A week of dinners

[OakLeaf]

wow, that's two of you - we've pretty much given up on homemade pizza, even with a pre-made crust, because it takes just as much effort as a "real" meal but has the feel of something that ought to be "fast food." By the time you dice and saute onions, mince garlic, roast a red pepper, wilt spinach, slice and saute mushrooms, grate cheese, heat sauce (and season it if you're starting with unseasoned tomato sauce), etc., etc., etc., pizza takes a HECK of a long time! It's delicious, but it never seems like it's really worth the effort.

[Becky]

wow, that's two of you - we've pretty much given up on homemade pizza, even with a pre-made crust, because it takes just as much effort as a "real" meal but has the feel of something that ought to be "fast food." By the time you dice and saute onions, mince garlic, roast a red pepper, wilt spinach, slice and saute mushrooms, grate cheese, heat sauce (and season it if you're starting with unseasoned tomato sauce), etc., etc., etc., pizza takes a HECK of a long time! It's delicious, but it never seems like it's really worth the effort.

Our pizza topping are rarely "from scratch", unless I'm feeling particularly gourmet and have the time.

Lessee here:
Onions- diced frozen ones from the store.
Garlic- jarred.
Roasted peppers- jarred.
Fresh veggies- whatever I chopped up after shopping over the weekend.
Cheese- shredded from the store.
Sauce- canned from the store, or frozen homemade, depending on the garden's yield that year. And never pre-heated- the oven takes care of that while baking.

Now, that's not to say that I never prep produce, roast peppers, or shred cheese myself. I often do (except onions- too many tears! DH does that task!). But sometimes, there's just not the energy or time. And that's when prepared stuff is a life-saver. It might cost a little more, but if it saves me from ordering take out that night, it's worth the expense.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

I wish I could get back on track with dinner. It's just me most of the time. I'm trying to clean up my eating again, I have no idea why I eat worse on the east coast than the west!

You know, you can freeze cooked rice. I have a rice cooker and I cook up a big batch of brown rice. Measure it out, put it in sandwich bags and freeze em up. I just take it right out of the freezer and dump a baggie into a stir fry. It actually tastes a little better than just keeping it in the fridge!

[redrhodie]

How about if you roast a bunch of veggies, like squash, peppers, carrots, parsnips, beets, sweet potatoes on Sunday, then make a few different meals with them during the week? You could put everything in one pan, or separate the sweeter veggies into another pan, and you only have to heat the oven once, saving energy.

You could then make roasted veggie soup by adding some liquid, herbs and pureeing. You could add them to canned veggie chili another night. You could make a frittata. They could go in a burrito with rice, cheese and salsa. I make quesadillas with butternut squash, cheese and salsa. May sound weird, but it's really good and easy. You could serve them with couscous, which is super fast and easy to cook, and maybe add some dried fruit and cashews or pistachios.

My mother used to cook that way, but usually it involved meat. She'd make a turkey (or chicken, or roast beef), and all week we'd have turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey a la king, turkey soup--you get the idea. She actually did it so well we didn't ever get sick of the main ingredient. She also made tomato sauce, and it would be used over pasta, on pizza, over meat loaf, stuffed peppers. She would freeze the leftovers. There was always something good to eat.

[emily_in_nc]

This time of year my DH (who is retired so does about 95% of the cooking, lucky me!) makes huge pots of soup, freezes some, keeps the rest in the fridge, and we eat different soup leftovers all week with a salad for dinner. Yummmmmmm!

[Andrea]

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm definitely going to put my freezer to better use than I have been.

Oh yeah, and my crock pot beans turned out to be AWESOME! I used Alton Brown's recipe but used butter instead of rendering bacon fat to cook the onions, etc. (just to keep it meatless).

[shootingstar]

I would be struggling to remember our dinners last wk... --one evening I just had rice made from ricepot and did a scrambled eggwhite with onions, garlic, red pepper and basil. Geez, latter takes less than 10 min. You could do it sleep-walking.

Somewhere I heard that people don't tend to have such egg dishes for supper...well, it's a fast way and nutritious type of dish especially if it's scrambled with other fresh veggies.

This wk. dinner so far:
Mon. --we went out to a restaurant on our cycle homeward. Had a paninni sandwich with proscuitto, cheese, red pepper spread, etc. Afterwards came home and munched on fresh fruit.

Tues.-leftover homemade smoked salmon pizza with dill and goat cheese. yes, I make this from scratch...about once every 1-2 months. Also had leftover dessert homemade focaccia of fresh grapes with spices, ginger root and honey. He made a tomato salad with vinegarette, etc.....on a whim. He felt like it. He does good different salads and makes up half of the salads in his head.

Wed. (tonight)-stir-fry with veggies and fresh chinese noodles from store. Noodles take 5 min. to reheat before stir-frying. He had leftover frozen veggie soup.

Cooking is not an awful thing for us...we don't have children living underneath our roof at this time. His are grown up and have their own places... hence, is it worth it for my partner and I to complain about lack of time (how about even about 40 min. or so) to chop and cook???

I guess we're pretty unstructured about cooking and buying groceries because it's just he and I...and we have an automatic dishwasher...which helps.

[katluvr]

OK I am amazed at all the "eating in". I have my best intentions to plan a menu for a week...usually do good for maybe 1/2 the time.
Weekends were are busy playing so some times we are good and plan a meal others eat out d/t out and about playing (biking, shopping, running, just stuff!)
Now the last 2 weeks have been take out or eat out...seriously bad. It is nto that I don't like cooking. But during the week it is work all day, fit in workout, then who wants to cook? I just want food!
I am usually good at packing my breakfast and lunch...but lately d/t lack of going to grocery store I have not even been packing that!
Maybe this weekend I can get re-organized, go shopping and plan a menu! Not sure why I am out of it so bad right now. But even when I do plan...just takes one bad day at work or feeling over tired and I want the easy way out!
By the way...just the 2 of us...could be quick and easy. But I do get tired of grill chicken and salad!