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Tell me... what are some typical meals in your household?
DH and I are bored with what we currently make for dinner on a weekly basis. I need some new ideas, some new inspiration. Cheap ideas are a plus!
Also...what do you take for lunches if you don't have any leftovers? We usually do sandwiches and I'm sandwiched out.
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Re: Tell me... what are some typical meals in your household?
tacos, salsa chicken, sandwich night, chinese hotdish, pizza hotdish, cheese and chicken enchiladas, baked chicken, chicken alfredo, and some nights...cereal night....lol
Those are my main go to meals but I do TONS of others.
I totally suck at cooking but was pretty proud of the pork chop in the crockpot thing I did on Monday
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We like to do breakfast for dinner sometimes...my cousin does mass batches of stuffed shells and freezes them.
Dinners: Chicken (buffalo, shake-n-bake, enchalada, alfredo) Spaghetti, Meatloaf, Hamburger Helper (don't judge) Pizza, Lazanga, Taco salad,
In the summer we grill- a LOT! we have a lot of meat and potatos all summer long!
Lunches-- Left overs ( i usually make lots for dinner) We make lots of sides, pasta salads, mashed potatos, veggies, fruits and that is lunch.
I do a lot of frozen lean-cuizines for lunch too.
Staple in the house is chicken, beans and rice- variations of too
Easy and tasty.
We do not have AC so I try not to use my oven right now. We have been doing a lot of veggies from our garden and farmers market. Simple salads- cukes, tomato, basil, green beans with a little vinegar and oil. Cold pasta salad with chicken.
I have found dinners much easier once I started going back to simple cooking. To add flavor to meat I will marinade it for a while.
Good luck. I was stuck in a pretty big food rut for a while. No fun.
if I "cook" it's some variation of a sandwich: panini, BLT, quesadilla, or egg mcmuffin thing. I can't do a plain sandwich between two slices of regular bread, it bums me out too much. A sandwich is all about the bread
DH is an amazing cook and he likes to do it - normally my requests for him are mexican food. But he'll cook, grill, bake - anything.
The quick prepare stuff that I buy for nights DH doesn't really cook are Orange Chicken and frozen Jasmine Rice from Trader Joes and I really like their frozen broccoli too. Otherwise Target has a pizza meal deal where you get a take-n-bake pizza and large Cesar salad, and that's enough for 2 dinners and 2 lunches.
We really like mexican and always have meat in the freezer and fresh and frozen veggies. We'll do variations of fresh fajitas, tacos, enchiladas or salads with grilled flank steak, ground beef, grilled or broiled chicken. Depending on what we feel like, we'll grill peppers, onions and other veggies or just chop fresh tomato and lettuce. We also always have beans, cheese and salsa around or we make fresh salsa. So - about 50 different ways to eat mexican!
Other summer things we like are BLTs, grilled burgers, brats or steaks along with foil packets of grilled veggies and sometimes fruits. We'll use sweet potatos, peppers & onion, carrots, onions, zucchini or even things like peaches. We also love homemade pizza or we'll "doctor up" frozen pizza with extra toppings if we're short on time.
Cold pasta salad with various veggies, meats and/or cheese is also easy. I find it is much faster to prep meals if wash, chop and organize fresh veggies and fruits about once per week. If I don't have leftovers, I'll just make a big salad with lettuce & other veggies and deli meat and cheese or I'll do the sandwich thing. I keep things like yogurt, string cheese and granola bars around to include in lunches too.
We make tacos w/ground turkey, grill brats or burgers, quiche, pizza
Here's a really quick and yummy quiche recipe:
1 pie crust
1 lb sausage
3 eggs
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa
Brown the sausage and drain the extra grease. Put the pie crust in a pie pan, add the sausage to the bottom. Whisk the eggs w/salsa and add to sausage. Top with half the cheese. Cook in the oven at 375 for 30 mins. Add extra cheese for the last 5 mins.
We've been kind of stuck in a dinner rut as of lately, but here's what we typically have on our menu for dinners: Cold Italian pasta salad, Bean Pie, Spaghetti with garlic bread, shrimp or chicken skewers with mushrooms/bell peppers/onions/pineapple, marinated chicken breasts with rice, tuna melts, fancy grilled cheese, Morning Star Chipotle black bean burgers.
We almost always try to make more than we need so that we have leftovers for lunch/dinner the next day, but if we don't have any extras, typically we go the sandwich route as well. Lately, we've been making sure to have some extra cans of soup in the cupboards to bring along for lunches.
I always plan out our weekly menus so I don't have to think/worry about what to make. Some things that routinely make it on our menu:
grilled chicken/pork with roasted broccoli and/or cauliflower
creamy taco mac (homemade hamburger helper)
broiled parmesan tilapia
chicken ceasar sandwiches
tacos (i like to make salsa chicken in the crockpot, shred it, and freeze it to use in tacos, enchiladas, serve over brown rice)
salads
mandarin orange chicken from trader joes with brown rice
Laughing cow chicken
chili-lime cashew chicken (chili-lime cashews from trader joes, chopped in the food processor and used to coat chicken breasts) with couscous or rice
For lunches we fall into ruts too, but I try to at least make enough dinner for DH to have leftovers, otherwise we do sandwiches (deli meat, rotisserie chicken), egg salad, chicken salad, smartones or lean cuisines as last resorts. Sometimes we end up just taking random things that will fill us up- cheese and crackers, vegetables, yogurt, cereal etc.
Pasta with turkey sauce
Grilled chicken and potatoes
Panzanella in the summer
Chicken with pesto & pasta
Grilled pork chops with rice
Tacos (either black bean OR meat)
Spaghetti with Italian Sausage or baked mostaccoli with Italian Sausage, Stromboli
Cajun Chicken Sandwiches, Salsa Chicken, Stove Top chicken bake (on the stove top box), cajun chicken with mac n cheese
Steak and potatoes, steak sandwiches, fajitas
Turkey Tacos
Brats
Salsa Chicken Tacos, Regular Tacos, Spaghetti, Lassagna, Enchiladas, Chili, Stew, Easy fish/veggie, grilled anything!
DH is a "plain jane" eater, so our meals normally aren't that fancy
We usually make extra of whatever meal we are having since DH doesn't like the typical lunch things and will take leftovers with him.
Soups, stews, and chili's make really good lunch leftovers.
Here has been our food week so far:
Sunday- Tomato Soup/Ground Beef/Mashed Potatoes all combined together- DH's favorite- with fresh green beans
Monday- Scrambled Egg Wraps (Scrambled Eggs inside a flour Tortilla and a little smidge of cheese) with fresh fruit
Tuesday- Quesadillas with cheese, salsa, chicken, corn and Black beans
Other go to meals: Tacos/Burritos/Taco Salads, Pasta (Spaghetti/Fettuchini/Stuffed Shells/Lasagna/Ravioli/Tortellini), Pancakes, Soup and Grilled Cheese, Grilled foods(Hamburgers, steaks, pork chops, Chicken breasts), Meatloaf... list goes on and on.
I posted a similar question a couple weeks ago. Here is the link
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/40231656.aspx
I got some good idea's from Elizabeth81's blog.
mrsdawnmarie's blog is good too. Lots of yummy idea's.
Dinner: Always has a protein, veggie, and fruit. Some of our favorite/ easy/ cheap main dishes are: stir-fry, paninis, kabobs, anything on the grill, fajitas, chicken strip wraps, teriyaki chicken. For sides we often roast our veggies...so simple and so tasty. We also do sweet potato fries and squash pretty often.
Lunch: Wraps (just throw your sandwich ingredients in a tortilla, amazing how the same thing seems totally different), pasta salads (make on Sunday and bring throughout the week), veggies/ pretzels and peanut butter or hummus, burritos (make a big batch ahead of time and freeze individually, heat in microwave for a couple minutes for lunch), salads, crackers/ lunchmeat/ cheese.
Dinners: last night I made a lighter lasagna, we also usually have a protein, veggie and maybe a carb on the side - fajitas, big salads, panini sandwiches, soups, stews, pasta bakes, pulled chicken, roasted veggies, sweet potato fries, and in the summer we grill a lot - turkey burgers, chicken breast, sometimes steak.
Lunches: I am boring and will eat the same thing almost everyday. Usually entails Greek yogurt or cottage cheese and a Kashi granola bar. H usually takes leftovers for lunch.
I have a recipe tab in my blog and 99% of the recipes there are healthy and almost all include nutrition facts.
Boy/girl twins born at 37w1d and 37w2d
I thought I'd mention some good lunch ideas...no sandwiches!
I usually bring really easy stuff...to save time in the morning. I also bring stuff that is really snacky, so I can much on it when I get the chance.
Hummus and flatbread/carrots - celery with peanut butter - rice and avacado (soo yummy!) - fruit and veggies to snack on, etc...