What's for dinner, DL?

[Lady Door]

I've had to clean out a freezer and fridge after two weeks of a power outage and evacuation. Does that count?

Freezing stock works if you use stock some of the time, but not often enough that buying one of those resealable containers would be worth it since it'd go bad by the next time you needed it.

Seriously... if you have to be told not to freeze something just because it's freezable, there are other issues at play. Protect against four-year-old steaks: clean out your freezer!

[Cotigo]

Fortunately, my freezer is too full of body parts for that to really matter.

Body parts and Otter Pops.  Best Freezer Ever.

[OblivionKnight]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem.

In my ultimate quest to design the ultimate healthy tasty dessert food, I have created...

Peanut Butter Chocolate Super Fibre and Protein CHOCOLATE BALLS OF DOOM!!!

5 minutes prep, put them in the freezer, and it is JUST AS PLANNED!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem.  I haven't baked in ages, so I am just happy >_>

[Bardiche]

It can't be "ultimate healthy" if it features chocolate.

[metroid composite]

It can't be "ultimate healthy" if it features chocolate.

Chocolate in and of itself is not necessarily unhealthy.  The stuff you get from vending machines with a gallon of sugar poured in is unhealthy, sure, but my parents actually got advice from their doctor to eat some chocolate (they get the pure unsweetened stuff for the purpose).

[metroid composite]

Puberty is making me hungry a lot more often; I feel like I need to go from 3 meals a day to like...5.  It's also changing what I eat--I've gone from toast with peanut butter in the morning to yogurt and cereal, with an omelette + sausage every other day.  I used to love Orange Juice, but recently it's tasted different (and not just one glass, multiple brands and multiple different bottles).  I'm not really fond of the new taste, so I think I'll drink it less.

In other mc food news, I think I'm going to shift away from the pre-bottled pasta sauce.  I forgot to buy it this week, so I just had ground beef with a few chopped fresh tomatoes, which worked fairly well, and it occurred to me that with 8 more tomatoes I could pretty much substitute chopped tomatoes for pasta sauce.  (And it would be cheaper--I have a local vegetable store that sells tomatoes for $0.99 a pound, so I can get two pounds of tomatoes for about $2.  The bottled pasta sauce is $2.50- $4.50 for slightly under two pounds of sauce which doesn't taste as good as fresh tomatoes anyway).  Granted, it will be really, really chunky and not very liquid as Pasta sauces go, but I can live with that.

[Ultradude]

Fresh, homemade pasta sauce is always the better option. My parents both make their own sauce, slightly chunky, with canned tomatoes and tomato paste; I'm sure they could do similar with fresh tomatoes and a little more time and effort. Of course, if you like a smoother, thinner sauce you can probably find some fairly simple recipes, though you might need a food processor to make it come out like the jarred stuff.

[Lady Door]

Homemade pasta sauce is so easy. It's a short hop from what you're doing now to a finished sauce. A little bit of pureeing, a little bit of seasoning, heating/cooking, and serving! Totally worth it, especially if you already are in the habit of doing half of it.

I've given up on trying to cook everything at home. It was too ambitious. I need to wean my way into it. So I've compromised, done some shopping at Trader Joe's and Safeway for some basics and some pre-packaged goods, and I'll be slowly working my way into it. I made an awesome chicken chili two weeks ago that I will have to do again, and I have a recipe for corn chowder I want to try.

The only real downside to the chili is that it makes SO MUCH FOOD. I think it was good for 7-8 servings. When it's just the two of us, you know... At least it saved and reheated well.

[Lady Door]

Dried beans are a pain in the ass.

Making this: Southwestern Bean Salad with Black Beans, Black-Eyed Peas, Peppers and Cilantro

It will be my lunch for the next few days, no doubt. Also because I am dumb and forgot 2 cups dried !=2 cups cooked, I'm going to have a hell of a lot of black-eyed peas to deal with after this recipe is made. Off to the internets to see to what use they can be put.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

No flesh anywhere in that thing? Inedible.

[Lady Door]

Most black-eyed pea recipes call for ham. I don't have ham. So... bean salad!

I like beans. Andy hates them. This is irrelevant, just thought I'd share.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I like beans, too, but meals without meat tend to mean I don't even touch the plate.

[Lady Door]

Fair enough. I don't even pay attention to such things except with sandwiches. Veggie sandwiches are very to me.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Man, veggie sandwiches are borderline inedible even past my carnivorous habits.

(Also, I'd like to see you two trying your hand at making feijoada one of those days. >_>)

[NotMiki]

Veggie sandwiches, eh?  If by veggie sandwich you mean eggplant cutlet sub, which is just like a chicken cutlet sub except for the obvious difference, then that's fine by me.  If you mean baguette with spinach leaves, a little olive oil, and some avacado and fresh mozzarella, then that's fine by me.  If you mean toasted bagel with veggie cream cheese, a slice of tomato, and melted muenster, then that's fine by me.

But you better not mean sliced cucumber on white.

[Shale]

Veggie sandwiches just need something sufficiently substantial to anchor them. A particularly heavy cheese, eggplant, avocado, something. You can't just rip the meat out of a standard hoagie and call it a sandwich.

[Grefter]

Your definition of sandwich has to much shit on it.  You ruin the perfectly (awesome) experience and texture of a very minimal sandwich with one kind of spread and either some cheese or a basic condiment on it.  Simple sandwiches are not just for children, they are for maximizing the pleasure of flavour and texture of a few basic ingredients instead of raping it with plants and dead flesh.

Also this just in, Snow loves a bit of meat on his plate.

[Cotigo]

Actually, simple sandwiches are for when you have 1/4th a head of lettuce, three slices of ham, a bottle of mustard, and 20 slices of bread.

True story.

[NotMiki]

Your definition of sandwich has to much shit on it.

Yeah, your definition of sandwich?  around here we call that "bread."  And we do it with only one slice, because two slices of bread plus a little spread and a slice of cheese in between is too damn much bread.  Gotta keep that ratio in the 4:6-6:4 range.

It pains me to hear you making such a good argument about flavor in support of such a silly result.  Seriously, how many bread/spread/cheese combinations wouldn't be improved by a slice of tomato?

[Taishyr]

Your definition of sandwich has to much shit on it.

Yeah, your definition of sandwich?  around here we call that "bread."  And we do it with only one slice, because two slices of bread plus a little spread and a slice of cheese in between is too damn much bread.  Gotta keep that ratio in the 4:6-6:4 range.

It pains me to hear you making such a good argument about flavor in support of such a silly result.  Seriously, how many bread/spread/cheese combinations wouldn't be improved by a slice of tomato?

All would fail to be improved, honestly. But that's more a result of the tomato than anything else.

I disagree with how much bread Grefter proposes but otherwise find his conclusion far more appealing.

[Grefter]

As much bread as is required to feed your hunger may be used (4 slices is good times).

Bread/spread/cheese combinations can be improved with a slice of tomato if you want to ruin the texture and flavour of the bread by putting something moist and soggy that will seep through it.  That said some extra stuff is acceptable.  Say a BLT or something is a bit overly much for my tastes, things on it is kind of pushing it, but there is some sane attempt at keeping it down.  You get sandwiches with 3 kinds of meat, lettuce, tomato and down here they will put fucking Beetroot on anything you let them.  At that point you are ruining perfectly good bread by piling on bullshit.

That said, best sandwich, Bread, margarine/butter, Tomato Sauce.  Followed up by a freshly made plain Honey sandwich.  Simplicity at it's finest.  You get the texture of the bread, the flavour and stickiness of the honey all smoothed by the margarine.  Blissful. 

[Ultradude]

Around these parts, cheap ass bread is merely a vessel for DELICIOUS MEATS AND CHEESES.

Unless it's like, rye or pumpernickel, then you can pile on anything you want without overpowering the bread. Believe me, good ham and good swiss cheese will neither overpower good rye bread, nor be overpowered by it. Lettuce adds a nice bit of cool crispness if that's your thing, mustard... eh, a thin spread won't hurt the rest of the sandwich.

Your sandwiches by comparison are like... light breakfast food.

[Cotigo]

Tomato?  Ruins texture of the bread?  Toast it.  Don't take 2 hours to eat it.  Problem solved.

[superaielman]

It pains me to hear you making such a good argument about flavor in support of such a silly result.  Seriously, how many bread/spread/cheese combinations wouldn't be improved by a slice of tomato?

Philly steak subs/sandwhiches? They're much better with onions/green peppers/mushrooms/hot peppers.

[Dunefar]

Tomatos have a worthy place in cooking, but it's not in sandwiches. Ugh.