We are LOVING our unusually warm fall. Wouldn't mind some rain..but can't complain as my flowers are all still loving soo lovely! We are cooking up Cranberry Chicken tonight.

lucille, how do you make your "unstuffed" cabbage?

I’m making pizza tonight. Last night we had lentil soup with bacon, corn and kale, Tuesday, chicken a la king (cream sauce with sauteed mushrooms and fresh peas) in vol au vents. We used to have that for dinner often when I was growing up and I’m feeling nostalgic.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/235997/unstuffed-cabbage-roll/

I have diabetes so I avoid rice, so I use this recipe where it is optional.

Thanks. Similar to what I do when I make stuffed cabbage soup. Only I use chunks of pork, add beef broth, fry up the onions in bacon, and add dill which is a must in our family for it to taste like stuffed cabbage.

We’re having tortellini soup with sausage and spinach.

It will be nearly 80 today and sunny! My DD's are dropping by for Mahjong and we will dine out first. Greek small plates, outdoors!

Going to be like summer today! Was hoping to make Escarole Soup, but instead we are having leftovers. Salmon over salad

Meatballs with a fresh tomato sauce from what may be the last tomatoes from my 'salad' planter. I'd planned it for last night and a neighbor dropped off beef stew, perfectly seasoned. He likes to cook, is home earlier than his wife and will bring us dinner unannounced about once a month or so. The cookware he brought it in was new to me, called Anyday and after I'd transferred to a pan on the stove to reheat, saw lettering that indicated the whole unit lid included was microwave safe. I looked it up and may order a couple of pieces, would be so nice for leftovers - no need to put in glass container for microwave use - it's already its own glass refrigerator storage, oven and microwave safe.

I had garlic bread in the freezer and it was a perfect stormy day for stew.

There is one coffee sized mug of the stew left that I may have for my lunch today 😊

You all plan better than I do, I’m trying to decide what to have for today’s breakfast.

Yes, it is going to be warm here too for the next few days-- but I have a cold and feel miserable. Pretty sure I will have a grilled cheese and tomato on rosemary sourdough.

I made soup at mom's house last week (including unstuffed cabbage roll soup, Lucillle!) but I left it in her freezer. If I get a burst of energy, I'll make chickpea, kale and orzo soup... but that seems unlikely atm.

I was going to make chili last night but we ended up going over to DS & DDIL’s house so DH could help them install a chandelier mid afternoon. They had bagels and fruit etc, so we weren’t hungry for dinner when we got home. So chili tonight, and later in the week I’ll make my first soup of the season (vegetable soup, as we are detoxing after vacation).

Our whole family is going to Portland ME this weekend to visit DD so the detoxing will be put on hold for the weekend. So much good food there.

It will be 82 degrees here today in NJ. So weird!

No idea what's for dinner (DH is in charge of that here), but I have spent the last few weekends making some Thanksgiving food for the freezer. We leave on vacation this weekend and for my own piece of mind, I needed to get a lot done before we go. Thanksgiving cooking is always a marathon here. I am in charge of appys and dessert. DH does the main meal.

So far I have the following in the freezer:

Appys so far:

120 borecas (little potato filled dough things, similar to perogies; recipe from DH's grandmother's Sephardic cookbook). I hate making these things but I love eating them.

Spinach frittata

Desserts so far:

Chocolate mocha cake - 3 layers of cake done and in freezer. I make frosting and frost cake day before

Coffee cake - my son's favorite.

Apple cake - a new to me recipe. Decided to do this instead of apple pie. Hope it doesn't suck!

Tiramisu - never froze it before. I usually make it week of. Mrs Google tells me it can be frozen. Hope she's right.

A few more appys and desserts made the week of, but all the hard work (looking at you borecas!) is done.

Hope you feel better soon, Funkyart.

It's beautiful a beautiful fall day here today, with a high of 74, so we are grilling pizza. Sorry you are sick Funky, but your grilled cheese on rosemary sourdough sounds delicious!

Thanks guys-- just a cold but I am a whiner lol.

BASS (Big Ass Shrimp Salad) Loads of vegetables, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black olives, sliced hard boiled eggs on top. Hubby always has enough for huge bowl for breakfast the next morning ❤️

I'm having fresh Petrale sole piccata, steamed broccoli and cauliflower (both are so tasty right now) and a kale Caesar salad. TJ's has the best vegan Caesar dressing in the refer cases. I'm not vegan (obviously) but really like the dressing. I went to a restaurant not long ago where their Caesar was with kale...chiffonade cut, so it was just this beautiful, light and easy to eat. I'm not always a fan of raw kale, but this is my new favorite way to eat it..a few croutons and some parmesan.

A gorgeous day here in MA, and the workmen are busy outdoors moving a large lilac. I think I am giving up on cooking for tonight due to a disastrous beef stew the other day.

jsk - do you poke thin apple slices down into the batter of your cake before baking? My mother did that - yum!

I'm trying to increase my protein intake to over 100g a day, which is harder than it should be; tonight it will be lots of steelhead trout, with potatoes and tomatoes.

IF I remember to start it in time, I’ll have a sous-vide boneless pork chop and turnip greens. I think I’ll set an alarm right now to remind me to start the sous vide. It takes several hours, but it is all hands off! I might fancy-fy it by stirring up a quick sauce of cherry preserves and a skosh of red wine heated together.

Preparing to be out of town for a few days, I’m letting the fridge get pretty bare.

I don’t know what my HUSBAND is cooking tonight, lol lol lol….. if he golfs, then I’ll have a salad. He’s taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

debra

I was browsing the Aldi‘s seasonal section this morning and a speciality pizza caught my eye — it has goat cheese, balsamic vinegar glaze, red and yellow peppers, zucchini, and spinach. I’ll add fresh sliced mushrooms to the toppings.

We’ll have a salad with it and a glass or two of Pinot noir.

Temps will be in the 80s today; it’s supposed to be 90 on Wednesday. At least the mornings are cool.

Mid 80’s for us today. I’d be happier with mid 70’s. We’re having pork tenderloin with a plum sauce that’s about as easy as it gets…and so good!

If this freaky HOT weather is making the house hot, I'll have grilled chicken thighs marinated with Tradees sweet ginger sauce but I WAS planning an oven meal since it IS practically November. That would be the thighs in a mushroom sauce , grilled Traders little red potatoes and baked apples in maple syrup.

@Toronto Veterinarian, I’m trying to increase my protein intake too. According to the charts, for my age and weight, I ought to be eating ~75 grams of protein a day. That is very hard for me to do. I suspect I’m getting less than half that, not for any reason except I don’t like a lot of the foods high in protein. I applaud your goal and hope you achieve it!

We have left over baked chicken I'm making into tacos!

54F here @ noon....a little chilly!

jsk - do you poke thin apple slices down into the batter of your cake before baking? My mother did that - yum!

This recipe called to cube the apples and fold into the batter. My concern is my cubes were not a uniform size even though I tried. Hoping there aren't any too crunchy apples in the cake. But, as I usually make about 8-10 desserts, if it stinks, there will be other options!

Soup, even though it is warming up today - I have vegetables and greens that need to be used up. Shocking, I know, but I will use a can of Campbell's cream of chicken and one of cream of broccoli, a can of cannellini beans, and the rest of my bag of broccoli slaw, the rest of the bag of Kroger "very veggie salad starter" (cabbage, carrot, romaine), fresh spinach, some mini peppers from the garden (maybe), and some sweet corn from the freezer. Plus anything else that I might think of. That will make enough for a couple of meals.

I've been thinking for a few days of making a pumpkin pie. I still have a 2-cup bag of very sweet pumpkin in the freezer, and it won't be long before it is time to freeze more.

It’s 28F here today, North Central Alberta, and we’ve had a light dusting of snow, but it’s not a snow that will stay on the ground. I’m having salmon and feta caper aioli at a restaurant this evening.

I’m staying around the house all day waiting for the county new furnace inspector to show up. They’re supposed to be here between 9 am and 3pm. 🙄

Happy day to all!

@bbstx, I've started making morning smoothies with 37g protein in an unflavoured protein powder, which does help, and I make egg white bites (Instant Pot if you have one, bake them if you don't) that I add to salads - they're pretty benign in taste and texture - and they help too. My sister eats a can of tuna in a salad for lunch every day, but I don't like that taste or texture. It shouldn't be so hard that we have to come up with ways to hide protein in our meals.

Went to Lexington earlier this afternoon to sell some used books. Then met my daughter at a Mexican restaurant near her home. I've been craving cheese enchiladas for about a week. I should've just made them myself. It wasn't great. I picked the meal with a burrito, beans and rice. Was full from chips and salsa so only ate the mediocre enchilada. Gave the other stuff to my daughter to take home. So, tasteless compared to mine. Mine are Americanized but so good, to me anyway. I now feel like a nap. Couldn't sleep last night so didn't get up until 11 am. If I eat again it will be a tiny bowl of beef bourguignon I took out of the freezer yesterday.

Edited to say, that I just remembered I made dough for English muffins last night. They're rising in my cold oven right now. So, I guess I better go get that bowl out and form the muffins and cook them. I may have one of them tonight for a late night dinner.

I put half of a boston butt in the oven to slow cook all day before I went to bed this morning to make pulled pork, which I did before I left for work. SO will have his as a sandwich with a loaded twice baked potato I made, I will just eat the meat alone with pickles.

Toronto Veterinarian, I have a hard time getting enough protein too, even though I always make sure my meals for the most part are protein focused. The trouble for me is balance. I feel like a lot of times, if I am to meet my protein goal, I will have to either forgo nearly every other type of food or I will eat way too many calories. There is also a limit to how much straight protein I want to eat at one time. When I am at less than half my protein goal for the day, at the end of the day, I will sometimes drink a chocolate Premiere Protein Shake. Its got 30 grams of protein in it and tastes ok, as far as these things go.

" I feel like a lot of times, if I am to meet my protein goal, I will have to either forgo nearly every other type of food or I will eat way too many calories. "

Yes! And I feel like my mind is always thinking about how to build in more protein.

However, I did make dough for pretzel rolls tonight, because if I'm going to limit my starches, I'm going to really enjoy them. I'll boil and bake them tomorrow.

I’ve just never learned to like smoothies. Now, if there is a way to add protein to wine…I could get on board with that!

LOL .. Same, Bbstx, same!

🍷👍🏻!!!

" Now, if there is a way to add protein to wine…I could get on board with that! "

Why not? It's unflavoured, so you should be able to add it to anything. Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he adds schnapps or tequila in his smoothies.

My smoothies kind of taste like nothing, but they're cold, nutritious, and have a good texture to them. If I leave out the spinach, they're much more berry flavoured, but they're probably better for me with the spinach in them.

Cooking? Dinner? oh yeah -- we used to do that. Maybe tomorrow. We've been doing more eating out or take out than usual because we were working on a community festival that was yesterday. DH had an event in town and they ate down there. Maybe we'll be up to cooking tomorrow.

We had our third and final meal from the Costco rotisserie chicken.

The first night was the roasted chicken, the 2nd was chicken salad, and last night was a comfort food chicken and stuffing casserole.

( we do not eat them on consecutive nights).

Salonva, my daughter was wanting to make some things from a rotisserie chicken last week, and was heading my way for a visit. Since we both live alone she asked if I wanted half of one. So, we had chicken soft tacos together, and I made a couple more with my half and put some in a box mix of brocoli cheese Rice A Roni I had made. Chewie got a little bit too. Besides chicken soft tacos my favorite way to eat leftover rotisserie chicken is in a sandwich with lots of crunchy iceburg lettuce and American cheese.

Chili!

Everyone has been buying pot roast ingredients at my side hustle. Making me think long and hard about that one. Sounds great. I've also seen a lot of cabbages and I would love to make a hamburger and cabbage soup. I already have frozen, chopped onions, celery, and carrots for soup making.

“We had our third and final meal from the Costco rotisserie chicken.”

Those chickens are such a tasty convenience. I’m using some tonight for a Mexican lasagna. I almost always have one on hand for so many things, including the carcass for stock.

Tonight : turkey burgers, his on a brioche roll, and mine plain. Grilled veggies, onions ,zucchini, and mushrooms and lemon red potato salad.

Butternut squash and sage risotto.

Wondering about 'protein goals'. Don't we all eat too much already? Is it due to some health conditions?

" Don't we all eat too much already? Is it due to some health conditions? "

A lot depends on your age and hormonal status.......post-menopausal women, for instance, generally will lose muscle mass as they age, so they need proportionally more to maintain (or rebuild) those muscles. Most adults need about 0.8g/kg of body weight, but it's recommended that children get about 1.2g/kg, and post-menopausal women get about 1.2-1.4g/kg body weight.

I don't know if most people eat too much protein, though most are probably eating too much meat.

Thanks for the explanation.

Made some stuffed bell pepper "casserole" tonight with ground chicken instead of ground beef. It is delicious. I don't ever recall using ground chicken before, only ground beef and turkey. It's cheaper than ground beef and thought I'd give it a try. I used tomatoes and bell peppers from my garden.