Let's post what we had for dinner here. Maybe we can all inspire each other!

Tonight we had what I call Tofu and Mushroom Puttanesca. It's very easy and super delicious, full of flavors. The sauce makes or breaks it. Any brand will do as long as it's Zone favorable and doesn't contain omega 6 fats. Use one with plenty of flavor to offset the blandness of the tofu and mushrooms. I use "Trader Giotto's Puttanesca Sauce" (from Trader Joe's). It's hot and spicy and loaded with olives and capers. Saute mushrooms in a little olive oil in one skillet and saute some tofu in another. Plate the tofu and the mushrooms side by side and then smother them in the sauce. For one serving (about a 3 block meal) use 1/2 package tofu, one 10 oz. package sliced mushrooms and enough sauce to suit your own Zone balance needs.

P. S. I use an organic tofu with 0 carbohydrate and 3 g fat per 8 g protein.

Normally, preparing dinners is quite a challenge for me, as I am working all day and have to scramble to put something together for myself and family as soon as I get home.

However, with DH out of work at the moment, he has been pitching in and preparing the dinners lately. Great for me, but not always what I would have chosen. LOL

Tonight was pretty simple... he made tacos for the family. I made mine into a taco salad. He chopped up all kinds of vegetables, so I made a big plate full of lettuce, topped it with my favorite veggies and then some taco meat and shredded cheese, Salsa as the dressing.

It was kind of cold, rainy, damp day. Just the sort of thing for a hardy bowl of soup.
My lovely wife had some chicken stock from a pastured chicken she cooked earlier in the week.
Added a box of Trader Joes Organic chicken stock.
1/2 bag (5 oz) of organic kale, 2 carrots and 3 celery stalks, diced.
about 1 pound of chicken, diced.
Spices: dash of tumeric, cumin, salt, pepper, Tony Cici's, and ground cloves.
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Wife's reaction when she got home: Fantastic! Just what she was thinking of preparing, a soup.
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Added lettuce, tomato, some raw almonds, and snap peas as a salad,
with 3 Ttbl EVOO, 2 Tbl Vinegar, & 1 tsp Dijon mustard whisked together and coated lettuce.
Added a glass of red wine, a local vineyard's Zinfadel.
3P, 3C, 4F per serving.

The highlight of dinner tonight was freshly picked asparagus spears, roasted in olive oil! YUMMY!

Wed: Late night, quickly threw together ZoneFoods (no longer available) multi-grain pizza crust,
some pizza sauce, a few shrimp, some cheese, and a glass of red wine.
Three blocks each my wife and I.
Only 6 left of these - using sparingly.

Thursday: Time for my wife to go to TJ's for organic veggie shopping.
Threw together a salad with what was remaining in fridge.
It ended up being a (cancer preventing, healthy) cruciferous salad.
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Kale (remaining 2.5 oz in package), shredded cabbage mix (remaining 1 cup), broccoli (remaining 1 small bunch).
Diced 1 carrot, diced remaining three celery stalks, added remaining 10 snap pea pods, added remaining 6 cherry tomatoes,
and topped with 1 clementine each and a few almonds each.
Used my new go to basic dressing, with a tsp of maple syrup added to soften bitterness of all those healthful cruciferous,
but strong tasting vegetables.
Grilled 1/2 dozen small (1 oz each) lamb chops. 3 each.
Added a glass of red wine.
3 blocks each.

John.. That sounds so good !

It was, Thanks.
I was worried taste of all those "strong" veggies in a salad would be too much.
However, it balanced nicely.
My wife's comment: "If I paid for this in a restaurant, I would be satisfied and pleased."
That is high praise.

John, what is your new "basic" dressing recipe?

I have been using a very basic olive oil/balsamic vinegar to make a balsamic vinegarette (? spelling), sometimes adding some herbs but just fine without.

Cran; Look down below at my 10 May Soup and Slad entry.
3 Tbl EVOO, 2 Tbl Balsamic Vinegar, 1 tsp real Dijon Mustard (TJ's)
A couple shakes Sea or Himmalayn salt.
A touch of other spices if desired.
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Here's the "secret":
Whisk together in a large bowl..
Then toss salad leaves in and thoroughly mix.
Every leaf should have a light coating.
Separate leaves into individual servings.
Add other salad fixins'

ohh That sounds delish! I bet the dijon gives it a nice kick! I will definitely have to try that one.

Yesterday I had something delicious as well. I bought a pre-packed in a bag 2 salmon fillets with some red pesto marinande. That went to my oven for 20 min or so. After my fish was cooked I discarded most of pesto (being careful of additional fat) but served it with a quickly steamed (or boiled for 3min or so) young broccoli spears and green asparagus spears. They were nice and crunchy and the whole meal was absolutely gorgeous. My husband had a glass of white wine with it, but I had a glass of water and mixed strawberries and red grapes for dessert.

Sunday, for mother's day, at my wife's request, I made her her request: a Cauliflower (cheese, egg) pizza and my healthier chocolate mousse.
But, our son took us out for ice cream, so we enjoyed it, and had the chocolate mousse, last night.
I also used the additional riced cauliflower, and made a variation of Cran's "dirty rice".
We were short on time, so I pre-fried it up on Sunday, after making the pizza crust, and just heated it up on Monday, before our Line Dancing.
I varied from Cran's original, just added an onion, then the usual spices, a little cumin, a little tumeric, some Cici's Cajun seasoning, a splash of wine, and some shredded coconut. Kind of a hawaiian/indian fusion. An after-thought, a touch of pineapple would have been a nice added touch.

Sounds like a tasty variation!

Last night's dinner was a plate of vegetarian "ground beef" topped with my favorite spicy spaghetti sauce (TraderJoe's Puttsnesca) and drizzled with Zone olive oil. It was like eating a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs without the pasts, very delicious and satisfying, and it took less than 5 min from package to plate.