What Did We Eat Today?

[ALenore]

15 or so different recipes that you keep recycling over and over? 

 

I do repeat certain recipes over and over, but I have so many new ones that I'd like to try out that I wind up doing repeats only once or twice a week, and the rest are new.  My problem is sometimes when I'd like to cook something again that I really liked, I can't find the recipe among the 100s that I have in my cookbooks and bookmarked on my computer.  One of these days I'm going to have to remember to keep a list of my most favorite recipes so I can repeat them. 

[Bella]

I have what I consider my "repertoire" of about a 15 favorite recipes I cook regularly, and that probably makes up most of what I cook. We tend to go out on the weekends, so with that, a couple of new recipes, and repurposed or reheated leftovers, I'm usually good for a month. 

 

This doesn't count baking, which I very rarely do over the summer.

[stillshimpy]

Does anyone here not particularly care for cooking and find yourself with about 15 or so different recipes that you keep recycling over and over? Just me?

For the most part, day-in-day-out I actually don't particularly like to cook, it's just been one of my responsibilities since I was 12 or so. Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm excited to try a new recipe, but for the most part, cooking is one of my chores. I do try to keep rotating in new recipes so that I don't get bored.

Usually by the end of a season I'm sick of the sight of a featured food from that season. Like eggplants (which is on the menu again tonight). In a bit here I'm going to go prep vegetables and cut corn from the cob for dinner. It always distresses my husband when I say that I actually don't like to cook, because weirdly I'm pretty good at it and so he genuinely enjoys eating the resulting food. Plus, we only eat fish when it comes to meat, so being a fairly gifted cook helps keep him from minding that choice (which was my choice and he just sort of got stuck with it...and now likes it also).

So I think some "Oh jeez,what am I going to feed us tonight?" blahs are a little inevitable. We go out frequently though, but yes, I sometimes think if it was just me, I'd rarely bother cooking anything and I'd just eat a bunch of raw vegetables, some nuts, etc . etc. ....basically no fuss foods.

I don't despise cooking, but for the most part it's just something that I'm in charge of doing and just about that thrilling, usually :-)

[ALenore]

For the most part, day-in-day-out I actually don't particularly like to cook, it's just been one of my responsibilities since I was 12 or so. Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm excited to try a new recipe, but for the most part, cooking is one of my chores

 

Cooking has been one of my responsibilities since I was 12 also ( I cooked for my family when my mother started working).   But for me it's not a chore, I really love it.  When we go on vacation, and eat out every meal, I start to miss cooking after several days.  Now there are pleanty of other things I consider chores: cleaning, laundry, paying bills, etc.  Those things I wouldn't miss if I never had to do them again.   My husband does his own laundry, and he takes care of the lawn in the summer and shoveling snow in the winter. Neither of us like to clean, so that mostly gets done when things get so messy/dirty we can't stand it, I think he does a bit more than I do. 

[Bella]

 

It always distresses my husband when I say that I actually don't like to cook, because weirdly I'm pretty good at it and so he genuinely enjoys eating the resulting food.

 

Mom, is that you? j/k

 

I bake to relax - it always makes me calm and happy. Cooking inspires me now and then, but it can also be a chore at times. It depends on a lot of things, like the weather, my workload, etc., etc., etc.

[ramble]

My mom had a coupon & showed up at my house with a rice cooker. Surprise. Thanks Mom! I'm going to try it out tonight. Rice & some mixed vegetables. My oldest likes to mix up herbal seasonings of her own design so I'll let her do her thing & add that & some butter to the veggies.

I'm probably going to serve it with gluten free chicken nuggets. They're a treat that we don't eat too often & if I somehow mess up the rice cooker I want a well enjoyed backup to back me up. Now I need to think of something that would be good to put on the rice or flavor it with. I suppose I could just layer the veggies on top of the rice. Hum. Any suggestions?

[stillshimpy]

I bake to relax - it always makes me calm and happy. Cooking inspires me now and then, but it can also be a chore at times. It depends on a lot of things, like the weather, my workload, etc., etc., etc.

You know, I think if it was solely a matter of choice, I'd still cook sometimes, I think. It might take a while to get there. It's particularly fun to try something new and have it turn out well, or when we have guests and they are so pleased with the food. But I've never had the opportunity for long enough that I've really wanted to get back in the kitchen.

I think because rain or shine, sick or well, it's a constant. It's not like something you can put off. Now, I don't mind cleaning and my house tends to reflect that, but that's not as constant. I don't have to clean my house multiple times a day, but people eat that frequently. I grew up with my dad and when my grandmother died when I was twelve, cooking became my responsibility.

My husband can cook, but you know there is that Catch 22 that cooking is something that you need to do regularly to have it turn out well, so he's more successful at some times than others. Plus, I have to admit, in recent years I've liked it more, because my son is grown and I no longer have to worry about the big list of foods he doesn't like to eat. He's fun, and I like him (and love him, clearly) a lot, but he's not an adventurous eater. So that just really underlined the "great, time to make dinner".

But there's also something else, I'm not actually always that enthusiastic about eating. If there was a pill that I could take to not be hungry and meet all nutritional requirements, I'd do that at least twice a day and likely more for weeks at a time. I like food...it's just ...there's a lot of other stuff I'd rather be doing that sitting down to eat most of the time. Most times my relationship to food is "food is fuel" with a few meals a week that are more about "Hey, it would be fun to eat...." but mostly? It's not like there's a choice in the need to eat :-)

[Jac]

I had Jamie Oliver Tomato, Basil and Parmesan chicken filets and crinkle cut French fries for dinner tonight. I don't get home until 9:30pm at the earliest on Monday and Tuesday nights so I always cook something quick and easy early in the week.

I'm going to have Taco Bill on Wednesday or Thursday as our local location in South Melbourne does $13 main meals Monday - Thursday during the AFL season if the football team the owner supports wins. I will probably get the beef taquitos or tostaditas for an entree and either beef and chicken fajitas with all the fixings or the vegetarian enchiladas for a main. We drive across town to get donuts from Big Lou's for desert. I like the glazed and the custard Berliner.

[ALenore]

local location in South Melbourne

 

Wow, until I clicked on the link I assumed you were in  Melbourne, Florida.   I guess they sell Mexican food everywhere.  

 

I'm making grilled vegetable taco salad.  No recipe, I'm trying to recreate a dish my husband likes that  they serve at a local Mexican restaurant near us.  I've never actually eaten it, so I'm just going to sort of wing it.   I'm going to use tortilla chips instead of putting on one of those deep fried tortilla shells they use at the restaurant, and instead of roasting the vegetable, I'm going to grill them, since it's still nice grilling weather.    My husband wasn't sure exactly what vegetables were it it, so I'm going with zucchini, red onion, red pepper and sweet potato.   I may add some grilled corn on the cob.  

[beatrixkiddoe]

I would definitely say you should give jackfruit a go, stillshimpy. I was just thrilled to find a place that was serving it, I've never even seen it in person before. They were also serving black bean tostadas that looked really good, but alas you can only eat so much. I also would've loved to have tried their burritos stuffed with mac and cheese and potato chips, but I had just had mac and cheese for dinner on Saturday.

 

The taco place was sharing space with the Through Being Cool vegan bakery and I had half of one of their chocolate iced doughnuts with homemade sponge toffee on top and it was ridiculously good.

[photo fox]

I had a really good authentic gyro today in the last place I'd expect to find such a thing - a bar in a one-horse town in the Midwest. Honestly, I had trepidations, because I wouldn't have expected them to even be able to properly pronounce gyro, let alone make one, but it was excellent.

[KnoxForPres]

Get this book - it's by Julia Child's editor, a widow. And it's great! If it doesn't make you excited about cooking for yourself, it will at least give you a couple of new directions to go with it.

When I'm on my own for dinner, I'll sometimes make shrimp scampi and pasta, which can be scaled up or down according to the number of people at dinner. I use the recipe on the back of the Trader Joe's lemon-pepper pappardelle (sp?) package. I keep a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer and thaw however many I think I'll need that night. It's super simple.

It's ordered! Thank you so much.

[ALenore]

Tonight I'm making Maple Glazed Salmon (started in a skilled, finished in the broiler).   On the side I'm having brocolli and then a wheatberry salad.  I really like wheatberries, just discovered them a few years ago in a salad they had in the salad bar at the cafeteria where I work.   It's got dried cranberries, walnuts, goat cheese, scallions and cilantro.   The dressing is just olive oil,  orange juice and a little bit of honey.   I make a double batch of wheatberries (in a pressure cooker) and freeze half for a later meal).  

[Jac]

Tomorrow night I am doing one of my all-time favorites but something I don't have often because it is evilly unhealthy:

Pan-fried Gnocchi with Gorgonzola

500g gnocchi

75g Gorgonzola cheese

50g Parma ham shredded into small pieces

2 cloves of garlic

Small amount of fresh torn basil to garnish

20g butter

Cook gnocchi according to pack instructions

Melt butter over medium heat

Cook garlic for 30 seconds

Add gnocchi and cook until golden and crisp around the edges

Add Parma ham and Gorgonzola and, toss until the Parma ham is crispy and the cheese melted, it should coat the gnocchi pretty evenly

Tear basil and garnish before serving

[LuckyBitch]

JacquelineLHope, that sounds so good. Last night, we made Pasta Carbonara with Bacon and Peas and it was so flipping delicious. We used turkey bacon instead of regular bacon, though, because I actually prefer it.

 

Today, the slow cooker is going for tonight's dinner: Chicken with Peanut-Butter Barbecue Sauce. I've made it once before and it was very good, served over rice. This time I'm trying it with chicken drumsticks instead of thighs. Also, I use crunchy peanut butter in the recipe. 

[stillshimpy]

Today I'm making a pressed sandwich in farmer's bread, filled with some tomato sauce, raw spinach, eggplant with basil and tomatoes, plus sauted mushrooms, shallots and some monterey jack.

Now I just am waiting for it to squish properly and I brought pictures of what this entails:

Yes, that is a bag of sugar in a ziplock bag atop the pile. I needed the weight and didn't feel like going downstairs to get one from the weight bench.

[grisgris]

I fixed Ina Garten's lemon chicken with broccoli and bowties. It was good, but I short-changed the amount of lemon juice in the recipe, so that is a mistake I'll avoid in the future. I tend to find Barefoot Contessa lemon recipes to be too "lemony," but not true in this instance. I think will also use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts. I prefer them because they are moister and have more flavor. Live and learn! :)

[ALenore]

I'm not cooking tonight.  We're going to our town's annual "Taste Of"  festival where various restaurants set up stands around the Green and you pay $15 admission to get samples of their food.  This year there are going to be about 25 different vendors.   I haven't been in a couple of years, there are some new restaurants this year that I'm interested in trying out.    

[Bella]

I occasionally flip through my cookbooks to see if they warrant keeping. So tonight I am making the Balsamic Chicken from the South Beach Diet Cookbook. If that works, I'll probably photocopy the recipe and donate the book.

[LuckyBitch]

Bella, or just Google it and print it out. That recipe has been around for a while.

 

I'm feeling too lazy/tired to really cook much and need a fast dinner tonight, so it's going to be crab cakes (store bought, prepared by the grocery store), rice, and salad. 

 

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow because we're going to try that One Pan Pasta recipe that Mya Stone posted a few weeks ago.

[ALenore]

I really enjoyed going to the "Taste Of" festival last night.   My husband had an upset stomach, so he didn't go, but I think I ate enough for the two of us. 

 

Tonight it's going to be chicken scallopini and orzo with zucchini, tomatoes and goat cheese.  

[harrie]

ALenore, did you have anything exciting or find any new places at the Taste?  (Even if a night out, so to speak, is already a bonus.) 

 

Last night was tuna and white bean salad (with some olives and tomatoes, too), and tonight is fresh tomato soup. Because we have way too many tomatoes.  We've been bringing them to work, giving them to neighbors, hitting the soup kitchens and food pantries (thank you, ampleharvest.org, an excellent organization), and we're still loaded with them.  But come late October or so, we'll miss them a lot. 

 

LuckyB, what is that peanut butter barbecue sauce about?  Is the attraction the combination of tastes, or different textures?  I just wonder because it's two flavors I would not think of combining (though I'm familiar with African Peanut Soup).  I want to try it, but think it will be a tough sell to the hub. 

Edited September 11, 2014 by harrie

[ALenore]

harrie, one place was giving out creme brulee french toast, which was really good.  Unfortunately, they are a caterer, not a restaturant, so unless I plan to stage a party, I wont' be able to try it again.   There was a new German restaurant that had some good Hungarian goulash and bratwurst with sauerkraut.   Another restaurant that I really enjoy going to had a new dish of beef stew over mashed potatoes that was very tasty.   I actually picked up a few desserts, and apple pie and some brownies,  that I brought home and will try later today.  

 

Edited to add: I just checked Google, and there are several recipes for creme brulee French toast, and it looks really easy to make (though extremely caloric) I'll have to try it some time as a special treat, maybe for  Christmas breakfast or something.

Edited September 11, 2014 by ALenore

[JTMacc99]

My mom had a coupon & showed up at my house with a rice cooker. Surprise. Thanks Mom! I'm going to try it out tonight. Rice & some mixed vegetables. My oldest likes to mix up herbal seasonings of her own design so I'll let her do her thing & add that & some butter to the veggies.

I'm probably going to serve it with gluten free chicken nuggets. They're a treat that we don't eat too often & if I somehow mess up the rice cooker I want a well enjoyed backup to back me up. Now I need to think of something that would be good to put on the rice or flavor it with. I suppose I could just layer the veggies on top of the rice. Hum. Any suggestions?

 

I got a rice cooker as a gift, and I love it for plain old rice. SO easy. Always right.

 

But I've had varying levels of success with adding anything else into the mix. I can get it to work pretty well with broth and a few saffron threads as long as I put the saffron (or any spices and herbs) into the liquid before I add it to the rice cooker. 

[harrie]

Thanks, ALenore - sounds yummy.  Especially the french toast, which unfortunately I will not be in a position to try for quite some time. 

[Rick Kitchen]

Not interested in cooking tonight so I picked up a shrimp louie salad from the deli section of the supermarket today.  I'm hoping it's good.

[stillshimpy]

A GIANT MARGARITA.

Oh and probably Mexican, but priorities, priorities.

[ramble]

My rice cooker worked like a charm. My math? That left much to be desired & by much I mean I didn't pay attention & we have a lot leftover. So tonight we're going to have rice & something. I don't have a clue what but definitely there will be rice. My kids got to have false rice pudding for breakfast yesterday. (butter, sugar, cinnamon & raisins just stirred in heated up up rice) They're probably a little tired of rice, but the rice cooked so perfectly we're going to use it!

[Rick Kitchen]

My rice cooker worked like a charm. My math? That left much to be desired & by much I mean I didn't pay attention & we have a lot leftover. So tonight we're going to have rice & something. I don't have a clue what but definitely there will be rice. My kids got to have false rice pudding for breakfast yesterday. (butter, sugar, cinnamon & raisins just stirred in heated up up rice) They're probably a little tired of rice, but the rice cooked so perfectly we're going to use it!

 

We used to have rice like that for breakfast a lot.  And I've ordered it for breakfast in restaurants.

[EllieH]

One Fried Avocado taco, from Torchy's Tacos

[ALenore]

I'm planning to make a salad with shrimp, mango,  avocado and tomato.  I just hope the mangoes are ripe, they were almost ripe when I checked last night.  

[WendyCR72]

Tonight (okay, technically yesterday now!) we had English muffin pizzas and they tasted awesome!

[emma675]

I had the most amazing salad--spinach, radishes, corn, hard boiled eggs, carrots, cucumbers, red onion, avocado, parmesan, grilled pesto chicken, and ranch dressing. I think the diet I'm on is making me crazy because I never used to crave salad before and every Friday I treat myself to the salad bar at work and it's amazing.

[bosawks]

I'm looking for a great basil pesto recipe.

Any ideas?

[Bella]

I have a basil pesto recipe that give you the option of including goat cheese.

 

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup pine nuts 
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 ounce soft goat cheese, or more Parmesan
• Salt, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Grate the Parmesan. Use a blender to chop the pine nuts fine, until they almost become butter. Set aside.

Pour half of the oil into the blender. Add basil, garlic, salt, pepper, and goat cheese (if using). Pulse blender on low until the basil becomes a puree. Add more oil if needed.

Remove from blender, add remaining olive oil, Parmesan, and pine nuts. If this is too coarse, return to blender and process more.

 

This freezes well and, if thawed, will keep in the refrigerator a couple of weeks.

[mansonlamps]

Chicken tinga which is apparently normal if you live in California. Basically it's an amazingly tasty filling for tacos, enchiladas, or whatever Mexican delicacy you are making. Yum, my dog is going berserk trying to get me to give her samples.

[photo fox]

I had a pulled pork ponyshoe today, with the best fries I have ever eaten. Yum!

[EllieH]

An "Idaho Sunrise" -- you bake a potato, once its ready you take it out, cut it open like normal and maybe push on the ends to form more of a bowl opening, then crack an egg into the potato and return it to the oven to bake for another 5-10 minutes, until the white is set but the yolk is still runny.  Remove from the oven and mash the egg into the potato with a fork.  It ends up tasty really creamy and rich without adding any butter or cheese or sour cream.

[harrie]

I have never heard of an idaho Sunrise, but it sounds delicious.  Must try it soon.  

 

Tonight was good old grilled burgers, corn and potato salad.

[ALenore]

I made roast chicken with home made apple pecan stuffing, along with the chicken I roasted potatoes and carrots.   I froze the carcass of the chicken to use for chicken  stock next week.  

[Jac]

Tonight I made a quick South Indian Pepper Chicken Curry with naan. The base is pre-made but delicious.

 

Wednesday I'm doing Hainanese Chicken Rice, so, so excited! 

[ALenore]

Today I'm making a frittata with two differnt kinds of tomatoes (green and yellow gold) plus goat cheese, and a spinach salad on the side.   I want to make sure I use up all the tomatoes I got at the farmers' market before they go bad. 

[WendyCR72]

Tonight was homemade fried chicken and a tossed salad with some bite (hot onions and tomatoes along with the usual celery, cucumber, et. al.).

[Bastet]

My mother's are the only beef tacos I will eat, and that's what she made last night when I went to my parents' house for dinner.  I brought home the leftover meat, and boring nature of eating the same thing two nights in a row be damned, that's what I'm making tonight.

 

And Cadillac margaritas. 

[Bella]

I've been nibbling all day, some fruit, some cinnamon cream cheese on graham crackers, so I reheated some rice pilaf and poured a bit of Trader Joe's gyoza dipping sauce over it. That was really all I felt like.

[ebk57]

Tonight is the last night my friends from Tucson are here.  We went out for Indian food.  I had a samosa chat, then lamb biriyani.  Also at the table was chicken biriyani, chicken tikka masala, and a wonderful side dish of cauliflower and peas. That was after a couple of soups and some garlic shrimp. And there was wine.

 

 

I'll never eat again...

[LuckyBitch]

LuckyB, what is that peanut butter barbecue sauce about?  Is the attraction the combination of tastes, or different textures?  I just wonder because it's two flavors I would not think of combining (though I'm familiar with African Peanut Soup).  I want to try it, but think it will be a tough sell to the hub. 

 

harrie, there's just a very subtle peanut butter flavor, I noticed that one review said she was going to double the PB next time, but I liked it the way it was. I did use the suggestion of using crunchy PB instead of the creamy PB the recipe called for. I think either is fine, but I liked the added texture to the sauce.

 

I just asked Mr. LB about the flavor and he said he didn't really detect PB in it. He said it just made the BBQ sauce taste more like a roasted, sort of nutty sauce, not necessarily peanut. It was very subtle; the PB just gives more flavor to the BBQ sauce. I used a cheapo BBQ sauce, btw, (Kraft Original BBQ sauce, on sale). 

 

Also, this time I made it with chicken drumsticks instead of thighs and it was very good.

[LuckyBitch]

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow because we're going to try that One Pan Pasta recipe that Mya Stone posted a few weeks ago.

 

Quoting myself from last week (sorry), but just to say that this recipe was excellent and thanks for posting it Mya Stone. It seemed like such an odd way to make a pasta dish, but it did eventually all come together. I made it exactly as the recipe called for, but next time I plan on perfecting it by topping it with some goat cheese (because everything's better with goat cheese, as far as I'm concerned, lol). It's originally from Martha Stewart's website, btw, (Ha, I even watched the video there).

 

For some reason, I'm making pasta dishes far more frequently than normally, (cooler weather, probably). Yesterday, we made Baked Rigatoni with Italian Sausage and Peppers, and salad. I can't even remember where I came across that recipe, (here maybe?), but it was so easy and really good. I would have liked it with a mix of sweet sausage and hot sausage, but I only had sweet in. So, I just added some hot pepper flakes to the mixture.

 

Tonight, Mr. LB had it again, since we have a ton leftover and he really loved it. I wanted something lighter so I chopped up some leftover Teriyaki chicken breasts and threw it in a big bowl of Dole Asian Blend Chopped Salad mixed with Ken's Dressing Lite Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy, one of my favorite meals to make with leftovers, (tastes great and takes less than a minute to throw together).

 

Also, thanks to the bad influence of my fellow posters in the fast food thread, (you know who you are, lol), this weekend we had Five Guys burgers and fries for the second time ever! I've been corrupted, damn it! Sadly, those Cajun Fries are addictive. I wish I had never read that thread, ha ha.

Edited September 16, 2014 by LuckyBitch

[ALenore]

I was going to make frittata last night, but some friends from out of town (actually out of the country, they're from Canada) stopped by.  They were planning to come by earlier and go out to lunch with my husband, but since they were running late, I got to come along for dinner.   We went to the same restaurant we had dinner at  when they stopped by last year.  One of the guys had the same chicken pot pie dish he'd been talking about since he had it last year.  I had a lobster pie, and my husband had Guiness beef stew .  It was a really nice dinner, we don't go out to eat very often.

[photo fox]

...we don't go out to eat very often.

Considering how amazing your made-at-home meals always sound, I don't think you're missing anything! :)