Foodies Over 50

A BIT OF FOOD STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

by Marilyn Michael

Here's some food stream of consciousness penned while I was munching on some chips and salsa (btw, we love the Safeway Brand Mango Salsa)...

For dinner I made meatloaf topped with some Kinder's Mild BBQ Sauce (our fav) and asparagus topped with butter and dry Parmesan then browned under the broiler. So organized, I also made mini-meatloaves to freeze in my handy dandy mini meatloaf pan that makes six. Never hard to tempt husband with meatloaf. He reminisces about his mother's meatloaves. (That makes me think of something I heard on the morning news, the plural of beef is beeves.)

I so enjoy cooking, it's amazing given my cooking illiteracy most of my life. I recently won two online cooking classes  from the Rouxbe Cooking School. Looking forward to checking them out. The Cooks Roadmap and Plant-based cooking Level 1.

This stream of consciousness on food is making me think of spanakopita. Can't remember how I got started making spanakopita. Need to make some... so yummy for breakfast. Found that wrapping a cutting board in plastic wrap, taping it tight in the back, makes it easy to work with the phyllo dough.

Cleaned out my fridge-top freezer a while back, so far so good in keeping in organized.

• Have some bags of turkey broth for soup, we like it much more than chicken broth and homemade has less salt.
• Have two bags of shrimp. Made garlic shrimp pasta the other night, yum.
• Have some pizza sauce and pizza dough and chunks of Mozzarella. They're the other half of the sauce and dough I made for our Shrimp Portobello Pizza the other night. Never knew till later in life how easy it is to make homemade pizza.Have a bag of hamburger which I mix with sautéed sweet onion before freezing into small baseball sized rounds. Easy for tacos, hamburgers, quick breakfast hash, sloppy joes, etc.
• Have my bag of mini meatloaves.
• Have some chicken thighs; make tasty fried chicken strips that I've gotten good at making with Panko crumbs. We dip them in Bleu Cheese Dressing. Reminds me, I've got to make some Tandoori Chicken Salad, get a craving once in a while.
• Have a bag of small sweet rolls which fit just right in those snack zip bags without zipping, then I put them in a gallon zip bag, keeps them better.
• Have popsicles, husband's big on them these days.
• My veges are from Trader Joe's, a bag of Asian Stir-fry Veges (a quick fix with the chicken), a bag of Soycatash (mixed veges with edamame, love edamame, and a bag of peas. Made Tuna and peas, celery and onion in cream over toast the other night. And love a pea, pecan, water chestnut salad mixed with mayo.
• And finally have a couple large chunks of fish, salmon and cod that a friend who has a cabin in AK gave us.

Well, there you go, just what you needed, an inventory of my freezer, probably did it more for me than you, lol. I think a writing acquaintance, who is an expert on Once A Month Cooking and freezing ahead, would be proud of me. No actual entrees frozen, but pretty prepared for numerous dishes.