What's for Dinner

oven fried catfish, leftover saffron rice, kale and a salad

Homemade pasta, homemade sauce made from the garden and homemade sourdough bread.

Last night and this weekend are clean out the fridge of leftovers.

Last night had the remaining gluten free rotini and remaining corn. Tonight will be the renaining stir fry beef that has garlic Parmesan sauce. Tomorrow will be the remaining four season and one herb chicken I made on Thursday.

I should open a can of veggies and split it between tonight and tomorrow night.

chicken cutlets, deviled cauliflower and a salad

Eggplant parmigiana from scratch

baked salmon, leftover saffron rice and a salad

pork chops, tortellini with roasted cherry tomatoes, lima beans and a salad

that was the last packet of roasted cherry tomatoes in the freezer - and this year's plants won't start producing for over a month :-(

That one just wants to be given constant accolades for minutiae.

About a week ago, Mongolian was mentioned. Impromptu, I came up with something as close to Mongolian as I could.

I had to grab a few things at the store, so grabbed beef stir fry strips while there at the store. I mostly cooked the beef stir fry strips and drained off the fat. I added garlic Parmesan sauce that I had here at the house and heated half of the leftover corn from last night. The stir fry beef was pretty good.

That meal was about as close as I could get to Mongolian or Asian as I could get, with what I had on hand.

All of that...

All of that is simple nutrition mechanics. Higher density food takes up more space in the stomach and takes longer to digest, versus low density, easily digestible food.

I have been at the food game a long time; learning from scratch what is taught in elementary school through to what nutritionists and personal trainers focus on for optimal health. That is how I found the multi-generational gluten intolerance in my family in July 2022.

For a long time, Phobert's Wife has been wanting me to eat my vegetables. Now that I have the health stability and can do better for myself, plus the bird brain idea I had yesterday, all of the research that I have done of food and nutrition and boiled it down to simple mechanics, I am beginning to purchase more dense food and less carbs or protein overall.

I was a carboholic from puberty up to July 2022, when I found the gluten intolerance. I shifted what I ate to mostly protein and starch from July 2022 until the last few months. Now, I am slowly cutting down on the starch and protein and incorporating vegetables. I know I need to incorporate fruit as well; I will get there.

It takes time to put weight on; it takes even longer to take weight off and maintain that lost weight long term. Diets and fad workouts are only a short-term fix. If someone does not change what they consume, then their diet and fad workout is a waste of time.

As a testament of what I have been doing with the deliberately slow changes: I have shifted from high calorie/high fat/low density foods to lower calorie, lower fat and higher density foods over a gradual and long period of time. I have cut out processed foods (pork based foods,) but once in a great while will have pork, i. e. sausage, bacon, etc. My salt intake was generally low with adding it to food overall, as I ate so much crap to begin with. Because of getting away from prolonged stress and not eating salty food, my blood pressure has gone from long term prehypertension to long term statistically normal. At the start of 2026, I was a steady 227 pounds. Now, I average 215 pounds and my pants fit better.

owcangrace - "We totally agree with this and have seen large health improvements when we changed to a protein centric, low carb diet."

By default, in order to get the amount of protein suggested AND keep calories reasonably low, you almost have to go low carb to achieve this.

We totally agree with this and have seen large health improvements when we changed to a protein centric, low carb diet.

Multi-ethnic restaurants are cool and we have a few by us. One does American and Chinese. They used to be known for their prime rib but closed due to mismanagement. A Chinese family bought them and they hired back some of the original cooks and do a good job with both cuisines.

We also have an American and Greek place, and an American and Portuguese place close by. All are pretty good and nice to have the variety.

If you want to do a healthy experiment on getting full and staying full, ask Google, "How much protein per pound should I consume to maintain my muscle mass at 48 years old?". You'll get a range. I can almost guarantee that if you pick an amount in the middle of that range (say 0.6g/lb = 129g) and manage to consume that much protein in a day, you WILL get and stay full. It's also possible you'll drop weight doing it.

You can use ChatGPT to get a rough idea of the macro makeup of food (i.e. 2 cups gluten free rotini, 1 cup meat sauce, 1/2 cup canned corn = ~720 cal / 28g protein / 108g net carbs / 17g fat).

I think most people would be shocked at how much protein this actually is on a daily basis. I know I was when I first started looking into this, and the only way I can get that amount some days is with a supplement.

FWIW - My body weight tends to react negatively when my carbs > 100g/day. This one meal already exceeds that, but everyone processes food differently.

Yard work postponed because of lousy weather so Phoebert treated me to a trip to the yarn store (30 miles away in Gadsden) and dinner out!

Tried Nola's Clover a few blocks from the yarn store. No alcohol at the moment as the ownership & name change is very recent and their new liquor license has not been issued. Not sure the kitchen has quite mastered the merger of the two menus (Cajun from Nola's on Second and Irish from Harp & Clover) but it was pretty good and a nice change from our usual.

Phoebert had shepherd's pie and I had a salmon BLT - and of course both of us had side salads.

I had a bird brain idea today that turned into a lofty goal. But, that lofty goal starts with eating healthier...

Dinner tonight was at a reasonable dinner time. I started making dinner about 5:45PM and dinner was ready by 6:15PM. I had three separate pots on the stove at one shot. I made gluten free rotini pasta and heated meat marinara sauce and canned corn. With putting an even amount of pasta as corn on the plate, I lightly coated the pasta and corn with Parmesan cheese and had a sensible dinner. Surprisingly, I am full and have leftover in the pots if I want seconds.

Cube steaks, potatoes O'Brien and a salad.

chicken cutlets, leftover pasta in Alfredo sauce, broccoli and a salad

That sandwich sounds like it is drool worthy!

Big Canes fan here! Hoping Pittsburgh takes the flyers to 7 games while we rest and heal after that brutal 2nd period! Watched them all as playoff hockey is soooo much better than the regular season.

Today, I'm having some leftover bean and ham soup.

Attended a small town play last night. Actually, a musical. Afterwards, found a small bar & grill that had a phenomenal grilled cheese with smoked pulled pork, and sautéed jalapeños. Coupled with a great dark local beer and my lovely Lady, that was probably the best simple sandwich ever.

leftover eggplant involtini, green beans and a salad

Not grilled and not wings, but, chicken thighs are in the oven with my usual four season and one herb mix. It should be ready in about ten minutes from my typing of this.

I too am watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. The second period of Game 4 between the Senators and the Hurricanes, that was ugly and vicious! I have the Wild and Stars on at the moment and then will watch the Flyers & Penguins, with the Flyers potentially sweeping the Penguins tonight!

So awesome.