What's for dinner

Am I the only one who struggles with "What's for Dinner?" The question is in my head from the moment I get up in the morning until I've come up with an answer. All to often I give up and we go out to eat, which of course simply changes the question to "Where should we go?"

So I'm determined to make it easier - have a plan.So I actually made a list this past week and made only 1 trip to the grocery store, which is huge, I usually run there every day or two.

I actually love to cook and like my food better than most restaurants. However, I love to do lots of things so I don't always have the time or energy for much cooking so most nights I want something fast. My family is mostly vegetarian (not vegan) (hubby = meat eater). We eat fairly healthy, but not super healthy.

Anyway, here's the list I made for the week, just in case you need some dinner ideas, maybe there is something that there that sounds good to you and it can ease some of your burden by answering that elusive "What's for Dinner?" question.

* BLTs (Made with Morning Star bacon), chips and fruit

* Black beans and rice, plantains, and Avocado Salad

Used lots of Goya products here. To make the black beans, I just heat and stir
in Goya Sofrito, used the frozen Goya plantains, Avocado Salad: Avacado,
tomato, lime juice, salt, pepper, parsley (or cilantro)

* Pasta salad and fruit

Pasta Salad, add whatever you want to the pasta, veggies, nuts, cheese, toss
with a store bought salad dressing or something homemade like some olive oil,
red wine vinegar and salt and pepper.

* French Onion Soup with the toasted french bread and swiss cheese, and salad

I use the Lipton Beefy Onion Mix Soup Mix. Did you know there was no "beefy"
in beefy onion soup?

* Veggie fried noodles, fried tempeh, salad with Ginger Dressing

Since I already had rice planned this week I decided to fry vermacelli noodles
instead. I use peanut oil, fry and chop up some egg, fry some chopped up
veggies (I used red pepper, snow peas, and carrots) add in the cooked noodles
and I like to fry them until there are crispy area, add in some soy sauce and
a splash of cooking wine.

* Pierogies and salad

I was going through some of the recipes my grandma had saved and noticed she
had saved a lot of pierogi recipes so I decided to give one a try. The one we
tried was filled with cabbage and cream cheese. They came out good and
everyone liked them. These did take a long time to make and made a big mess
in the kitchen, but it was fun to try something new from scratch.

Now I'm off to make my list for next week and go to the grocery store - my reward - going out to dinner at Iron Cactus :-) (I have a Groupon)

I didn't take any pictures of food, so I'll post a picture of a doll I found at the Austin Antique Mall this past week.