Weekly Gourmet

Lent is coming! Try this one for your "Fish On Friday." Do you guys ever wonder what I make when the rest of normal people everywhere go through a drive-thru? First of all, I can't patronage places with misspelled words like "thru" so that's off the table for me already. Secondly, nowadays these places idiotically list all their calories on their menus. Who is this helpful to? People who watch their calories' heads explode when they see these numbers. People who don't watch their calories don't care how many calories are in their fried crap. Maybe like medium people? Like 14 year old boys who want to beef up? Are the calorie listings for them? They note these for their files? It makes no sense to me, and further, causes me to order one small frozen yogurt every time. Frozen yogurt does not a meal make. SO, therefore, I have come up with a whole list of Liz-Friendly Fast Foods, such as the recipe I have here for you. This meal is finished in ten ...

Today is Tuesday. Probably Taco Tuesday for you, but for us, it's Lentil Soup With An Egg In It Tuesday a/k/a Vegetarian Torture Day! Don't stop reading! I swear, lentils are friends, not tiny beads of torture. They are a delicious, inexpensive source of protein with endless shelf lives. Paired with an egg? This is a DOUBLE protein meal if you think about it. Like putting a chicken wing on top of a hamburger patty. Or "surf and turf with a spoon," if you will. AND, since it's such a healthy dinner, I let everyone dip warm, crusty garlic bread in it. My kids are much more amenable to trying fearsome foods while their hands are filled with hunks of bread, like little edible carbohydrate safety blankets. Actually, the middle kid brought lentil soup to school in a pink princess thermos today. She may have a bit of a bathroom situation later tonight, but I still giggle thinking about her like a small Sicilian peasant child in a kerchief, spooning in her lentils, hoping...

Today is Wednesday. Somewhere amidst spelling words, and piano lessons, and a sweet Lincoln Logs building-sesh, all these people here wanted to eat dinner, yet again. What's a busy working mom like me to do when she needs to make a Lincoln Log garage, plus get a healthy dinner on the table, and she only has time for... oh I don't know... say ten ingredients or less? Fewer. Well Amy of Geneva, IL, let me show you the feast you can make your family with just ten ingredients (not including salt, pepper, and water. Don't even start with me.).  Timing for all three dishes: Prepare butternut squash per instructions. Now prepare honey mustard topping for salmon. Now spend 25 minutes playing with your phone or getting a jump-start on the dishes (HA!). I n tbe last five minutes or so of squash bake time, p reheat the broiler. Top your salmon fillets with the glaze. Remove squash from oven and put in the salmon. When salmon has been in for ten minutes, add squash back in, to bottom r...