What to you eat for dinner?

robnybbq said:

What do you normally eat during the week vs weekends?
If its an egged meal  for example do you just grill a plain piece of chicken(yuck) and some sort of side .... ? 

I make dinner 6 out of 7 nights a week (DH takes the 7th night).  We don't go to a restaurant more than 2-3 times a year, and don't do take out.  We find home-cooked food is much more to our liking: tastier, fresher, quicker, and more economical.

I try to keep weeknight prepping and cook time to 30-45 minutes.  Since getting the egg, I use it quite a bit (DH is grill master and preps/lights it).

I do occupy myself with some prep time on the weekend (often with assistance from DH):  seasoning meat in advance to air-dry in the fridge, making marinades, sauces and dressings.  An easy week night meal for us consists of a protein and veg, usually with a nice home-made sauce or dressing. 

A "plain piece of chicken" (or other protein) can be excellent if well-seasoned and accompanied by a tasty condiment and fresh veggie.   Right now I'm long on chimichurri sauce (made from herbs from my garden), tomato jam and pizza sauce (canned last season from tomatoes), salmoriglio (lemon herb sauce), soy garlic marinade, yakitori sauce (DH makes it by the quart and we store it in the freezer), raspberry vinaigrette, and buttermilk ranch. 

Veggies right now include maybe grilled asparagus (in season), a nice green salad, or raw veggie and dip.

If you feel the need for something carby, add pasta, couscous, garlic bread, tortillas, seasoned rice, pizza crust, grits, or maybe spuds (small potatoes can be rolled in olive oil with some seasoning, and steamed in the microwave - covered (vented) and with a spoon-full of water - in about 8 minutes).

For us, it is a given that BBQ chicken pizza follows the previous night of spatch ****.  

Last week I picked up a new gadget to help with taco night.  It makes things so much easier, so thought I'd mention it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JCYRK0S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

robnybbq said:

The OT Not worth it thread got me thinking.  I dont want to go out to eat as much anymore as its a huge wallet drain.  I would like to know how to cook to make meals better at home without the long low and slow cooks that come out good.

What do you normally eat during the week vs weekends?
If its an egged meal  for example do you just grill a plain piece of chicken(yuck) and some sort of side like nuked frozen vegetables? 

Do you make elaborate cooks during the week?

What are you god non egg cooks for during the week?

What do you eat when you dont have allot of time?  Like getting home at 8:30 PM and plan to go to bed at 10.  I can't stand leftovers so looking at other options.  I am still on the getting healthy battle that I dont want to get into but good healthy food cant hurt.

One of the hardest parts is planning ahead.  We cook at home almost every night.  Sunday is hopefully something that will generate leftovers, like a roast chicken, that can be made into salad with grilled chicken on Tuesday.  Monday, fish - tonight is cod, if I get home early enough, I'll grill it, but easy to throw in the oven too.  Friday I like to do pizza in warm weather.  We usually keep some broccoli and green beans in the fridge, they cook in about 2 minutes in the microwave. 

I also like to have an extra meal so I can take lunch and not have to buy lunch, if possible. 

It definitely helps to plan out 3-4 days at a time.  And to enjoy repurposing leftovers or leftover ingredients.  Good luck!

I had leftover pulled pork and potato salad. For leftovers it was great. 

Alright @robnybbq I'm going to call you out on something that I've been thinking from your posts for a long time. 

You are not in need of new recipes to eat.  You are in need a lifestyle change. I'm sorry if you won't listen to your doctors or others that tell you that you need to change things. You need to Man up or shut up. 

Not eating leftovers is an excuse, especially if you think that Wendy's is a saving grace. Changing your mentality when it comes to food is difficult and will take dedication and willingness to change. You can't take one bite of a leftover and say "well fast food is better" 

I'm not trying to be a prick here, but if you don't show the willingness to change your habits after your doctor has told you to I don't know what complaining on a food forum will do for you. 

Eating fruit and veggies is a good thing. It's your job to figure out how you can make it work for you.  

And if you think that leftover meat off of the Egg is dry you overcooked it in the first place. 

Stop blaming the food and own your diet. 

Funny, I was just thinking this is starting to resemble that long thread that won't die about "I need to do something to lose weight" where tons of advice was given, all refused or excused away.  Certainly not there yet, but headed down the same road.

Tonight I'm going to grill some shrimp and serve with rice noodles and steamed frozen potstickers. Start to finish I can't imagine everything taking all that long.

Try this book:  How to Cook Everything Fast

I haven't read it, but I have a couple of Bittman's other books and he's generally really solid.  I think Jamie Oliver has a quick meal cookbook that just came out or is coming out.  Rachael Ray is annoying, but she built a career on meals in 30 minutes and the couple that I've had were fine.

fishlessman said:

by the time its that late the only thing im eating is the lime and cherry in my cocktail drink i dont eat many dinners during the week and if i do its something simple like those frozen stuffed clams or scollops

robnybbq kids:
  "Whats for dinner, Dad?"
"Lime and cherries in the cocktail."
  "What, again?"
"Well, what do you suggest?"
  "Rum and coke... cherry coke!"
"You know that keeps you up all night. And you kids don't get nearly enough fruit or vegetables in you diet."
  "O.K., I'll have a Bloody Mary w. a stalk of celery."
  "And I'll have some Sangria, but no limes, only lemons."

Kids! D___! they're picky.

A lot of it depends on your own taste, what you and your family enjoy.  I like leftovers better than you do, and usually just reheat them.  But here are a few things that appeal to me (maybe not you, I don't know), and they'd be very fast easy way to make leftovers something new (I'm finding these on Amazon just for this discussion, but you can find stuff like this in your grocery store):

• Here's a curry paste that you can add cut up cooked chicken to, have some rice and nuke some frozen vegetables, a quick yummy meal (IF you like Indian food).
• Here is a nukeable bag with rice and vegetables already in it with Indian spices.  Again, you could add some cut up cooked chicken and have a meal.  I've had several of this brand's offerings, and I won't say any of them are the greatest thing in the world, but I like them, and if what you want is fast, easy, and really different from the original dish, it would qualify.  Maybe just make one for lunch, sometime as a test, and see whether you think you or your family might like it. I like to add a dab of hot mango chutney on the side, if you like that kind of thing.
• Here's a Thai dish in a box that you could add shrimp to, or cooked meat, and there are probably several different ones you could try in your grocery store.

There are TONS of things like that in the grocery store!  I'm sure there are similar things that are Mexican.  I even wonder if some of the Hamburger Helper varieties could be repurposed for meats other than hamburger.

And don't forget the frozen section!  There are lots of frozen dishes these days that say just add chicken, etc..

You probably won't like some of them, others might be great.  Instead of risking a catastrophic meal that everyone hates, and that discourages you from trying other things, maybe try some of these things one serving at a time for lunch on a weekend or some time you feel like it.  That way if you don't like it, you haven't risked very much and you can try something else another time.

Remember, it doesn't have to be the way other people do it -- it just has to taste good to you!  So if you like Mexican, maybe nobody in Mexico would put cut up spatchcock chicken in their tacos, I don't know, but why wouldn't it be good?  Maybe cut up the chicken sort of in shreds and heat it up with a little taco sauce or salsa or something, or maybe just a little chili powder and a tiny bit of water to re-moisten it, throw it in taco shells with some lettuce, tomatoes, maybe some onion, cilantro, cheese, little taco sauce, guacamole, whatever sounds good to you.  How bad can it be?

Theo

You've got a lot of suggestions above, I just thought I'd add one more for you.

Regarding your Chicken Salad comment, where it's OK if you DROWN it in mayo - but then why not just eat the mayo? 

I've changed up my chicken salad recipie a little bit lately, which I now MUCH prefer, and I use less mayo than before.  Cut the mayo use down, and then sub in horseradish, and/or dijon mustard.  Same amount of moisture, less pure mayo.

BRush00 said:

You've got a lot of suggestions above, I just thought I'd add one more for you.

Regarding your Chicken Salad comment, where it's OK if you DROWN it in mayo - but then why not just eat the mayo? 

I've changed up my chicken salad recipie a little bit lately, which I now MUCH prefer, and I use less mayo than before.  Cut the mayo use down, and then sub in horseradish, and/or dijon mustard.  Same amount of moisture, less pure mayo.

mixing light mayo with greek yogurt works really well too, especially with some dried cranberries and walnuts mixed in

robnybbq said:

A good bloody mary does have veggies in it........  Some have shrimp hanging on the side as well.