Just saw the news about the concert bombing. I don't know if I can handle thinking too much about that right now.

So I won't, and will instead recommend my favorite easy/cheap meal, which is ramen noodles with frozen veggies (broccoli, peas, carrots, corn, whatever) and a can of chickpeas. You'll want some extra water to cover the chickpeas, which means possibly throwing in a bouillon cube too, otherwise the flavor is a little thin. Easy, tasty, inexpensive, and relatively healthy too!

Between the concert bombing and the news about Trump's budget, I want to get in bed and stay there for about a month.

WRT to meals, S. got the kids accustomed to very meat-and-potatoes meals. It's been hard to retrain them. The ramen is a great idea, though -- I bet shrimp ramen with tiny frozen cocktail shrimp and snow peas would be a hit. It would with me, anyway.

Ariana Grande concert

Awful. And a really bizarre choice for a target.

My cheap and easy go to is eggs. Often scrambled with spinach and some hot sauce.

My quick and easy is any pasta with a sauce that can be made in the time it takes for the pasta to cook. To make it a bit healthier, you can use whole wheat pasta and pesto just about any vegetable you have. I use frozen broccoli or the salad mixes with kale or spinach. If using frozen veg, defrost in microwave and puree in a blender of food processor with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and any nuts you have on hand. Also having some marinara in the freezer with some spinach and other veg mixed in which can be quickly defrosted.

Cheap and easy: Chicken parts in the slow cooker with a container of salsa until the chicken is falling apart. Serve over rice or strain it a bit and serve as tacos etc. I added a squeeze of lime and some cotija.

Also this awesome cabbage salad I discovered in Oceanside: shredded green and red cabbage, diced red onion, 1 can each of black beans and corn. Add avocado and cotija. Dress with lime, olive oil, garlic dressing.

I suspect the kids will be less happy with the cabbage salad, but it's really great and has vegetables and protein.

Today I hung out with my niece, bought new hiking shoes at REI, and tried to hook my computer up for working from home but discovered that I need a card reader to do that. Ordered. Oy.

I cannot even with the news.

::googles cotija::

Oh, that sounds good! I'll look for that.

My favourite slow cooker meal: sliced onions, then chicken breast, then cream of chicken soup straight from the can. Mix up a box of stuffing according to the directions, and once it has soaked up the water, smear that on top. Yum!

For an easy meal that doesn't require cooking, I like to get some triscuits, cheese, an avocado, a tomato, olives, and either smoked salmon, sardines, or anchovy paste. It's mostly healthy, hits the 4 major food groups, and fills you up.

I don't know that it's super healthy but my recent favorite is low carb tortillas with cheese and received beans and salsa and avocado if I have some, made into a quesadilla. Can microwave or cook on stove, and all the ingredients (except maybe avocado) keep pretty well in the fridge.

WTF with this explosion in Manchester at the Ariana Grande concert?

Suicide bomber. 19 dead, 50 injured.

I do all kinds of cheap cooking for variable tastes.

My back up, don't-want-to-deal-with-dinner, is usually something like pot-stickers from Trader Joe.

Matilda *loves* rice and beans, and that's as easy as can be. Especially since I always make extra rice when I cook it so there's usually something to reheat.

Which also makes fried rice variations easy.

Quesadilla allows me to cook to order for various tastes and I can usually use what's in the fridge.

Which is why I often pick up a roasted chicken once a week, so I can add that to a quesadilla or throw some protein into various other meals.

Also use the picked over carcass when I'm making my lemon/orzo/chicken soup.

Making a Spanish tortilla is pretty tasty and not that complicated once you get the hang. Basically a frittata married to hash browns.

Oh, and one of my big cooking revelations in North Beach is that you don't need to make a sauce, but you can just sautee what's handy and toss it over noodles for your pasta dish.

And it helps to use pasta like Fusilli because it has a bit more mouth feel and better to chew.

Tuna and hard boiled eggs on salad make them meals.