of course summer usuals like watermelon, cherries, and all kinds of things on the grills. We piled our plates full of the salads and each had a sausage alongside. It was a sweltering, humid day with thunderclouds threatening overhead, and the kids had a wonderful time. We have some nice new neighbors, too!

the husband cooks too

When it's grilling, it's all Mike. We had flank steak, rice, and asparagus. Simple. Satisfying. Last night we ate out. We test drove Hondas until too late to cook, so we sampled El Burrito Mercado per the recommendation of friends. Good food, nice people, a great place to bring a kid. We'll go back!

company chicken

Since Mike requested this meal repeatedly over the last couple days, I finally complied. At least it got the broccoli finished off. Again, I'm underwhelmed with my meal planning. I tried to make this meal a little more classy by using all-natural organic canned cream of chicken. What makes it good is the cheese, cream, and buttery bread crumbs melting together with the celery. 

stir-fry, again, blah...

After reviewing the contents of the fridge last night I settled on another stir-fry for tonight, thereby avoiding a trip to the grocery store. Chicken, broccoli, a little cauliflower, leftover water chestnuts, and of course onion, garlic, and ginger. I was kind of dreading this meal since I was totally unthrilled about it.  With a nice pot of green tea on the side though it ended up satisfying enough. However I've only been blogging a week and already my meals look repetitive to me.

stumped

No inspiration tonight. We finished off the curry and the pizza. Now if only I had an idea for tomorrow night.

pizza!

We threw together a pizza after returning home tonight from a weekend in Madison. The crust for some reason wasn't as good as usual, but even mediocre pizza is still pretty good.

Otherwise we ate out a lot over the weekend. We started out with Culver's on the road on Friday night. Yum, butterburgers... delicious if not the most nutritious choice. On Saturday we had a group dinner at the Eldorado Grill where I tried to make up for the burger meal by going meatless again with spinach enchiladas. I may have negated that goodness with a stellar margarita however. We passed on dessert to head home for Mom's homemade cherry pie with ice cream! Ah. Food brings so much pleasure, doesn't it?