Yummy Birthday Dinner
On every birthday that happens in this house, except my own, we have a “Birthday Person’s choice” meal. They can choose whatever they want for me to cook for them. Tom chose stuffed shells and olive cheese bread. I took some pictures while Emily, Hannah and I prepared the meal. Yes, I am aware of a glaring omission. Of course, there should have been a Ceasar salad. I just dropped the ball. I’ve got so many of them in the air, it’s really no surprise when one hits the floor. Anyway….
These are the olives. You can’t have olive cheese bread without olives. The last time I made this, it was too salty. It turned out perfect this time. Not sure what was different.
These are green onions. See? While we didn’t have a salad, we DID have something green. And even something that grows in many gardens. I’m not sure I’d compare the nutritional value to say, broccoli, but, hey, it’s the best I could do tonight. So, now all these olives and the onions get mixed with butter and mayo. There are not calories of fat gram in birthday dinners.
There’s also cheese mixed in. Yes, more fat. But, hey! Calcium, too! Aren’t all the colors pretty? Next we spread it all on healthy sprouted grain bread, because that’s the best kind for you.
Ok. Not really. It’s bad for you, way processed white French bread. Birthday dinner, remember?
While I was making the bread spread, the shells were cooking. Also, Emily was mixing the filling for the shells. I was too busy with my bread and I forgot to take pictures of what she was doing. But that’s ok. I like it when my kitchen work is miraculously done for me. And that’s how it looks in the pictures.
Here’s the bread, all spread and ready to go into the oven. I could almost just eat it like this. But, I didn’t. Except that little bit that fell off the bread. No one really missed it, so it was ok.
It was at this point, once I put the bread in the oven, that I realized I had neglected my girls. So, I grabbed a quick shot of the last step. The shells are already stuffed and in the dish, with marinara sauce dumped all over the top. Emily is putting more mozzarella cheese on top.
Tomato stuff gives me heart burn. I’m sure it’s an age thing. I used to eat spaghetti like twice a week. Now, maybe once a month. It’s just rough on me. So, I prefer alfredo sauce on my Italian dishes. To accommodate my old stomach, I also made a white dish. Stuffed shells covered with alfredo.
While the shells were finishing up in the over, the bread got done. Now the cheese is all melty. The bread is warm and crispy around the edges. Way yummy!
Sausage Marinara Stuffed Shells – because they have sausage in them, and marinara sauce. Obvious, I know. This is how Tom ordered his dinner.
Cheesy Alfredo Stuffed Shells – again, obvious. They aren’t as pretty to look at. Very monochromatic. Not bright like the other ones. These had no meat and used alfredo sauce. Just the way I like it. And Emily. And Olivia. She ate like 5 shells. I was full after 1 1/2. But I had bread. Olivia didn’t.
So that was Tom’s plate up at the top. This is my plate. The lack of salad is even more glaring here. Yes, I know there are 4 shells on my plate. I really did only eat 1 1/2. Olivia just wanted a half to start with. That’s funny. Anyway, I realized I’d gotten too much, so I cut one in half and gave it to her. Then I ate one and ate my bread. I was just as stuffed as the shells, so I put the other two back in the dish. Hey. It’s just family. You can do that when it’s family. As it turned out, those two were very shortly eaten by Olivia, along with a couple of others. So it all worked out.
So that was Tom’s birthday dinner in pictures. Next time, I’ll make salad.
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