dinner meals I know how to make

[juldea]

This list is of meals I make that require honest-to-goodness cooking, i.e. not soup from a can, macaroni and cheese, or frozen ravioli, although they are also dinner options at the house.

grilled chicken or steak (on Foreman)
chicken pot pie
poor man's lasagna
stir fry
meatloaf
pot roast
fried rice
barbeque chicken with rice and corn
spaghetti with meat sauce
bean and meat burritos
chicken parmesan
Portuguese kale/sausage soup
vegetarian vegetable soup
quinoa risotto with arugula
couscous with various mix-ins
quinoa with various mix-ins
baked herbed chicken
spaghetti with parmesan, garlic, and olive oil

Most of my meals follow the same form: carb (rice, couscous, quinoa, pasta) & meat (chicken, steak, or ground turkey; rarely sausage, tofu, or tuna) with some vegetables (fresh, frozen, or canned) thrown in somewhere. I'm a big fan of one-dish meals where all of these things are cooked in together. One meal in fifty might have a side dish; if the vegetables aren't cooked into the carb or the meat, they're rarely eaten.

I enjoy the process of cooking, but I have become bored of the way I cook. Perhaps because I get most of my vegetables canned or frozen (regular exceptions: onion, mushroom, carrots) and throw them into whatever meal I'm making, I don't think of them as foods in and of themselves that can earn the right of their own dishes. I'll put green beans in vegetable soup, but they're completely boring all by themselves. Carrots are often sliced up and put into things, but just cooked carrots? Yawn.

The main problem with wanting to try to expand my use of solo vegetables is I'm very sick of solo meat. ANOTHER meal with a chicken breast or hunk of steak next to whatever else?

Also of note: I really rarely eat fruit these days. Must do something about this.

Comments

[goldbug.livejournal.com]

I find that fruit goes well with breakfast. I should certainly eat it more than once a day, but eating a piece of fruit with breakfast is better than none at all.

Does the boyfriend like to/know how to cook? (Yes, I remember his name and lj username, but I don't know if you want me to use them in a comment to a public post.) I'm basically off the hook for cooking these days, because Daren and I have a deal: he cooks (including dishes) and I clean (including laundry). Maybe if you weren't responsible for cooking for yourself every day, you'd feel more adventurous in trying new things or at least be less bored with your staples.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I have breakfast once or twice a week, and it's a bowl of oatmeal. Most days I do two meals, lunch (chain fast food, deli sandwiches, Mexican (http://www.yelp.com/biz/tequila-mexican-grille-boston), Chinese (http://www.yelp.com/biz/68-chinese-boston), pizza (http://www.yelp.com/biz/jay-bo-pizza-boston#hrid:31dvUxX1Wac4uVWJYuKYsQ/query:jay-bo), Greek (http://www.yelp.com/biz/falafel-king-boston), or empanadas (http://www.labocaempa.com)) and dinner (see above).

londo (public posts + LJ name are fine!) knows how to cook and sometimes does it, but doesn't like to in the same way I do, and definitely has lower standards for food than I do. He happily eats the same four things day after day if I'm not around: canned soup, frozen ravioli, macaroni and cheese, and frozen burritos. (I am glad he doesn't object to the actual nutrients I offer him when I cook.) So it's hard to get him to try new things for me when he doesn't give a damn about it himself. ;)

[anitra.livejournal.com]

Lasagna, burittos, etc. can pair well with veggie side dishes. Stir fry also lends itself to experimentation with veggies - and fruits! I've done stir-fry with sliced apple mixed in with the veggies, and ones where I've used orange juice as part of the cooking liquid/sauce.

Also, you could try different "solo meats" - like pork chops, sausage, or fish.

What is "poor man's lasagna"?

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Fruit in stir-fry is a good suggestion. I will try it! I bet londo would like stir-fry with orange juice, too.

Sausage we do use, if rarely, and I have no clue how to cook pork chops. Fish are right out for me, unless it's canned tuna, because I am weird. But if you can give me pork chop ideas, I'm willing to try!

Poor man's lasagna: cook 8oz of rotini, penne, or similar pasta to al dente. Have meat sauce separately (I usually make this by sauteeing up some ground turkey and onion and [other reasonable vegetables] and then adding jarred Ragu sauce to it. Get a big oven-safe bowl, and layer the pasta, the sauce, and cheese (shredded mozzarella, ricotta if that's your thing, etc). Stick in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, and you have poor man's lasagna!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

See above for the poor man's lasagna recipe.

Any fruits to recommend besides apples? I know londo would like pineapple...

[shadowravyn.livejournal.com]

Shaughn and I add pineapple to our stir-fries, and sometimes raisins, too. Burst of sweet and tangy!

Fun pork chop recipe: cover in honey-mustard. Bake, 360 until meat is white and juices clear. Cooked is about 170 degrees, if you have a meat thermometer. I intend to start posting my recipes, soon.

Crockpots = godsend.

Also, I make a nice broccoli-rice-and-cheese casserole. Goes fantastic with chicken.
-Saute onions till clear
-Make rice
-cook broccoli (I prefer fresh or frozen)
-add three ingredients to casserole dish.
-add cheese (I melt colby jack cheese and add it to the cheeze whiz in a jar stuff.)
-mix (warning: will be hot)
-bake 375 for about 20 minutes.

Quick and easy dinner (no help with veggies, though)
-brown hamburger (or ground turkey or what-have-you)
-drain fat, add canned beef gravy
-serve over mashed potatoes or rice
-I usually serve corn with this.

Easy way for more veggies? Tacos!

Pork and apples always go together. Add diced apples to any pork recipe (I prefer granny smiths) and it's almost guaranteed to be good.

Feeling like making a fancy appetizer? Bacon-wrapped pineapple.
-put pineapple chunk on toothpick
-wrap with raw bacon
-bake 350 till bacon browns

I'll think of more later

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

You simply don't cook green beans the way I do. :)

[anitra.livejournal.com]

Pork chops -
Super-easy on the stove recipe: http://pork.allrecipes.com/az/SagePorkChops.asp
Grilled: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_20641,00.html (I reduced the marinating time for boneless instead of bone-in, did not stuff, and used our George Foreman - they could probably also be done on the stove).

Honestly, I'd try just about anything in stir-fry: apples and oranges are usually the only fruit we have on hand, but I could easily see adding berries or small chunks of melon. You'd just want to make sure you add the fruit near the end so it doesn't soften into mush.

Also, I steam broccoli in the microwave pretty often to use as a side dish, but that's because I'm weird and LOVE cooked broccoli.
hntrpyanfar has a pretty awesome recipe for cooked carrots - I don't usually like cooked carrots, but she made them at my house a while back, and they were really good.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

This is quite possible - so teach me how to make 'em the way you do!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Thank you for suggestions! (Man, why do people like pineapple. Stupid pineapple. You suck, pineapple.)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Hooray, pork chop recipes. I will try, perhaps sometime next week. (londo's out tonight, and then we're away for the weekend.) We have a Foreman too, so knowing it works on one is good.

Berry stir-fry... must experiment.

I will have to poke at hntrpyanfar for her cooked carrots recipe!

[flyingindie.livejournal.com]

This is how I like them lately:

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10477?section=

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Dramatic!

[flyingindie.livejournal.com]

Haha. That's what I said when I saw them in the magazine. "Dramatic, huh?" ;)

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

Slow cooker, fresh beans, salt and pepper and dash of marjoram, sliced up salt pork (as you yankees call it; we call it fatback), cook for at least 4 hours, preferably around 6.

It's yum.

[elenuial.livejournal.com]

Are they the sweet ones? Her sweet carrots are really good!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Well, first problem, I don't have a slow cooker.

Second problem - did you forget I'm from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas? Pft, callin' me "yankee".

[butsuri.livejournal.com]

You could get a whole chicken & roast it with some potatoes & vegetables. Then for the next couple of days you've got chicken sandwiches, or you can add the cooked chicken to other dishes. Then you can use the bones for stock to make soup.

Soups in general are good for vegetables. I have a couple of recipes for blended squash soups I could send you. Vichyssoise (hot or cold). Gazpacho in the summer...

If you don't want to do a whole chicken, vegetables (onions, peppers, other things) can be roasted with olive oil.

It's a pity you don't like fish other than tuna & sushi, as that's a good way of adding some variety. Fish pie, or chowder, or teriyaki salmon. (Maybe make teriyaki chicken instead. Mmm.)

You have a Thai cookbook, right? Could try working your way through that. (Or another cookbook, if you have difficulty getting the Thai ingredients.)

Fruit salad, maybe with some Greek yoghurt.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I... have no clue how to roast anything, be it a chicken or vegetables. Especially a WHOLE chicken. That seems immensely complicated.

Soups ARE good, and good for vegetables. I would welcome any recipes you want to send my way.

I've just never liked either the texture or the fishy flavor/smell of fish. Even if a good, say, salmon doesn't have the latter, it has the former. I can do it if it's in some kind of crazy casserole such that it's well-hidden.

I would have to start with another cookbook instead of the Thai, as the Thai book does have a lot of stuff I don't know where to find. I should find another small cookbook then!

Fruit salad is hard to make for one. You either have to eat a lot of it in the space of two days, or a lot of fruit goes bad.

[butsuri.livejournal.com]

I don't think roasting's particularly complicated. At least, it doesn't have to be - some recipes involve making stuffing, or putting stuff under the skin, or whatever, but the basics are pretty simple. You might need to get a roasting pan if you don't already have one. I'll send you a couple of recipes for roast chicken.

Fruit salad - well, I was kind of assuming you'd be making it for two, but even for one, "make less" seems like an answer to that problem? You can make a fruit salad with, say, an apple, a banana & some grapes (& maybe the juice of an orange). (Although I admit I haven't made one myself for a long time.)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I would need to learn the basics of roasting. :)

As for fruit salad... 'make less' involves 'buy less' and sometimes that's hard. Grapes come prepackaged in large containers, for example, which Fusi and I generally don't get through before they're wrinkly. However, this barrier is probably mostly in my head, and I could get around it if I tried. ;)