What's for dinner? part 3

[Stephanie]

Sounds good Leah....I've still got one turkey in the freezer.... I may pull it out and we can work our way through it!

 

Of course it doesn't take quite as long with this crew.

 

We always do the same three things ...

 

Turkey and Cornbread dressing

 

Turkey Bone Soup

 

Turkey Salad sandwiches on toast.

 

 

[MomM]

Today is DS#2's 25th birthday. For our family dinner tonight, he requested stewed chicken and noodles, corn, garlic bread and instead of cake will be having choc chip cookies and vanilla ice cream. Where do the years go, seems like yesterday he was just born?

[snapshotmiki]

Tonight-Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Corn and Broccoli Medley, and Zucchini Bread for dessert.

[Vic303]

Tonight:

a pot of ham & beans, with freshly made onion flatbread, and oriental cabbage salad.

 

Saturday, I am slow smoking a brisket!

[WormGuy]

Meatloaf, Green Beans, & Baked Potato...yum.

 

 

 

John

[Buttercup]

Sounds good Wormy! It's been awhile since we've had meatloaf..

[Leah]

On the way back from the hospital (false alarm, no baby yet) the kids brought home some warm tortilla things from Taco Time.

 

I am clueless about Mexican food.

[cowgirl8]

getting back into my routine. Been on the road for almost 3 weeks. OH and i decided to just take off, 5100 miles later, we're back home. We camped in the back of our truck. Went through 7 states visited many national and state parks. Cooked on a gas stove and ate burgers, corn on the cob, bacon and eggs. Only ate out a couple of times. Oh, and friday, watch for me in the audience on the Price Is Right. We swung by LA and got in that show. At first i wanted picked, but its so fast paced, i decided i did not want to be called. I'm wearing a blue shirt and so is my husband, we wore fire department shirts hoping it would help us get picked.

Tonights menu will be chicken of some sort, probably a texmex recipe.....yum

[Buttercup]

Today I fixed pork ribs and kraut.. pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice pudding. Tonight Josie and I ate down a the neighbors for their anniversary and we had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas and mac n cheese.. I shared both my desserts with them..

[WormGuy]

The first meat loaf went poof so wifey requested another one for tonight. I'm also fixing mac & cheese, and corn on the cob.

 

 

 

John

[Leah]

Been too long for this thread...

Made a hamburger loaf with choice of small potatoes cooked in the juice or rice. (Juice was a mixture of au jus, onion soup, and dehydrated vegetables.) Whole kernel corn, green beans, ice cream for those who wanted dessert.

[mommato3boys]

Dinner....hummm well lets see

 

Lemon chicken with baked sweet potatoes and asparagus.

[Momo]

Tonight was spaghetti with Italian sausages and meatballs. We had a salad of mixed baby lettuce greens from our greenhouse. Dessert was cantaloupe wedges.

[snapshotmiki]

Yesterday was turkey Pot Pie with leftover turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, etc. in it from Wednesdays dinner.

[GettinReady]

Actually this was last night...

 

Normally when I make this I sear a couple of chicken breasts and remove from the pan. Dump in some salsa (I don't measure when I cook, I'm a "dumper") and pour in a little cream or Half and Half, enough to make the sauce pinkish in color. Give it a stir, put the breasts back in, pour some Chipotle Tobasco on the breasts and spoon some sauce over top. Finish cooking in the oven and serve with rice. Last night I had some Half and Half that needed to be used up and didn't feel like cooking. Grabbed a can of home-canned chicken from the pantry, made the salsa-sauce to my liking, drained the chicken and dumped in the skillet. The meat was so tender that after a few stirs it fell apart, like shredded chicken. I was beat and ate before DH. Spooned my Salsa Chicken over my yellow rice, showered and went to bed. DH tells me this morning how GREAT dinner was last night . He took his rice and Salsa Chicken mixture and spooned it in to a wrap. WOW! Did that sound good! Sadly, there was none left over. I can see it and taste it even now...Salsa Chicken, a little lettuce, some sour cream and shredded cheese. YUM, YUM! AND, I even had half a jar of home canned Pinto Beans in the fridge that could have been added to the wrap. Shucks!!

 

Tonight it's leftover soup for him and chili dogs for me...Ah, Well...next time I know what to do!

[Leah]

Finished up the last of the turkey breast cooked in apple/raisin filling, yesterday.

Tonight was beef stew from the Community Kitchen.

 

 

[Leah]

Someone gave us a lovely salmon, so we had that with rice pilaf, green beans, canned peaches and the Christmas cookies not pretty enough to give away.

[snapshotmiki]

Tonight home made Chicken Noodle Soup and fresh baked bread. And Christmas Cookies (sugar) for dessert.

[Cat]

What??? Nobody's cooking????

 

 

I'm not sure what we'll have tonight yet. I have leftover fried chicken from the grocery store deli to use. We were busy yesterday, and I've been cooking at home and I just figured I'd take it easy last night.

 

What I do is this... there are currently 4 of us at home to feed. So I get the 16-piece bucket, with 4 legs, 4 thighs, 4 wings, and 4 breasts. I feed thighs and legs to the kids and Hubby, and I nibble on the legs (not my favorite, but *somebody*s got to eat them ). Anything left from those pieces goes to Hubby's lunch the next day, like today he got 2 thighs. The leftover wings would'a been too much.

 

Then I take the leftover pieces and breasts and clean the meat off, sometimes using some of the crispy skin, and sometimes not. I use the meat for casseroles, or in tortillas, or stir fry, or just plain with more seasoning or a sauce.

 

I can often get 4 meals this way, counting Hubby's as one and for all of us for the others. When the fried chicken is on sale, I REALLY like that!!

 

 

Anybody go to Chipotle's? DS has been going to different restaurants with his coworkers, and took us to try Chipotle after he liked it. They have a burrito bowl there that my family likes. http://www.chipotle.com/#/flash/food_menu (click on "burrito bowl") Most of us prefer the corn salsa instead of the tomato salsa... it gives a flash of sweet corn flavor amidst the heat.

 

This weekend I had hamburger to use, so I fried it up, drained it, added in chili powder and a bit of water, cooked it further to cook in the spices, and ~voila~ I had taco meat.

 

So I cooked rice (leftovers for casseroles, fried rice, or soup), and opened and heated a can of corn that also has sweet pepper pieces in it. I think it's called "southwestern" corn and peppers.

 

I layered like Chipotle does... rice, taco meat, corn, shredded cheese, sour cream, and a bit of tomato salsa for those who wanted it. I could have opened a can of beans to make it more like Chipotle, but I didn't. It was plenty. Everyone liked it. It was a surprise, because they could smell the taco meat cooking, but figured it would be chili or tacos.

 

 

I used the leftover taco meat in regular tacos, which my Sis taught me to make like this:

 

Use flour tortillas. Warm them slightly in the microwave so they're pliable. Put a line of warmed taco meat down the center. Gently fold over and secure with toothpicks on the upper sides. Heat about a half cup of oil in a skillet, and fry the tacos, one or two at a time (depending on the size of your skillet), turning over when one side is finished. Place on paper towels to drain a bit. Both sides should be slightly browned and crispy.

 

Take the toothpicks out, open, and fill with shredded cheese, chopped onion, chopped tomato, shredded lettuce, (avacado, sliced black olives, etc. if you want), and then place a line of sour cream down one side and salsa down the opposite. Serve with lots of napkins.

 

 

 

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Spanish Rice for Supper (in the crockpot)

last night it was 'chicken-cor-don-blue '(?) Chicken breasts (2 each) were on sale (cheap) so we got a few packs (froze most of them for later). Took one that had 2 med. sized ones and after I cut it lenthwise I 'hammered' it to make it flat then rolled it up with the ham and swiss cheese (both on sale). browned them on the stove for a bit and then Lori put them into crock pot (yes we like using it) with a can of cream of mushroom soup. 4 hours later we had Supper and 2 left over for Tuedays meal. Had baked potatoes and a can of string beans (both from our garden). A good 'cheap' meal and seeing we get 2 meals of of it even better.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

speaking of cooking meals we can get more then one meal out of..................

AND seeing it is Janurary and we need to save money!

 

anybody doing what we do? that is plan meals using things on sale that you can use more then one meal for?

 

Like chop meat: if we want meatloaf we don't buy 2 pounds of it - we get it on sale in larger amounts (cheaper by the pound that way) and make a few different meals out of it. Like meatloaf, meatballs, taco meat, hamburger soup, hamburger cassarole, etc.

 

Or we bag up the extra raw meat in put in freezer bags (1 pound each) to use later on.

 

* hint - Michael put each in a ziplock bag and then using a rolling pin flattens it out. then seal bag and put all together in one big bag (date marked of cause). Stores better, no air and thaws out quicker.

 

Do this a lot even though there are just 2 of us here ( the cats are vegatarians- really).

 

You pay more now but in the end you save a lot. Also it helps if you plan meals for the week so you are not just grabbing this or that to make a meal.

 

 

[Cat]

Exactly! Usually the family packs will save you money, and I almost always buy on sale.

 

 

Last night I used the leftover rice and leftover chicken to make Chinese Chicken Chop Suey.

 

I reheated the leftover rice with a bit more water in the microwave, covered. It sat while I prepared the saucy stuff.

 

I drained the liquid from a large can of Chinese vegetables into a saucepan, added water, and stirred in dried chicken stock mix to taste. My leftover chicken was chopped into bite-sized pieces (still have one more meals' worth, I froze that), and the drained vegetables sat ready. I put 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a cup, and added cold water, then stirred it smooth.

 

I heated the chicken broth mixture until boiling, then stirred in the cornstarch mixture, stirring continually. When it started to thicken, I added in the chicken and the vegetables, continuing to stir until it was heated through and thickened.

 

I served it over rice, with soy sauce for "salt".

 

Nothing fancy, but it was good.

 

 

[PoGo]

Tonight we had broiled chicken with orange & jicama salsa, rice pilaf, green beans, bread & butter, iced tea, and for dessert - donuts

[WormGuy]

I made a meatloaf, about two and a half pounds, green beans, fresh sweet potato's and bread. I mix up ketchup and mustard to put on the meatloaf, gives it a different flavor, yum.

 

 

 

John

[Buttercup]

I am almost sad that this topic has nearly died off. So I am looking to revive it in order to get some new ideas.

Last evening we had beef stew (made in my pressure cooker in 12 lovely minutes) applesauce with bread and butter.

This evening we had beef and noodles with mashed potatoes and corn..

I am looking for more ideas using my crockpot and pressure cooker. Since I don't get home from work until 9:30 most nights I need to be thinking ahead of time.. Does anyone know if there is a pressure cooker recipe book out there somewhere?