A Monday Grocery Run

It was time to stock up on some pantry items, so a run to my regular grocery store was in order. I picked up some meat that would need attention once I got home, but that suited me just fine. After all, I prefer to add my own seasonings to the meat patties.

I decided to indulge my husband's fondness for Sandra Lee's Apple-Maple Turkey Burgers by making a more reasonable variation. I didn't have any applesauce on hand, so these will just be Maple-Mustard Turkey Burgers.

Here I have the ground turkey, black pepper, salt, yellow mustard, bread crumbs, maple syrup, onion and garlic.

A little of this, a little of that, and we are ready to mix. Ground turkey is much 'looser' than ground beef, so it is helpful to have the bread crumbs to help 'stiffen up' the burgers.

My digital kitchen scale comes in handy so that I can get uniformly sized patties.

Finally, the patties are sealed in a vacuum bag and put into the freezer until needed. Do yourself a favor and date and label the contents. There is nothing worse than playing guess-the-contents of this container when trying to put dinner on the table.

Now, on to dinner.

I found a recipe for Cranberry Pecan Orzo Salad that I wanted to try. Unfortunately my aberrant culinary behavior kicked in and I was unable to follow the recipe as written.

To wit, I had only about 1/2 cup of orzo on hand and decided to forgo the wild rice. I adjusted the remaining ingredients accordingly (and don't ask, as I was in the dump and pour mood that evening).

My remaining ingredients are olive oil, honey, black pepper, Craisins (tm), green onion, celery, pecans, salt, lemon and orange.

I toasted the pecans and chopped the celery and green onion. The dressing ingredients were also combined according to the recipe directions (kinda, mostly, maybe).




The orzo salad is ready for the diners.

Now, it's time to move on to the meat. I purchase two beef top blade steaks and began trimming the fat from the meat.

The meat in the foreground is ready for our dinner while the fat in the background will be added to the freezer bag for beef stock ingredients.

After the meat was trimmed, I needed a sauce. I searched in my pantry and my refrigerator and found these ingredients: red pepper flakes, low-sodium soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey and garlic. Mix to your tastes.

I decided we needed more veggies, so I grabbed a purple carrot, a 'regular' carrot and a couple of green onions and trimmed them for cooking.

A quick stir-fry later and dinner is on the table. Simple but succulent. What more could you ask for?

I'm happy.

Very happy.