Easy weeknight dinners

I love running, I love that time alone, the pounding of your feet, listening to pumping music for an hour, being alone with ones thoughts or without any thoughts at all, but gees, running does something to my body that no other exercise can do! I am so exhausted today after a 6 mile run yesterday, having not run in a while! I had a wonderful evening of laundry and ironing ahead of me. I wanted to re-hem my linen pants too. But instead I came home from work a little early and laid on the futon. Couldnt sleep because all I could think about was eating so got up and had a piece of avocado on bread then tried laying down again. I was out cold until just now when the dogs got up because Danny came home, almost three hours after he left! Needless to say, Im not a napper, so now I feel all groggy and am even less inspired to do my ironing and chores than before. Another night will go by that Im not organising stuff. ugh. Danny says thats what the weekend is for, but I dont want to be doing this stuff on my weekend, I want to be going to the farmers market and weeding and canning salsa. I guess Ill just have to squeeze in laundry and dusting too, somehow!

We have had some good dinners this week, and quick to prepare...

Monday I made this mammoth sandwich. If you and your significant other like different fillings you could try what I do - make all the different sandwich fillings and set them on a plate, just providing the bread! We used this amazing french country bread I made at the weekend as a starting point. I would give you the recipe, but it was such a mission, Im pretty sure none of you would try making it, so Ill save myself the typing! Our topping options were herbed chicken, avocado, roasted red bell pepper, dry pan-friend zucchini and tomato slices, marinated artichoke hearts, marinara sauce, pesto and cheese (cheddar and mozzy). Since I had everything except pesto and cheese, my sandwich was aout 4 inches tall! I took three full bites before it fell apart onto my plate! But never panic, I ate it as two halves, a roasted vegetable marinara half and an avocado chicken half! Still delicious! Danny somehow kept his together til the end.

Tuesday I made Cookbooks 101 Summer Squash Gratin with a slight modification - I used sweet potatoes for half the potatoes. I actually sliced the squash all up sunday with the food processor, and tossed in it lemon juice so when it came to cooking tuesday night, all I did was blend the fresh herbs and toss it all with cheese (I used feta) and the potatoes, pour it in to the baking dish and top with french country bread cubes. This was accompanied with home grown greens beans and pork chops (not home reared!).

Wednesday I made an attempt at tomato soup with grilled cheeses (actually used up the last of the french country bread which was rather hard by now, but decent if sprayed with some olive oil, filled with cheese and squished in the George Foreman Grill - the perfect, evenly cooked grilled cheese). My tomato soup was less than perfect and in fact, according to Danny resembled marinara sauce more than soup. I skinned some tomatoes, I used all different coloured hierlooms, because thats what I had. I sauted some onions, garlic and fresh oregano and parsley, added the tomatoes having blended them with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, red wine, balsamic vinegar and a tiny dash of hot sauce. A totally unplanned additive was a cup of shredded zucchini because I ended up having to shred another one for my cupcakes and had some left over. I thought it was yummy, would have been better blended more but my blender has a crack in it so I avoid using it. Still trying to decide if I want to replace it with another cheapy one or get the super impressive one Meg has.

So this leads me to the question:

What is the difference between marinara sauce and tomato soup?

Please help me out with this seemingly unanswerable problem.

Tonight I am not cooking. I havent the energy. Left over gratin sounds pretty darn good right now, for my second dinner of the day!