So, what's for dinner at your house?

[s_gosney]

I'm in need of some dinner ideas/recipes to add to our repertoire around here, so I thought if everyone says what they're having tonight or some night, we might get some great ideas.

I of course have no idea yet what we will be eating. :)

[candybomiller]

pizza hut?

[jd11365]

My supermarket, Publix, sells pre-seasoned dishes...a few bucks more, but sometimes I don't feel like doing it myself. We're having some kind of seasoned pork filtets. The little old lady Fran cooks them in the store and offers samples...yum...and always hooks me to buy whatever she's cooking! Of course it never tastes like she makes it... ;) We had lamb chops last night on the grill...a little dijon mustard and chopped garlic..presto!

HTH!

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[caleymama]

homemade pizza - nothing too exciting but it's good :)

The dough takes 55 minutes in the bread machine (tonight I'm using a batch I froze a few weeks ago when we had extra - just enough for one pizza). We usually make the dough partially whole wheat and season it all different ways. DH's having sliced sausage and diced peppers (bought diced and frozen) on his half, DD and I are having just cheese.

[jk3]

I'm trying a ginger beef stir-fry recipe from Redbook magazine. I don't usually put this much effort into dinner but it seems t be a fairly simple recipe. Hope it turns out well!

[mommd]

Sweet and sour pork, recipe from "Good Eats". I love that show!! :)

[jbowman]

We're going out for Indian food!

We'll probably have chicken enchiladas tomorrow night.

[papal]

Smoked Salmon Raviloi (Trader joes') in a white sauce (bechamel?) with garlic toast. sinful as heck.

[mamahill]

Feijoada (Brazillian black bean and meat stew) and rice, and a salad. The pressure cooker is humming and the meat is sizzling. And I'm going to bake a pound cake because I'm pms-y and I said so.

Tomorrow we'll do sausage curry couscous, steamed green beans, and carrots w/dill dip.

Thursday will be salmon, pasta with an herb sauce, steamed broccoli and salad.

Friday is leftovers, and Saturday DH is taking me out. Woohoo!

[AngelaS]

We had Imperial chicken (skinless boneless breasts dipped in olive oil and minced garlic then in bread crumbs and browned on the stove) and store bought tortellini. :D

And birthday cake---Gabrielle turned 2 today. :D

[bluej]

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!

[papal]

Sarah, can i come live at your house? The Feijoada thingy sounds yummmy! And WHY did you say pound cake.. now i gotta make one... the sad thing is.. i eat it thin sliver by sliver and before i know it.. it is gone. :(

[bluej]

We had lasagna and absolutely no side dishes b/c it took all my energy to make lasagna. Tomorrow night we'll have the same, but hopefully I'll add a salad and bread. The next night we will probably have the same :)

[papal]

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!!! Sounds like you had a yummy dinner and dessert! :)

[jec2]

tonight we are have beer-marinated pork chops! It's one of the best "simple" recipes I have & came from epicurious.com. We'll have green beans and rice too.

[pritchettzoo]

Tonight is turkey and cheddar brats with homemade coleslaw.

Last night was salad with tuna, cannelini beans, spring greens, grape tomatoes, and Newman's Own Light Italian con limone (that dressing is sooooo good!).

This picture is daal, gobi, and basmati rice a la Rashmi from last week. I submit it in lieu of any product from Rashmi's school of photo collage:
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/5900.jpg

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[papal]

ROTFL Anna!!! Why on earth were you taking pictures??? Hope it tasted good! :)
I notice some peas in the aloos.. that would make it Aloo Matar (pronounced MUTTER which means peas).

[pritchettzoo]

I took pictures so I could send them to you! Which of course I forgot to do until this thread. Do I pass?

Oh, and it was delicious! Especially the aloo matar.

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[hobey]

Enchiladas pulled out of the freezer and reheated because I'm working weird hours today and will definitely not have the energy to cook when I get home.

Raquel
Nathan's Mom 12/19/03

[egoldber]

We had grilled pork tenderloin that I marinated in a tomato-chutney sauce. It was extra scrumptious. :) And on the side we had couscous and steamed broccoli.

[cdlamis]

Sarah,

Where did you learn to make feijoada? My mom is Brazilian and that is one of my favorite dishes! I don't cook it much (too time consuming for me) but there are a few Brazilian restaraunts around here.

I'll have to come to your house for dinner. :)

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
And baby #2 EDD 12-30-04!!

[mharling]

Beef roast in the crockpot. Not very innovative, but a staple nonetheless. Thursday we're trying pork chops with vegetable stuffing from Campbell's Tasty Tuesday.

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
[link:www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b370a2992536|Birthday Pics!!]

[alkagift]

Yesterday was the chef's salad from this month's Cook's Illustrated. Tonight was flounder in a lime sauce.

Rashimi, my husband is crazy for Indian food and I tried to make it once which involved toasting some spices in the oven and it burned so badly that I chucked the whole idea. Is there a thread out there with your recipes or would you be willing to post or email something to me? Anna's picture looks scrumptious!

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[papal]

Allison, I had emailed the recipes to Anna. Anna, do you still have the email? I seem to have deleted my copy. If not, I will retype and send them to you tmmrw Allison.
The recipes were for a simple yellow daal and vegetable curry.. your everyday dinner.. not something you would necessarily get at a restaurant where they tend to use many more spices.

[papal]

Oh ok.. i thought you generally take pictures of your dinner or something! Never know with you.. you are crazeee!! :)
You get an A+!!

Now be honest, was it not super easy to make? :)

PS: If you still have the email, could you fwd it to Allison? I seem to have deleted my copy.

[sadie427]

Rashmi, can I have the recipe too please? :-) I love dal, and I think you saw my post complaining that I am running out of proteins to serve Sammy, I bet he'd like it too.

[papal]

I remember! I will email you the recipes tmmrw! :)
My dd loves daal and rice with a spot of butter in it.

[pritchettzoo]

Rashmi's Cooking School, Lesson 1:

Add one cup of Moong* Daal to a pot. Add 2 1/4 cups of water to the pot. Cover and cook on medium heat. You will know when it is done when all the water is sort of absorbed and the dal is mushable.

Heat a frying pan, add a tablespoon of oil (always vegetable or canola, NOT OLIVE). To the oil, add approx. a tablespoon of cumin seeds. When the start sort of crackling or popping (about a minute if the oil was hot), add some tumeric (since you have it, LOL).
Then add some finely diced up tomatoes (1-2). Add a teaspoon of salt. Let it cook, stirring frequently, till all the tomatoes are mushed up and you can see the oil leaving the tomatoes. Once it is done, add the cooked Daal to it. You can garnish with coriander (cilantro) leaves if you have them, and a squeeze of lime juice.

You can even add some finely diced onions BEFORE the tomatoes. Let them cook for a while before adding the tomatoes.

*Moong Daal is simply the kind of daal I picked up at the store--there are lots of others.

--
Ok, what kind of veggie do you have on hand?? Potatoes? Cauli? Cabbage?

Simple Potato Curry:
Add some oil (always vegetable or canola, NOT OLIVE) to a heated pan. When the oil is hot (same as for daal), add the cumin. When the cumin crackles, add the tumeric. Meanwhile have a couple of potatoes peeled and cubed into medium size pieces. I always soak the cubes in water, just to get out excess starch...you don't have to. Also cut up a couple of tomatoes. Add the potatoes to the cumin-tumeric-oil. Let it fry for 5-7 mins till it gets a 'crust'. Then add the tomatoes and some salt and a teaspoon of curry powder. Stir and cover. After 3-4 mins, add a cup of water. Cover and cook
for another 5 mins. By now you the potatos will be cooked and you should have, what resembles a reddish gravy. Taste it to check if there is enough salt.

You can do the same thing with Cauliflower (instead of potatoes). OR you can do both cauli and potatoes... ALOO GOBI

---
TIPS
1. Beware of the tumeric.. it is tough to get the yellow stains out of clothes. it is however a great antiseptic.
2. If you think the vegetable curry is a little on the sour side (because of the tomatoes, i use roma), you can add a pinch of sugar.
3. For extra richness, you can add sour-cream or cream to the curry, towards the end.

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[mharling]

Thanks Rashmi and Anna!! I think we'll try this too.

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
[link:www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b370a2992536|Birthday Pics!!]

[mamahill]

DH lived in Brazil (Belem area) for a couple years doing service. In college we would hit the churrascaria-style restaurants and that's where I first tasted (and fell in love with) it. Around here are a couple good Brazilian hole-in-the-walls that we've been to, and then a couple years ago when Brazil went to the World Cup finals, I wanted to do something special... So I tried my first hand at it, and have been tweaking it every since. For Christmas I got a huge pressure cooker, so it has been a LOT easier/faster since. I think I've finally "perfected" my recipe. At least it's to the point where I don't order it when we eat out since I know I can make it just as good (if not better) at home.

It's kind of labor intensive and overwhelming at first, but I've got a system down now, and I really enjoy it. And, it feeds us 2-3 dinners, plus 5 lunches (I divide it up with rice and then freeze them in gladware for DH to take to work). I've had to try different meats so that it is a)economical, b)tastes good, c)not TOO weird (I refuse to peel a tongue). So now I use 6 kinds of meat along with the beans.

Your mom is Brazilian? Oooh, I bet you have some good recipes. There's a woman at DH's office who is Brazilian, so he is able to keep up his Portuguese. That's good, since I don't speak a word.

Come on over - the beans are still hot! And Rashmi, I've just whipped some cream - I'll leave a sliver out for you ;).

[jubilee]

Tonight was spaghetti and meatballs, broccoli, and french rolls.
Next is crockpot pot roast, carrots, and mashed pototoes.

[Kimberly H]

Julie, what cuts of meat do you use for your pot roast? My crockpot cookbooks all list cuts of meat that my local Wal*Mart Superstore and grocery stores don't carry, at least under those names. When I look for something else that just *LOOKS* like a roast, it's $12.00!

[smomom]

I love pork tenderloin and am always looking for new recipes and ways to cook it. Would you mind sharing the recipe???

thanks!

[C99]

Last night was my husband's birthday, so my MIL offered to babysit and we went out. But the rest of this week's menu looks something like this:

Sunday - fusilli w/ tarragon, peas and cream.

Monday - terriyaki-marinated chix breasts w/ broccoli steamed w/ roasted garlic and bread and butter (it was supposed to be new potatoes, but they weren't ready on time).

Wednesday - cabernet sauvignon burgers on focaccia: http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?id=108303

Thursday - pasta salad

Friday - pizza

Saturday - night out

Sunday - chicken salad

HTH

[papal]

My favorite daal is Toor (Tuvar) Dal. It is also yellow like Moong Dal. Moong Daal cooks very quickly, Toor takes longer but tastes a little better than Moong (imo)... i always cook it in the pressure cooker because that takes just 10 minutes or so.

When making it for Leela, here is what I do.
1. Put the pressure cooker on the stove on a medium heat. When it is hot, add half a cup of Toor Daal. Let it roast in the heat for 2-3 minutes.. you will start to smell the daal as it gets roasted.
2. Then add 1.5 cups of water and one tomato (cut in half). Put the pressure cooker lid on and let it cook for 10 minutes till it is soft and mushy.
3. Once it is done, add salt to taste (about a teaspoon i think).
4. For Leela, i mix a little bit of daal with cooked rice, add a little butter and feed it to her once it is cooled.
5. I add 'tadka' or tempering to the rest of the daal for us, but you don't have to.
For the tadka.. or tempering, you add spices to hot oil and put that in the cooked dal.
For eg:
The simplest tadka would be... hot oil plus cumin seeds (don't let the cumin become black..just till it starts bubbling and popping).
You can add tumeric or curry leaves to the tadka. You can even add some garlic cloves to the tadka.

A more complex tadka would be:
Heat up oil. Add cumin seeds and split green chillies and tumeric. After a minute, add half a finely diced onion. After a few minutes, add ginger-garlic paste (teaspoon), after a minute add diced tomatoes. Once it is all cooked up, add the daal to it.

You can add or remove whatever you have/don't have from the tadka.... or just eat it Leela style.

[papal]

You can use fresh or frozen veggies.

Here is a variation of the above.. you can replace the french beans with whatever vegetable you like.

French Beans and Tomato Gravy

Ingredients
French beans (frozen or fresh) 1 packet
Tomato 3 medium - finely diced
Onions 1 medium - finely diced
Ginger 1 tsp - finely diced (i usually just put the gin-gar in the mini-blender because i don't like the garlic smell on my hands).
Garlic 1 tsp - finely diced
Red chilly powder 1 tsp or cayenne
Coriander powder 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Method:
1. Heat 2tsp of vegetable or canola oil in a pan.
2. When the oil is hot, add on the cumin seeds to it. Once it is roasted, add the chopped onions, ginger & garlic to it. Saute till golden in color & then add the tomatoes.
3. Cook tomatoes till soft and smushy and then add the masalas(red chilli,tumeric,coriander) & fry for 2 minutes till the gravy leave the sides of the pan. If you don't have these masalas and have a curry powder.. add that instead.
4. Now add the french beans, salt, mix up & add 1/2 a cup of water, lower the heat, cover the pan & leave it for sometime till it is cooked.
5. Add salt to taste.
Delish with rice or tortillas.

[alkagift]

YAY! Thanks! I think I can do this! I can't imagine how my husband, raised on midwestern casseroles and mountain Ecuadoran food (meat, rice and fruit) is so addicted to spices...go figure!

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[amp]

Happy Birthday Gabrielle!

Yummy! I am interested in the Imperial Chicken - Can you be more specific? Do you just dip them into a dish of olive oil and how much garlic and do you use fresh or dried spice? And do you coat the chicken in the minced garlic by setting the breast in a dish of it? And then is it straight bread crumbs or seasoned version? How long to cook on the stove? I rarely brown chicken on the stove (we grill or bake more often). Thanks!

[amp]

Here's what my menu looked like this week...

Sun - ground beef stroganoff, salad & fresh bread w/ a spice and olive oil dip.

Monday - hamburgers on the grill, mixed veggies and rice.

Tues - Boneless pork loin chops seasoned w/ garlic and pepper and some Montreal Steak seasoning, mashed potatoes, corn and watermelon. I know, it doesn't all go together, but it worked!

DH out of town Wed & Thurs, so nothing exciting and possibly fast food.

Fri - A pasta dish we call BLT pasta - (L) Linguine, garlic, olive oil, basil red pepper flakes, ground pepper, diced (B) Bacon, (T) Tomatoes and sliced grilled chicken. A combination of 2 of our favorite restaurant recipes and the name stolen from one of those.

Sat - Nachos.

[August Mom]

I'm not Julie, but when I make pot roast in the crockpot, I use a chuck roast (generally about $2 a pound, but sometimes on sale for less). 3-4 pounds generally is enough for my family with a few leftovers (2 adults and 1 child). I also have used a bottom round roast with good results. You can use a lesser cut of meat in the crockpot because the slow cooking over a long period makes the meat tender.

[trumansmom]

OOOOHHHHH!! And could you forward it to me as well? I was going to have leftovers for lunch, but now I'm heading out to an Indian restaraunt instead!!! YUM!


Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/29/01 and Eleanor 4/14/04

[egoldber]

Um...I sort of made it up using stuff from the pantry.

I use the pork tenderloins from Costco. They are in 2 packs, and each pack has 2 small to medium tenderloins.

Marinade:
1 jar mango chutney
1 can tomato paste
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
your favorite hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Marinate pork for 3 to 24 hours. I use a ziplock bag.

Grill at medium-high heat using an indirect grilling method. (Our grill has three burners. We turn on the two outside burners and center the pork over the unlit center burner.) If you have a meat thermometer, grill until interior temperature is 160F. Otherwise grill for 18-20 minutes per pound.

Enjoy!

[AngelaS]

I take a bowl and dump in some olive oil and then dump in some minced garlic (you know from the big jar in the fridge...). :D Then it goes straight from the oil mixture into seasoned bread crumbs. It's also very good baked, but it was too hot to turn on the oven yesterday. I cook it about 25 or 30 minutes, just until it's done so that it's still juicy and yummy. :D

[smomom]

yummy!!! thanks!!!!

[s_gosney]

Wow ladies. This is awesome! I'm ashamed to admit that we did have pizza hut last night. It's what dh wanted. Plus Kylee's sick still (again?), so it worked out for me too.
I've got to get on the ball making menus. It would really help in so many ways.

[candybomiller]

Sherri,

Yay! You took my suggestion. :) I have to admit that we ended up having grilled cheese though.

[amp]

Angela - Thanks so much! We are a garlic lovin' household, so I'm going to try this one!

[jubilee]

I just buy whatever roast is on the sale of the week- this week it was bottom round. But like August Mom said, chuck is great too. And yes it usually is in the $12 neighborhood, but we get several meals out of it and I only do it 2-3 times a month. (I am very frugal on groceries- so roast is a splurge for me, as are chicken breasts).

[Kimberly H]

Thanks, ladies! I'm not a very good/experienced cook so it's tough for me to substitute without help :)

[egoldber]

Mmmmm. Grilled cheese. Mmmmmmm......