今天晚上要吃什麼呢? What's for dinner?

I went to Trader Joe's again this morning for my cup of coffee. I love shopping at Trader Joe's first thing in the morning simply because there aren't many shoppers there at that hour. I ran out of hash brown yesterday, so I needed to do a Trader Joe's run today. While I was there, I found a brand new product. It's a chocolate ice cream cake for $7.99. I haven't tried it yet, but I will definitely get it for my husband's birthday next week. We have already bought most of our birthday cakes at Trader Joe's because it's inexpensive, it's the right size, and it's yummy!

I also got some steamed clams and tri-color egg pasta. I haven't decided what to serve for dinner yet. It's either steamed clams with tricolor pasta OR fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. I am leaning towards the latter since my son doesn't like clams and I don't feel like making a separate dinner just for him. It's very easy to make chicken fettuccine Alfredo.

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
1. Prepare a package of frozen fettuccine Alfredo (Trader Joe's, $3.99) according to direction.
2. Add Tyson's grilled chicken stripes (Sam's Club, 32oz., $9.88) that have been heated in the microwave into the fettuccine Alfredo.
3. Mix and serve.
4. OPTIONAL: You can add heated broccoli (Trader Joe's, $1.99) into the mix if you want to add some color to the chicken fettuccine Alfredo.

NOTE: I usually cook extra fettuccine (or other pasta) on the side because Trader Joe's fettuccine Alfredo always have more sauce leftover, so by adding the extra fettuccine, the extra sauce won't go to waste.

The greatest part about this meal is that it usually takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and cook AND it costs less than $10 to feed a family of 4.

今天一早我又去了趟 Trader Joe's。 昨天兒子還要再吃炸洋芋塊 (hash brown) 時,我發現冰庫裏己經沒有存貨了。一到 Trader Joe's 我就發現 Trader Joe's 又推出新的產品--巧克力冰淇淋蛋糕 (chocolate ice cream cake)! 才 $7.99! 下星期是老公的生日,剛好可以把這巧克力冰淇淋蛋糕買回家試一試。

我一直覺得有了小孩子以後最困難的一件事就是要找時間煮好吃又有營養的晚餐。我的老公是個老饕,可是有小孩之後,我們去餐廳吃飯的機會就減少很多。好在我家老公不挑食,我煮什麼,他就吃什麼。所以我會盡量找一些餐廳點得到的名菜來煮給老公吃(也順便訓練二個小孩吃一些新的菜餚)。 在 Trader Joe's 就可以找到一些世界名菜餚。通常是冷凍食品,所以煮起來又快又方便。

今天晚上想煮的菜是雞片奶油乳酪義大利寬麵 (chicken fettuccine Alfredo)。在台灣,有人把 Fettuccine Alfredo 翻譯成"阿爾費雷多寬麵條"。 這道菜非常營養,給小孩子吃很好。 我知道 Costco 也有在賣 chicken fettuccine Alfredo,不過必需要花半小時在烤箱裏烤。況且量太大了,二餐也吃不完,所以我都到 Trader Joe's 買冷凍的 fettuccine Alfredo,再加入自己的料,又方便又實惠。從頭到尾只要花十分鐘的時間煮這道料理。

雞片奶油乳酪義大利寬麵 (Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo)

1. 依照包裝上的指示把冷凍的“奶油乳酪義大利寬麵"(fettuccine Alfredo)煮好。 (Trader Joe's, 一包四人份 $3.99).
2. 加入微波溫熱後的雞肉條塊一起煮。 Tyson's grilled chicken strips (Sam's Club, 32oz., $9.88)
3. 可以加入一些微波溫熱後的花椰菜 (Trader Joe's, 一包免洗有機 Broccoli $1.99)

註: 我通常會另外煮一些義大利寬麵,因為 Trader Joe's 買的冷凍“奶油乳酪義大利寬麵"(fettuccine Alfredo)煮好後會殘留很多醬汁,所以多加一點麵下去,才不會覺得醬汁太多、太水。