Last minute weekday dinner

Try as I might, I just can’t put together a weekly meal plan for my family.  I have tried, but things always come up.  I either forget to thaw the meat, or the thought of “what are we having for dinner tonight” first thing in the morning just doesn’t appeal to me.  Today was one of those days.  Lucky for me, I work at Parkesdale Market 🙂

Tonight’s meal consisted of roasted cherry tomatoes picked off our tomato plants at the market.  One of our garden employee’s, Lupe, brought me a pint of grape tomatoes from our plants in the market!  I just cut them in half, sprinkle with salt, drizzle some olive oil and topped with some fresh basil.  In the oven they went, 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Sweet potato fries are always a favorite around our household.  Frankly, if they are not in the “fry” shape, the little ones won’t eat it.  I sliced about 5 sweet potatoes I had in the pantry, drizzled olive oil and seasoned them with salt and paprika.  The sweet potatoes also went in the oven with the tomatoes for about 25 minutes.  This totally depends on how crunchy you like your sweet potato fries.  For the protein, I grabbed one of our Troyer’s Cottage Ham and sliced it.  They are boneless smoked pork shoulders which are fully cooked.  Just need to heat it up in the pan with some Troyer butter for about 10 minutes total.  Once the sweet potato “fries” and the roasted tomatoes were done, dinner was ready.

These Troyer Cottage Hams have really come in handy a few times.  They’ve become my “go to” protein for dinner when I just can’t think of anything else!  Once dinner was ready, I realized we needed some green in our plate.  Another employee, Sandy, has a vegetable garden at her home.  She was kind enough to bring us some fresh Collard Greens from her garden.  I sauteed the collard greens with some more olive oil in the pan with the ham drippings for a few minutes.  Yum!  (Sorry I didn’t get a picture, but it was delicious.)  Dinner was a delicious combination of sweet, salty and savory flavors.

For dessert, we had a few slice of the new Lemon Creme Fruit Filled pound cake.  They are so moist and not too sweet.  What’s your “go to” dinner ingredient?  Have you tried the Troyer Cottage Ham yet?  How about our new fruit filled pound cakes?