Dinner - What Are You Having? - Page 76

[colemom]

I have been lost in the busyness of the holidays lately. With school getting out so late, I feel like we're on a mad race to Christmas. We have been having a lot of frozen pizza, spaghetti, curry, and simple dinners. Whatever I can pull off quickly.

Last night we had soup for Solstice. I made a big pot of matzo ball soup with added veggies, ds had udon noodles instead of matzo balls, with applesauce and leftover garlic bread.

Tonight I'm making a ham, cheesy hashbrown casserole, roasted brussels sprouts and broccoli. I'm sure tomorrow will be something with leftover ham, maybe grilled sandwiches and pasta salad.

Christmas Eve is at my parents' house. We usually have a ham or standing rib roast, scalloped potatoes, peas and pearl onions, swedish meatballs with dill sauce, potato korv, and rice pudding.

Christmas Day we stay home, my parents usually come over in the morning for presents and we have some kind of breakfast casserole, bacon, orange juice and coffee. By mid afternoon we are all holidayed out, so we started a new tradition the last couple years of having a taco bar with flour tortillas, seasoned ground beef, refried beans, olives, cheese, sour cream, chopped lettuce, tomatoes and avocado. Simple tacos are nice after all the heavy holiday food.

Also on the menu this week:

Salisbury steaks, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Zuppa toscana soup (italian sausage, potatoes, kale), cornbread

Steaks, roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach, mushrooms and onions, broccoli

Shrimp tacos, black beans, salad

Ham and pineapple pizza, salad

[kitchensqueen]

Tonight we're braving the frigid cold and snow and grilling out. Why not? We're doing mesquite chicken with cayenne and paprika roasted cauliflower. 

No idea what we're doing tomorrow, but I've planned a few special menus for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We're not doing any extraordinary, but I like to make a nice meal even though we're staying in. 

New Year's Eve - 

- Home made egg rolls with home made sweet and sour sauce. 

- Home made Mongolian beef

- White rice

New Year's Day - 

- Roasted leg of lamb persillade

- Herbs de Provence roasted potatoes (in the roasting pan underneath the racked lamb, so they should be extra awesome)

- Tunnel of fudge cake

Anyone else making anything special for New Year's Eve or Day?

[kitchensqueen]

We decided to do the Mongolian beef tonight, so we're going to have beef broccoli with the egg rolls for tomorrow night. 

[Kimberly Wright]

Tonight we're having beef stir fry over brown rice and crusty bread.

[ashleyhaugh]

last night we had salibury steaks and rice... tonight was chicken salad sandwiches...

my mom was in a car accident on monday, and totalled my car. shes fine thankfully, and no one else was seriously injured. thank GOD i live around the corner from work, so i wont lose my job. but now im playing phone tag with the insurance, because i work during "business hours". i just got this car in june, so i have most of the loan still due on it, and i dont know how that works. add to that, i have classes starting in about 2.5 weeks that i will have to drop if i dont have a car by the 13th (last day to change classes), and that is looking likely. and i have to come up with the deductable for my insurance. i literally prayed for peace and strength on the side of the road, and i am surprisingly calm about the whole thing, just very frustrated. and my grandpa keeps trying to help, but its not really, lol

now its time to get creative. i had roughly planned out my january meals, and had planned to go shopping this week, but my food stamps dont reload til sunday, and the bus i need doesnt run on sundays (grrrr... i hate riding the bus... i havent been in a city bus in like 10 yrs, lol).... i got a $20 walmart gift card from one of my parents at work for christmas, so i think i'll get some basics to tide us over/fill in the holes til next week. we need produce, and cheese and butter and stuff like that

[OkiMom]

Next weeks worth of meals:

tonight: pizza and salad

tomorrow: chili and corn bread

Sunday: chili mac and cheese

Monday: tater tot cassarole

Wednesday: spaghetti

Thursday: chili over mashed potatoes

[Mom31]

I made homemade chicken noodle soup.  claim to fame.
 

[kitchensqueen]

My MIL burned some chicken, and is making frozen vegetables to go with it. Sigh. 

[Ragana]

ashleyhaugh - So sorry to hear about your car! Hope it gets worked out soon.

Okimom - Sounds like my kind of week!

Mom31 - Can I come over? I'm sick as a dog right now. Mmmm, chicken soup...

Kitchensqueen - LOL Hope you're able to get back to your own kitchen soon!

As I said, I'm sick as a dog right now, so we had Asian takeout yesterday. Here is what I think we're having this week, although the order may change (I'm calling it "greatest hits" week):

Mon - penne & easy tomato sauce (can of tomatoes simmered with an onion, finished with butter and S&P), salad with garlic dressing

Tue - rice & pinto beans, toppings

Wed - chickpea & potato curry

Thu - tofu & broccoli, edamame

Fri - pizza bread? or if I am well & decide to get fancy: spinach & goat cheese lasagna
 

[Kate&Joey]

Originally Posted by kitchensqueen 

My MIL burned some chicken, and is making frozen vegetables to go with it. Sigh. 

Ugh.  This sounds like dinner at my parents' house.  My poor dad...although he doesn't really know any better!

[kitchensqueen]

Originally Posted by Kate&Joey 

Ugh.  This sounds like dinner at my parents' house.  My poor dad...although he doesn't really know any better!

Oy, that's rough! 

Originally Posted by Ragana 

Kitchensqueen - LOL Hope you're able to get back to your own kitchen soon!

I know! My husband got a part time job offer today and we're starting to see some good apartments, so everyone please cross their fingers (or whatever else you do for positive thinking) that we'll be back in our own place for February!

Tonight my husband beat my MIL into the kitchen and made Thai noodle soup. Always good, and soup really stretches a small package of chicken across many mouths to feed. :-)

[Mom31]

ooo

Edited by Mom31 - 1/7/13 at 8:52pm

[kitchensqueen]

We had a dinner fail with inedible crockpot chili. So I had a small bowl of pasta and chicken nuggets. As in, the actual McNuggets... I feel weird and slightly ashamed. But kind of, they were good. I might have a super secret weakness for chicken McNuggets. Childhood comfort food? Don't tell anyone though. 

[spiderdust]

Don't feel bad, we had Little Caesar's pizza.  We had a coupon.  

[OkiMom]

kitchen- I have a weird love of McNuggets as well. It reminds me of my mom, she fed us a LOT of McNuggets (we have 4 food groups growing up: boxed, canned, frozen, drive through and delivery). I had a learning curve when I got married and started actually cooking real meals from real ingredients.

I haven't been following my meal plan to well. We got a huge ham of sale (1.00 a pound when its usually 2.00 a pound.. my husband loves ham) so I cooked it up. I made a meal from it then bagged up the rest for future meals. Had spaghetti and chili with tater tots as well..

Tonight we are doing rice and chili. Tomorrow its chili, mac and cheese. I need to use up the chili before it goes bad.

[colemom]

I just had McNuggets over the break when we stopped on our way to the snow. We got a 20 box and shared it between all of us and I think I ate five, dipped in their HFCS bbq sauce. So bad, but so good.

Outside of our trip, I have been doing a Whole30 (strict paleo eating challenge) for this month, and I feel great. All of my meals have been super heavy on the veggies. After this month, we'll go back to primal eating, I do miss having a little dairy and wine and the occasional legume. The kids are still eating grains and dairy, I make them an additional side dish.

Tonight we're having Thai red curry with shrimp, broccoli, carrots and red pepper, served over sauteed shredded cabbage (and maybe a teensy bit of quinoa if I'm feeling naughty). Kids are having breakfast for dinner: waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit.

On the menu this week:

CP pork roast in onion mushroom gravy, roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts

Chicken thighs with bacon and mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes, spinach salad

CP Pizza Soup (italian sausage, fire roasted tomatoes, olives, kale, red pepper), added pasta to the kids' bowls

Salmon, stir fry broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms and red pepper in a soy sesame sauce, a little quinoa

Steaks with sauteed onions, mushrooms and rainbow chard, roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli

CP chicken cacciatore with green pepper, mushrooms and zucchini, spaghetti squash, pasta for kids

Shrimp fajita salad with sauteed peppers and onions, chopped tomato and avocado, tortillas for kids

[kitchensqueen]

Originally Posted by spiderdust 

Don't feel bad, we had Little Caesar's pizza.  We had a coupon.  

I loved their bread sticks when I was a kid - so soft and chewy!

Originally Posted by OkiMom 

kitchen- I have a weird love of McNuggets as well. It reminds me of my mom, she fed us a LOT of McNuggets (we have 4 food groups growing up: boxed, canned, frozen, drive through and delivery). I had a learning curve when I got married and started actually cooking real meals from real ingredients.

They were certainly my go to choice when we went out to eat. Small town American restaurant = McDonald's. I can probably count the number of times on one hand when I got a cheeseburger happy meals; it was always the nuggets for me. 

Originally Posted by colemom 

I just had McNuggets over the break when we stopped on our way to the snow. We got a 20 box and shared it between all of us and I think I ate five, dipped in their HFCS bbq sauce. So bad, but so good.

Oh yeah, the barbecue sauce is probably the most unhealthy part - but it is really tasty. 

No more McNuggets here today though - we had spaghetti with mushroom marinara. Not home made, but a jar of Newman's. I can't wait to be in my own house again in February. I use a few convenience foods in my cooking from time to time, but my in laws eat from the box or can almost exclusively... just not my cup of tea. There are boxed mashed potatoes in the cupboard. My MIL was flabbergasted when I bought actual potatoes the other week. She didn't understand why I wanted them when she "already had some" in the cupboard... 

[Ragana]

Originally Posted by Ragana 
Mon - penne & easy tomato sauce (can of tomatoes simmered with an onion, finished with butter and S&P), salad with garlic dressing

Tue - rice & pinto beans, toppings

Wed - chickpea & potato curry

Thu - tofu & broccoli, edamame

Fri - pizza bread? or if I am well & decide to get fancy: spinach & goat cheese lasagna
 

Mixed up the order, but still on track for this week. I'll have to change the curry to cauliflower & potato, though & tofu stirfry will have different veg. I am trying to go to the grocery store about every 5 days & use up almost everything before I go. We'll see how that works this month.

Oh, chicken nuggets! I used to get them with the sweet-and-sour sauce - don't know if they still have that.

[colemom]

Straying from the meal plan tonight because I don't feel like anything on my menu. I have committed to not getting any take out this month (for health and budget reasons), so I figured something out.

Frittata with chicken apple sausage, spinach, cauliflower, tomatoes and chives topped with avocado, spicy roasted sweet potatoes, mixed green salad with vinaigrette

Kids will have a simpler version: egg and chicken apple sausage scramble, roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli and pears

[Kate&Joey]

Originally Posted by kitchensqueen 

There are boxed mashed potatoes in the cupboard. My MIL was flabbergasted when I bought actual potatoes the other week. She didn't understand why I wanted them when she "already had some" in the cupboard... 

Bwah !!!  This is my mother's cupboard exactly.  And she has MULTIPLE boxes of this stuff.  When I was living there, I would periodically throw out all the expired boxed and canned food.  How long must you be stockpiling this stuff for it to EXPIRE ???  And it's normally just her and my dad...do they need 5 jars of mayo or 8 boxes of fettucine alfredo in case the world ends?  But I digress....

One of my favorite DS stories:  My mom served us prepared stuffed chicken breasts from the meat section (blech), boxed mashed potatoes, and broccoli (but microwaved, natch).  DS asked politely for more broccoli.  My dad replied "but you haven't finished your mashed potatoes...."

I'm thinking to myself (A) those aren't real mashed potatoes; (B) he asked for seconds of the healthiest thing, let him be; and (C) I didn't want the potatoes either!