Dinner in the Summer Time / 3 Dinners in 1 Blog!

What a busy few days and they were great.Monday I was home all day cleaning and making a dinner that was worth writing about, Tuesday when I woke up the house was clean the sun was shining it was going to be HOT and I was bored so with out even looking at my lap top I packed my beach bag and headed for Wildwood. It is with good reason that this shore point keeps getting the vote for best beach in NJ. I enjoyed the day immensely. Dinner Tuesday night was not as impressive as the day and while it was good it wasn't all that exciting to write about.Yesterday was movie day for me. I spent a relaxing day doing laundry and watching movies on demand. Last nights dinner was by far the best dinner I have made this summer. Well at least I think so. 
 Movies, Laundry and another hot day that was yesterday. It was going to be its hottest right around dinner time so I woke up thinking about dinner. I got a single chicken breast half out of the freezer as soon as my feet hit the floor. By mid morning it was ready for the oven in a foil pack with nothing but salt and pepper. When it was done I let it cool removed the skin and bone then cut it into bite size pieces. I put it in the refrigerator until dinner. An hour or so before eating I put together my chicken salad and let it chill until we were ready to eat.
http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/salad/chicken-salad/chicken-curry-salad.html?p=49
 This is the basic recipe I used. I made a few changes. I replaced the water chestnuts with pecans, I used yogurt in place of mayo,I left out the soy sauce and lemon juice and only used the curry powder.
  When Bill saw me mixing every thing together he says I don't want my bread toasted. I just smiled and said okay. Thinking to my self How long have we been married? I am willing to bet you already know I was not making chicken salad sandwiches. 
 Once all my ingredients were good and chilled I put them together. I topped off my little creation with garlic croutons I had chopped into crumbs and then I served dinner. 

    Yep chicken salad stuffed tomatoes and cottage cheese. The perfect dinner for a hot and sticky evening. Bill was so happy with his cold supper he didn't bother complaining about the curry. Every thing on the plate worked together to make one very tasty meal.
  Tuesday! what can I say about Tuesday,I can say what a perfect day I didn't even notice it was hot out. That is until I got home and remembered I had to fix dinner. I took ground beef out of the freezer before I left for Wildwood with out a single idea of what I was going to make. I still didn't know when I got home. So with no inspiration and even less desire to turn on the stove I looked around for the quickest thing I could put together and pass off as dinner. I found a jar of Alfredo sauce in the cupboard  as well as a bag of egg noddles,to all of that I added a bell pepper, a tomato, and onion. I chopped and diced what needed to be diced and chopped. I browned and boiled the meat and the noddles. Added the chopped and diced veggies to the meat and then added all of that to the noddles. The result was a jazzed up Stroganoff .

  Dinner was filling and tasted good just not one of my favorites.
 Monday nights dinner was an inspiration or an idea created from 3 different inspirations. I had all that left over pork from the roast and I wasn't sure what to do with it. Since we had burritos the night before I needed a different direction to go. My mind had been sitting on the idea of a hash all morning long. Only problem Bill is not a fan of left over meat hash. A true shame because it is a favorite dish of mine. Well I have made a hash or 2 that he really enjoyed but they always have carrot in them and I didn't have carrots on hand. Then it hits me I had just read a blog about"fried green potatoes" written by a friend of mine Lillian Russo. Basically she used spinach in her potato hash browns
http://myrecipejourney-lillian.blogspot.com/2012/07/fried-green-potatoesnot-tomatoes.html
 So I thought spinach and pork are perfect mates.That was inspiration # 2  Inspiration # 3 came from the mixture of pork and spinach and NJ's love for pork, provolone, and broccoli rhab  on a long roll.
 I made my hash based on that sandwich and Lillian's fried green potatoes. It was indeed a smashing success. 

  
    So good and so easy. Pretty much I just put every thing in the pan and brown it all up. Once it was all browned I topped it with slices of Provolone and stuck it under the broiler to brown the cheese. I used the left over meat juices from the crock pot as my liquid for cooking and I preboiled my potatoes till they were almost done, making them easier to brown in the hash. A good meal any time of the year an excellent meal in the summer time. One pan and done. Easy clean up and no real need to stand over a hot stove because a hash just about cooks it self.