lunch

Another taco-inspired meal for you all to enjoy: taco dip! Usually I use this as an appetizer, but occasionally we do make it into more of a salad-type meal and both ways are truly fantastic. In addition to its versatility, taco dip requires few ingredients and minimal prep time!  Let's get to it...

My husband and I frequent a local sandwich shop called Erbert and Gerbert's. They have unusually named sandwiches with delightful stories behind each. Mostly, though, they are just a really good sandwich shop. That being said, sometimes you don't want to pay sandwich shop prices, so I decided I would attempt my hand at one of my favorite sandwiches: The Geeter. In short, it is a chopped seafood sandwich with bacon, mayo, lettuce, and tomato. It's wonderful!

My husband and I are both fans of anything taco, so when I shared this treat with him he was ecstatic. It starts out like any good taco-making session should: brown up some ground beef and mix with a little water and taco seasoning. Then it takes a turn for the awesome by combining onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms with the taco meat before wrapping it in crescent rolls and baking it in the oven. There is nothing quite like biting into this flaky taco braid meal!

My mom always used to make egg rolls growing up and they were amazing! Nothing in the restaurants compared to mom's egg rolls. However, she would only make them for special occasions because they were so putzy. One day, she taught me how to make them and I've been experimenting with them ever since.

My green bell pepper plants have finally produced large enough peppers for eating, so I came up with some tasty meals that could incorporate my garden fresh peppers. The first one was the steak sandwich. Then, considering my husband's inexplicable love of "Mexican" food and all things wrapped in a tortilla, I decided to make Chicken Fajitas!

After visiting my dad's for dinner the other night, he gave us some leftover steak to take home. My dad makes the most amazing steak I've ever had. Leftover meat poses a small problem (at least for the picky of us): it never tastes quite the same as when it was freshly cooked. Now, my husband would have no issue with just eating the leftover steak and some grilled veggies like we did the first night.

I grew up with tuna from a can and didn't realize until much, much later in life that there is a such thing as "ahi tuna" and other forms of tuna that do not come out of a can. In fact, these fancy kinds of tuna are served at fancy kinds of restaurants! I remember the first time I went out to eat at a classy restaurant and my mother-in-law ordered tuna.

It has been unbearably hot in the great mid-west. Anything about 70, especially if humidity is involved, is too much for me! So I've been trying to come up with ideas that avoid the oven and minimize the use of the stove. Fresh fruits and raw vegetables have been great for snacking on. However, meals are a bit trickier.

My husband and I love grilled cheese and tomato soup! Usually, we just go for good old American slime cheese on English muffin bread with a nice can of Campbell's condensed tomato bisque soup... but today, we decided to try something a little special.

If you've ever been to Arby's fast food restaurant and tried a beef 'n' cheddar melt, you know how tasty, but simple they are. If you've never been, you're not really missing out because I'm going to teach you how to make your own version but even better than the restaurant one.
My husband always had two major gripes about Arby's:
1) they were not particularly well-valued (i.e. expensive for what you actually got)