View Full Version : April Cook at Home
Tonight I'm trying a recipe for something I've been eying a long time as a meal that we would all like: sushi salmon bowls. The veggies will be stir-fried broccoli and carrots, and probably some raw cucumber and green onions as well.
Sounds yummy! You had me at sushi salmon. :)
No cooking for me tonight since I made a big pot of potato leek soup yesterday (which was still March!) that will last us a few days. I also made a whole-orange cake (a bundt cake with batter that included 2 whole oranges ground up in the food processor) that was delicious and very spring-y, but poor DH is sick with a bad sore throat and couldn't enjoy it. The soup was good for him though.
I have some beautiful chard in the fridge that will get turned into a salad with miso-sesame dressing, and some snow peas that I plan to roast. Other than that, I don't really have plans.
Kara
Things to make this week: frittata, chocolate tapioca pudding, macaroons, and (raw, vegan) chocolate macaroons. Ummm...anybody else notice my affinity for making desserts this week? :~)
We haven't eaten out since we took my Dad for pizza on Good Friday. So five days. That may not seem like a big deal, but DH is a big fan of eating out, and the more uncomfortable I get in my pregnancy, the more likely we are to do it. So I am pleased!
We have pretty much been doing simple meals/leftovers over the last week. We've had:
Sandwiches with cottage cheese, chips, fruit, or whatever else we can find sitting around
Ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls
Burgers and hot dogs on the grill with sweet potato fries
Sloppy joes with veggies
pizza
I have a roast for French dips simmering away in the crock pot right now, and I also made some jello with fruit. I'll add some steamed veggies around 5:00 and call it dinner!
I made a frittata with potatoes and onions last night -- and then forgot to add the cheese. Doh! I had to make it in advance so I just topped it with Parmesan when I re-heated it in time for dinner and it was fine. I wasn't sure we would like potatoes as the add-in, but it came out great. There are still two pieces in the refrigerator to eat later today.
I'm experimenting with making homemade yogurt today. It's my first time making homemade yogurt and I'm making it in the crockpot. Can't wait to see how it turns out!
Assuming the great yogurt experiment works out, I predict we'll be eating smoothies for breakfast later this week!
And, of course, the chocolate tapioca pudding project is on hold because I just used up the milk making yogurt. :~)
We eat at home most of the time, but this week I'm trying a recipe I haven't done before--pozole! I just love the stuff. Only I am omitting the pig's feet the recipe on the hominy can recommends. I shall report on my success or failure later.
I almost never put cheese in my frittatas. They are good both with and without.
Tonight DD had an evening activity so I put some split pea soup that I had thawed into the crockpot for heating before we left. When we got back it was perfectly hot and we had salad with it. Tomorrow we're having leftovers from last night, German peasant fare - cabbage and potatoes with some chicken bratwurst.
Blackdog Lin
4-3-13, 8:51pm
We also seldom eat out (about 3 times a month); but our small town has recently re-introduced pizza delivery (!!!), so I'm trying my best to be wary of falling into a nefarious spiral of unfrugal-like activity (I think pizza should be it's own gourmet food group). No no Lin, you are retired now and have the time and interest to cook! Anyway.....
Monday was Easter dinner leftovers: ham, cheesy potatoes, corn, asparagus. Tuesday I needed to use up the excess corn (I cooked way too much) so tried a new Tamale Pie casserole recipe, which turned out very well. Today we ate out, it was time to do the restock-the-household trip to the big city (Japanese restaurant: katsu and fried rice: yum). Tomorrow is a big pot o'beans, using the ham bone and some chicken stock from the freezer, and I need to make a salad with salad fixin's that are getting old. No ideas beyond tomorrow - but I found 3 more containers of chicken stock in the freezer, so need to think about ways to use them up.
treehugger
4-3-13, 10:14pm
...but our small town has recently re-introduced pizza delivery (!!!), so I'm trying my best to be wary of falling into a nefarious spiral of unfrugal-like activity (I think pizza should be it's own gourmet food group). No no Lin, you are retired now and have the time and interest to cook!
I think of pizza as it's own food group, too, and I know that any pizza you make at home will be so much better than anything you can get delivered. That's your incentive. Save your eating out money for that Japanese restaurant in the big city. :)
Kara (who still hasn't cooked since Sunday but is coasting on leftovers and bean burritos; it's that kind of week)
Blackdog Lin
4-4-13, 7:52am
Thanks Kara. You're right. I make a darn fine - and frugal - homemade pizza, and need to remember that when I get that urge to be lazy. :)
In fact, doesn't a homemade pizza sound perfect for our Saturday night this week? Why yes it does. Another meal planned.
Oooh--I love homemade pizza!
The French dips were a hit. Even my picky DD loved them. We made a tiny little sandwich for her and gave her her own cup of dipping sauce. She ate almost all of it, which is unheard of as far as meat is concerned. She is more of a fruit and dairy kind of girl (like her mama!).
DH wanted some baked ham and cheese sandwiches, so that I what I am planning on for dinner tonight. The recipe is for mini rolls; I will modify it a bit for larger rolls. The jello wasn't set in time for dinner yesterday, so we'll have some of that tonight and maybe some cottage cheese. I used to love spending a zillion hours in the kitchen preparing elaborate meals. But now that I have kids...I'm all about fast and easy food! :-)
re: cost of homemade pizza vs pizza out --- I am always amazed at the cost of prepared wheat-based meals and/or baked goods.
Flour is about 50 cents/pound in the supermarket, so I would guess that most restaurants pay about 25 cents/lb. That's about 4 cups of flour.
A large, medium-thickness pizza crust (for a 14" pizza) takes about 4 cups of flour - so there's $1, $2 if you make it yourself. 8 oz of standard mozzarella cheese is < $2 at the supermarket. Sauce, premade, would be about $0.50 worth. Other topping costs vary a lot if you compare meat prices to veggie prices. Let's just say that the veggie costs are negligible and if you use standard pepperoni (as opposed to the nitrite-free variety, which is not what you'll get from a pizza shop) it's about $2.
So homemade pizza, about $6.50, and no need to drive anywhere, pay restaurant tax, or tip a driver for delivery. Same pizza from a pizza shop, at least $12 before tax & tip, or double the cost - and they're paying less for their ingredients.
Don't even get me started on the outrageous prices restaurants charge for pasta dishes. Take the average kid's pasta meal - which goes for about $5 - there might be a whole $0.15 worth of pasta in it.
Loaf of bread from a bakery? About 4 cups of flour makes a large loaf of bread - other ingredients negligible (for your standard sandwich loaf - nuts are the only really costly ingredient that might go into a loaf of bread). So, say $1 of ingredients, for at least $4 at the bakery.
The only more ridiculous price gouging is on store-bought crackers or cereal. 10 ounce box, about $3.50! Wow, that's insane.
And as always, none of the above as good as fresh and homemade.
domestic goddess
4-4-13, 10:43am
Haven't cooked since Sunday, and I don't see it happening until the weekend. Worked extra hours last week and am working an extra 10 hr. shift this week. I'm too old for this. I'm actually too tired to eat, and I thought that would never happen! For someone (like me) who substitutes food for sleep, I'm not in a real good place right now.
Have some leftover ham that I'm going to use in a casserole this weekend, I think. I don't know what the rest of them are eating, but dd went to the store last night and bought a lot of packaged stuff. Hamburger Helper is about as close to cooking as she gets.
I"ll get back on track. Next week I only have to work 2 night, so I will have lots of time to cook and fill the freezer. I also need to spend some time working on my blanket for the baby, if I am going to get it finished before she gets here.
decemberlov
4-4-13, 11:06am
Don't even get me started on the outrageous prices restaurants charge for pasta dishes. Take the average kid's pasta meal - which goes for about $5 - there might be a whole $0.15 worth of pasta in it.
This!! DH & I were excited that there was a new restaurant opening up on the main street that we could ride out bikes to and go on a date every now and then. We road up and checked the menu in the window the other night. Kids menu had buttered pasta with parm cheese - $11.00!! At a buck a box (not on sale) that's 11lbs of pasta!! No sauce either lol. Needless to say we didn't go in. I don't care how good their food is, I'm not eating there and giving my money to anyone that has the nerve to sell butter noodles for $11 a plate!
**sorry, I view this thread often but never post but I just had to comment on this :laff:
Last night I made dinner, and the night before! Woot, last night was homemade mac and cheese with frozen mixed vegies and a salad. 4 of us ate and I have one leftover container for a lunch.
Then this morning I made muffins with leftover bananas. 2 bananas were enough for a dozen muffins or so. I hope my son's friends who come over after school will like them which saves me on the pressure to get junkier food.
Yogurt making was a success -- woo-hoo!!!
We ate leftovers for dinner last night: frittata for me and a pork chop for my partner. The last piece of frittata was breakfast for him this morning.
Dinner tonight will be vegetarian chili (from the freezer) with tortilla chips.
Yogurt making was a success -- woo-hoo!!!
Yay! I love making yogurt. So delicious, so frugal!
Much to my surprise, I actually felt like cooking last night after I finished working and got home from our group greyhound walk down at the marina. So, I made chard salad with sliced sugar snap peas, shredded daikon radish, and miso-sesame dressing. It was delicious; keeper dressing recipe for sure.
Kara
DH and I decided to eat French dip leftovers for dinner last night, so I'll make the baked sandwiches he likes tonight instead. I was able to get some eggs and potatoes boiled this morning, so I'll make a big batch of mustard potato salad this afternoon to go with. We still have lots of jello, so we'll probably have some of that for dessert. Tomorrow I am planning on making "skinny" sloppy joes again. Made with turkey instead of beef, and it has tons of veggies hidden in it! :-)
The pozole was...meh. Not like the yummy stuff I buy down at our farmer's market. But it was okay...needed a bit more of the red chili sauce. I had kinda backed off on it.
Since I am working at home today, I just made lunch for DH and me: tuna with olive oil, lemon juice, capers, and Italian seasoning, on crackers. Poor DH has the 'flu and conjunctivitus, so I made him eat upstairs. :P
Kara
I hosted the soup and craft time yesterday. Made a garlic/asparagus stock using the ends from 2# of asparagus and 2 bulbs of garlic. Then added roasted zucchini and onions and cooked long-grain brown rice. Topped with Romano cheese. It received rave reviews. Modified from a Moosewood recipe.
Made some hard-boiled eggs for weekend lunches. DD had 2 for lunch today.
Cut up red bell pepper and carrots and made some "ranch" dip (yogurt, a little mayo, salt, and some dried chives).
Cooked up a batch of pinto beans this morning and am making some 'beanballs' to go with DD's pasta tonight. With herbs inside them, and sauce & Romano cheese on top, I am pretty sure they'll be plenty flavorful. Some extra pinto beans in the fridge, I'll have for breakfast or lunch over the weekend.
Tonight, DD and her friend and DH will have pasta and salad; I'll have a salad with one of the hard-boiled eggs. Tomorrow night, DH and I are going out; DD will have pasta again, with salad.
Friday night is nachos night at this house! We're topping them with homemade vegetarian chili and they are in the oven right now -- smells so good!
Blackdog Lin
4-5-13, 8:28pm
"Beanballs". Rosemary, that's a cool idea, and one I might have to try. :)
Today, Thursday's leftover beans and fried 'tators with a fresh green salad I made. Tomorrow I'd planned pizza, but DH has "grillin' fever", as the weather is s'posed to hit 70 degrees, along with the fact that the local grocery had giant pork roasts at $1.18/lb. So he's gonna smoke a pork roast all day, and I bought brussells sprouts to go with. Haven't ever tried roasted brussells sprouts and might do that. Big yums tomorrow night. And Sunday Italianish sausage pasta w/garlic toast, to use up the rest of the half-n-half in the fridge, and have a giant loaf of bread to use up. No ideas beyond Sunday - we'll see how the leftover situation works out.
Even my DH said the beanballs were good. Modified a recipe from Laurel's Kitchen:
1.5 c pinto beans, cooked and drained
about 2T chickpea flour (could have used more, or something else to dry the texture a bit, like some oats)
1 egg
1/4 c onion, minced and sauteed
salt, oregano, basil
- Mix and refrigerate so they are easier to handle. Form into 1.5 Tbsp balls and place on oiled baking sheet - makes 12. Bake at 350 20 minutes or until dry and hot. (This made the outside dry but the inside was still very moist - could bake longer at a lower temp, perhaps). Add to tomato sauce and allow them to absorb a little before serving.
domestic goddess
4-7-13, 8:50am
This past week at work was long and hard, so I haven't cook since last Sunday. Think I'll make a roast today so there will be beef leftovers for sandwiches. And maybe a pan of mac and cheese just to nosh on. DD and dsil like my homemade mac and cheese, but the kids won't even try it because it isn't neon orange and tasteless. Their loss. I make a good mac and cheese. Since I'm only workint 2 nights this week, I plan to really do some cooking, as well as some yard work. DD and dsil don't seem to grasp that you have to actually do something outside, if you want a nice place to spend some time, once the lot has already been built upon and altered. It just doesn't revert to it's former natural beauty like something that hasn't been disturbed. And I enjoy sitting on the front porch, watching the kids play. Several of the kids play outside now, though there were none who did when dd and dsil first moved here. Of course, they are all older, but both dgd's have always played outside and finally other kids started to join them. Maybe because one of us was always outside with them, other parents felt it was safe enough to allow their kids out. In such a quiet suburban neighborhood, I just don't understand it. We also seem to be some of the few people who cook outside in the summer. Don't know how that is going to go, since our friend who also lived here and did all the grilling has moved, but I guess I'm gonna learn! Looking for a good chicken salad recipe. Any suggestions?
Dinner tonight was teriyaki salmon and salad, and the last of the fried rice I made for lunch yesterday.
I have some leftover pasta & sauce in the fridge that, along with some green beans, will make a couple of hot lunches for DD to take.
I started planning this week's meals but ran out of steam... will get back to it tomorrow.
Ugh! I haven't made the skinny sloppy joes OR the sandwiches yet. DH keeps requesting other things and we did eat out once. So I am going to freeze the stuff for the sandwiches and make the sloppy joes tonight. I want to make DH the things he wants to eat, but it makes me crazy when he says he wants something and then decided he wants something else at the last minute. Then I end up with all this food on the verge of going bad. He is getting the sloppy joes tonight whether he wants them or not. Ha!
Today I'll make a stock with some organic turkey wings I've had in the freezer, which are fabulous for that purpose.
Tonight we'll have carrot-ginger soup (made with some of the turkey stock), and salad with turkey.
Tomorrow, turkey tacos.
Wednesday & Thursday, beef stew (heavy on the vegetables) and steamed broccoli.
domestic goddess
4-8-13, 12:56pm
Didn't make the roast yesterday, as the rest of the family was at a birthday party and ate tnere. Was going to head to the store to get a few needed things (some for dinner), when dd told me she had stuff for dinner, so I didn't need to go to the store. So I guess it will be Hamburger Helper tonight. After I gave up the idea of going to the store, she got aggravated because there weren't eggs (on my list) and I then wasn't going to the store. She went with dsil to get some parts for a car repair, and I guess she'll buy eggs then. Not sure what tonight's dinner will be, but I'm guessing HH, high salt for my hypertension.
Weekend meals:
Friday I cooked some soba noodles, poached chicken, and steamed broccoli to go with the rest of the miso dressing from earlier in the week.
Saturday, I made Awesome Sauce (http://www.gilttaste.com/stories/4129-ginger-scallion-sauce-an-explosive-recipe) to go with the rest of the soba noodles, and served that with sauteed chicken, and in-pod edamame.
Sunday was baked breaded cod, served with malt vinegar, oven fries (red and russet) and the rest of the edamame.
Miscellaneous weekend cooking: egg salad for sandwiches, and semolina pizza dough to be stored for use later in the week. I also grated a bunch of fresh ginger to store in the freezer.
Kara
Slow cooker has a bunch of vegetables -- mushrooms, Jerusalem artichokes, carrots, onions, tomatoes -- and a little beef chuck melting away for dinner tonight and for a couple other lunches/dinners. I'm halfway through making a Macanese chicken dish (from Macau) that smells like it will be really good. I hope so because it's a heck of a lot of work compared to many other recipes I make.
Gotta get some beans going, maybe tonight. And I have some salmon steaks I should make something out of -- they thawed before I really wanted them to, but I won't freeze them again. Busy busy but the payback will come when several dinners are just reheatable -- and the type of recipe for which reheating lets the flavors marry a little.
Oh, thanks for the reminder; I need to get some beans going too. Freezer is out of beans, eek!
Kara
Delicious, delicious carrot-ginger soup!
I made it in the crockpot:
about 2# carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, chopped finely
-- I put the above in the crockpot on high while I was making the stock, and mixed in a little salt. The veggies roasted thus for about 45 minutes while the stock was in progress on the stove.
stock to cover (I used turkey)
-- cook for about 2 hours on high or 4 hours on low, or until carrots are soft.
add 2 cubes of ginger puree (I make it in quantity and freeze in ice cube trays; if you use fresh ginger, this is about 2 Tbsp grated ginger), and cook for another hour on low
add 12 oz silken tofu and puree
add 2T frozen orange juice concentrate and stir to thaw and combine.
Made the sloppy joes last night with some mixed veggies from the freezer. I think tonight I will make breakfast for dinner--I have some eggs, bacon, and par-boiled potatoes that all need to be used up. Lunches around here have been focused on using up what's in the fridge--cheese, hard boiled eggs, avocados, sandwiches with potato salad, etc. I am thinking about making a small batch of egg salad, too, since the hard boiled eggs aren't going as quickly as we thought they would (though DD does love them!).
If our fridge is looking a little by the end of the day, I may make the Hawaiin sandwiches for DH tomorrow. We'll see. I don't want to waste food just because we feel like eating something different.
Po Kok Gai (Macaunese Chicken):
http://i47.tinypic.com/282hkdz.jpg
Chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, olives, and chorizo in a creamy coconut-turmeric-paprika gravy. Very tasty -- but not a great recipe for the time-pressed cook.
Ah SteveinMN, that looks wonderful. I just made cabbage/dark greens/onion/garlic/chicken/linguica, celery, chicken broth soup. It's not bad, but yours looks better.
Steve, the Po Kok Gai (Macaunese Chicken) looks delicious. Does it reheat well? If so I could see making a double or triple batch and gaining back some of the time with tasty leftovers.
It reheats quite well (it was lunch today :))! No separation or anything.
I'm not sure how well it would freeze -- less out of concern for the creamy gravy than the difference it would make freezing and thawing potatoes, carrots, etc. If I were planning to do that, I'd cook to just this side of done on the veggies so there's some room to freeze later. The chicken is pretty much done when added to the other ingredients, so there's no concern about undercooking there.
The only other caveat I would make is that the recipe does use turmeric. Turmeric can do a fine job dyeing things a lovely shade of yellow. But sometimes you don't want everything to be a lovely shade of yellow. I drained the chicken on some paper towels only to find it turned the laminate counter underneath yellow. I caught it fast and got the yellow out with Bon Ami, but for a minute it looked like this might be a very expensive dish (!). I also rinsed the serving pieces before they hit the dishwasher -- something I only ever do with thick residues of tomato sauce. Everything's fine now.
Jane, that soup sounds really good. Greens are a hard sell to some people in this house, but I love 'em. Might be a lunch for me for a few days....
Pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, broccoli. Plenty for leftovers.
...
Jane, that soup sounds really good. Greens are a hard sell to some people in this house, but I love 'em. Might be a lunch for me for a few days....
I'm not crazy about greens, but they were OK here. Next time, I'd skip the celery and substitute carrots or other root vegetables.
Blackdog Lin
4-10-13, 8:25pm
The end of last week's menu plans got bogged down and backed up due to.....life. So getting back on track, this week it's been Monday: some gifted beef ribs along with the Brussels sprouts I hadn't gotten cooked; Tuesday the Italianish sausage-n-pasta.
Today winter showed back up in the way of temperatures in the 30s and a chill wet rain most of the day. Perfect for homemade chicken-n-noodle soup, using a bag of homemade stock from the freezer and I made noodles. Along with hot bread from the loaves I made yesterday evening. DH was suitably impressed with me. :)
Tomorrow is meat loaf (I made it this evening, it's ready for the oven tomorrow) along with green beans ala.....however DH wants to fix them. It has occurred to me that we're readying the garden for spring planting, and I still have too much of last year's produce put-up that needs used. Need to make menus incorporating home-canned green beans, frozen okra, frozen green peppers, and home-canned tomato juice. The tomato juice is gonna be the hard one.....
SteveinMN
4-11-13, 10:10am
The tomato juice is gonna be the hard one.....
Boil it to reduce it into something more gravy-like?
Tomato juice makes a great soup base.
Green beans cooked in tomato juice with Italian spices is tasty.
It's great as a hot or cold drink with Worcestershire sauce added.
We're hosting a small-group dinner on Saturday for a few people from our church. I decided to cook Indian food. The menu:
Salad (someone is bringing this)
Carrot pickle (made these today and the cooking hot pepper nearly singed my sinuses)
Cucumber raita (for everyone to cool off with after eating the carrot pickle!)
Rajmah (spiced kidney beans, cooked long enough to be creamy)
Palak paneer (but made with tofu)
Brown basmati rice pilaf
Dessert: Coconut-banana custard
ApatheticNoMore
4-11-13, 9:11pm
I made cream of brocolli soup with the thought of eating more brocolli :) It's really pretty good, should be great with sharp cheddar cheese. :) You're supposed to use 1/4 cup flour as a thickener, I just used rice flour, wondering if I should even bother, since it's not getting any gluten thickening anyway, but not wanting to ruin the recipe too much as I was already making modifications (olive oil instead of butter and used less of it, used 1/2 the cream they asked for, cut down on the celery - everything doesn't have to be mostly about celery "joy of cooking" book sheesh). Really though came out ok, hard to ruin cream of brocolli soup unless you burn it afterall.
Blackdog Lin
4-11-13, 9:23pm
Rosemary - how ambitious and gourmet your menu sounds. I envy your cooking skills, doing something like this for guests. Hope your dinner party goes wonderfully.
Steve and Amaranth: thank you! Ideas I can use. I just don't make enough tomato-based soups (maybe 2 a month) to have gotten it used up. But (1) boil it down and reduce to a thicker product: yes. I could have done this today to make the tomato-sauce topping for my meatloaf. Drat that I didn't think of it; and (2) green beans cooked in tomato juice: again, yes. Would use up both the tomato juice AND the green beans I need to focus on getting eaten. I can see several possibilities for tasty green bean side dishes, now that you've given me the idea. (I wonder if I could invent an okra-tomato juice side dish that DH would eat.....maybe, maybe. We got pretty tired of jambalaya/gumbo type of dishes, but if I went in a different direction.....)
Thanks guys. Very helpful.
Blackdog Lin
4-11-13, 9:34pm
This has been bugging me for months, a silly and petty complaint (well, not complaint, an observation), and I'm almost embarrassed to mention it, but I'm going to anyway.....this thread should be in the Food area. We all tend to talk menus and food, and really don't talk about it being a "challenge". It seems that it would be a better and funner thread in the Food category.
Or maybe it's just me. :)
SteveinMN
4-11-13, 10:22pm
this thread should be in the Food area. We all tend to talk menus and food, and really don't talk about it being a "challenge".
When I've posted meals/recipes, I've always had to think a moment about where to post it. I agree. Maybe the regular participants should vote? :)
As for what to do with okra, here's a recipe I've made several times, usually when okra is in season here (yeah, both days, lol). Might be worth a try; it's not an all-okra-all-the-time kind of dish.
Bamieh (Arabic okra stew)
From "A Book of Middle Eastern Food" by Claudia Roden
2 lb whole okra (fresh or frozen)
2 ea onions, lg, chopped
2 ea garlic cloves
4 tb butter or oil
2 lb lamb, beef or veal, cubed
1/2 lb tomatoes, ripe, sliced (you can use canned)
1 tb tomato paste, diluted in a few ounces of water
salt and pepper
1 ea lemon (juice only) (optional)
Wash fresh okra. Cut off stems. Fry the chopped onions and whole garlic cloves in butter or oil until both are golden and the garlic is aromatic. Add the cubed meat and brown all over. Add the okra and fry gently for a little while longer. Add the tomatoes, continue to cook for a few more minutes, and add the water in which you have diluted the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper, and stir well. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat 1-1/2 hours or more, until the meat and vegetables are very tender and the sauce is reduced (add a little more water if necessary). Remove from heat. Add juice of one lemon. Stir and serve.
I've made it without the lemon this time. Its absence may have made the dish somewhat inauthentic, but it still tasted quite good. This dish also reheats and freezes well. One batch serves a lot of people.
A couple more for the tomato juice:
Make a tomato soup as you would a white sauce, using the juice as the liquid. This can be basic or spiced: Italian, Mexican, New Orleans, Indian, Fresh basil, pesto, etc
The plainer tomato soups are pretty good for breakfast. (also good with toast, scrambled eggs)
Chili soup using the tomato juice
Chicken cacciatore
treehugger
4-12-13, 2:10pm
This has been bugging me for months, a silly and petty complaint (well, not complaint, an observation), and I'm almost embarrassed to mention it, but I'm going to anyway.....this thread should be in the Food area. We all tend to talk menus and food, and really don't talk about it being a "challenge". It seems that it would be a better and funner thread in the Food category.
I agree with you. If this thread really were structured like a challenge, that wouldn't interest me. But I am always willing to discuss past, present and future food. But, the way I read this board is by hitting "New Posts" and then I read the ones that interest me, so I admit I very rarely notice which forums the threads live in.
I made pizza on Tuesday (new recipe semolina crust; it was good, but I haven't decided yet if it's worth the extra expense of semolina) and those leftovers got us through last night. I will cook something to night...need to figure out what. I have a leek, some bok choy, and some asparagus. I definitely want to roast the asparagus, but the leek and bok choy would be good for stir fry.
Kara
This has been bugging me for months, a silly and petty complaint (well, not complaint, an observation), and I'm almost embarrassed to mention it, but I'm going to anyway.....this thread should be in the Food area. We all tend to talk menus and food, and really don't talk about it being a "challenge". It seems that it would be a better and funner thread in the Food category.
Or maybe it's just me. :)
I noticed that, too, and wondered if it should be moved. And then I thought, maybe it got started in this forum originally as it is a "daily" as opposed to a "challenge" -- meaning, we all eat daily (and usually several times) and so daily we are trying to make "cook at home" meals vs take out.
That being said. I'm with Kara. I find and read based on the New Posts feature so it doesn't matter to me which forum it ends up in! :)
Oh, and I have no real cook-at-home goodness to report as my partner is still out of town so I've just been eating whatever random thing strikes my fancy and that doesn't usually involve really cooking. But, he'll be back in a few days so I'll be making frittata (because I have peppers, onions, cheese, and eggs that need to be eaten!) and Convict's Macaroni (because it's good!). I'd like to say that this will result in lots of leftovers, but that's probably not going to be the case!
AmeliaJane
4-12-13, 3:19pm
I made a good salad inspired by a recipe on the Trader Joe's website: soba noodles, shrimp (tossed them in at the end of the noodles cooking), cucumbers, carrots, edamame, green onions, tossed with a dressing of rice vinegar, wasabi mayo and a little soy sauce. Very tasty and held up well in the refrigerator. Next time I think I will also throw in some avocado chunks and cut back the mayo a bit.
Lunch: wild rice and asparagus with dried cranberries and sliced almonds.
Dinner: chicken and broccoli stir-fry in black bean sauce.
treehugger
4-12-13, 4:04pm
I made a good salad inspired by a recipe on the Trader Joe's website: soba noodles, shrimp (tossed them in at the end of the noodles cooking), cucumbers, carrots, edamame, green onions, tossed with a dressing of rice vinegar, wasabi mayo and a little soy sauce. Very tasty and held up well in the refrigerator. Next time I think I will also throw in some avocado chunks and cut back the mayo a bit.
That sounds really, really good. I don't eat shrimp, but I bet that would be good vegetarian, or with shredded chicken. I love soba noodles (made a soba noodle salad last week with sesame miso dressing).
Kara
Blackdog Lin
4-12-13, 8:59pm
Re: another idea for my tomato juice problem: tomato soup? Well yes, and thanks again Amaranth. I've never before made homemade tomato soup (I'm not the fan of it in the house, DH is), but I can see my way to it being doable. AllRecipes will help. Homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches: must put on this week's menu.
And Steve, am definitely gonna try your okra side dish. It sounds like something that would definitely fit into our type of cooking repertoire. Let's see.....it might go pretty well with fried fish (which I also need to fix this week - we were gifted with 4 containers of fresh-frozen crappie, and I have 3 left to cook up before they get too old).
(eta) I didn't read your recipe very well. It's an entrée w/meat, not a side dish. I still think I can do something with it.....and thank you.
SteveinMN
4-12-13, 10:40pm
Thanks, Lin. FWIW I've shorted that meal on meat before; sometimes two pounds just looks like way too much meat. I might be tempted to omit the meat to make it a side dish, but I think I would substitute a strong concentration of beef buillion for the water used to dilute the tomato paste, just to keep the flavors somewhat in check.
treehugger
4-13-13, 10:26pm
Just put asparagus (gorgeous thin ones from the produce box; tossed in olive oil and salt) and sweet potatoes (garnet, also from the produce box; tossed in olive oil, smoked paprika, and cumin) into a hot oven. I have some chicken sausages that will go in about 10 minutes before the potatoes are done. Dinner is roasting itself!
Kara
Indian food was all very good, and we have a lot left over. I'll put some of it in the freezer tomorrow... for tonight it's in the fridge; just too tired to deal with it now. I started cooking at 8am, and had already done some prep work. I am tired from head to toe.
The banana-coconut custard was quite good and very easy.
DD and I will probably have Indian food for breakfast tomorrow.
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-13, 1:38am
Made low carb vegetarian lasagna. My own invention really. No noodles. Just zuchini and spinach, small amount of rehydrated porcini mushrooms (could have used more), tomato sauce I added some leftover frozen homemade pesto to as it was a bit lacking in flavor plus salt pepper onion powder, mozerella cheese, tub of ricotta cheese mixed with one egg. It doesn't really hold together in layers like lasagna despite being made in layers, but it has those basic lasagna flavors (which is all I really wanted from it) - and veggies - so of course it's tasty, how could it not be?
Also made some tomato soup with the leftover tomato sauce that had pesto in it, and a bit of leftover zuchini. Added some onion, garlic, carrot, potatoes, rice, pinch of safron, green onions, dandelion greens (don't know if they add anything but oh well).
Mostly I had some ricotta and a bunch of veggies to use up and did to a decent degree. Now have lots of food - may of course freeze some.
That's what I made after dinner for the rest of the week. Dinner was a piece of salmon and a small bowl of cream of brocolli soup with cheddar cheese (yea still have that soup too despite eating it nearly every day, may freeze).
Blackdog Lin
4-17-13, 5:03pm
I'm pretty pleased with the way this week's menus are rolling along. Monday was restaurant-style beef-n-broccoli w/rice; Tuesday was a pre-cooked (on the smoker by DH several weeks ago) whole chicken, along with stovetop stuffing and a salad; Wednesday (today) I used most of the leftover chicken to make chicken chimichangas w/sour cream sauce, along with Mexican rice (which menu also used up several hot and bell peppers in the freezer from last year's garden); and I've already boiled the carcass making fresh chicken stock ready to add to a leftover container of white beans from the freezer for ham-n-chicken bean soup for tomorrow. I'll add celery, carrots, onions, garlic and potatoes, and we'll have it with cornbread. Perfect for the weather: it's in the 70's right now, the high tomorrow is supposed to be around 42. Burrrrr.
(eta: what's with the little ambulance? I said burrrr. as in cold!)
It's Wednesday, slow cooker night due to DD's late afternoon activity. Cooking a piece of grass-fed beef that's been in the freezer for a while, with some potatoes, carrots, and red wine. We'll have roasted asparagus with it. We have guests arriving later this evening so they'll probably have the rest of it for their dinner.
Went grocery shopping today and prepped some of the veggies this afternoon. In the fridge and ready for various uses: sauteed zucchini, sauteed mushrooms, roasted kabocha squash.
Dinner tomorrow night: stir-fry with tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and baby bok choy; hot and sour soup; rice.
Haven't planned beyond that since our schedule is less defined than usual this week.
I'm coasting the rest of this week. :D The one good thing about endless winter here is that it is still a good time to make soups and stews...
Earlier this week, I made another batch of chicken soup (I think I mentioned that as a "daily frugal") and a batch of Taste of Home recipe pork chops (essentially chops with a light bread crumb/Parmesan coating. There was enough left over for dinners for the rest of the week. So I've been working on things other than cooking.
Steve, while you are stuck in endless winter, we are alternating seasons: a couple of days of spring, followed by a couple of days of winter, then back to spring. Although today was borderline summer, we will be returning to winter tomorrow.
I decided to make Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner. It was so good!! Plenty leftover for tomorrow.
Because it was cold and windy and snowy the stir-fry morphed into a soup... an outstanding one. A hot-and-sour style (but without the congealed cornstarch effect) loaded with shiitake mushrooms and bok choy and tofu, with udon noodles for DD and DH.
Tonight, leftovers. Tomorrow, dinner at a friend's. I'm bringing dessert, which will either be a pear/cranberry crisp or a blueberry tart with a nut-based crust.
Blackdog Lin, you can also make all sorts of soup using the tomato juice as part of the soup broth/water.
Monday night and tonight we had a lentil soup with whole urad dal and mung beans - wow, those extra beans add a lot of creaminess and flavor to ordinary brown lentils. Soup also had kabocha squash, onion, celery, carrots, and the cabbagey ends of bok choy. Had salad with the soup.
Tuesday night was stir-fry with bok choy, carrots, red peppers, and egg.
Tomorrow night we're having potatoes stuffed with broccoli and feta.
I did a lot of vegetable prep on Sunday morning. Roasted some carrots and asparagus, sauteed zucchini and mushrooms. I keep all of those veggies in separate glass containers in the fridge and add them into meals as I choose during the week. Mostly I choose a mixture, heat it up, and top with 1/2 avocado for breakfast.
The weekend was full of cooking as well. Made a curried kabocha squash soup and a wild rice/veggie salad for lunches, and now I can't recall what else.
I packed lunches and sometimes dinners daily for my visiting cousins, who had long days at an art show. They were really excited about it and loved having hot soups for lunch. I was really excited that they enjoyed really healthy food so much! It was very energizing to have their youthful energy here for a few days.
Blackdog Lin
4-24-13, 9:53pm
Rosemary: your menus sound wonderfully exotic and delicious. Curried kabocha squash soup: not something we cook in SE Kansas. :)
This week: shrimp and snow pea stir fry (both in the area sale ads, cool that sale items just came together for a menu for us); hamburgers (toasted buns, pickles, onions etc.) with some frozen veggies; and today fried crappie, cottage cheese, and roasted veggies (zucchini, cabbage, onions, carrots). Using up what was in the fridge crisper. My first time roasting a variety of veggies together - it was a semi-success. Good, but needs some tweaking to be delicious. We've been bartering for fresh crappie fish - OMG, fresh fresh-water fish. Good sh....(good you-know-what.)
Thanks, Blackdog Lin!
This was my first time trying kabocha squash. It has a similar flavor to butternut, but a little sweeter and a lot drier. I wouldn't seek it out if the others were available, now that I've tried it.
Cleaning out the fridge tonight. Mashed potatoes (used up some sour cream in them) with small pieces of broccoli, steamed, mixed into them, and topped with a choice of cheeses (feta, swiss, or cheddar).
Tomorrow night: navratan korma (http://rosemaryevergreen.blogspot.com/2012/03/adapted-from-660-curries-by-raghavan.html)
That looks really delicious. I think I have everything except the cauliflower. Will substitute with shredded Brussels sprouts, just to use them up.
I have to say that I have never noticed cardamom seeds in the market. Do you buy them that way or do you scrape them from the pods...which I do have...?
you can scrape them from the pods, or use powdered as a substitute.
Blackdog Lin
4-26-13, 7:06am
A little follow-up thank you: I had asked earlier in this thread about using up home-canned tomato juice. I just don't make enough tomato-based soups for that to be successful in using the stuff up. But someone suggested cooking it down to thicken it to a tomato sauce product.
It worked excellently! I poured the water off of 2 quarts of the tomato juice and cooked the remnants at a low bubble for several hours. It made a 2-cup batch of great fresh-tasting tomato sauce, which is much more useful in my kitchen, as I do use tomato sauce weekly for spaghetti sauce, pizza etc. (Yesterday's meal was "pizzagne", which called for a layer of spaghetti sauce.)
Thank you for the awesome and frugal suggestion. I'll have no trouble now getting those quarts of tomato juice used up.
fidgiegirl
4-26-13, 8:16am
Great to hear, Blackdog Lin!
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