Old Standby Night

     Tonight, I stuck to a few old standbys ( for me at least).  First, I would like to announce that my freezer is cleaned out.  Other than some bacon and Hebrew Nats,( the only hot dog allowed in this house) there is nothing left in the meat family. Currently occupying my freezer is chicken soup, stored ravioli fillings, pie crusts, wonton wrappers, hamburger rolls and Lean Cuisines , and of course the highly coveted Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter cups that I just recently found again in the Hershey Store, Times Square. These are stashed with the vow to eat only 1 cup a week, and so far so good. Please also note the irony that I have hot dogs, and no buns, and hamburger rolls and no ground beef.
    So to use up my last packet of chicken, I made Parmesan Chicken, Page 356.  This is one of my favorite  chicken dishes, and I have 3 different variations I make, but I think Ruth's choice is my favorite because it's baked. I have made this quite a few times before. The secret to the flavor in this is the dijon mustard coating before it is breaded and parmesaned.  The other neat twist to it is that the bread crumbs are made from an English Muffin.  I happen to even have lowfat high fiber muffins in the house today, so this recipe ends up pretty healthy, no egg, healthy coating, and it's baked.  Of course there is no way around the parmesan in the coating, but I suppose you can cut back to keep the fat down. I admit tonight I cooked the chicken a little too long and it was a touch dry.  Normally this recipe leaves the chicken moist and juicy.  It still did not lack for flavor though.
    The side I chose was the Herbed Spaetzle on Page 241. It's the easiest way I know to basically make fresh pasta,  The dough takes 2 minutes to mix in a bowl and then you just press the batter through a colander into boiling water, and Voila! fresh pasta dumplings!  I tossed with the herbs, salt and pepper and a touch of butter, and tonight I tossed in some frozen peas ( pre-cooked in the microwave) as my vegetable. Dinner was done in under 1/2 hour. 
     And finally, in the effort to keep up with my recipe count, I tried my hand at something new.   We'll see how this goes, but I made the Dark Chocolate Shortbread, page 688.  I was actually out of Dutch process cocoa, and I tried Hershey's Special Dark instead.  This always makes a nice change in my favorite brownie recipe, so I figured, why not here?  It made the shortbread very dark, looking like an oreo cookie.  I am hoping I am lucky enough that it tastes like that.  It is still cooling so I will have to give you the update tomorrow. I will test it on my colleagues and give you the feedback.
     Since I am out of food, I am thinking a bean dish for tomorrow night.  I will be making it to the grocery store this weekend and will probably place a meat order too.   That said, I am open for recommendations or requests of what to cook for the next few weeks.
     Also, now that my son, the Spud, as we call him, is coming home and school is starting, now we begin the quest for lunch food.   I would love feedback for lunches that meet the following requirements: can be served cold, quick and easy to make,offers some variety, and fairly healthy /low fat. We hate to prepare lunch food in this house and the Spud ends up hating to eat it because it shows in what we prepare.  So watch for some thoughts on this to pop up here in coming weeks as well.