Is it just being pregnant or is it the hot-n-humid summer? I don't feel like eating, much less cooking and even my all-time favorite easy and healthy recipes are just not floating my boat. To be honest, the boat isn't even rocking, it's moored in cement. The one thing that gets me excited is a home-made chocolate frosty and we all know what that's going to do to me. So . . . as I sit here searching the web for recipes that'll tingle my toes and trying to make a shopping list, I defer to you - my faithful friends and family who I KNOW are more creative than me at this point. Here's the dealeeeo . . .
PLEASE take 5 minutes and in the comments section give me your favorite main dish recipe. See I have plenty of dessert recipes so I'm BEGGING you not to send more of those. The easier and healthier and kid-pleasin'er the better, although it doesn't have to be any of those things so long as it's edible and dinner-worthy.
Please, please please help me - until you do we'll be having cold cereal for dinner and that gets old really fast.
13 comments:
Since Cade has his surgery, we don't cook a whole lot. One of our go-to favorites is quesadillas with the uncooked tortillas from Costco. I love those things!
I'm also a huge fan of Cafe Rio and their Barbacoa Pork, so I throw a pork roast in the crock pot with some Coke and brown sugar with some of those peppers in adobo sauce and just let it cook! We put it over a salad with rice & beans.
We also love teriaki chicken burgers, where we marinate the chicken in teriaki sauce then grill them & slap 'em on a bun with a slice of pineapple.
My husband's all-time favorite food is salmon, so we try to grill it as often as possible, simple and sweet!
With it being so hot though, our new favorite is just grapes, french bread, cheese, and some grilled meat.
I hope you start finding yummy things that sound good!
It's the weather. I don't want to do anything for dinner either, and it's out of the question if it involves the oven! I'll have to think about the recipes, since I'm not in the cooking mood either.
I would have to say the pregnancy AND the weather! I seriously (and I mean SERIOUSLY) haven't cooked once since I became pregnant! NOTHING sounds good, so Jeremy just cooks what he wants and I may nibble on it. That being said here are some things that I can manage to choke down once in a while:
French Bread Pizza-Just get a loaf of french bread cut in in half and make your own pizza (as healthy or UN-healthy as you like)
Keilbasa and Potatoes and Eggs. Cook the Keilbasa with some diced potatoes and throw in some scrambled eggs in the end.
Hmmmm, I think that is all that I can manage to think of right now as I just got done with breakfast dinner just isn't appealing at the moment.
Ok so here is one for ideas. One thing that is yummy and not so healthy in some ways is mini potato tacos. This is totally hispanic but it is pretty inexpensive.
For the tacos you need:
Corn tortillas (soft ones)
Mashed potoatos (be it instant or real)
Cheese (your prefered kind)
Oil
For the Salsa:
3-4 roma tomatos
2-3 tomatillos
Fresh Garlic
Japanese Chilies (They come in little dried packets in the hispanic section and they are small and red)
Salt
First take your ingredients for the salsa except for the chilies and the salt and put them in a pot with a little water, cover and simmer on low.
While that is simmering heat up your tacos in a pan. You want to heat them up so that they are soft enough to fold into tacos. Put the heated tacos inside a towel to keep them warm. At the same time heat up a pan with oil in it to fry the tacos. When the oil it ready take your tacos and fill them with cheese and potoatos. I know this sounds like a wheird combination but it is really yummy. Fry the tacos and pull out and set them on a paper towel.
For the salsa once the salsa seems pretty cooked and soft put all of the ingreidents into the blender. If you want not very spicy salsa only use one chilie. If you would like a little more spice in your life use a little more but beware they are pretty hot if you get just the right one. Salt to prefered taste and blend in blender. (If you have a plastic top for your blender it would be better to use a plate as the lid so some of the steem can get out....learning from experience if you don't you could have one great explosion:)
Note: if you want tomatillo salsa instead use more tomitillos instead of roma tomatos
Then once finished cooking tacos and Salsa is finished salsa up your tacos and enjoy!!!
If you have any questions let me know. I know there are not really exacts on things but this is authentic so you know how those kind of recipies go. I got it from a lady in our branch when I helped her make these and when I asked her for amounts she said whatever I wanted!!! Got to love those kinds of recipies leaves room for the imagination :D I guess!?#@!!
I got this one from a friend.
Leeky Soup (it has a fun name too!!)
2 leeks
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups skim milk
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup julienned deli ham
pepper to taste
To prepare the leeks, cut off the hairy rooty end, and if any of the dark green leaves are tough, take those off as well. Trim the ends of the remaining leaves, and wash them thoroughly under cold running water. Chop the leeks once in half lengthwise, and then widthwise so you have little strips about a centimeter wide and as long as half the circumference of the leek. In a medium-ish soup pot, saute the chopped leeks in the 2 tablespoons of butter for about 10 minutes.
Then, dump everything else in: the milk, broth, cheese, ham, and pepper.
I hear you, Toni. NOT about the pregnant part, but about the eating cereal for dinner. Being a student and having a job has made my cooking nonexistant.
BUT for Sunday I actually did make one. I took a pot roast and put it in the crock pot with carrots, diced red potatoes, seasioning (minced onions, seasoned salt, parsley flakes, etc.) It was yummy, fast, easy, and I didn't even stand in front of the stove.
Also I crave watermelon anytime it is hot outside! YUM and usually even if I don't feel well I can eat it. (Do you like watermelon?) Hope you feel more in the mood for food soon! (By the way, will you stick a picture of yourself up here, please? I do beleive I asked a WHILE ago, but I'll overlook it. . .if one shows up soon :)
Love your guts!
Okay Mel - I don't even know what a leek is.. Am I an idiot or what. My favorite, fastest recipe is Italian Chicken in the crockpot. Start it first think in the morning.
I put all the ingredients in the crockpot in the morning and it's ready to roll by dinner:
4 chicken breasts
2 can Cream of Chicken Soup
Italian Seasoning - not sure on the amount!
20 minutes before you are ready to serve you add a thing of Cream Cheese. I just break the chicken up throughout the day and serve on Bowtie noodles. I am kinda a health freak (just a little) so I of course use the 98% fat free soup and fat free cream cheese. You probably already know that one but it's a family fav at our house and soooo easy. I am all about easy!
I need to quit blogging at 2 am. I can't spell after midnight!!!
Oh Toni, I so hear you. I'm pretty sure it's both. As if the hot summer isn't enough, being pregnant compounds everything (at least for me) 10 fold. So, right now my crock pot is one of my best friends. I don't have many recipes and need to get more, so if you have any, please pass them along! One of my favorites though (and my family always chows on it) is country style ribs. You can get a big package that will more than likely feed your family for at least 2 dinners and one lunch for mom and dad (they were on sale last week and I bought multiple packages for around $5 each). Throw it in the crock pot with some bbq sauce and let it sit all day. The meat is very tender and juicy and yummy. If I just have regular bbq sauce on hand, I add a little honey, or I'll use the honey bbq sauce. Serve it with some cold salad (I have a really yummy spinach and strawberry salad that is a summer time favorite around here) and cold fruit and it's a go.
Also, I am reading a book right now called (don't laugh!) "Being the Mom - 10 coping strategies I learned on accident because I had children on purpose." The author offers the suggestion of having a few prepared meals on hand for those nights where you just don't want to cook. So I thought I would give this a try and last week, for the second time in my marriage, I bought a frozen lasagna. I'm sad to say it only staid in my freezer for 2 days before I decided I didn't want to cook; but happy to say that at least my family had something to eat and I didn't have to feel too terribly guilty. A little yes, because no prepared food is ever really very healthy, but my family gobbled it up and at least there was food on the table! I realized that it's okay to have those things occassionaly (especially right now in our situations!) and our families will be just as greatful and satisfied as they would have if we had spent an hour preparing and making that lasagna from scratch. Of course I enjoyed the simplicity of this so much that I have to be careful to make it the exception and not the rule. I have to admit, I'm actually looking forward to perusing the frozen food isles on my next shopping trip to see what other easy meals there are like that!
I also love cold chicken salad with grapes and celery in it, oh and sliced almonds too! Hmmm, I'm getting a little hungry now!
I wish I had some great insight to this for you (and for me too for that matter). Good luck! I'll be checking back to see what other people say that I can add to my recipe collection too! Oh, and one last piece of advice...if your family doesn't mind leftovers, when you do cook, try to make enough for at least 2 meals. Then you'll only have to cook a few nights a week.
A leek is like a baby onion that still has the stems on it!! :D
You could always make breakfast for dinner. That is always a hit around here. Like sweet potato waffles, and french toast. Also we have been making crepes lately. With mangoes inside ;) yummy!!!
Love you
Toni, you have to go over to Shannon's blog tomorrow it is a "works for me Wednesdays" edition of easy summer recipees. The address is rocksinmydryer.typepad.com
I love her blog and she always has some great ideas. I am sure you will find something to make for dinner over there!
Okay, let me think...
Italian Meatballs:
1 package sweet or mild italian sausage
1 lb. ground beef
2 eggs
4 slices of white bread
1 bunch italian parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
Take the sausage out of the casings and smoosh it up into the beef with your hands. Soak the bread in water until it's soggy, then squish the water out and smash it into the beef mixture. Add the eggs, chopped up parsley and salt and pepper. You can use soy sauce or Braggs Amino (no-salt salt substitute, very healthy) instead of salt if you like. Fry the meatballs until they are golden on the outside in a skillet in olive or vegetable oil, then put them in a casserole or cake pan and pour pasta sauce (marinara or some good sauce like a Five Brothers, Barilla or Classico) over them. Bake them for about half an hour or until they reach about 150% inside.
We serve them with wahtever pasta the kids want and grate some parmesan on top. Majellyn prefers them fried but NOT smothered in sauce (in which case they have to fry until they are done in the middle), and the little kids will practically drink the sauce.
Post a Comment