AKathy's "What's For Dinner?" 9/5

Good morning! I ended up with a much slower day today. An 8 am meeting, but then everything else cancelled and no meetings tomorrow which is great. I was on fire at this morning's meeting but now my brain seems to have switched off into vacation mode. Saturday morning, we will leave for up north. Dinner tonight and tomorrow will be clean out the fridge dinners. So whatever we can dream up. I might make some bean and barley soup with kale.

I'm a little nervous that they will cook too fast since the heat seemed higher in the Instant Pot but I'm home all day and can watch them and take them out early if need be. 

Good Morning!

I am on a conference call. It has given me a headache...

Tearisci I am happy to hear your dad is home.

I have a busy couple of days. Our Relay For Life event for American Cancer Society is Saturday. I am part of the event leadership group so we are getting things ready to go today and tomorrow.

Dinner will be rechauffe.

Today has been a difficult day here in Munich. At about 9am, police were called to an area near the Israeli consulate and a museum documenting the rise of the National Socialist movement here. There was an exchange of gunfire, first shots from a young man carrying an old military weapon, then the police returned fire and he was killed. It has been revealed that he was an 18YO Austrian, known to police. It is being treated as terrorism. Today is the anniversary of the 1972 Olympic attack in Munich during the Olympic Games here - at this stage, police don’t know if that was a deliberate choice - but it probably saved lives, as the Consulate was closed for a memorial service. It really hit me as the court building where I was with my friend yesterday is only about 5 minutes walk from there. If this had been yesterday, we’d have walked out of the court into the chaos of this. I’ve been trying to distract myself from ‘what if’s’ with trash TV and knitting.

Dinner tonight is spinach and mushroom risotto. DH has just messaged that he is on his way home, so I’ll start meal prep soon.

sueg there was an article last week in the NYT about how in Eastern Germany there seems to be some kind of right wing political extremism. Any chance that was related?

It doesn’t appear to be the case. The former East Germany has a particular problem with political extremism, in both directions, and they had elections in two states a week ago. The results were a real concern, but at least seem to have pushed the centrist parties to take action.

The perpetrator of this attack is an Austrian, who lived in Austria. He was known to Austrian police and there are links to Islamic extremist groups. Given the date today, and that the Olympic attack was by a Palestinian terror group, that seems to be the most likely reason, though we might never know as the gunman can’t tell anymore.

Tearisci I'm happy to hear that you're dad is home !

No plans for today but work on my planner and puzzle. We might go play bingo tonight at the club house.

Dinner will be whatever leftovers we have in the fridge.

sueg that’s so unsettling especially since you were there yesterday.

I’ve been hit or miss here the past week so I didn’t realize your dad was still hospitalized Tearisci

Dinner is possibly going to be cheeseburgers and something else

I hope it is okay if I join your dinner posts. I think it will help me focus and plan out my meals more effectively. I have been just working away all day and then notice the dog is following me around, looking at me with anticipation and wagging his tail when I look at him. I ask what he wants and he gets all excited and runs into the kitchen, looking at the countertop where I dish up his food. Oops. I don’t pay attention to the clock like I guess I should. I hope posting on the dinner thread will make me plan meals in advance. The last two nights I have been so exhausted that I just had a piece of sourdough toast with peanut butter. Not the wisest meal choice. I usually make a quick smoothie when I haven’t prepared anything, but I am out of bananas in my freezer. I have tried just having almond milk and the protein powder and it is watery and awful. I will be ordering a triple batch of bananas this time. As long as I remove the peels and get the bananas into a ziplock bag in the freezer within two days when they are still firm and fresh, they will remain perfect for protein shakes for a full month.

I sat for almost an hour last Saturday filling out an Instacart order for Costco. I tried to place it and I got a notice saying all delivery people are busy filling orders and to check back later. I realized it was Labor Day on Monday and Costco might be closed, which may be the reason they were extra busy. I tried again on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and there were no open delivery times. I have used Instacart since the beginning of the pandemic and this was the first time that I received a notice like that. I started checking back every half hour or so and couldn’t get a delivery time. I tried again early this morning thinking I could be one of the first for the day. Same message.

I couldn’t understand what was going on. Then it hit me. I had added a bottle of wine to my order for the first time. I very rarely drink due to my pain meds, but my doc said a single glass once in a while is fine and it just sounded good. I wondered if delivering alcohol required a specially permitted driver. I know that I had to be home when the order anrrived and ready to show my driver’s license, which was fine. I removed the wine from my cart and tried again. It worked! There were multiple available delivery times and my order is arriving this afternoon. So, if anyone else gets this same notice, that they don’t have an available delivery person, remove any alcohol from your order. I wasted 5 days.

As for what I will have for dinner tonight, I am always exhausted from hauling the groceries in and putting them away, on top of my hauling boxes in from the garage for a few hours, so I usually order a rotisserie chicken just to have something instantly ready to eat with no fussing. I have lots of frozen vegetables that will be quick and easy. My pup anticipates getting the meat from a chicken leg when he sees me bringing the Costco stuff inside, so he will get a chicken leg instead of his Farmer’s Dog dinner. I find it so much easier to remove all the meat from a rotisserie chicken while it is first delivered and still warm, so I will be doing that before I fix myself some dinner out of it. Then I spend the day after an order arrives steaming up most of the vegetables, frying onions, sautéing ground turkey, and packaging them for the freezer. And I usually making a pot of broccoli cheese soup. I know my doing the grocery shopping once every month or so creates a lot of work and preparation for the next couple of days, but when I have the items precooked and packaged in the big garage freezer, assembling meals throughout the month is so much less effort and faster.

welcome Lexica!!!!

the girls are packed mostly and sitting around for the day --flight out tonight.

dinner out last night was in a bit of a sketch neighborhood.. parked in attended garage. and the dinner was exceptional.. a california take on russian food. everyone was happy and the special drinks were good. the owner came over to check on us. not a big place.

so it was a happy birthday for my twins.

so dinner tonight is a total mystery. dh is bugging me about all the undone tasks.. but I need to get my house and life back first. we have to go to airport at 7 pm.

True that. Welcome Lexica. I cannot be the only one who is glad you got your groceries, but sad you're not getting your wine treat! LOL!

I am the queen of turning pork chops into shoe leather. I've tried multiple recipes. I guess I just don't really like pork chops!

Welcome Lexica! As others have said, there is not a lot of dinner talk here but we have fun and are a supportive group.

Thank you ladies! I am not cooking near as much as I used to do. And when living alone, I can make a few pots of different kinds of soup, separate them into individual servings and be good for quite a long time. And I do love a good soup. I am back to trying to lose some chub, so soup is nice and filling without being overly calorie heavy. So even if I do cook, it isn’t necessary to do it very often so I won’t feel inferior among everyone here.

jeremysgirl, I was sad about my nice bottle of wine too, but there is a Walmart nearby and I can slip over there easily enough.  I miss having several Trader Joe’s nearby.  I have picked up some nice wines there in the past.