For the Birds

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I cook a lot, but I don’t cook a lot of stuff. Does that make sense? It will.

I am a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Unfortunately for my family and their diet, when I cook I cook like a meat and potatoes kinda guy. There are only a few dishes that I am competent enough to prepare without supervision. If I had to pick a favorite it would be boneless chicken breasts. In the oven, in the air fryer (that’s been my go-to since the early days of the pandemic lock down), once in a while on the gas grill outside (though that often ends in fiery destruction), and on even rarer occasions in a frying pan on the stove.  I could seriously have chicken for dinner every night and not complain once. 

Side dishes are a little more varied, but I get into ruts in that area too. Lately it has been instant mashed potatoes or instant stuffing (Stove Top) or maybe a canned veggie. Sometimes I get a little more elaborate and air fry some mini potatoes or a fresh veggie. For a long time (before my gastric bypass surgery) it was almost always a quinoa and stir fried vegetables thing that my wife taught me to make. My new stomach and I have a tough time with quinoa now though so if I make it I can’t eat it. Jen likes it though so I have no problem making it, and I should make it for her more often.

In the interest of mixing things up, for the last few weeks we have been using one of those internet delivery meal prep services a few nights a week. Jen signed us up for Dinnerly. So far we’ve been very happy with it. They send us a few meals on Fridays and we usually cook them together. Jen does most of the heavy work, but I help her where ever she needs. Even with the service, most of what we make is chicken. Chicken is my favorite thing to eat as well as cook. Just call me a bird brain, right?

Stab

Jen ordered Indian takeout for dinner. We brought it into the living room and put our plates down on a couple of tray tables. I reached out to pull the little table close to me and accidentally knocked the steak knife onto the floor where it……..

Yikes!

Veggie Dinner

My wife is amazing.

Was it yesterday or the day before that I wrote something about being curious about vegetarianism and how that would work in a post-gastric bypass world.

My beloved bride saw that post and hit Google looking for some vegetarian recipes. Tonight we had one. It was a fried potato and eggs dish and it was excellent. The clear take away for both of us is, “yup, I’d have that again.” Now while it will never make sense to me that chicken eggs are considered vegetarian friendly, it was a really good dinner.

She also shared a couple more recipes with me. We might have those later in the week, or maybe wait until next week. Neither of us has any intention of going full veggie. Consider us veggie curious. Let’s see what happens next.

Trying Something… Maybe

The kids are here and I am about to cook dinner on the grill. I am thinking of trying something that I haven’t tried since before the weight loss surgery. I am thinking of having an actual hamburger. Like burger patty and a hamburger roll, together.

I am afraid, but I think I am up for it.

Wish me burger-luck.

Don’t Do it Again

The last time I was in the office I sat at the same desk I’m sitting at right now. When I left for the day I forgot my laptop charger and had to drive back in the next day to get it.

Robert… moron… whatever you do… don’t forget the damn charger again, m’kay? Forgetting your laptop charger is bad.

On a mostly unrelated note, all of this extra working from the office stuff has thrown my personal, internal calendar into complete chaos. I have been 100% convinced all day today that today is Friday. Guess what. It’s not Friday. Not even close. Tomorrow is Friday. It’s just plain old Thursday.

I was hoping this weekend could be a total downtime weekend. I don’t think that’s possible. I want to finish hanging the blinds and curtains and make the last couple of changes to the bed room setup. I also want to put together the tent/shed thing we bought for the back yard. Unfortunately it’s going to rain all weekend so that’s out. I have four songs that need to be finished by the end of the weekend, so there will be music in the car and at home. I still have to finish writing two of those four songs. Way to wait for the last minute, Robert. Dope. Next month’s music plan is a full 10 song album in a month deal using my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I haven’t even plugged in yet. Dope.

It’s looking more and more like I will be able to work from home for the second half of the day. Fingers are still very much crossed. My stomach started acting up about half an hour ago but it was just one of those, hey dope you are hungry stomach aches. I ate a snack and now I am fine. I won’t get home until well after 2:00pm so I am not sure what to do about eating lunch. I’m hoping for some chicken and maybe some french fries, but I don’t want to ruin dinner. It’s crazy how reliant I have become on being able to cook lunch and dinner at decent, routine times, and how shuffling those times even a little bit messes me up.

I am hoping I’ll be leaving the office at about 1:45. Fingers intensely crossed. I wanna go home. Just don’t forget your charger, you dope.

Quinoa Returns

Today’s Hello Fresh meal included a quinoa side dish.

It was my first bite of quinoa since the surgery. It’s been almost 11 months. After having a plate full of it 3-4 times a week (at least), I have returned to the land of the quinoa…

…and it was delicious.

Hello Fresh

My portions are still teeny tiny gastric bypass sized, but this is the fanciest meal I’ve had, I think, in almost a year.

Hello Fresh arranged it and shipped it to us, and Jen cooked it. The tilapia is delicious.