OT - What Do You Cook For Dinner?

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I'm burnt out on all the usual things I cook for dinner. Here are some of them:

meatloaf
tater tot casserole
spaghetti
pot roast
hamburgers/chicken/steak on the grill
tacos
pizza
lasagna
pork chops/chicken casserole with rice or stuffing

Any other ideas? I put off grocery shopping as long as possible, but then never know what to buy when I get there. Do your families have favorite dishes that are fairly easy and cheap to make?

My wife makes them with a variety of fillings,
and everyone picks what they want.

The wrapping, is white, and looks clean,
so my son doesn't have to remove the (yucky burnt parts that look different)

Hi. Thanks for the reply, but maybe you misunderstood when I said, "burnt out." I meant that I was tired of making the same things for dinner. What are the names of the dishes your wife makes?

How about cheesy bacon surprise? It might be one of the dishes you're sick of, but there's some info here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancashire/363580981/).

I was at the grocery store yesterday, and remembered this TACO SALAD idea for dinner:

(all ingredients are layered in the following way)

lettuce
Fritos corn chips
Chili (actually, one pound of browned ground beef mixed with two cans of chili)
cheese of your choice
tomatoes
sour cream

My hubby made the ground beef/chili, and used some mexican seasoning in it, as well as some ground red pepper seasoning.

It's good, fast, and relatively cheap! And amazingly, everybody likes it!

Kris

Yum! Great ideas from both of you. Keep 'em coming! My family's going to eat good this week. I'm terrible at coming up with new ideas, but great at following ones people give me.

Looks really good Tequila, you have made me hungry just by looking at it lol...

Try this website for some ideas-

http://www.videojug.com/search?keywords=cooking

Tequila, do you chop up the leaves of the leek as well? I'm not a natural cook, so I have to be told just about everything. I don't think I've ever actually bought a leek, unless they're the same thing as a green onion.

On a similar theme is the following:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancashire/261606979/

Oh, and one of the things I really quite like at the moment is the Irish champ but with leeks instead of spring onions. We're having that fer t'provvin tomorra neet wi' gammon.

And no, you cut the leaves off. Discard all that plus the top and bottom of the leek and cut the rest up.

fried eggs with black beans, rice and avocado. mmmmm. I have a rice maker. Most awesome invention.

I made a quiche two night ago and last night I made a vegetable stir-fry with rice.

What's a rice maker?

Do you have an exact recipe for your dish? As I said, I'm REALLY bad at improvising. I do, however, know how to fry an egg.

That sounds good! I'll look on the cooking sites for some recipes. I've never made a quiche and it's been quite a while since I made stir fry too.

I don't know if it's an Aspie thing or not, but I get overwhelmed when I go on the cooking sites just to browse. It helps for me to be looking for something specific. That's why it's good for me to hear what real people are eating. I'm not sure how to properly explain it, except to say that when I see a bunch of recipes, I can't imagine that someone actually makes that dish on a regular basis -- that they would go through that much trouble in real life. But, when someone tells me that they make a dish for dinner all the time, it makes it real to me. I know, very strange! My mother never really cooked, except for special occasions, and no one ever really invited us over, so I have a difficult time with food. It's like a lot of things for me. I need someone to take me by the hand and teach me. "Oh-kay, Key-Key, here's a list of everything "normal" people might make for a family dinner. All the ingredients and step by step instructions are here, so when you have to make dinner, just refer to the book." If I had that, it would be like a Bible to me. (Not that I'm so keen on the actual Bible.) I know, I know, they make COOKBOOKS, but it's like I said about the cooking websites. Unless I'm looking for something specific, I can't picture real people making all those things.

Whenever my kids go to a friend's house, I grill them about what they had to eat. They can never understand why I'm so curious about each little detail. Over the weekend, my son said he had spaghetti, salad, and some type of mushrooms that tasted like corn. I can't imagine how they might have made the mushrooms in a way that he would describe as tasting like corn, so I've been obsessing about it. Also, I never think to make a salad, in addition to the rest of the meal. Again, unless I've seen things put together, or am told to put them together, I serve the meal alone. I used to have some cooking recipe cards that had a note on the bottom with suggestions about what to serve with the meal. I liked that, except that they were very detailed recipes. It took me hours to put together a meal.

I'm a vegetarian so...

I find perogies a good base for a meal.
You can buy just the cheep frozen ones in a grocery store if you can't find / don't want to pay for home made and top them with a variety of things.

My mothers standby was always to cook the perogies by boiling them, then top them with a mix of 1 pound of bacon, cooked in butter with Onion. It is a walking heart attack, but if you eat pork, it is usually a crowd pleaser and easy to make.
(Fry the bacon till nearly crisp, then add the chopped onion, then the butter when the onion is nearly done. If you want, drain the bacon before adding the onion.)

I actually top them with a mexian mix: salsa, sourcream, ground beef cooked with taco seasoning. Then you can throw in some Jalapenios (sp, i know is wrong) for some extra zip. Or leave them off if your family does not appreciate "zip".

We tried some frozen gnocchi the other day, it was fabulous, just boiled it, then topped with an alfrado sauce mixed with a can of mushroom soup and about a 1/2 pound of bacon. (Maybe 2 parts alfrado for 1 part mushroom soup condensed)

I have recently discovered Indian food! Our family absolutely loves it, very healthy typically on the budget.

My favourite dishes are
Indian Chickpeas http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Indian-Chi ... etail.aspx
With a flat bread, Nan or Roti are traditional, but even a good pita is nice.

Samosa, best if you can find them premade, a lot of fuss to make your own.

And Pakoras.

Pakoras are a food that it seems are kind of like a dumpling, everyones recipie is a little different, there is some room to use what you have on hand. The key ingredient is the Chickpea flour though, usually only available at a place that sells indian food stuffs.

This is a base recipie:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crispy-Veg ... etail.aspx

The one I have had good luck with is almost the same,

1 cup chickpea flour
1 teaspoon salt
a couple jalapeneos or hot chillies
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 cup water
1 quart oil for deep frying
a few handfuls of spinich
1/2 onion, chopped.

You mix up the flour, the salt, hot peppers, garlic, water and onion in a blender for 4 minutes. It makes the batter fluffier. Then you mix in the spinich and and deep fry them until they are golden brown.

Most indian foods need some chutney sauce, it is sort of the equivalint of ketchup, only usually not made out of tomatoes! This is a brand we have in my area, http://www.kficanada.ca/products.html
I really like the Tamarind Date sauce.

One thing I would suggest, is if you have never had indian food before, it is best had in small doses. Make a side dish, put it with something you know the family likes well enough. Over time, you may aquire a taste for it, or you may not, it is hard to say. Most people who give it a fair chance though that did not grow up with it find it is like coffee, you don't like it at first, but over time you come to have a hard time without it at least once in awhile!

Last edited by EarthCalling on 05 Jun 2007, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wow! It sounds like you're an excellent cook. I had never even heard of perogies or gnocchi, so I Googled them. I'll look for the ingredients in my grocery store. Thanks for all the detailed instructions!