BeeZee

well, the store where I took my macaron class just before COVID shut down is closing, too bad...I enjoyed the class. They should be able to survive selling product online.

my canteen was serving junk food for lunch today. Had some peanut butter filled pretzels and a couple of spoons of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream. Just not in the mood for real food.

I have used Banza chickpea pasta shells for a cold salad - it has similar taste to a whole wheat pasta - but I don't recall if I had leftovers to say how it held up past day #1.

Did my weekly grocery shopping so I picked up some fresh Arctic Char (filet). Roasted in oven, seasoned couscous from mix, big salad.

mid-morning after exercising...cut up nectarine and red grapes with a dollop of ricotta and some toasted almond slices. When it's hot I only want to eat fruit. Have a lot of leftover (mediocre supermarket) ricotta to use up, I think I'm going to make muffins.

Larger zucchini are good for stuffed prep, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. I have also grated and sauteed, cook for a while to get some of the excess water out, then add aromatics.

Half scratch, half purchased. Made eggplant rollatini (online recipe, don’t recall source) which has you bake the slices until softened, then rolled around a simple filling of ricotta, grated lemon zest, and a bit of salt. I added a little fresh basil since I had it. Baked on a bed of tomato sauce, a nice summery version, the lemon zest really makes it. Fresh spaghetti (nice rough surface, good chew) and breaded chicken cutlets from supermarket, just needed to reheat.

Cooked indoors, too wiped out after golf to be in the heat. Sauteed shrimp, “Asian” slaw, brown rice, bottled coconut peanut sauce from Whole Foods, peanuts for added crunch.

It is very hot and uncomfortable today, went grocery shopping early in the morning. Hubby is currently grilling so we have everything cooked and will reheat or eat cool later when I get home...boneless chicken breasts (jerk style marinade), yellow squash (sliced into thick planks), Vidalia onion, Yukon gold potato chunks cooked in foil packet with garlic/olive oil.

Just for Jo...limes at my Shoprite today, two different sizes.

Olive studded sourdough from the freezer (toasted up nicely) open face tuna (pouch) with a drizzle of balsamic glaze...nice offset to the salty. I'm not a fan of mayo.

Shop Rite has small lobsters on sale, considering buying a couple and having them steam them for me. I won't deal with cooking live bugs at home. I've made a cold lobster salad once before that had a simple lemon vinaigrette dressing if I decide to just crack and pick rather than eat immediately.

The two that I shop at do, must be a bad produce buyer at Montgomery.

Strangely, when grocery shopping yesterday, there were no loose yellow onions. They had white onions and sweet “Vidalia” onions, but I think yellow onions only in bulk mesh bags. And the canteloupes, wherever they have been coming from, have looked awful. At least the stone fruit is OK.

Cottage cheese, peach, toasted almond slices.

Cooked indoors due to thunderstorms...salmon fillet (brushed with mixture of balsamic glaze, grainy mustard, honey), sweet potatoes (white flesh, purple skin) that were par-cooked whole in micro, then sliced about 1/2” thick. Placed them on a sheet pan lined with non-stick alum foil, brushed with oil, a drop of agave syrup, aleppo pepper, salt. Steamed asparagus in the micro.

Had a bit of leftover rice from last night’s meal...so did a combo rice/riced cauliflower “fried rice” with shrimp, celery, and snow peas.

Stopped in to Whole Foods near my house today, I haven't been inside a WF store since end of Feb or beginning of March. Went a little nuts in the produce, it all looked so good. Altufo mangoes, Rainier cherries, heirloom tomatoes, apricots, bananas, baby eggplants, 4 pack of mini cucumbers. Couple of dry goods items that were on sale. They had aisles marked for one way traffic, to be honest I didn't notice that until I was a couple of aisles in, so I may have violated...but the store wasn't at all crowded at 10:30-11am. Definite holes in the stock on the shelves (particularly the snacky items). I did not look at dairy, seafood or meat since I wasn't prepared to buy anything that needed to be kept cold. All baked goods (muffins, cookies, rolls) are individually wrapped in the display case where you'd usually grab one with tissue paper. They have emptied out the salad bars/hot foods bars...had some more pre-made and wrapped sandwiches than usual for take out. The sushi area was still making rolls. The outdoor seating has been removed, which I guess is so they don't have to worry about people moving their chairs too close together.

Pasta salad...little shells, grape tomatoes, TJ’s marinated grilled artichokes, red bell pepper, pesto (used some of the artichoke dressing plus red wine vinegar to thin it out). Shredded rotisserie chicken breast. I ate it over a bed of lettuce with a little balsamic glaze.

I may need to make use of many of these ideas, I was given a shopping bag packed with various lettuces from my coworker, no way this is going to last in salad form.

Coworker, when he gave me garden lettuce last week, included broccoli and cauliflower leaves. He warned that they were tough, but he likes the flavor. I enjoyed them destemmed/deribbed, torn into little pieces and cooked in a risotto, they maintained their integrity (unlike spinach leaves). Next time I might julienne and add to a stir fry mix.

Hamilton is the one closest to my house. Peanut Paradise is my favorite flavor...vanilla with ribbons of peanut butter and little chocolate bits.

Yesterday was DH’s birthday, he got to cook his own dinner😎. Ahi tuna steak and asparagus on the grill (I liked how the tops got crispy). I made a rice/quinoa pilaf. Went to Halo Pub, local ice cream shop, for dessert, ate our dessert in the car.

Not much effort after being out playing golf...came home and put a couple of small turkey tenderloins in some prepared marinade, let it sit an hour. Yellow squash sliced in half, some oil, salt, onion powder, balsamic glaze drizzled on top. Button mushrooms with same, but left whole. All grilled, served with salad. The turkey was good because it was natural/non-injected, and cooked up perfectly by DH...overcooking it makes jerky.

you know what, my husband has a bad habit of assuming the fridge and freezer doors will fully close themselves all the time...I should probably get some alarms for my peace of mind. Preferably something that sends me an alert on my phone so when I'm at work, I can tell him to close it.