September 2010 Weddings
steffiel
member
09.25.10
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cooking inspiration
The dinner post got me thinking - what are some of your favorite, quick & easy go-to dinners (aside from the obvoius tv dinners 
)? What about some things I could prep in advance, like the night before? Any particular websites you use for inspiration?
J gets home before I do, and I don't expect him to cook every night, so I have a feeling we'll be looking for a lot of other cooking ideas aside from pasta or your basic meat, starch & veggie dish every night.
It also doesn't help that we're totally new to this whole cooking dinner thing & half the time I don't know what to make.. or know how. 
09.25.10
Re: Cooking inspiration
With it getting colder out, you could always make soups or stews on the weekend and then eat them throughout the week. Thats one of the easiest. Or start using a crock pot. I posted about that on E today and got a ton of recipes.
You can prep just about any meal beforehand. Sometimes I'll cut up vegetables for the entire week and just stick them in plastic ziplock baggies until I need them. It saves so much time. The only thing that doesn't always work out so well is onion, it tends to smell up the fridge a bit.
I have a ton of blogs (mostly the What's Cooking ladies) in my Google reader and I star the recipes I like then print them out when I have a chance. I'll also use allrecipes.com. Americastestkitchens.com has a lot of detail too.
I feel like I cook the same boring stuff all of the time so I never know what to suggest to people. Am I being a pain to tell you to just look at my blog and see if anything interests you?
Married / The Cookaholic Wife
we usually eat around for Liv's allergies. I have to say, I honestly cook for Liv and not O specifically. He eats whatever I happen to cook. If you didn't get one, go buy a crock pot or slow cooker (whatever you call it)- especially now that the colder months are upon us. You can put pretty much anything in a crock pot and leave it on all day while you are away at work. Cornbeef, chicken, etc. Also, if you use a crock pot, don't forget about adding those veggies-- carrots, potatos, onions, beets (which season the meat really well) and turnips taste good also.
my favortie thing to cook is Pasta with red sauce (for Liv) and cream sauce for O-- it's simple easy and afforable. I also make cheese-less PIzza for Liv from time to time, but that can be fun too-- adding your own topppings. If I'm ever feeling energetic I like to make Chicken-tiki-marsala
) Thats a little more prep work, but if you google the recipe Betty Crocker has some good ideas 
)
Datsyuks & Ferdy- We Go Together Like...
Shepards Pie
Stuffed Shells
Chicken in the slow cooker or for that matter anything in the slow cooker
Beef Strognoff
Grandma's Meatballs and Sauteed Cabbage
If it helps any, even with prep time most of my recipes are under an hour to cook.
http://cookaholicwife.blogspot.com/2010/08/beef-lo-mein.html
http://cookaholicwife.blogspot.com/2010/10/stuffed-shells.html
http://cookaholicwife.blogspot.com/2010/09/parmesan-and-herb-chicken-tenders.html
http://cookaholicwife.blogspot.com/2010/08/beef-fajitas.html
There are some of the easier quicker ones.
Married / The Cookaholic Wife
DH gets home before I do too. Sometimes he cooks and sometimes he waits for me to get home to cook. We try to make big meals 2-3 nights a week and use the leftovers to eat the other nights. That way we still get a home cooked meal most nights without having to put in so much time and effort.
When we get bored with the same old routine (spaghetti, chicken and veggies, etc.) I use the enhanced recipe search on realsimple.com (http://browse.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/index.html). You can tailor your search based on your needs and wants.
This isn't really a make ahead dish. But it is really quick to make.
http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/30-minutes-or-less/lemon-chicken-oregano-cooking-for-2.aspx
As far as inspiration, I spend a lot of time lurking the What's Cooking board.
Love, love, love this blog:
http://smittenkitchen.com/
favorites:
beef chili w/ sour cream & cheddar biscuits
crunchy baked pork chops
escarole & orzo soup
sausage stuffed potatoes
braised beef short ribs (long, but oh so good - great for sat/sun)
dying to try the chana masala and mushroom lasagna recipes.
FYI - the author & her family eat meat but are heavy on vegetarian dishes - so if you're sticking with the veggie-thing (that was you, right?), you might find a lot of interesting inspiration.
Thanks, ltb. I actually am subscribed to your blog & love it
09.25.10
(although these new smiley's look kinda funny)
Married / The Cookaholic Wife
I'l have to admit, I don't cook too often. It's not because I can't cook or don't want to but we go over to my dad's for dinner. This is so we can spend time with my dad and see my cat (we can't have cats at our place). Lately I've been cooking more at home and going to my dad's less often. Needless to say, I can use all the cooking inspiration and tips I can get.
On weekends DH and I watch Food Network. I get inspiration there, but some of the dishes look too complex. I don't want to have to buy a dozen ingredients for one dish.
I love www.allrecipes.com. I can always find good recipes there, that is where I found my banana cake recipe...the best cake ever. I also read Food and Wine magazine. They have really good recipes too.
As for prepping in advance, I don't have time for it. My only prep would be going to the store during lunch to buy the items we need for dinner. We have a crock pot that we got at the Bridal shower. I hope to put that thing to use this fall/winter.
I make stuff on Sundays for the week (dinner or lunch) a lot of times. It helps. For example this past Sunday I made taco soup and a tray of chicken and cheese enchiladas. We ate half this week and froze half.
I like to make a roast chicken on a Sunday, eat it that day and use the leftovers for enchiladas, chicken salad, etc. etc.
I also make or at least assemble many things the night before so it's not a whole big production when I get home.
Things I make ahead of time (I'm happy to share any recipe you want):
Websites I use:
allrecipes.com
thepioneerwoman.com (I like to try out one of her recipes once a weekend in the fall and winter)
tastykitchen.com
thecookaholicwife.blogspot.com (ahem, made famous by someone on this very board)
I love cooking. Currently my inspiration is Cooking Light which has all of their recipes archived on the website and a lot of them that I have found really are not that labor intensive and do not take that long.
Our dinners for the week:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000002012815
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000002012819
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysChili3000.htmlhttp://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000002012794
The slow cooker is my friend!! I get meatballs and homemade sauce ready the night before, turn on the cooker in the morning and when I get home it's ready to go!! DH makes lasagna, grilled cheese and soup, I make a mean pasta dish (onions, garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, heat it up, put in chicken, 2 cans of chicken broth, sun dried tomatoes and broccoli. Make pasta until it's a little crunchy, throw it in with the chix broth/chicken/veggies, let it cook until the chix broth is all soaked up and eat YUM!)
I confess that I have DH cook way WAY more than I do !!!
LTB had no idea you had a blog, it looks amazing! I'm def. going to subscribe!
Tons of great suggestions here, ladies.
Thanks so so much!
TATER TOT Casserole??? Please share!