What's been cooking?

  Having done my stock up shop for the summer I've been trying to stick mostly to the menu plans. On Monday I grabbed a package of ground beef out of the freezer deciding to make Sloppy Joes. Then I remembered we had no hamburger buns and it was too late in the day to make some from scratch. The eye doctor had called and my replacement contact lenses for my left eye were in so I knew I had to pick these up (mostly covered by insurance so only $26 for a 6 month supply) and it is located right down the street from Aldi so I grabbed youngest son to ride along and after I ran into the eye doctor he ran into Aldi for the 89¢ package of buns.  College age daughter is spending the week housesitting for friends so I knew dinner was going to be myself and my two guys who live at home. One package of buns was definately sufficient. I also made a mental note to myself to decide on a menu early in the day so I can plan ahead on things like homemade buns.
I chopped up half of an onion, a rib of celery, half of a red bell pepper, and pressed a clove of garlic into the pound of  defrosted ground beef in my dutch oven. I browned off the meat and veggies, drained out the fat and returned the mixture to the pan. I added about half a bottle of ketchup to this gave it a good stir and put the heat on low to simmer. My mom's recipe, simple and no special cans of sauce required.
Adult son has had a part time job at a local beverage store stocking shelves since he was in high school (he works this 3 times a week in addition to his regular flooring job) and on occasion he will bring home items that can no longer be sold (soda pop, junk food). Freebie!! He came home Saturday with a box full of assorted chips so instead of making homemade chips to go with the joes I pulled out a bag of plain chips. Bread and butter pickles chilled in the refrigerator rounded out our meal. The evening was spent 'porch sitting' with a good friend & neighbor. It is becoming our regular Monday night thing.
Last night it was just me. Youngest son stayed at girlfriend's house after our zoo trip and adult son was working his beverage store job and said he'd just grab something for himself afterwards. I pulled out a package of lamb chops, decided to just season them with some Penzey's Greek seasoning and then since it was storming outside I seared them in a pan on the top of the stove and finished them off in the oven. I decided to do a simple side of pasta and peas covering both my starch and my vegetable. Dessert was the last of a bag of cherries I'd gotten at the farmer's market while enjoying the season premier of Next Great Baker.