Three salads and a soup

Boring but useful: that's a label we used to give a certain kind of story assignment -- one you had to write but didn't really want to.

That's the way I feel about my decision to have three salads and a soup for the backbone of our summer weekly menu. It works, but I don't even want to talk about it.

About a month ago I planned to discipline myself by writing the week's menu in this blog. Yay! Then you too could eat boring but useful dinners, without even planning.

What happened is that we are actually eating this way, but the planning is slipshod.

No excuses!
Here's what I learned so far:

Mom's slaw with fish and rolls, Greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, olives, feta) with shrimp, steamed asparagus with lemon and salt with hard-boiled eggs,  chicken salad, sharp greens like dandelions with fried eggs and smoked paprika, tuna and white beans and roasted red peppers ...

Soups: chili, lentil with ham, lentil without ham but with brown rice and frizzled onions, pumpkin and lentil.

Big dishes: Mom's spaghetti and meatballs, chicken cutlets in the oven topped with some bottled sauce (There are lots of these now -- we like Thai.),  grouper with tomatoes and olives, easy chicken Parmesan with tomato sauce and noodles or polenta.

I am experimenting with spending less time in the kitchen. I kind of miss the old way of messing around, humming tunes and chopping and stirring. To be continued.