What's for dinner? [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

ApatheticNoMore

5-14-14, 3:11pm

Maybe just leftover becker lamb patties (from joy of cooking - they are always good) with something vegetable maybe. I have been cooking more after my great lazy canned beans for dinner phase. I still resent the time it takes somewhat though. Have no time as it is and then waste it cooking!

I have marinated mushrooms in the fridge, made a cucumber salad (already ate over a few days - plan to make another), made something with mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, cheeses and olive oil that I regret making as it gave me horrible heartburn on more than one day (and I'm not prone to it, and I can tolerate the ingredients seperately, but whatever convinced me that was a good idea, I don't know! :0!). And I remember how food sensitive I really am and how new recipes are potentially dangerous (make me feel bad physically).

gadder

5-14-14, 5:17pm

Sort of a cleaning out the fridge day:
- the end of a 4 day egg curry run, 1 hard-boiled egg and sauce served over leftover orzo
- boiled frozen peas and corn
- a bowl of leftover dal (curried lentil soup, with added potatoes and peas, carrots and coconut milk)

And, of course, a nice Grolsch (http://www.grolsch.com/) to wash it down.

All the while watching the Montreal Canadiens win their penultimate playoff game against the dastardly Boston Bruins!!! (sorry bruins fans). Go Habs! Boo Beantown!

awakenedsoul

5-14-14, 6:54pm

I've got leftover taco meat in the fridge, with plenty of fresh veggies and cheese for toppings. I'll probably skip that tonight, though. I try to stagger how often I eat meat dishes. I made a loaf of french bread yesterday, and made some tuna with mayo and sweet pickles for lunch today. The fresh bread makes any sandwich delicious. I cooked up a pot of brown rice and barley about an hour ago. For dinner I'll probably have that with some sauteed patty pan squash with garlic and parmesan cheese.

JaneV2.0

5-14-14, 7:24pm

I made macaroons today, and they were pretty good, but probably not for dinner. I'm thinking ground turkey mixed with minced garlic and chili flakes, with a romaine salad and homemade dressing, probably bacon.

Blackdog Lin

5-14-14, 9:32pm

Thank you Florence for the thread. I miss it when it's not around. I very much enjoy hearing what everyone is fixing.

Today - grilled pork steaks and homemade onion rings (the Vidalias are in!), with garden radishes on the side. I tried a new onion ring recipe/technique that I really liked and made killer onion rings.

Tomorrow - goulash and green salad. We still have 6 qts. of canned tomatoes from last year's garden, so I need to start thinking of ways to get them used up before we start on THIS year's garden produce, which will be here before I know it. :)

awakenedsoul

5-14-14, 11:27pm

I forgot...I made chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. I baked a dozen and saved the rest of the dough. I'll make some to give a neighbor, and bring some later in the week to my knitting group. Had those for dessert...yum! My chicken has been laying fresh eggs, so I used those. I'll give her some crumbs in her breakfast tomorrow. She loves chocolate chip cookies. She seems to understand that if she lays eggs, she gets cookie crumbs.
Blackdog, those onion rings sound delicious. I haven't had onion rings in years. I make french fries pretty regularly...
Everyone's homemade meals sound really good!

happystuff

5-15-14, 4:48pm

I have a roaster chicken in the cp and am about ready to put some rice into the rice cooker. Not sure of what veggie, but probably something quick. If I could get motivated, I'd make a salad.

JaneV2.0

5-15-14, 6:26pm

I have a recipe for kale, onions, and carrots designed for the pressure cooker--and those are exactly the vegetables I need to use up. So that's what's for dinner (with the addition of some protein).

chrissieq

5-15-14, 9:49pm

Working to empty the freezer - thought I had some spaghetti sauce put away - didn't but found a 1/2 lb of burger so made some sauce for tonight's dinner. Finished up most of the salad stuff too. Toasted one of the 3 sourdough rolls left in the freezer.

Trying not to go to the grocery store until all the perishables are gone - have some cauliflower, a lb of green beans, handful of strawberries and several clementines - hoping to hold out until mid-next week.

With just 2 of us, I'm trying to use what we have rather than stockpiling "good deals".

Tomorrow is pasta salad with turkey and vegies. And another piece of sourdough. Saturday is a steak and jasmine rice with vegies. Oh what the heck, the last of the sourdough rolls!!

ApatheticNoMore

5-21-14, 2:20am

So far this week: today made cream of salmon dill soup (with all the good stuff: lots of potatoes, carrot, multiple allums - very good this time). Strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate were dessert. Earlier this week: Made more cucumber salad. Cut up a pineapple (ok I'm sorry that may not be "cooking" but it is work - enough so that it feels like I have made a dish :~)).

Made the elaborate salad for lunch tomorrow: lettuce, goat cheese, a bit of pear, and dried cranberries (crasins), with a lemon juice, olive oil, dijon mustard dressing. This is the salad that helped make me sick of cooking!!! Making that stupid salad just to take to lunch!! Ok not going to do it everyday, but yes it's quite good. May not cook the rest of the work week beyond salads for lunch and making something with green beans, I do need to use up those green beans, they're dying but probably be ok until tomorrow (either I'll roast them with a vingarette with walnuts or I'll cook them in a tomato based sauce).

chrissieq

5-21-14, 9:24am

Last night I took the Easter ham bone, cooked it with some onions and celery, cut the ham of the bone, added chunks of potatoes and fresh green beans. I added a wee bit of ham base to enhance the broth. Quick, easy and plenty left for lunch today.

iris lilies

5-21-14, 9:49am

Blackdog Lin

5-22-14, 10:29pm

This sounds very good, you sound like a good cook!

Yes indeed she does. I wish we had your palate, ANM. Sounds scrumptious. And very adventuresome compared to our normal meals.

We've been having to do entirely too much running around this last few weeks, all of which has involved eating (lunch) out. I'm quite tired of it: eating out twice a month is a treat, eating out twice a week is just a waste of money. And anymore I have a need to know what is going into my meals, and how it's prepared, and I just don't necessarily trust the prepared food "out there". I feel much better about what we're eating when I've cooked it myself at home. Boy!, how I've changed! :)

Today: toasted ham-n-cheese sandwiches with Brussels sprouts-n-corn on the side. Tomorrow: meatloaf and a wild rice/broccoli/chicken broth thing. That is, if I do as intended and get the meatloaf prepped and in the oven early. Mornings now are cool, but no way I'm gonna have the oven on after 10:00 am - it's been HOT in the afternoons. And we haven't turned the air conditioner on yet. So I have to get the meatloaf done before 10:00.

JaneV2.0

5-22-14, 11:05pm

I'm uninspired. I just finished a meatloaf (beef, assorted peppers, onions and garlic ground fine, eggs...) and made some Asian-inspired bone broth. I suppose I'll make soup. Maybe I need to revisit my recipe collection.

Florence

5-29-14, 8:41am

We've been eating leftover BBQ, potato salad, coleslaw, & beans left from Memorial Day. Today I start cooking again: Pork tenderloin, baked sweet potato, & spinach.

Blackdog Lin

5-30-14, 8:09pm

This week: (homemade) sausage mcmuffins w/canned peaches; today fried fresh/frozen crappie and rice-n-peppers; and tomorrow a spicy pasta-bratwurst skillet w/a big green salad.

The garden zucchini is looking like it's gonna be ready to start picking before too long - so I've been researching main-dish-type zucchini recipes for next week. With the price of groceries nowadays, I'm determined to fix zucchini dishes till we can stand no more.....

awakenedsoul

5-30-14, 9:32pm

I'm eating a lot of squash, too. My chicken has been laying an egg every other day, so I've been mixing that with soy milk for a protein mock eggnog. Haven't been cooking that much. It's hot here, too. I've made salami and cheese sandwiches on homemade french bread. Will have a salad tonight. I've been munching on cashews and eating lots of nectarines and plums from the organic co op. I was going to roast a chicken, but I've got an audition in Vegas coming up. I'll wait until I'm home and can finish up the leftovers right away. I guess I could freeze them...
I did make some shortbread cookies for dessert last week. The dinners the rest of you have been making sound delicious!

Florence

5-31-14, 8:49am

Today is our 46th wedding anniversary and we are going out to the best seafood place on the Texas Gulf Coast for dinner with DD & DSIL.:D

pinkytoe

5-31-14, 9:32am

the best seafood place on the Texas Gulf Coast
I hope you have a wonderful dinner. Galveston? I am hearing the seagulls now.

frugal-one

5-31-14, 12:52pm

"Today is our 46th wedding anniversary and we are going out to the best seafood place on the Texas Gulf Coast for dinner with DD & DSIL."

Florence,

Lucky you!!! Happy Anniversary too.

Florence

5-31-14, 6:17pm

Thank you, frugal-one.

iris lilies

5-31-14, 6:29pm

We'll have Chinese stir fry with snow peas freshly picked today.

awakenedsoul

5-31-14, 6:48pm

I just made a roast chicken with country gravy. I used herbs from the garden and local organic co op. Some of them I dried last season. (Spices are expensive!) I'm going to make biscuits and sauteed carrots to go with the chicken. The dogs are getting the giblets and broth...

pinkytoe

5-31-14, 10:51pm

Tonight was our "meat" night. DH smoked some sockeye on the grill to be served with yogurt cucumber sauce, new potatos and kale stir fried with red onions and sun dried tomatos.

jp1

5-31-14, 11:03pm

Today was grilled steak for SO and chicken for me, plus grilled potatoes and zucchini from our CSA. Dessert of strawberries (again CSA) topped with dulce Di leche. Nice Pinot from our favorite dry creek valley winery. Everyone in the house (including the cats, who LOVE steak...) is happy and full right now.

Edited to add: extra zucchini grilled so that I can make a burrito for lunch tomorrow.

Florence

6-1-14, 1:12pm

Tonight was our "meat" night. DH smoked some sockeye on the grill to be served with yogurt cucumber sauce, new potatos and kale stir fried with red onions and sun dried tomatos.

I want to have dinner at your house!!

larknm

6-1-14, 4:16pm

Tonight I will have lentils cooked with quinoa and amaranth (the latter two having been soaked overnight to make them more digestible--I started doing this for our dogs and now do it for me too), a piece of gluten-free bread (maybe toasted and with olive oil on it), half a baked yam and raw cilantro--all organic because the cilantro helps get rid of heavy metals if eaten with organic food but has the opposite effect if the food is not organic. I will drink water. DH and I usually eat different things, so I don't know what he will eat. Our parrot will eat with me unless she decides what I'm eating is too boring--she likes spicy stuff.

Blackdog Lin

6-1-14, 9:58pm

(awakenedsoul: pick a thread category and tell us all about your audition in Vegas! It sounds exotic and exciting!) (and congratulations! Florence.)

Having to get creative tonight. We had bacon with buckwheat pancakes for brunch, so no leftovers, so need to fix something. In the fridge is: 1/2 lb. bacon left from this morning; 1/2 and 1/3 each of a green and red pepper leftover from.....something this week; a bowl ('bout a cup and a half) of leftover spicy sausage-pasta skillet; and there's 1/2 c. or so of shredded cheese in the drawer. So: diced and cooked the bacon, saute'd the peppers along with some onion, am now cooking another cup of pasta, and intend to mix it all together with the cheese as glue.

I don't see why it won't work.....but we'll see. :)

JaneV2.0

6-1-14, 10:17pm

I am scraping the bottom of the food barrel: turkey breast with fresh cranberries, cucumber and onion salad with homemade dressing, iced passion flower tea. I'll make a grocery run tomorrow.

Blackdog Lin

6-4-14, 8:36pm

Oh the season of abundance is starting for us! - in a small way at least.

Monday - oven fried chicken with steamed-n-buttered garden asparagus given to us by my best friend. Tuesday DH had a doctor's appt. so he ate out, while I fixed a yummy leftover bowl of shredded chicken, asparagus, and leftover rice-n-peppers, all dressed with soy sauce. And today was taco salad, made with store-bought romaine mixed with fresh garden spinach (also given to us by best friend).

On tap for tomorrow is ham and bean soup, full of veggies. And re: the season of abundance, I need to head out to the garden in a little bit to pick our first batch of snow peas, they're ready to pick, so either lo mein or chow mein Friday. And picked today the first zucchini - will probably bread and fry it, just don't know when.

Getting excited, and feeling very fortunate, for the start of garden produce in our area.

ApatheticNoMore

6-7-14, 12:27am

Accidental chilli. As in I had some ground beef in the freezer I thought I'd fry up but of course it had clumped together with much more ground beef (it was portions on a supermarket beef tray thing). So I have a bit over a pound of beef all clumped together I need to find a use for fast. So I made chilli only I found out the chilli power had gone moldy, which I usually use, no I did not know that could happen either (I did have real chillis - fairly mild ones - Serranos or Jalapenos I think). So I added a massive amount of cumun since I couldn't find much else in terms of proper spices and then later I added some cajun spice (parprika, black pepper, garlic, onion powder, chili powder, oregano, cumin) as I tasted it and figure it might work. So it came out fairly close. But pretty gritty, don't know if that's just from the massive amount of spices (but again mostly mild ones like cumin) or the canned beans disintegrating and poorly rinsed or pink slime or what (actually the beef should be higher quality than that but ... :) ). At least it tastes like chilli, when I first started making "chilli" a few years ago (by guesswork) I kept making meat spaghetti sauce instead, which was edible even without pasta but ... it wasn't chilli.

happystuff

6-8-14, 10:01am

Turkey! It is not quite 10 a.m. and the turkey is almost done! Busy day, but wanted to cook this. Should provide an abundance of leftovers for the freezer or other meals this week. Smells soooo good!!!

Blackdog Lin

6-11-14, 10:18pm

Monday: dirty rice w/fried (garden) zucchini on the side. My first try at homemade dirty rice - it turned out pretty good.
Tuesday: ordered out, unfortunately. DH just hasn't been in the mood to cook on my "work days" lately. And he was busy.
Today: beef chow mein, using garden snow peas. Oh my the fresh snow peas are superb!
Tomorrow: another 'work day" for me, so I made up some tuna salad for sandwiches (knowing DH still isn't in the mood for food preparation). We'll have along with plain sliced garden cucumber slices - which I picked fresh this evening.

Working hard on using the garden produce in my menus. It's gonna get more complicated in a couple of weeks. :)

Florence

6-12-14, 8:35am

Last night I made Homey Chicken Stew from the Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen. Just delicious! I have made several dishes from this cookbook and they have all been very good. Leftovers tonight.

CathyA

6-12-14, 9:13am

Last night I made something from "Taste of Home" magazine. A fair amount of their recipes are "Church Lady" recipes......but this one wasn't too bad. It called for tortellini, but all I had was cheese filled frozen ravioli. I cooked that.
In another pan, I sliced up a couple Italian chicken sausages and sauteed them with onions and garlic. When they were soft, I added a can of diced tomatoes and a whole bunch of fresh spinach. When the spinach was wilted, I added 4 oz of neufchatel cream cheese. I drained the ravioli and added the others to it. It was very yummy! I served it with a side of fresh watermelon/grapes/blueberries and pineapple.

Blackdog Lin

6-12-14, 9:41pm

Cathy: my kinda cooking. Sounds wondermous, with healthy ingredients offsetting the (???) unhealthy ones. I would put spinach in most everything I cook if DH would allow it.....

ApatheticNoMore

6-13-14, 1:19am

Making eggplant ragout (a greek cookbook - typical Mediterranean: eggplant, onions, garlic, tomatoes, *LOTS* of olive oil, and parsley). Much easier than other eggplant recipes (than ratatouille ha :)) and I remember it was quite good. Also made a cucumber salad. Ok that's the cooking I did this week. Dinner: tonight is fasting, last night ate way too much lunch so not hungry, Tuesday: sage and onion fried potatoes. Monday: baked potato with chili and sour cream. Yes I've still got that accidental chilli - may just freeze now, while it's still good (although my freezer is too full as is).

Oh and the recipe above had me at chicken sausages. Chicken sausages mmm (granted I buy the organic ones and they cost it, and processed meat isn't healthy - but mmmm chicken sausages...)

pinkytoe

6-13-14, 12:56pm

Last night, I made one of our staple dishes when I can't think of anything else - tuna nicoise salad - tiny red potatos, green beans, tomatos, boiled eggs, anchovies, capers and black olives on a bed of romaine with home made vinaigrette. I recently discovered tuna in a glass jar and it is decidely tastier than canned for dishes like this. Expensive though.

JaneV2.0

6-13-14, 9:47pm

A rare baked potato with butter, cottage cheese, and scallions. Lychee iced tea.

ApatheticNoMore

6-17-14, 2:50am

Made the long cooked green beans with tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, just now remembered the lemon juice at the end. Yea trying to use up vegetables (still a few zuchs, a chard, and a couple of tomatoes went bad before I could use them - yea had way too many veggies). Green beans probably will be not dinner but lunch tomorrow, they go astoundingly good sprinkled with some goat cheese I have - made for each other.

The eggplant dish was very delicious (fantastic but always on the verge of too sweet, though it has no sugar - it's just the sugar in the tomatoes, eggplants, caramelized onions). And I bought chicken sausages (resisting anything but temptation here) and I'm sad to say I've been eating them raw just as is :0! (they are precooked though).

CathyA

6-17-14, 6:19am

Last night I made something like unstuffed cabbage rolls. I chopped up a head of cabbage, shredded some carrots, chopped sweet onions, chopped celery. I cooked rice and fried up some italian sausage. I mixed it all together with some tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes, added a little horseradish sauce and a little mustard. Covered it and baked it in the oven for about an hour. We had it with a little sour cream. It was yummy!

Blackdog Lin

6-18-14, 8:28pm

Loving all the menu ideas.

This week: emphasis is on using the fresh garden produce. Sunday was crock-pot pork ribs with a giant pot of garden green beans, garden onions, 'tators and ham bits. Monday was a pork lo mein, using garden snow peas, garden onions and garden green pepper, with marinated garden cukes on the side. Tuesday we refurbished the pot of green beans by adding fried bacon/bacon grease and a few more 'tators, and finished the cukes. And today was a "Mexican Zucchini Casserole Surprise" to use up a giant zucchini along with all kinds of bits and pieces of leftover-stuff I had in the freezer. The surprise was that it turned out excellently delicious! (DH raved. I love it when I accidently make something excellent.) Served with (of course) a sliced garden cuke.

awakenedsoul

6-18-14, 11:47pm

I made a cream of broccoli soup tonight. I gave some of the leftover homemade chicken stock to the dogs. (as gravy over their kibble.) I drank the rest of it. It's so good for you. Just had the soup with whole grain crackers and sliced raw carrots dipped in homemade Italian dressing. It hit the spot! It's amazing how a recipe can make something like broccoli have such a different, delicious flavor. Something about the combination of ingredients:onions, ww flour, milk, chicken broth, Tillamook cheddar cheese, and worcestershire. I saved the bones in the freezer to use a second time.
I think I'll bake a loaf of fresh bread to have with it tomorrow.

iris lilies

6-19-14, 12:38am

DH has picked his first big batch of green beans but he will not share with me. >:( OTOH he is bringing in broccoli, lovely and fresh, and he will not each that so I suppose it's all mine!

IshbelRobertson

6-19-14, 4:59am

We had poached salmon, served cold and home made mayonnaise, with mixed salad and Jersey Royal potatoes. The Jerseys are the best potatoes for boiling in the world, in my opnion! Scrubbed and boiled until just cooked, served with a large knob of butter and a sparse amount of Maldon sea salt and a sprinkling of flat leaf parsley.

Florence

6-19-14, 8:35am

Beef and Barley Soup. Leftover biscuits, toasted.

JaneV2.0

6-19-14, 9:45am

Romaine salad with spinach and Spring mix, homemade garlic dressing with sour cream and homemade mayonnaise, beets, baby corn, sweet onion, and heirloom cherry tomatoes.

Songbird

6-19-14, 8:52pm

I tried a new recipe today - Mexican Casserole, that I found on Pinterest. It was really good. Topped it with shredded lettuce, very spicy homemade salsa, sour cream, and black olives. Nice thing is I have plenty of leftovers for another meal.

And margaritas was a must have with this meal! :)

catherine

6-19-14, 9:09pm

I actually stumbled upon a really good cold quinoa salad recipe--with cherry tomatoes, green onion, black beans and a really nice dressing of olive oil, cumin, lime juice, cilantro, and red pepper flakes.

Even my meat-and-potatoes, bean and quinoa-hating DH loved it.