What's for Dinner?

Doesn't that question cross your mind at least once a day? Please tell me that it does.

Man thinks about dinner precisely once a day: when he walks in the door from work and asks What's for Dinner? It's a good thing I think about dinner ahead of time so when Mans inquires about dinner he can preface that with Something smells good.

Admittedly, I think about food and dinner quite a bit. It's a job-related hazard of being a HausFrau and the sole person in charge of all things edible at the Haus. It can also be blamed on my status as a foodie. I like to think about food & meal plan, I like to search for recipes, I really do like to cook, and, uh . . . uh . . .

Hello. My name is HausFrau and I really like to shop for groceries. Even at the commissary.

Or a Walmart Superstore.

I always have a dinner gameplan for at least a 2-3 day time period. If pressed, I could probably meal plan for a whole month without much effort based mostly on what I have stockpiled. And, I must admit, I'm pretty amazing when it comes to pulling together a meal from odds and ends in the pantry & freezer. Or, so Man keeps telling me. But, I secretly think he's just giving me lip service so he's not the one put in charge of reinventing leftovers. Or the firstovers that eventually create the leftovers.

Anyway,

My friend WonderWoman (Hi Heather) likes to eat (total compliment), but Heather is not so keen on cooking (which is sad beyond what I can express) & needs help answering the nightly dinner Q.

So, here's the deal. In honor of WonderWoman, I am starting a new blog where I do the most boring thing ever: write about what we eat for dinner.

I have two purposes for this venture: to give you dinner ideas & to share one of my passions. Most of my friends and family live so far away that invitations for dinner are few and far between. It's definitely one of the things I most miss about living the vagabond lifestyle that we do. So, by sharing our dinner menu, I hope to bring a little of the spirit of sharing a meal.

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times.

And, a glass of wine, too.

Or a margarita, if fajitas are on the menu.

Or beer if it happens to be a bratwurst night.

Just know that if you were to drop in unexpectedly, you'd be more than welcome to join us for dinner. It's not always going to be glamorous, but it will tantalize the taste buds (or so I keep telling the children).

If by some chance you want to recreate one of my menus, I can pass along more detailed recipes or techniques, but it's not going to be a recipe-based blog - that's not really what I'm aiming for. If you want to add your two cents (or common sense) about a menu or recipe, by all means, hit the comment button and let us all know what's on your mind.

It may be useful to know a bit about our food situation here in Brussels before you start checking out what we are eating. We live an hour away from a commissary (Chev or Schinnen) & 2 hours away from a really good sized commissary (Spang). This just means that it's a total pain in the butt & very time consuming to grocery shop for American food products, so I stock up when I make the voyage. Sadly, I've become one of those two-cart shoppers (the kind that are totally irritating at a case-lot sale) & I'm proficient at spending over $400 in one trip. What that means is that my pantry & freezer are stocked with the basics. Our commissary is very averaged size for Europe and incredibly small by American standards. Consequently, my kitchen is not stocked with new-on-the-market items - not only are they not available, I don't even know what they are. If I have it in my pantry, I can almost guarantee that you can find it at your local store.

I don't shop on the local economy as much as I would like. The exchange rate - although getting better - has been in the toilet for a while. Add that to the high prices in general & most food items are too painful on the checkbook (at least to me). I also haven't completely adjusted to Belgian stores & still get nostalgic for simple German items like schnitzel, cheap wines & yogurts.

I am fairly budget minded when shopping and preparing meals, but certainly not a black-belt kitchen frugalista. I'm currently spending around $600 on food (I think). That does not include school lunches, Man's daily food court habit, or the occasion meal out.

Speaking of high prices, it's the main reason we don't eat out that much. When I balance the cost of a meal versus the damage to my thighs versus the convenience, my thighs and pocketbook usually win. It's not to say we don't eat out, we just do so less here than anywhere else we've lived.

I do cook from scratch, but I also use total convenience food occasionally - like prepackaged chicken strips & frozen pizza. I keep those items on hand for a quick meal since drive-thrus and take-out places aren't as prevalent here as in the States. Besides, it's a bad habit that doesn't help aforementioned thighs and bank accounts.

Having said all that, Not Just Schnitzel is open for business & ready to serve up everything from boring-old spaghetti to total food-porn schnitzel & spätzle. My goal is to update daily, so please check back often.

Guten appetite!