A Couple of Dishes

When it comes to dinnertime, we've been in a bit of a rut lately. Dinner is typically my responsibility but I've been quite exhausted in recent months so I really haven't had any desire to tackle anything complicated. Actually... I've also been at a loss for creative dinner ideas! We are definitely in a rut when it comes to dinner ideas.

One of the causes of this rut is my diet due to my health problems. There are a lot of things I must avoid so our choices are a bit limited. Straying from this diet causes almost violent unstable health and anaphylaxis so I typically don't stray too far from my diet plan. I can, however, cheat occasionally and get away with it if I plan for it. Anyway, this really limits our meal plans.

One of the dishes we've been falling back on fairly regularly is Steak Tidbits. This dish is a rather simple one of some very tender slices of grilled steak on garlic bread served with a side dish of a tangy sauce. It took me many years to figure out the tangy sauce but now we're both enjoying this fairly simple meal.

I haven't made homemade noodles in a few decades and I've been dying to come up with a nice Chicken Alfredo dish to go with homemade noodles. I attempted this dish recently and it came out okay for a first attempt. 

As always is the case with a new recipe, I'll adapt the recipe a few times the next few times I make it but I think I found a pretty good starting point. (That being said, chicken is one of those foods that I am supposed to avoid because it does not agree with my health... not in the least... but sometimes you just get cravings you need to quench so I know I'll make this dish again.)  Hardy homemade noodles are far better than anything bought in a store and these noodles really make this dish. Honestly, homemade noodles are nothing like old store-bought noodles. If you have never had homemade noodles, you should try it sometime. 

The grandkids ate all the leftover Alfredo sauce the following day so that went over well too. I'll have to make homemade noodles more often for a number of different dishes.

Our oven refused to heat up last night so now we are limited to stovetop cooking... and I could use the grill if I feel up to braving the frigid weather but since I'm lacking energy, I'll stick to indoors, thank you. 

After some research and deductive reasoning, I have decided that our igniter has mostly burned out. It still glows a dull orange but never gets to the white-hot color it should. At first, I thought our electronic control board was fried but that seems to be operating normally, thankfully. If the control board was bad, I would probably be looking for a new range right now. 

Anyway, I've narrowed the problem down to a bad igniter. Apparently, if the igniter no longer gets hot enough, the electronic control board will not allow the gas valve to open. This appears to be our problem.

I think finding the part took longer than troubleshooting the problem! I ended up ordering the part through Sears and it should be delivered in a few days. In the meantime, we won't be making any meals in the oven.