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Thread: what's for dinner in 2014?

  1. #1
    Senior Member Blackdog Lin's Avatar
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    what's for dinner in 2014?

    Sorry, I miss this thread when it's not around. I enjoy and learn so much from hearing about what everyone is cooking. So, anyone committed to anything new for the new year? Diets, learning, techniques, aids, resolutions?

    I am just ongoing with my quest to (1) reduce waste, utilize leftovers, and try to serve the best possible meals for our money; and (2) work harder on eliminating processed grocery items (i.e. cream of mushroom soup etc. ) and more of making meals from more "real" foods.

    Sunday was homemade biscuits and gravy (I've switched from Crisco to lard for my biscuits), with orange juice as a nod to nutrition. Monday was steaks (getting old in the freezer), baked 'tators, and a wondermous hot-bacon-spinach salad. I've finally found a way to serve DH spinach that he will eat! He was very iffy and suspicious when I set it in front of him.....and then went on to have a second big bowl for desert! The recipe is a keeper (but hey, it's called hot bacon dressing - I mean, how could it not be good?), and I am a happy woman.

    Today was ham-n-pinto-beans, using the freezer hambone from our Christmas ham, along with corn muffins. Tomorrow is crockpot-roasted whole chicken (getting old in the freezer), with Stovetop dressing (I just don't have enough leftover bread items in the freezer to go to the trouble of making homemade) and some sort of salad utilizing the rest of the spinach and a cucumber. I'll eat the spinach, and will make DH a salad from this-n-that-and-cucumber. And Thursday we'll just have the ham and beans again. It'll be new again by then.

    I should get a meal's-worth of extra meat from the chicken to save for later, and will boil the carcass for broth for something this weekend. Frugal.

    Chime in.

  2. #2
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Chicken and kale soup, curried ground beef over smashed cauliflower...The Whole30 (elimination diet) is going well. I bought some full-fat plain Greek yogurt to celebrate its being finished, however. Ten days to go. I'm still drinking unsweetened swill in lieu of a tasty coffee drink in the morning, but not for long. I'm perfecting my homemade mayo--first batch, too salty; second batch, a little loose and not salty enough. A challenge! And while I was at it, I whipped up some homemade ketchup, which turned out to have too much vinegar. It will make a good BBQ sauce, with a little fine tuning.

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    Senior Member Jilly's Avatar
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    Tonight was the last of the lasagna and tater tots. I really wanted to make popcorn, but felt too tired...lazy.

    The pantry here is gettin' low, and it is interesting that I am thinking biscuits and gravy for a quick and tasty dinner after my ten-hour day at work tomorrow. Grocery shopping in Thursday, after laundry, and I cannot wait for greens and salad again.
    It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality. Arnold Bennett

  4. #4
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    Monday we had salmon, broccoli, couscous and a salad and clementines (from California) for dessert
    Tuesday we had homemade mushroom soup with rice and a yummy casserole bread with cottage cheese/dried onion/dill seed, and clementines for dessert.
    Leftover soup tonight with probably crackers and cheese.......and clementines for dessert.

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    Love hearing about everyone's meals. Definitely gives me ideas.

    Question about those who make biscuits and gravy as a meal. I know how to make biscuits, but how do folks make their gravy? Anyone care to share their recipe??? Thanks in advance.
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
    Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
    In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown

  6. #6
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    This year I'm trying to concentrate on matching food purchases with use. Doing decently well so far. This week's meals are a slow-cooker Hungarian goulash using meat that has languished in the freezer for a bit too long and a braised pork-rib dish which uses only pantry staples and an additional pound of ribs beyond what I had in the freezer. In previous weeks this year, I made meals centered around food gifts I'd received at Christmas (some chicken-something sausage, whole-wheat gnocchi, etc.). Somehow, though, it seems I'm always at one market or another ...
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  7. #7
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    We continue to eat at more home and cooking/shopping has become a shared hobby for DH and I. We have such fantastic grocery/food market options here that looking for food can be entertaining. Last weekend, we went to the Asian markets and purchased some things I like to have in the pantry - coconut milk, dried mushrooms, black vinegar... There is a great Middle Eastern grocery down the street where we can get fresh pita bread, feta and olives. We have been trying to do at least three days a week meatless again or more if it happens so one can make veggies more interesting by trying "ethnic" versions. One thing I have started doing is making all my own stock so I have a bag in the freezer to which I add all the veggie scraps. I also routinely cook up a pot of beans for the freezer - pintos, red, black in glass jars. Last night, I thought we had garbanzos in the freezer and I was going to make a biryana (sp?) but I was wrong. Instead, we made a turkey rice soup from turkey meat and stock already in the freezer. Served with sliced oranges and roasted cauliflower florets. My next adventure will be making my own tortillas as I just bought a small bag of masa. Part of the fun is throwing together something with what is there, ie improvising.

  8. #8
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    happystuff........I used to think I needed to make a white sauce first, but then realized that after the sausage was cooked (and you can drain off fat if you want), I would just sprinkle a couple tablespoonsfull of flour over it and mix it up. Then I would add milk and keep stirring until it thickened.

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    Thanks CathyA!
    To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
    Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
    In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown

  10. #10
    Senior Member CathyA's Avatar
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    You're welcome happystuff! Now I'm hungry for biscuits and gravy!

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