Guess what I'm having for dinner?

Well, even if you don't want to know I'm going to tell you.  Such is the power of the blog!!  Mwuhahahahahahaha!!!

Ahem.

So I'm having a turkey burger tonight with turkey bacon topped with turkey cheese on a turkey bun.  I may have made up a couple of those.  But there will be cheese and a bun.  And either BBQ sauce or ketchup/mustard/pickles.  Depends on how daring I feel.  I'm also having tots.  Tater, that is.  Swimming pools, mov--- oh, yeah, wrong association.

I dragged my sorry, exhausted carcass to the grocery store Sunday night.  By the way, why aren't grocery stores stocking more romaine hearts, hmm?  The last few weeks (I shop once a week, otherwise the fresh stuff spoils before I can eat it) by the time I made it to the store on Sunday evening the romaine hearts section looked like locusts had descended.  Now I know what you're saying:  shouldn't they be spraying for locusts?  Or maybe you're saying I should just get to the store earlier.  I'd love to.  In fact, when it's not crazy insane-o time at work I usually shop on Saturdays so that I have the option of not leaving the house ever on a Sunday.  Sunday is my day.  Except when it's crazy insane-o time at work.  Then there are locusts.

Although there were romaine hearts at New Seasons on a Sunday evening, but not at Freddy's.  I have to go by New Seasons tonight for my favorite greek yogurt, guess I should pick up some romaine while I'm there.  And then go home and let it spoil in the crisper.  Yep, that's the ticket!

Oh, back to the story.  So, when I was shopping this past Sunday evening I was racking my brain (origin of phrase?  anyone?)  because I realized that for the next couple of weeks I should get stuff that would be easy to fix, otherwise I was seeing a lot of Subway sandwiches in my near future.  The racking occurred because it's been a while since I've done the easy-to-fix stuff; I usually cook most nights and mostly from scratch.  Because I'm weird that way.  And it's typically cheaper and healthier.  The question Sunday was, what the heck do I get that isn't fish sticks?  (We wouldn't want to have another Fish Stick Incident.)

Turkey burgers were one option.  I usually make them with a whole wheat bun, two patties, a couple of strips of turkey bacon, a slice or two of swiss cheese, then condiments per my mood.  Sometimes mushrooms.  I'll usually make oven fries to go with them, and that's it.  Not exactly heavy on the fruit and veg (unless I have pickles or mushrooms), but I haven't died of scurvy yet so I think I'm okay.

Spaghetti with meat sauce was the other thing I thought of.  Again, turkey burger with mushrooms and a jar of Prego (it's supposed to be easy, remember, plus I like Prego) classed up with spices and some red wine.  I've developed a taste for whole wheat spaghetti noodles.  The whole thing gets a few pinches of parmesan. 

But then the siren call of the ham sounded.  And it sounded like this:  "Hey!  You!  Single person!  There's a ham over here for under $18.00!  Come and buy it... you know you want to."  And I did.  Because I love ham.  I particularly love a honey baked, spiral cut ham.  I will happily eat on it for weeks.  I'm not so big on ham sandwiches, the spirals are cut too thick for my tastes (I like shaved ham), but ham with mashed potatoes and gravy?  Or garlic mashed potatoes?  Or -- swoon, swoon -- scrambled eggs and ham?  And at the end of it all, the piece de resistance:  homemade split pea soup with ham. 

Excuse me while I mop up this drool.

Now I know that ham is not the healthiest thing out there.  Pork is good, sure, but ham has all those reputed carcinogens and gobs and gobs of sodium.  I tend to limit my hamming to the holidays:  Easter and Christmas.  (Best thing to come out of Christianity?  Ham.  And chocolate bunnies.)   One year I left my ham buying to the last minute and ended up with Hamzilla.  It was a $30.00 ham.  It was probably 20 lbs.  I have one of those apartment-size stoves and even with the rack as low as it could go the ham still touched the heating element in the top of the oven.  I nearly dropped it taking it out one time, the drippings made it so sloshy.  I would have had very happy dogs if I had.  I filled three gallon ziploc bags with ham, not including the bone that wouldn't fit in any ziploc bag I had.  I think I wrapped it in foil to put in the freezer.  When I made soup with that bone, it stuck at least three inches above the tallest (12") pot I have.  I had to keep rotating it during cooking.

I also got one of those salad kits, since they were out of romaine.  I got a thing of pre-grilled, pre-sliced chicken breast to into it.  It was all very tasty for dinner last night.  I also have scallops and shrimp (shrimp cocktail, shrimp casserole, grilled shrimp, coconut shrimp, BBQ shrimp... I watched the second half of Forrest Gump recently) in my freezer and soba noodles in my pantry.  I figure the turkey burgers will get me through the rest of the week until I have the time to cook (or heat, technically) the ham on the weekend.  Then it's pretty much a hamapalooza for the rest of December.  Or until I get sick of ham.  When that happens, maybe I'll get a turkey.  And that should get me through the first couple of weeks of January. 

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl