My husband was going out of town for a day, and I asked the kids what they wanted to eat for dinner. “Shrimp!” they chimed. They only get to eat shrimp when Dad’s out of town, since he’s allergic to it.I was glad to have something different, and not to have to think it up. There must be more people like me who get in a rut of rotating the same eight or ten tired old meals. Suddenly you’re sick of everything and too numb to come up with anything new. Oh, the menu changes a little each season, but in no time the novelty wears off.
I jot down pretty much the same things every week on the grocery list. (Why haven’t I bothered to type it up yet? Who knows.) When I get desperate for ideas, I flip through my bulging folder of recipes I’ve ripped from magazines and never once prepared because they have more than six ingredients. They call for things like smoked paprika and guava paste. Those are not weekday ingredients. I have to search for those. The most exotic item they sell at Food4Less is instant mashed potatoes with chives. Ooooh.
So I thought – why not find out what everyone else is fixing? Surely we’re not all making the same tired old meals every week.
The best thing in my current repertoire is turkey burgers with cheese on the inside. I really need to come up with a name for that. Inside-out cheeseburgers? Okay, the name needs work, but they are yummy and no one’s sick of them yet.
So, how ‘bout it? Whatcha eating? Anything good in this week’s line-up?
14 comments:
Urgh. I have absolutely nothing interesting in my weekly lineup. And "get your own dinner night" is happening more and more often.
Once, carpooling to bookclub night, one lady asked, "What did you make for dinner tonight?"
Me: "Spaghetti." (And we all know that nowadays it's made with jarred sauce. The ultimate cop-out.)
Another lady: "Left-over spaghetti."
Woo hoo! I won! At least mine was fresh.
I don't like figuring out meals either. I finally made a list of 25 meals and put it on the fridge so I didn't have to think! Now my husband has us plan all the meals before grocery shopping (which is a pain at first, but all week it is decided!). I've been sick all week so hubby had to plan and do the cooking. He came up with:
1.fried chicken and waffles (he saw this combo on Man vs Food)
2.BBQ ribs, buttered noodles, veggie
3.bacon cheeseburgers with waffle fries
4. chicken tacos
5. Tombstone pizza with huge awesome salads with bacon, cheese, tomato, hardboiled egg, the works!
The kids loved all these meals (except my four yr old doesn't eat meat, so he gets everything but the meat, we just give him cheese on a bun instead of burger etc...)
I'm the same way...same 8 meals just rotated...Hubs hates change so he's okay with this...
We have a roast in the crock once a week...maybe a cola roast, maybe a 'to die' for roast, but it is still roast...
We have chicken...I have two chicken recipes that I use...one one week, the other the next...
We have hamburgers...either in burgers or in the all famous hamburger helper...
Pizza...usually weekends
and I guess the rest is even more boring, because I can't remember what I fed my family this past week...Maybe I didn't feed them...grin...
ICQB - I'm happy to be at the "get your own" breakfast and lunch stage, but I feel obligated to make sure they're not living entirely off of PopTarts :)
Kelly - Ooh, ribs sound good!
Interesting about your son - mine also wouldn't eat meat for a long time. And we are all big salad lovers...I'm just kind of lazy about making them!
Brenda - It may be boring to you, but I've gotten some great inspiration from your crock pot dishes!
I pour Annie's Green Goddess dressing over chicken breasts, bake, and dump on rice. I tell my daughter it's called "Goddess Chicken" and she eats it up.
Well, I'm single. So food looks a lot different at my house. I shop according to what's on sale each week and then cook whatever I buy.
Here's a shameless plug: http://suziefoods.blogspot.com
I started a food blog because all my friends were complaining about how they don't know how to cook. I post easy to make dishes that are healthy and cheap. Maybe these will help?
My friend Joey makes burgers with cheese on the inside and calls them stuffed burgers. I like your "inside out burgers" name better.
And I want to go to Kelly's house for all that manfood. Bacon cheeseburgers? Chicken and waffles? Tacos? Count me in!
Jacqui - I don't think I've ever had green goddess dressing, but I'm sure I'd eat up "Goddess Chicken" too!
Suzanne - Your food blog is awesome! I actually can cook, I'm just totally burnt out...thanks for the ideas.
And yeah, let's tell Kelly we're all coming over. I'll bring the guacamole :D
We're finishing up some arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) Puerto Rican style. I make a big skillet full of it and we eat on it for a couple of days. It gains flavors sitting in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.
We'll probably have salmon this week-end. I poach it in wine, OJ, and french tarragon with sauted onions onions, served on brown rice with fresh steamed spinach.
Winter meals are different from summer meals. More throw together soups in the winter, more throw together salads in the summer.
Sorry no help here,
I hate to cook…
My next house will be a bungalow without a kitchen…
Louise
Oh this drives me crazy. I get so sick of my own cooking. If I ever won the lottery I'd forget the fancy cars and clothes and just get a live-in cook!
I have found some really good new things to try over on thepioneerwoman.com It might give you some ideas.
Bish - Now I'm hungry! I love tarragon and hardly ever think of using it.
Louise - I know someone who used his kitchen cabinets for bookshelves. A kitchenless bungalow would probably suit a lot of people...
Becky - Thanks for the link! I popped over there and the first thing I saw was "Cake Balls". This could be dangerous :-)
My kids love to make vegetable soup with noodles. We pick out the weirdest noodles we can find at the Asian shop, then just chop vegetables into premade veggie broth. They have it with cheese grilled on crusty bread. Easy and they participate.
I love to cook. (I'm taking the hint that I'm the minority here) he only one?)
we have spaghetti night, chicken night, taco night, random night, pasta night and pizza night. its hard with a 20 month old and 5 year old. Im jealous of all the people who have great menus. *sigh*
Anne - I go back and forth between loving it and hating it...
The weirdest noodles we've tried were squid ink noodles :)
Shelli - With little ones it's a race to get something on the table. I like the sound of "random night" though!
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