What’s for Dinner?

Tonight nothing fancy here either, it being Memorial Day, traditionally not a good day for me. So I tried to keep busy.

Burgers, grilled and cherry smoked.
Crispy bacon
Blue cheese compound butter
deeply carmelized onions

The wife had hers as a bacon cheeseburger w/onions since she can eat bread. I had mine on the onions and bacon with the compound butter. It worked. It kept my mind off of the thrust of the day and was a simple but delicious dinner.

Pork rinds are a snack food that I generally stay away from. They’re ok in small quantities but I’ve never found the regular ones tasty enough to cause me problems. These ones just might change that!

For some reason, I have been having a craving for chicken salad.  I just got a new, easy to hand clean, food processor so decided to see what this not so great cook could do.  I seasoned and baked seven chicken tenders and cooled them over night.  Then I used the food processor to get the chicken to the consistency I wanted.  After that I processed a stalk of celery, a chunk of onion, and a hard boiled egg.  I blended everything together with mayonnaise and put it in the fridge to cool.  As a side I decided on something a bit different for me.  I roasted some asparagus in a few tablespoons of olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, and some freshly ground pepper.  When they got done I roasted some fresh mushrooms that I halved and rolled around in the leftover oil mixture in the pan.  I then put them in the fridge to cool.  When dinner rolled around last night I toasted rye bread for a sandwich of the chicken salad topped with Harvati cheese and used a couple of anchovy stuffed olives for garnish.  For dessert I had a bit of fresh watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew. I was actually surprised that I liked what I had made and will certainly consider doing this again when the weather turns uncomfortably hot.

I made some New England style hotdog rolls yesterday. They turned out great. And yes, there is a wiener underneath all that sauerkraut 

I made some New England style hotdog rolls yesterday. They turned out great. And yes, there is a wiener underneath all that sauerkraut 

Mustard and sauerkraut for the hot dog; ah, Mark, you truly are a man after my own heart.  I have never been into relish or ketchup or any other condiment on a hot dog, though I know things like that are popular.  I suppose it comes from my Brooklyn Jewish delicatessen upbringing.

I made some New England style hotdog rolls yesterday. They turned out great. And yes, there is a wiener underneath all that sauerkraut 

Mustard and sauerkraut for the hot dog; ah, Mark, you truly are a man after my own heart.  I have never been into relish or ketchup or any other condiment on a hot dog, though I know things like that are popular.  I suppose it comes from my Brooklyn Jewish delicatessen upbringing.

Yup, mustard and sauerkraut. How can you improve on that?  

I used this recipe and was happy with it
https://www.theflavorbender.com/new-engl...-dog-buns/

It appears it was a day of folks cooking and I did also. But I stuck to keto.

I recently downloaded a butter fried broccoli and feta recipe and thought at the time, "Why wouldn't that make a good omelet?". So tonight I had breakfast for dinner. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was tasty and I needed to use some of the fruit from our hens.

Tonight I made a low carb pizza that actually tastes like pizza. It's built on a 9" burrito shell that has 30g/carbs, so I can have 1/2 of it. The wife will have the other half in a bit.

edit: I like root beer with my pizza. Yes, over real beer. Finding cost effective keto root beer... well, I found it. I didn't even look for a price since water is heavy to ship, but it does exist. I was considering alternatives. My brother has gear to carbonate and bottle. Then I saw a recipe that uses club soda! Problem solved. All I need is a sugar tasting keto sweetener and root beer extract, and club soda from the supermarket. Problem solved. Now I'll have root beer with my pizza. Slowly I'm learning how to live in ketosis. It'll be 2.5 years in ketosis at the end of this month. I'm still slowly losing weight (my goal is the slow), so maybe I can lose the last 20# that I want to lose. I also like a real beer now and again with my pizza. Michelob Ultra has 3.5 grams per 12 oz bottle. I can only drink half a bottle so that's doable for me. I'll cork it to keep it fizzy for the next time. Tried it and it works for at least the next day.

Not for dinner, but for lunch today, a Thai peanut sauce chicken wrap.

Another good lunch. Pasta with shrimp, mushrooms, sausage, and Brussels sprouts.