What Will You Select This Thursday?

You will have to get up earlier on Thursday this week because Busy Butternut will set up at 2 pm with their selection of goods. I talked to an exceedingly small sample of people about what they thought of the food they purchased last week.

I got conflicting opinions about the salmon. One person thought that there wasn't enough. Another divided her selection into two servings and found that adequate. I guess it depended on what these ladies had for lunch that day!

Another Avenida resident loved the chicken and dumplings . Two persons had the shrimp and pasta. It was two meals for one of them. 

The Greek chicken kabob was also used for two meals. Part of the meal included sliced crisp vegetables which were still crisp on Monday after being purchased on Thursday! 

The general consensus was that the meals were good. Depending on your appetite one meal might be adequate for two servings. Many of us have ordered from Busy Butternut in the past when the food was ordered and delivered. I have never heard anyone complain about what they received. Cynthia has an excellent reputation here at Avenida. 

This Thursday there will be more servings.  Let's just hope there won't be too many more people lining up to purchase meals. I recall what one of our very generous residents said to me. "I did not buy anything last week because I wanted other people to be able to try it." I will be watching to see that this kind soul gets to purchase something on this coming Thursday! If I can just remember exactly who said that! 

Busy Butternut Comes To Avenida and is Quite Busy

Busy Butternut came to Avenida on November 3, as promised. Around 3 pm John Menard, Tim Allman and Dick Johnson helped bring in many boxes of prepared food. In the meantime residents started lining up from the private dining room almost back to the front desk. There was a lot of anticipation in the air as everyone dreamed of not cooking tonight for sure.

Two hundred meals covered the large dining table. It was decided that maybe limiting everyone to just two selections would keep those at the end of the line from being disappointed. People entered five at a time and quickly picked what appealed to them.  At 3:30 it was all over. Wow! Two hundred dinners disappeared upstairs in less than thirty minutes! A few stragglers were very disappointed to discover no food was left. I thought it was very interesting that the salads were the last to go. Eating healthy much, Avenida?

The tentative plans for next week are that there will be much more food. The starting time will be 4 pm.(Yay, I can sign up for Trivia at 3 pm on Thursday again! You guys should come. We cheat like crazy. Well, some of us do. Or maybe I am the only one. I am not sure. Just sign up and see for yourself.) Cindy of Busy Butternut will send over a menu of what the offerings will be earlier next week. It will take some time for this venture to shake down into a routine. In the meantime I have two fresh meals that will take me at least four days to eat in my refrigerator.

What's for Dinner?

Many of us or maybe most of us are really tired or bored with cooking. Yes, I know of you few who still love to cook. You can stop reading right now...

Okay, now that they are gone we can get on with this. I asked for suggestions besides Busy Butternut and I got some good sources. Even Busy Butternut came up with a new plan. Here is what they are going to do.

Every Thursday Busy Butternut will set up a little store in our private dining room. They will bring various fresh, packaged dinners. The cost will be $5.00 and you can pay with cash, check or credit card. Any items that are not sold on Thursday will be placed in the Bistro refrigerator and may be purchased the same way we always purchase Bistro items. Just fill out a card and the charge will be added to your rent. They will begin selling at 3 pm to 5 pm every Thursday beginning on November 3. Pickup days are 11/3/22, 11/10/22 and 11/17/22 in November.
Once a month there will be a buffet-like spread similar to what we had on October 13. The cost for that will be $5.00 also. To me this is a dream come true. What could be easier?

I located a list of frozen dinners which are healthy and also tasty from a source I hope is reputable. I don't know if all of them can be found in local grocery stores but you guys can check it out.

 1. Jafflz Enchilada Toasted Pocket

 2 .Stouffer's Fit Kitchen Cali Chicken

 3. Performance Kitchen Creamy Cauliflower Mac & Cheese

 4. Healthy Choice Café Steamers Pineapple Chicken

 5. Bell and Evans Gourmet Chicken Burgers

 6. Applegate Well Carved Organic Asian Style Pork Meatballs

 7. Healthy Choice Café Steamers Cajun-Style Chicken and Shrimp

 8. Lean Cuisine Market place Chicken With Almonds

 9. Green Giant California Style Harvest Protein Bowl

10. Kashi Black Bean Mango Bowl

11. Amy's Brown Rice, Black Eye Peas and Veggies Bowl

12. Alexia Butternut Squash Risotto

13. Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli

14. Lean Cuisine Marketplace Chicken Cashew Stir Fry

15. Kashi Sweet Potato Quinoa Bowl

16. Kashi Chimichurri Quinoa Bowl

17. Amy's Light & Lean Quinoa and Black Beans Bowl

18. Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burgers

19. Kashi Blueberry Waffles

20. Gorton's Natural Catch Lemon Pepper Grilled Fillets

21. Caulipower All Natural Frozen Chicken Tenders

22. Amy's Black Bean Vegetable Enchilada

23. Trader Joe's Cauliflower Gnocchi

24. Boca All -American Veggie Burgers

25. Gorton's Natural Catch Classic Style Grilled Salmon

If you try any of these and find them satisfying let others know. Several people recommended Boston Market Turkey Medallions. I researched that and it looks like a good meal.

Meal Village in Lisle is a delivery restaurant. You do not have to sign up for a plan. You can just call up in the morning and they will deliver. I looked at their menu and they had some of the following items: backyard grilled barbecue chicken, meat lasagna with roasted broccoli, turkey meatloaf with scalloped potatoes, pan roasted salmon with garlic mashed potatoes and so forth. The prices ran around $11 to $13. Meal Village was suggested by several residents.

Pete's Market was touted by many of you. Greek chicken, brisket in bourbon sauce and barbecued ribs were favorites. Indian Harvest Carry-Out features northern Indian food. Others mentioned Casey's having a good selection of food.

Mariano's has a meal plan called Home Chef. At each store there is a small open refrigerated container that has many of what they offer in their plan. It is usually near the produce section. You can buy them individually. I've tried some of the offerings and so far I have liked what I chose.. 

The croissants at Costco were also recommended. You get a very large bag so most of us would have to freeze many of them. However the person who suggested them said to cut them the long way like a hot dog bun and they are easy to warm up. I did not do that when I tried them so I am ready to give it another go. I must confess this tip came from a guy.

Now please discuss this among yourselves. If better ideas come up, let's talk.