Grilled Salmon Burgers & Homemade Cajun Steak Fries!

Today I made an amazing lunch from leftover salmon cakes, and a potato that needed to be eaten before it went bad.

The trick to great fries is to bake the potatoes in the microwave first, then cut them for shape, then fry 'em in oil. I learned this trial and error years ago. These are my first amazing homemade fries!

I buttered one side of each bread slice, but toasted both sides.

I seasoned my fries with:

Cayenne

Black Pepper

Salt

Onion Powder

Fryin' & Grill'n

The best steak fries ever!

Dipping Sauces.

Snack From Last Night

Anthony and I like fruit, yogurt, and granola sometimes as a healthy alternative dessert.

Python Programming 101 w/ The Grad Student Husband

Today UPS delivered to our apartment a BabyTrend Travel Jogger System.

My parents wanted to buy us a stroller for our little one on the way. Anthony's parents wanted to buy us an infant car seat. I ordered this combo off of Amazon to get both sets of parents the best bang for their bucks. I have briefed the parents on my findings, and the plan is they are going to split the price. Of course there are many ways they could split the price! The most obvious way would be to split the price evenly. I was curious though. I looked up what the items cost separately on Amazon.

I quickly jotted down by hand some figures and estimates as to what percentages the parents would be saving. Well, earlier this evening my husband had just taught me a little Python programming so we decided my curiosity would make great Python practice. So that is what we did.

Here is our code. You can try it out for yourself. Of course I did just note that the stroller was $139.00 not $139.99 so alas our numbers can still be more precise lol. But that will be for another day.

Fall Colorful Country Vegetable Plate

I must say that much of my inspiration for this dinner came from one of my favorite American country restaurants, Cracker Barrel. The first part of my inspiration came from the fact that I had a couple of carrots and a potato that were going bad on me. I made a colorful rice pilaf type thing from brown rice, carrots, and the potato. I guess it could be reminiscent of Cracker Barrel's hash brown casserole only healthier. I pretty much made a copycat brown gravy recipe using a sliced vidalia onion and a can of chicken gravy. Then I made my rendition of fried apples.

I used up the rest of our paula red apples. They turn into amazing fried apples. We don't really care for them for just regular eating because they are so soft and tart. I like either a crunchy tart apple or a sweet crunchy apple for regular snacking.

Fast Easy Healthy Salmon Cakes Dinner

Last time I went grocery shopping I arrived home with an item that I had paid for unbeknownst to me, that I had not picked out. The item was canned salmon! Oh my! I couldn't believe it. I'd arrived home on previous occasions, when to my deep dismay I would discover that I had left some items at the store,  which I had purchased. But not in my life had I ever purchased a random mystery item. I inspected the item at once to see if there was anything suspicious about it. The whole situation seemed rather fishy. I mentally noted that there was a salmon burgers recipe on the back of the can. That could prove helpful. My dilemma reminded me of a time when my Mom told me she made salmon patties for a nice cheap meal when she and my Dad were newlyweds, and my Dad was a grad student. My turn had come.

The recipe on the back of the can called for salmon, breadcrumbs, dijon mustard, lemon juice, egg whites, and green onions.

I smashed some croutons and crumbled a hot dog bun to use for my breadcrumbs.

I took the bones and skin off the salmon, then added worcestershire sauce instead of lemon juice. I didn't put any onions or garlic in my recipe. I added a little dijon mustard and a couple eggs. I used a couple whole eggs instead of the three egg whites the recipe called for. I couldn't think of a good reason to chuck the yolks or to save them for later. The recipe said it would make four burgers. I didn't want four big burgers. I made a bunch of cute little cakes so they would cook fast. 

Anthony and I both liked the salmon cakes. I plan to use the leftovers for sandwiches tomorrow.

Hearty Hunky Chunky Peanut Butter Cookies

I have seen some random monster cookie recipes on Pinterest with everything except the kitchen sink in them, including but not limited to everything from trail mix, chocolate, M&M's, peanut butter, pretzels, oats, and bananas. I asked Anthony if he wanted me to try making some cookies similar to Monster cookies or if he wanted classic chocolate chip. He said I should try the ones with everything in them. He did specify however to leave out the bananas. I raided the cupboards for cookie worthy goodies. And here is what I threw together, without a mixer, and without measuring spoons. Sometimes, those are just not my style. Okay, a lot of the time.

I used the recipe on the back of the chocolate chunks bag to gauge my wet to dry ratios for all of my customized ingredients. I also cut the ratios in half because we did not need too many cookies.

Instead of regular butter, I used peanut butter. Instead of brown and white sugar, I just used brown.

Instead of flour, baking soda, and salt, I used part instant oats and part self-rising flour. Instead of the typical pecans or walnuts, I used MauiWowi trail mix (macadamia nuts, dried cranberries, dried pineapples, etc.) and cocktail peanuts. I also threw in an extra egg for more protein, and so that the dough appeared to be more the right consistency.

Delicious. Anthony could hardly stop eating them!

Steak Entree Salads

Step 1) Saute steak. What you will need:

Teriyaki Sauce

Butter

Minced Garlic

Black Pepper

Salt

Step 2) Prepare salad. What you will need:

Iceberg Lettuce

Green Bell Pepper

Croutons

Bacon Ranch Salad Dressing

For those of you who are observant, and might have noted romaine lettuce and gourmet cucumbers in the photo above- no, I did not use them. Therefore, they are not included in my ingredient list.

Another Sack Lunch for Anthony

Thick Ham Sandwich

Toasted Wheat Bread

Chipotle Ranch Salad Dressing

Iceberg Lettuce

Yellow American Cheese

Smoked Ham

I of course made myself a duplicate sandwich which I chowed down on and enjoyed.

Mediterranean Style Pizza

It was already after five, and I had not started dinner. Anthony already had one snack and was getting hungry again. I told him I couldn't think of anything to make for dinner. I asked him what he wanted for dinner, or if there was anything that he didn't want for dinner that he was sick of.  He answered, "pizza." I thought about it. It seemed a little late to start on pizza especially since both of us were pretty hungry already. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for shrimp tortilla pizzas. I looked for the recipe in the freezer and in the refrigerator. Nope, not on the back of the shrimp bag, and not on the back of the tortilla package either. There it was, the shrimp pizza recipe I was looking for was on the back of the mozzarella cheese bag. Once I had my second clue about what to make for dinner- a recipe, the first being my husband's wish, things happened quickly.

I substituted dried oregano and leftover tomato sauce for fresh basil and fresh tomatoes.

Red grapes went along well with the Italian theme.

Garlic Buttered Shrimp & Veggies w/ Brown Rice

Two tablespoons butter, chopped garlic, half a bag of frozen shrimp, half a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables, and rice in a second pot equals dinner.