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Post by Phalon on Oct 18, 2017 4:57:05 GMT -6
I've thought about doing that many times, and occasionally have. Mostly though, I'll cook something one day, with plans of using it in different ways for dinners throughout the week. Chicken, for example - it's no more difficult and takes no more time to cook 6-8 chicken breasts than it takes to cook two. Baked chicken with sides one or two nights; chicken and vegie rice, chicken sandwiches, pasta and chicken, chicken on pizza...chicken whatever for a few days following. I made a big pot of chicken chili this past weekend with left-over baked chicken - right on time with the rainy, gloomy weather we were having. It saves a lot of time when we get home from work, having the main component of a meal already prepared.
You do seem to like to think things through very thoroughly. I'm the opposite - I jump in and do it, and then sometimes wonder what I've gotten myself into!!
The doctor put any qualms to rest that I had about BP not getting enough, because it's not difficult to get plenty of protein on a vegetarian diet - beans, cheese, eggs, yoghurt, peanut butter and nuts, etc - are all excellent protein sources. Thing is, you've got to take time to get these things into your diet, and just like we're talking about us not being motivated or finding time to prepare a meal, BP many times, wouldn't take the time to fix something for herself - popcorn for dinner, is not a balanced meal.
Speaking of not having time to make dinner...yesterday, I didn't, so I decided to pick something up on the way home from work. Stopped in at the coffee shop for a surprise treat for the family - they make great sandwiches on this fantastic bread, but it's on the expensive side, so we don't do it often. I ordered three sandwiches with three different sides - a BLT with cole slaw, an herbed chicken and pesto with 7-grain salad, and an Italian sandwich with spicy marinated veggie salad. We had a mix-and-match dinner, each of us having a little of this, and a little of that. Not enough left-over for dinner tonight, but we've got some pretty good lunches today!
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 18, 2017 17:24:57 GMT -6
I sometimes get a pizza or calzone at the local grocery store's pizza palor. It's connected to their deli, so sometimes I get sliced ham and hot cheese, plus sub-buns, lettuce, and tomato to go with it. Have a salad on the leftovers. A tub of coleslaw. Make tuna fish, or tuna patties. I have frozen tilapia fish portions as well that I coat with corn meal and fry up. I got some frozen flounder that I haven't done anything with yet. Was planning on making a batter and pop them in the fry daddy, just haven't done it yet.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 7, 2017 7:19:14 GMT -6
Friday, we went out for Mexican (apparently so did a lot of friends; we had BP's best friend with us; a friend of mine and her friend were there - hugs at the bar; my co-worker bud came over to our table, and then I went back over to his table to say hi to his Hubs - hugs at the table; Xena Sis and her Hubs were there - they came over and sat at our table after dinner - hugs at there house; I drove them home). Dinner and hugs, it seemed. Took lots of leftovers home.
Saturday, I asked LX what she wanted for dinner since she doesn't get home-cooked often - "anything that doesn't come from a box or a can" was her request. I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and roasted broccoli. Meatloaf left over; potatoes and broccoli gone.
She and BP went out for breakfast Sunday morning; BP brought Oreo pancakes home in a container.
Last night, a little bit of this and a little bit of that hodgepodge of leftovers for dinner. (Only BP ate the pancakes....with a side of meatloaf. Bluck!)
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Post by Phalon on Jan 19, 2018 7:30:15 GMT -6
Last night was leftovers of leftovers....
Tuesday night I used whatever leftovers we had in the fridge (and some from the freezer) to make soup - leftover vegetable fried rice and plain white rice from Chinese takeout the previous night, roasted herbed sweet potatoes from the weekend's pork chop dinner, the last bit shredded kale and cabbage salad (undressed), the remainder of frozen turkey from Thanksgiving, and some frozen peas. I didn't have enough chicken broth, so used the broth from some frozen vegetable soup I froze who-knows-how-long-ago; I strained the vegetables from it because I hate mushy vegetables which is what happens to them after cooking and reheating. Hubs declared it "the best soup ever" and said I definitely needed to save the "recipe" to make it again. LMAO. What recipe? Not to mention, I'll probably never have the same ingredients to make it again.
So we had the soup made from leftovers Tuesday, the leftover leftovers soup Wednesday, and there wasn't quite enough left last night to make a meal, so we had it with grilled cheese sandwiches - which Hubs "invented" after saying the perfect grilled cheese sandwich is made by toasting the bread in the toaster first (which he made up on the spot because we've never done it before). "Go for it", I told him. He was so funny, all puffed up and proud of himself, because they turned out nice and crispy on the outside, and wonderfully creamy on the inside. Didn't have the heart to burst his bubble on his "invention"....I've heard many times of people toasting the bread first.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 19, 2018 18:07:20 GMT -6
Me too chicken to just toss stuff together. I should be more venturous. Cooking from scratch would help my blood pressure. Still using processed (quick) foods.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 20, 2018 9:12:38 GMT -6
It definitely would! It's really soooo easy, Joxie - just throw together stuff that you like!
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 20, 2018 18:37:58 GMT -6
Well, I gotta have stuff in the house to throw together. I doubt I have anything that isn't 'heat and eat' in the house/frig. I need to learn the staples/basics, I think. Ha. Living alone makes me lazy when it comes to feeding me. Mom's frig was always full of veggies and meat and stuff ... but she had a family to feed for a long time, so she had the habits I don't have, nor acquired over the years.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 21, 2018 8:37:13 GMT -6
I read an article a while ago that was about a woman who lived alone, and decided, except for a few basic fresh ingredients each week (meat, milk, fruits and veggies, etc), she was going to prepare meals using only what she already had in her panty, fridge, and freezer for a month. Needless to say, she got pretty creative with her meals (and saved a ton of money).
I thought it was interesting enough to give it a shot, so I did the same - just for two weeks though; because I go grocery shopping every week, and I'm cooking for three, not just one, I don't have a lot of stuff hanging around that's not used weekly. It was actually quite a fun experiment.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 21, 2018 19:52:57 GMT -6
I'm used to going shopping once a month or longer. Now that I drive, I should probably go once a week, locally, or every other week ... plan meals and get just what I need for those meals. But I don't have that habit, so I tend to fall back on my old routine. Which is: I get 'heat & eat' packaged foods until I get sick of them, and then I cook my own meals for a while, and then I go back to quick and easy. If I had more than a few recipes that I use over and over again, I might never go back to quick & easy. I just need to sit down, go through my favorite recipes, go through cookbooks for meals to try, and then plan out meals for several months.
But I procrastinate ... therefore I am ... ... ... LAZY!
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Post by Phalon on Jan 24, 2018 9:31:02 GMT -6
This is LX exactly, which is exactly the reason she asked me to make that cookbook of recipes from her childhood. I am having such a hard time with this - because there are no recipes! No measurements, no set list of ingredients, no specific baking time - I just eyeball everything, from how much of something to use, what to use based on what I have on hand, and how long to cook it based on both of the above. How the hell am I suppose to write a recipe based on that? Some of my family's favorite meals might have at one time been based on an actual recipe, but I've modified them over the decades to my own and my family's tastes.
HA! Now I know why my Mom's handwritten cookbook includes "recipes" which are only a list of ingredients, with no instructions what-so-ever.
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Post by Mini Mia on Jan 24, 2018 17:50:33 GMT -6
Could you find a recipe that is as close as possible to how you create it, and then just jot down notes on changes you made?
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Post by Phalon on Jan 25, 2018 8:22:15 GMT -6
I could...but then again, she could do the same by looking up recipes online!!
I've got a few done, and I might send them to her this week, ahead of the book being done - along with a gift card for a chain restaurant one of the neighbors gave us for Christmas, that we'll probably never use. The Boyfriend, tall and thin as a rail, is a bottomless pit, and I'm sure any help revolving around food will help these upcoming weeks...
...this is going to be interesting; February is their "big" month - their 3 year anniversary (maybe 4? I honestly can't remember because of the whole "day we met"/"day we started dating" thing), Valentine's Day of course, and his birthday. They both took off two weeks, which overlap somewhat, so they've got three total weeks together - he's going up there for a week and a half, and she's going down to Indiana with him for another week and a half. They've never spent more than a 4-day long weekend together. I wonder if they'll be able to stand being around each other by the time the three weeks is over!
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Post by Phalon on Feb 19, 2018 19:32:00 GMT -6
Can't. Move.
Went out to dinner with the family. Very good. Very stuffed. Blah.
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Post by Mini Mia on Feb 19, 2018 19:43:11 GMT -6
Yesterday I fried some Fish, and also some taters. That's all for the taters until I get to the store, so thought about the brown rice I get with my fish at Cracker Barrel. I don't have brown rice though.
Today I microwaved a bag of 'Fried Rice.' It's edible, but not delicious. I really need to finally make it from scratch.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 6, 2018 22:43:27 GMT -6
Have you tried that "Well Yes!" line of soups from Campbell's yet? I'm not big on canned soups, but these are pretty danged good - with no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors. Last night BP was eating dinner over at a friend's house, so Hubs polished off the leftovers from this weekend, and I had a bowl of "Well Yes!" tomato and carrot bisque. I put a handful of baby spinach leaves in it, and shredded a bit mozzarella cheese to sprinkle on top. Oh-my-goodness! It was good! I've had their red quinoa and black bean variety also, which is just as good.
Had about half a can of the bisque leftover and threw it into the veggie (zucchini, red bell pepper and spinach), ground turkey spaghetti sauce I made for dinner tonight, with frozen tomatoes from last year's garden. Family loved it.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 6, 2018 22:58:33 GMT -6
I've not heard of them. Haven't noticed any commercials for them either. I wonder if they're a regional thing. I know some foods/drinks that are sold other places aren't sold here, not sure why.
According to their website, my local WalMart and K-Mart have the soups.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 7, 2018 6:36:32 GMT -6
I don't remember if the local grocery store carried them; the last six months or so that they were opened, they had very few new products. In Meijer where I stop, they aren't with the other Campbell soup brands - they're stocked with the specialty soups, like organics (though they aren't organic). I first started buying them because even though BP isn't completely vegetarian anymore, she still eats very little meat - the black bean and red quinoa soup has lots of protein; she eats a lot of both beans and quinoa. It was so good, I started trying other varieties, and I love that the ingredients are so few.
For example, I drilled the ingredients of other tomato soups I used to buy:
Progresso Vegetable Classics Hearty Tomato Soup: Tomato Puree ( Water, Tomato Paste ), Water, Tomatoes, Sugar .Contains Less Than 2% Of : Corn Syrup Solids, Wheat Flour Bleached, Salt, Modified Food Starch, Olive Oil, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Dried Parsley, Corn Protein ( Hydrolyzed ), Maltodextrin, Garlic Powder, Spices, Calcium Chloride, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Onion Powder, Extractives Of : Turmeric, Natural Flavor .
Campbell's Creamy Tomato Soup: Ingredients: WATER, TOMATO PASTE, SUGAR, CANOLA OR SOYBEAN OIL, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CREAM, MODIFIED MILK INGREDIENTS, WHEAT FLOUR, SALT, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, YEAST EXTRACT, CITRIC ACID, FLAVOUR, ONION POWDER.
Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup: Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Wheat Flour, Water, Contains Less Than 2% Of: Salt, Potassium Chloride, Flavoring, Citric Acid, Lower Sodium Natural Sea Salt, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Monopotassium Phosphate.
Compared to...
Well Yes Tomato Carrot Bisque: TOMATO PUREE (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), WATER, CREAM, CARROT JUICE CONCENTRATE, WHEAT FLOUR, JICAMA JUICE CONCENTRATE, SWEET POTATO JUICE CONCENTRATE, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, SALT, CARROT FIBER, CITRIC ACID, BLACK PEPPER.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 7, 2018 20:05:04 GMT -6
I've never had 'quinoa,' to my knowledge. Was thinking of adding 'barley' to my homemade beef-veggie soup, but haven't found it at the store. I wonder if 'quinoa' would work in its place? If it's easier to find in the store, perhaps I'll try adding that instead.
I think less real food is used in 'food' products because they're more expensive than human-generated substitutes. More money for the company that way. Who cares what it does to the human stomach/system.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 8, 2018 12:15:07 GMT -6
I had trouble finding barley in the grocery store; I was going to use it for the same reason - in soup. I finally did find it with the help of a store employee, but it was in an odd place - I'd been looking in the rice, cous-cous, risotto section, but if I remember correctly (it was a long time ago), it was by the dried beans and dried peas. Or by rolled oats. One or the other.
Quinoa, I know for sure is by rice. It's grittier than barley...hmmmm, coarser in texture is probably a better description.
That's why I stopped buying shredded cheese - because of the added cellulose (wood-pulp) to keep it from sticking together. Not that cellulose is bad for you (it's the fiber in things labeled "added fiber"), but why pay more for wood pulp when you can buy cheese without it, and just shred it yourself.
The one thing I don't like about the Well Yes soups is that they have just as much of a percentage of sodium as other brands. Canned soups are pretty much sodium bombs as most processed foods are - salt is after-all a preservative, and if something is made to sit on a shelf for months or even years, than it's going to need a whole lot of preservatives.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 8, 2018 21:39:49 GMT -6
It's kind of why I got on the research kick of looking into making your own dehydrated food meals, and home canning. A freezer can only hold so much, and then there's freezer burn. And when your electricity is shut off by storms, the dry/canned goods would be the best route to take. I got distracted though, and haven't gotten back into researching it.
I had chili dogs the last two days. Had fries with them.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 18, 2018 9:27:40 GMT -6
Last night was shepherd's pie leftovers; tonight will be the same.
A meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, Hubs loves shepherd's pie. He became a lover of the meat-and-potatoes dish way back when we traveled England, and he'd order it wherever we were if it was on the menu. I don't recall that it was ever prepared the same way twice, aside from the basic ingredients - one of which was some sort of gravy.
Most of last week, I had a craving for shepherd's pie - it was the week Xena Sis and I did the cooking for the Open Door dinner, and based on what ingredients were available in the pantry and freezer, we decided to go with shepherd's pie. It's easy, quick, and feeds a lot of people (we made three huge serving pans of it; enough to feed 70+ people). This is Xena Sis's gig - it's she who volunteered to cook, it's her church's once-a-month commitment, and I'm just along to lend a hand to my friend. She and I cook very differently and sometimes I think she's got some strange tastes, but since the Open Door dinner is her thing, I generally go along with her ideas. The shepherd's pie thing was different though - she insisted shepherd's pie never has gravy; I've never had it without some type of gravy. "Trust me", is what I told her when I told her we'd use cream of mushroom soup as the gravy, because that was what was available in the pantry. She gave in, although the whole time we were making it, she said it was weird.. I thought it was weird (and icky!) that she wasn't going to drain the grease from the hamburger meat we used; she also boiled the hamburger, which I thought was weird too. Huge pots of hamburger swimming in water and grease? <gag> I drained it.
I wonder if that's why she doesn't use gravy when she makes shepherd's pie - she uses a water/grease combo instead? <shudder and bluck!>
I don't stay around for the serving of the meal; I'm just there for the cooking part. She texted me afterward, and said the shepherd's pie was a big hit - mushroom soup gravy and all.
How about you - gravy or no? When I made it for dinner here last Friday, I used cream of asparagus soup, because that's what I had on-hand.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 18, 2018 22:03:27 GMT -6
Mom's microwave cookbook had a recipe for scrambled hamburger meat with mashed potatoes and green beans on top. I made it one time, and never made it again. One of the cooking videos I watched some time back had the cook putting ground beef in a pot of water to cook. I scratched my head ... is it so you can say the meal wasn't 'fried?' Does it make eating the ground beef healthier? What does the water do? What's the purpose of boiling ground beef instead of frying it?
Oooohhhhh ... Where's Gabrielle when you need her. Maybe she knows the benefits of 'poaching' ground beef. I've never poached fish either. Man, I gotta dig those DVDs out. I see videos on YouTube and I miss that show so badly.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 22, 2018 7:09:01 GMT -6
I would assume, at least in the case of the hamburger for the shepherd's pie we made, she boiled it because of the quantity of the meat she was cooking - it would have taken twice the skillets and probably twice the time, if she fried it instead of boiling. To not drain it though - that would have been just gross!
Why someone would boil hamburger at home, I have no idea. It seems to me, that it would be a very bland way to cook it.
I've never done it myself either, though I've had poached fish, and poached chicken many times. It's good and very moist, and depending on the liquid it's poached in, very flavorful.
Last night, I made a huge pot of white chili with chicken, white and black beans, corn, onions, peppers, and tomatoes frozen from last year's garden. We topped it with sour cream, and cheddar cheese. Perfect dinner for these cold days!
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 24, 2018 1:10:40 GMT -6
This is what I have between my teeth:
Hover over the image below and an arrow will show on the right side, midway down. Click on the arrow to see the rest of the images. (I couldn't get the recipe image to shrink enough to read the whole thing. I posted it on my Tumblr.)
Scroll down and you'll see a better image of the recipe.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 27, 2018 22:21:49 GMT -6
The ingredients are very similar to shepherd's pie - just a different way of throwing it all together!
Made a roast the other night; we had leftovers tonight, and still there's some beef left. Tomorrow, I'll add a bunch of veggies (baby spinach, shredded carrots, and red bell peppers are what's in the fridge), vegetable broth, and some rotini, and turn it all into beef soup. I can't wait. Is it wrong to look forward to dinner before you go to bed the night before?!
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 28, 2018 1:04:49 GMT -6
Nopers. It's never wrong to look forward to good eats.
I had to do a search ... and you're right. I think I'll continue to make it this way though, 'cause I LOVE this dish.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 29, 2018 17:44:25 GMT -6
Got enough leftover for two or three more bowls. Guess I best be getting to figuring out what to cook next.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 2, 2018 20:19:55 GMT -6
I'd have to change the canned peas in your recipe to frozen peas; I have an aversion to canned peas - they smell and taste icky to me, though I love frozen and fresh peas. Also a weird thing - although I love tomatoes and I love potatoes, I don't like them together. That's why I use a cream soup or a gravy for shepherd's pie, and do the same for beef stew.
Spicy chicken and veggies (tomatoes, chilies, red bell peppers, and zucchini) on flour tortillas for dinner tonight (with of course, cheddar and sour cream), and Mexican-style rice (just from a box) as a side.
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Post by Mini Mia on Apr 3, 2018 1:26:01 GMT -6
You could probably play around with the recipe and get the results you'd prefer.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 16, 2018 22:09:46 GMT -6
Hubs, BP, and I received a group text from LX this evening - a photo of her first roast. I had given her my old small slow cooker a couple of years ago, and she hasn't used it until now. She was so funny this afternoon, calling me to ask if I used a meat thermometer, (I do not), and wondering how to tell if it was done or not.
BP is such a natural cook, it's kind of strange in a funny kind of way, to think her sister, six years older, is such a novice in the kitchen.
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