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FI and I are closing on a home and will be moving in together right before our wedding. Since I am still at home with the 'rents, I'm not one to come home and cook every night. I want to start cooking once we live together.
How do you decide what to cook every night? Do you make a menu every week? Where there any cookbooks you followed??
we have certain meals we always go to - fajitas, stir fry, breakfast for dinner, homemade mac and cheese, burgers - every once in a while we will try a new dish from a recipe or ill cook something in the crock pot but both of us HATE grocery shopping so there are many many nights where we are scrounging the house for food, my husband is really great at making a meal out of nothing, i dont know how he does it.
i try to go grocery shopping once for the week, and whats going to be for dinner is normally determined by whats on sale/what i get then
i loooove the recipes on www.skinnytaste.com, which are healthier, but still taste like "real food"
i also love the better homes and garden red and white checked cookbook as a good, basic cookbook
and we have some standbys - i make something that we call "sandy macaroni" which is basically some kind of macaroni with a little bit of butter, italian seasoned bread crumbs, and shredded mozzarella - its quick, easy and on the table in 15 minutes for busy nights
and i swear by my crockpot in the winter - its quick in the morning, and dinner is ready by the time you get home
I plan my meals out every week and then go to the grocery store. This allows for me to try to reuse ingredients through out the week that I may have purchased for another dish, therefore keeping costs down. This too stops me from over spending in the grocery store and buying things that I don't have a "plan" for.
I cook everynight (except for Saturdays) and so I switch up my meals a lot. I have all kinds of cookbooks, but if you're just starting out cooking some of my suggestions may be a little too advanced. Try allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com. They have some great recipes and give a skill level for them.
Epicurious also has a weekly menu that they lay out for you if you want to try that :) http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/everydaycooking/weeklydinnerplanners
Happy cooking!!!
my FAVORITE cooking website. this woman is full of great down home meals. the corn fritters are FIs favorite so far from this site.
I started subscribing to Cooking Light magazine, which I really like because I can flip through the magazine at work or on the couch, and when I cook I can have the magazine right in front of me. I generally go through two or three issues on Saturday or Sunday, and pick out a few recipes that I want to make that week. I go shopping on Sunday and pick up most of the stuff I need for the week. As for the actual things I choose to cook, that depends on the weather, my mood, and whether there's anything that strikes my fancy. During the summer I like to do lots of shrimp, fajitas, corn and tomato salads, etc.
I just come up with my meals. Sometimes inspiration comes from Recipe of the Day fromt he Food Network. Sometimes just from some stuff I have at home.
I try to sit down once every 2 weeks and make a big grocery list and menu since we don't have the option of stopping by the grocery store often.
I don't usually use cookbooks, but will occasionally try a new something I see on a blog.
Our go tos are salad (especially in the summer), breakfast for dinner (FIs family has a maple syrup business and that boy could eat his weight in it!), all sorts of mexican type meals, any kind of pasta, chili in the winter, and when we're pressed for time or out of fresh food, those stuffed frozen chicken breasts (I only like the broccoli and cheese but FI will eat any of them) with rice or brown rice and frozen veggies.
When I was first learning to cook I kept it simple, usually chicken baked with BBQ or some marinade, veggies or salad and any one of the zillion packaged side dishes. As I got more confident I made more stuff from scratch and relied less on packaged meals.
It really does help to sit down and do a menu, then shop so you have stuff on hand for it and aren't trying to decide that night what to make because the answer then will usually be to go out :)
I usually choose 10-12 of the meals and will ask FI what he wants for the others since he's not so good at coming up with more than that at a shot.
Good luck :)
I don't do weekly menus, I'm just not that organized. Plus I'm very much an eating-based-on-cravings person, that doesn't allow for much preplanning! LOL! I second the vote for Skinnytaste.com. I freaking love that site. We seriously eat stuff off that site at least 5 nights a week. My go-to if I haven't defrosted any meat is usually a shrimp recipe because you can defrost them in 10 minutes under cold water. So I'll do one of her shrimp recipes with rice or on salad.
I also do up big batches of chili or curry and portion it out into ziploc bags and freeze them. If I'm not feeling inspired for dinner I'll take one out and defrost it and it's a quick homemade dinner.
We rotate our basic meals: Spaghetti, homemade pizza on a pizza stone, fajitas, BBQ chicken, hamburgers, frozen skillet meals, etc.
The cookbook that I found that I have used the most for inspiration is America's Test Kitchen, 30 minute meals. It's more of a magazine than a cookbook. My Mom got it for me and I think she got it from the grocery store. They have super yummy and EASY meals!
(I just looked. It's a quarterly magazine. I have the one from Fall of 2010.)
I also ask my sister in law or my Mom a lot of the time on recipies. I got a great recipie for turkey burgers from my sis-in-law. It's delicious!
http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-turkey-burger-bethenny-frankel-375292
We have certain standbys that are always quick weeknight meals.
We try to plan out the weeks meal ahead of time and a lot of time we'll make 2 night meals.
Standbys are grilled salmon/steel head/chicken.pork chops w/white rice and stir fry veggies (green beans, bok choy, chinese broccoli, etc)
Chicken/pork stir fry
Turkey Burgers
Grilled Chicken sandwiches
Chicken Caesar Salads
Yam Fries are a great fast cheap side
homemade rotisserie chicken
Yam Fries are a great fast cheap side
In the colder months we do stews, chili, pasta nightS,
The only time I actully use "recipes" is when I want to try something new. But weeknight meals are hardly ever new menus, we tend to do that on weekends. And I never follow a recipe all the way anyway we know our own taste buds enough to always alter a recipe to our own tastes.
I make all sorts of foods becuase FI loves my cooking. But since he is hispanic and grew up with having rice, beans and some sort of protein every day, he's pretty gung-ho about having that during the week. I mixed it up though. Sometimes I'll make pasta or i'll make him a steak with garlic mashed potatoes.
The last thing I made that he LOVED was bourbon chicken.
I always look for recipes to try but dont follow them to the T just becuase i like to add a little more seasoning and FI doesnt like alot of veggies.
Soon enough he's get used to your cooking and hopefully you'll also enjoy it!
Sometimes we plan our meals out for the week and go grocery shopping for all of the ingredients on Sunday, sometimes it's just whatever is in the house. Our weekly routine is usually:
chicken (usually lemon baked or bbq) or fish (baked salmon or tilapia are our favs)
pasta w/ tomato sauce or garlic & oil (for those nights when we're feeling really lazy)
Veggie or chicken stir fry
homemade pizza
turkey burgers
Our side dishes with those meals are usually rice/couscous, salad, or potatoes.
I am so used to making these meals that I don't really use recipes anymore... but I will sometimes turn to allrecipes.com.
We've gotten into a bad habit of going out 5/7 days a week. Not the best thing to be doing, but we both have busy work schedules and I just don't want to cook after working at least 8 hours (and having to get work done that night).
Now, I do try to plan a few meals a week. I recommend creating a list, so if you need to pull meat from the freezer to defrost, you can. That's our biggest issue. I get to work and realize I forgot to take the chicken out, so then I'm stuck.
My goto is usually breakfast for dinner, or we grill out. I can usually pull a burger out of the freezer when I get home, and by the time FI gets home, we can grill. I always keep buns on hand, as we grill almost every week (even in the winter).
If you can get organized and plan out in advance, that's great. My problem is I'll plan something, then decide it just doesn't interest me anymore.
This reminds me - I need an idea for tonight. I do have chicken in the fridge (that's a first), so now I need to come up with something at work!
Here's the typical list in our house:
-Mac & Cheese (I prefer homemade, but FI prefers boxed. I do the Kraft Homestyle to compromise)
-Hot Dogs/Hamburgers (with fries, or boxed mac)
-Grilled chicken
-Fajiatas or tacos
-Breakfast for dinner
-Chicken Parm or Chicken rollups (Chicken with ham/cheese rolled up instead, breaded, fried, and baked).
My goal is to plan out meals for the entire week, and sometimes I even achieve that. But usually I will plan out meals for the next 3-4 days, make my shopping list, and then head to the market to pick things up. Now that the farmer's markets are open again, we usually go to one on the weekend, pick out whatever looks delish, and then plan meals to use those ingredients.
If you like to grill, get the Weber Real Grilling Cookbook. Mr. LK received this as a Christmas present, and it is the best book ever. We have loved every recipe that we have tried so far, and we have 2 new ones on tap for tonight and tomorrow night. Tonight = rosemary brined pork chops, and tomorrow= honey mustard chicken breasts. mmmmmmmmm :)
@lovekiss: I love the Weber cookbook!! my favorite is actually the veggie stuffed tomato in there. So delish!
I use a betty crocker 30-min cookbook all the time! Also allrecipes.com, quinoa websites and fitness magazine recipes. I cook about three meals a week. My husband will cook one and the other night is leftovers or going out--we're on the go a lot. Once a week, I write down what I'll be making for the week. I'll ask my husband what he wants and we decide the meals. I've taken a photo of almost every dish I've ever made and posted it in a FB album, so I sometimes tell him "go look and pick what meal you want." Then I grocery shop from that list, along with cereal, milk, fruits, etc.
Since we've only been married a year, I make something new or adventurous probably once every other week. Most of the meals are ones I've made before at some point. I like to cook from fairly simple recipes because it takes up a good hour of my evening. We usually cook together, or he'll be cleaning and I'm cooking, so it's a "togetherness" time. I'm an italian food freak but my husband doesn't really eat pasta, potatoes or bread, so I've gotten creative with side dishes. I make a lot of veggies, quinoa and even "pasta" out of zucchini. I grew up on mexican food and italian food, so I'm on an asian food kick, and even cajun food. I've made miso soup, pho, stir fry, gumbo, etouffee--the works. :-) We use mainly chicken, ground turkey, fish and shellfish--not too much beef. Occasionally pork chops. I also have herbs on my patio that I have to prune so I'll make something using basil, sage, rosemary or mint as much as possible.
A typical week includes one asian dish, one italian dish, one fish dish, egg/pesto/feta cheese tacos and leftovers(or pasta for myself and a protein shake for my husband, the fitness freak ;-)).
One suggestion I can give is to stock up on some frozen veggies. That way if something falls through(like last night, my zucchini was bad) you can pop in some veggies in the microwave seasoned with olive oil and salt. Or keep salad fixings. Always have some pasta on hand. That way you have a back up! Sometimes I'll have the sides at home and pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Voila, dinner!
I plan a menu weekly and go to the grocery store once a week - this has helped b/c I would go every 2-3 weeks and we would wast produce & milk, etc. But going once a week is actually better b/c I am in and out very quickly and we don't waste food.
I have about 15 meals that I can make on the fly w/o needing to look at a recipe- but to not get bored, I have a commitment to introduce at least 1, hopefully 2 brand new recipies per month and add those to the rotation.
Thanks for everyone's input. I think cooking is the one thing that is scarring me about marriage, haha. My mother is one of those women that can just "wimp" something up and it is delish! I hope I can do the same in time.
I plan a weekly menu and try new things at least once a week - keeps us from getting stuck in a food rut. We have a list on the fridge of food that we like to eat every week so it's easier to remember when we sit down to plan on the weekends. Normally our week looks like:
Chicken breasts a few times a week, always with different spice/sauce combos, and a veg like sweet potatoes or plantains or french beans or lima beans... etc
One meatless meal, like mushroom sauce over brown rice or carrot curry
Broiled salmon with a veg side, or turkey meatballs with a veg side, or some kind of shrimp meal over rice... or all of those!
We've been working out in a boot camp that goes from 7-8 so we've really had to streamline meals to not be eating at 10 pm - prep work is a lifesaver if you want to cook every night during a busy schedule! Websites like skinnytaste.com and foodgawker.com are also super helpful.
Sometimes we plan what to eat on a daily basis and other times we eat whatever we have or run to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients. Our go to meals are things like quesadillas with onions and peppers, stuffed peppers, tuna casserole, stir fry veggies and shrimp, etc.
I really like Taste of Home's website/cookbooks. The meals there are relatively simple with ingredients that are easy to find and not super expensive.
I also enjoy reading www.annies-eats.com. She has so many great recipes that would be tough to mess up, as long as you read all of the directions.
Give cooking a try! You may really like it :)
I go to farmers markets and stuff so I end up meal planning based on what I've got. Unless I have a specific taste for something I make it up as I go along. For this type of cooking you usually have to have a general outline of what you want (at my house it's typically meat+carb or pasta...thanks DH) and some basics on hand all the time i.e. chicken stock, wine, butter/EVOO, and garlic and onions in our case. I like it...the one thing I hate about recipes is not having that ONE ingredient and having to make a trip to the grocery to find it. I'm a little lazy...
If I don't plan a weekly menu we A. Eat out or B. Run to the grocery store for something almost everyday C. Produce goes bad in the fridge.
I have subscriptions to Bon Apetite and a few other cooking magazines.. I really love foodgawker.com there's something about seeing what you'll be making that helps me plan.
I plan for the week. I have a good list of stand-bys, and then we try something new each week. If we love it, it gets added to the stand-by list! I also try to make a homemade dessert. This weekends will be a peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream!
Some of his favorites:
Tex-Mex Meatloaf: 1.5lb ground beef or turkey/3/4c oatmeal/1 egg/1 can Rotel/2 tbsp onion flakes
Mix everything, bake at 350 degrees for 1h15m. Top with 1/4c ketchup, bake for 10 more mins. I serve it w/ mashed potatoes and jalapeno cornbread (Jiffy cornbread mix + some chopped up jalapenos)
Chicken Stirfry: 1 lb cut up chicken breast- cook in a pan on medium until brown, add 4 cups of stirfry veggies (found in the frozen veg section in a bag)-cook 2-4 mins until tender, add 1/2c chicken broth, 1/4c teriyaki sauce, a little salt & pepper, and cook about 3 mins longer. Serve over minute rice! :)
For new recipes: Food Network website, Epicurious.
We LOVE the Cook This Not That recipe books, the recipes are easy to do and delicious, I can't recommend them enough.
We have a small whiteboard on a wall that we put the grocery list on, and the week's dinners written on the bottom. About once a week we'll plan what we're going to make while adding stuff to the grocery list. We also dig through the cook books every now and then and look for something new to try, and we try to do a meatless dinner at least once a week.
Some of our standards are:
Homemade pizza with wholewheat crust and as many veggies as we can pile on
Taco salads made from brown rice, black beans, spinach, avocado and salsa. So good!
Mujadara, a mediterrean lentils and rice dish that I can make in a crockpot
Pasta - our cookbook has a 500 calorie chicken alfredo dish which is delicious. We also like to make homemade marinara, and last week made a chicken sausage and broccoli dish that came out really well.
Something off the bbq - burgers or steaks, often with sweet potatoes and broccoli or asparagus.
It depends on the weather, currently we're doing a lot of bbq during the nights we are together (FI does shift work) so ribs, steaks, grilled chicken, hot dogs, grilling veggies on the grill like carrots, asparagus, corn, green beans. Typically i love making soups (clear broths) with veggies and some protein, FI usually likes a protein, carb (rice), and veggies with all his meals so I try to work around that too. Sometimes we'll make homemade pizza's and pastas but we try to stay away from carbs... We really like cooking. and I'm allergic to a lot of things so we typically make everything fom scratch.
Favorite cookbooks: big book of soups (theres probably 500+ recipes)
I REALLY like the martha stewart cook books (she has pictures for every recipe so you get an idea as to what its 'suppose' to look like)
we make a lot of pizza. Before we got together, the fiance was a picky eater (his only foods: fries/tater tots, cheese-only quesadilla, tomato soup, pizza) and it's still a battle to get him to eat like a normal person.
4 nights a week it's two pieces of frozen Tombstone pizza for me. Exactly two pieces.
okay so I blog about our weekly menus so you can literally read what we've eaten for the last few months. but ideas: pasta w/veggies (go to dish), burritos, lasagna, stirfry, soup & bread, tortillina/raviolli, big salads & homemade pizza (hint - buy the dough!).
We have our staple meals too and try to make a new or out of the ordinary recipe once a week. Our "go-to's" are:
- Homemade pizza on pita bread
- Turkey meatballs, basmati rice and a veg of some sort
- Spaghetti
- Stir fry
- BBQ chick/pork chops with some sides
- FI makes awesome crockpot pulled pork
- Homemade burgers (sometimes beef, sometimes turkey)
You'll find your groove in no time!
I WISH I could plan out the whole week in advance. FI is sooo simple in what he likes, so it makes life easy.
What I normally do is go to Trader Joe's and buy about 2 bags of their mushroom hericot verts, 2 bags of their seasoned potatoes and 2 bags of their mixed veggies.
I buy a big thing of hand trimmed chicken breasts and 2 steak filets and we're good for the week.
I probably only spend around $100 for groceries a month.
We're not vegetarians, but we keep Quorn and Veggie burgers on hand for quick meals (I usually don't get home until 9 between work and then running afterwards), or we do a quick stir fry probably 4x per week. On the weekends we'll get creative and take turns cooking. Usually I cook on the weekends and he cooks during the week b/c of our work hours.
I use realsimple.com and allrecipes.com to find uncomplicated and quick meals. There are some I know by heart, but other times I do a quick search before I leave work and buy the ingredients on my way home (I live in NYC so this is normal and convenient).
I try not to make anything too often and I try to mix up the cuisine at least so we aren't having pasta 3 nights in a row or chicken all week. I try to stretch out cooking also, so if I'm making pork chops one night I will cook 4 of them and the next night mix up the sides. Like instead of salad I'll put out rice and steamed veggies. But I really only cooked 1 night.
I always have the recipes up on my ipad while cooking so I don't have to have big cookbook in front of me.
I used to be sooo intimidated by Bon Appetit but the recipes are really easy to follow and really fab. I usually plan out the week and I decide in advance so I can pick everything up at one time. Also, I will make a huge batch of old-school Italian meat sauce on Sunday night and that lasts a long time.
Tonight we're having pizza: Chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh basil. I do this in advance and let the basil and tomato steep in a bowl for a few hours (but this is not necessary). Then I take a thin pizza crust, brush a small amount of olive oil on it, sprinkle a little sea salt (this is necessary-don't use regular table salt) spread out tomato/basil mixture, layer leaves of fresh escarole and then top with a mix of mozzarelly and fontina cheese. Broil/bake for about 8 minutes. It's really, really good. And easy:)
Can I just say I love this thread? :-) That's all. Carry on!
@Miss Damask: Me too! I'm getting so many good ideas!
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