So...whats for dinner?
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Frozen Banquet Chicken Pot Pies with Instant Rice!! UGGGH! But very cheap and easy to make even DP can fix "that"! When I am in a good mood I fix a salad to make things gourmet and fancy but no salad tonight. He gets just the plain deal. He "loves" this junk! It's the kind of stuff he fixed when he was a batchelor three hundred years ago (or seems like it) and now I torture my insides by eating it too. "What's love Got to Do With It?" (a song) Nothing. I am just a cheapskate and like to fix cheapo meals.
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Medigal this is why I make big batches of chili, beef stew, cabbage soup even crab cakes. So easy to just pull out of the freezer and prepare but healthier. We had beef stew last night.
But chili is my favorite because it's the healthiest thing I freeze up.
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medigal,
We used to eat those all the time when I was growing up. I still sometimes get a craving for one!Sometimes a pot pie can really hit the spot!!
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I've been lurking on this thread for a while and I think I have something to contribute today! I make a semi-homade pot pie that my hubby loves. It's really easy too.
Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
2 frozen deep dish pie crusts
1 can of Veg-all
1 can cream o chicken soup
1/2 cup water
2 cooked and cubed, boneless, skinless chicken breasts,
Instructions:
1. Mix cream o chicken soup and water.
2. Drain the Veggies and mix with soup.
3. Mix the chicken with the soup and veggies.
4. Poke holes in the bottom of one pie crust and fill with the chicken mixture.
5. Carefully place the second pie crust on top and crimp the edges together. Make a slit in the top of the pie and cook for 45 min. at 350 degrees.
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Lago: Oh! You have me in tears remembering the days before Katrina when I had a home with a real kitchen and a seperate freezer!! I used to cook gumbo, red beans, spaghetti sauce etc. etc. and freeze it all and just pop out a container for supper. Those were the days we even had REAL french bread to go with it. DP gets sooo depressed just remember the truly "good ole days"! Now we are stuck in a tiny apartment with a kitchen the size of our former closets and no place for a freezer. We have our worse fights at night when he tries to come in the kitchen at the same time with me. Too tight and I am petite!
ShooShoo: I have to hide your "real" pot pie recipe from DP. If he sees it, I am toast! It is such a curse for someone with my fantastic cooking talents to have to resort to Banquet pot pies but no room to spread out ingredients. My former home had a huge kitchen with counterspace encircling the entire side of the room. Oh, I have to stop. It's going to be hard to eat those crappy potpies through my tears!!! Boooooo Hooooo!
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Medigal I do understand. I live in a city apartment too. I can only freeze so much but I'm also only freezing for me and my husband. I have a fridge/freezer combo. There is no table in my kitchen… no room.
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Michelle and Seaside-Hugs to you both! I see you are dealing with some added stress. So sorry to hear this
Oh, Seaside, the Wegman's corned beef dinner was great! I ordered one with corned beef, cabbage, glazed carrots and champ potatoes (mashed with onion, bacon and cheese- to die for btw!) and the other one was corned beef, cabbage, braised cabbage and the above potatoes. I also got a warm loaf of Irish Soda Bread that was yummy too. My daughter thought it was chocolate chip cake, so she was quite disappointed when it was a bread with raisins! They really gave you a lot for $12 , too. I ended up eating some of my dinner for lunch today (yes, it is Friday, and yes I am Catholic, but I didn't remember until I scarffed down the corned beef. Oh well!
Tonight for dinner was Salmon (mariniated with rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, fresh ginger and scallions) baked and topped with a little of the reserve marinade and sprinkled with sesame seeds. With this we had green beans and a garden salad. I was thrilled because my son happily ate the salmon AND the green beans! I almost fell off my chair! I wasn't so lucky with my daughter...chicken nuggets for her!
Sherrill
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Thanks Nature. I dunno why I feel so "overshadowed" by the "complicated" cooks when the funny thing is, it's the simple hearty, healthy meals I LIKE eating best.
Had a couple of days "off" from cooking dinner. The two last containers of leftover meatloaf with ginormous salads were, IMO, extremely yummy -- so good that I was HAPPY to eat the same dinner two nights in a row!
Unless I get off my lazy butt and make some tuna salad for lunch tomorrow, I'll probably eat fish with rice and asparagus for dinner tomorrow. If I do make the tuna salad, I'll eat CHICKEN with rice and asparagus for dinner! LOL.
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Seaside- Your rice sounds really good thanks for the recipe- I use fresh thyme but i have also used the dried thyme leaves (not the ground) its as good either way
Medigal- I still like frozen pot pies and they are good in a pinch
Lena- I love meatloaf its a good comfort dinner and when i want the stick to your ribs kind of food i make that with mashed potatoes and gravy, my favorite recipe for meatloaf is martha stewards mom's recipe it is the best i ever had
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OK, just want to rant here a little, last night we (dh and me) went out to dinner at our favorite place met friends for dinner and drinks, i ordered a pasta with large fresh crab in it, it was absolutely delishous, but, with an appitzier, and soup i couldnt finish it all, so had them box it up for me, couldnt wait to eat it tonight for dinner, went to get it out of fridge, and there was 1 single little bite left, dh ate it for breakfast before he headed out to work today, im so mad at him right now, i could just spit nails- ok, thanks i feel a little better!! LOL! but still mad none the less!
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I hate it when people eat my food/leftovers. Remind him that this isn't acceptable! That was YOUR food. Men.
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My husband does that too. I don't mind that he eats it. I mind that he leaves one bit so he doesn't have to toss is out. Strange habit. He is so good in so many ways but can't seem to toss food containers out. I've found boxes with two crackers left too.
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lol! thats funny my dh does the same thing, leaves just enough so he dosnt have to throw it out. I did let him know that it wasnt acceptable when he got home tonight, of course he thinks its funny!
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Sorry to be so slow in responding with my recipe for Cuban Black Beans which I got from Allrecipes.com. As is often the case I varied the ingredients and modified the directions.
Ingredients:
1 lb. black beans
1/4 cup olive oil (I use less)
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped (red bell pepper is very good, too)
6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
5 cups water (I don't measure)
1 6 oz can tomato paste (I use about 3 or 4 T)
1 jar diced pimentoes (I omit this because I dont usually have it in my pantry)
1 T vinegar
salt and pepper
1 tsp. white sugar
Directions:
Wash dried beans and pick out anything that doesn't look like black beans! Cover with water and either soak overnight or do a quick soak. Bring to a boil, cook two min. and then turn off burner and let sit for 1 hr. Drain the water and add fresh water.
Heat oil in skillet over medium heat and saute onion, bell pepper and garlic until tender. (I don't add the garlic until the other veggies are almost tender.)
Add the sauted veggies to beans along with salt and pepper and simmer on very low heat until beans are tender, an hour or more. Add vinegar, sugar, and tomato paste and simmer at least 30 minutes longer.
I have altered the directions from Allrecipes because those directions instruct you to add the tomato paste and vinegar and sugar at the same time you add the sauted veggies. Adding tomato products to dried beans before they are cooked is not recommended because acidic ingredients make the beans tough.
Also, buy your beans from a grocery store or supermarket that sells a lot of dried beans because it's true that "old" dried beans have tougher skins.
Here in south Louisiana we eat many different kinds of dried beans. If you want flavorful beans, always cook them with your "aromatics" as the food channel chefs call onion, garlic and other seasonings like bay leaf. Also cook them with salt and pepper so the beans have a delicious flavor before you use them in recipes for chili or whatever.
When I searched for Cuban yellow rice, most of the recipes called for saffron which is very expensive. So I cooked my usual brown rice and added turmeric. You can buy little packages of rice in the supermarket that have various spices and seasonings and are yellow when they're cooked. I use one of those little packages I bought at our local Winn Dixie and the rice was delicious. One of the ingredients was saffron but I think the yellow color came from food coloring as well.
I highly recommend this black bean recipe as being easy and very tasty. You can play with the measurements of ingredients to suit your taste.
Last night we had a tasty stir fry for dinner using ingredients I had on hand. Boneless chicken thighs cut into strips, fresh cabbage from a neighbor's garden, yellow bell pepper and red bell pepper, mushrooms halved, chopped garlic and chopped ginger. I browned the chicken strips in olive oil and tossed the garlic on top a few minutes before I removed the chicken. Next I stir fried the veggies and tossed the ginger into the pot during the cooking. In a separate skillet, DH cooked a sliced onion. I added the chicken back to the skillet and sprinkled low-sodium soy sauce. Would have used some sesame oil but was out of it. DH topped his serving with the onions.
I don't know much about cooking with ginger. Usually buy it and eventually toss it into the garbage! jAny cooking lessons on using ginger would be welcome.
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Hi ladies...I just discovered this great thread on the active topics list. I love to cook and try new recipes so I'm going go back and try to catch up. Looking forward to connecting on this thread going forward.
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Carole- the black beans sound great. I may attempt them the next time I make enchiladas. I need to start copying and pasting these recipes! One day when I have some quiet time I am going to have to go through this thread again and set the recipes aside.
The weather has been great here in NH the past few days. Tonight we are going to grill again. It's a recipe we have all the time in the summer, not much to it, very quick and easy.
Balsamic chicken
marinate boneless skinless chicken breast,pounded thin in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing
1 loaf of crusty bread
1-2 tomatoes
fresh mozarella cheese
you are going to slice the bread and drizzle a little of the dressing onto one side along with just a slight drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
slice your tomato and put into a bowl, drizzle this with the balsamic dressing as well (don't drown it though)
slice up your fresh mozzarella
you grill the chicken until done, just before your chicken is done you will grill your bread as well on the top rack. Then you make open faced sandwiches out of it. Layer it bread, tomato, chicken then cheese. I cut my grilled chicken into very thin strips for easy eating. We eat with a nice salad.
In the summer we have this probably once a week. It is a great "team meal" . Hubby does the grilling while I slice everything and make a salad. It is ready in less then 20 minutes and neither of us feels like we made dinner. We add fresh basil if we have it on hand and sprinkle over the top. Just thinking of this dinner makes me want to sit by the pool with my feet up!
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Laurie- I was thinking about you the other day wondering where you have been glad to see your back posting your yummy recipes again, that chx dish is right up my alley, i love dishes like this, fresh and clean tasting. i will make this sometime in the middle of the week. Oh actually a light bulb just went off in my head i am making flatbread pizza tonight and thats how im going to make it, yay! thanks,
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carole- Thanks for the recipe cant wait to try it!
Hi sugar- Lots of great recipes here.
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Debbie- You are so sweet to think of me! I have been reading the posts but haven't had much to contribute lately. I seem to be cooking the same old thing and my husband was gone for a week so I wasn't cooking hardly at all. Simple things like pasta for the kids etc. By the time my husband came home I was dieing for dinner! The first thing I made was meatloaf, lol! I am hoping to get out of my cooking funk and start trying new things again.
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Carole - thanks for the black bean recipe. I am currently in MA visiting my daughter and grandkids, so I won't be making any beans until I after I get home next Monday. These kiddies are so fussy they don't eat mashed potatoes or hamburgers! Chicken nuggets, pizza, turkey sandwiches, Chinese food and tacos - that is the majority of their repertoire. I'll probably cook something fun for my daughter and me sometime during the week. Tonight is takeout - she went to get herself a flatbread pizza and I'm having a chicken waldorf salad.
Michelle
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Ladies... I sooooo get the 'why the heck am I the only one who can see that this container is, for all practical purposes, EMPTY, and yet, put back in the refrigerator or pantry... HONESTLY!'
Now... if you want to be TRULY evil.... On the eating of the leftovers topic... When you notice they have been eaten say, as you are looking in the fridge... "Hmm, where'd my leftover xxxxxx go? I went to move some stuff around in the fridge and the container fell out. It all fell on the floor but I thought I'd save it for the dog" Bet they'll think twice in the future!
tougherthanithought,
Glad to hear the Wegman's dinners were good!! I have seen the ads for their Thanksgiving meals and Christmas meals..... Never thought about St Patricks but, since it's just my husband and I that eat the corned beef, it would really make sense to do a carry-out for that!!!
I cooked my corned beef that I bought last week today..... I usually crock-pot it or simmer it on the stove but, this year, I tried a baked recipe and thought it was quite good!
Lena,
Please do not feel intimidated!! Often, the best recipes are those truly simple, yet, out of this world good ones.... Nothing better than a perfectly ripe, sliced tomato with a little olive oil, basil salt and pepper.... Or the first corn on the cob of the season.... Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.... It's ALL good.......
Sugar77,
Looking forward to hearing from you!!
ShooShoo,
That pot-pie sounds really quick and easy.... Two questions though... Should the pie crusts be frozen or defrosted? And, since you are using deep dish crusts, does it matter which way you put the top one one on? Thanks!
Laurie,
Glad to hear back from you... Was about ready to send out a search party...lol!! Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately, hasn't it!!!
That chicken sounds perfect for a beautiful summer's night!! We're getting there!!!
Carolehalston,
Do you know of any good recipes for Louisianna Red Beans and Rice? We had some on a vacation down south that were Sooooo good. Slightly spicey but, not overwhelmingly so....
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LuvRVing,
Hope you are having a nice visit with your daughter and grandchildren!! Thinking of you and hoping that your tests come back as nothing to worry about!!!
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Laurie- well we are all sistah's! and we share so much in common, not only bc but the love of food lol!
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I am way behind on posts... but I saw some really good recipes and will be copying and pasting! Thanks for sharing, everyone!
I don't have a DH or kids to live with, but my brothers... well, they used to put the cereal box in the fridge and the milk in the cabinet
And who doesn't have experience with a man (every one I ever dated or married, lol!) who can open the fridge, stare at the door where the catsup sits (and it's RED, how hard is it to pick out?) and say, "Where's the catsup?"As for picky eaters, my younger brother basically only ate: PB, pasta with butter only, hot dogs, and mac and cheese (at least it was homemade)
until he was in jr high. Kids are funny. I was picky about some things, but I ate a lot more than that! Back in my earth-mama days I made all my own pot pies and froze them (I was soo into the from-scratch-everything mode!). I must admit, I don't like a lot of the frozen ones any more but there are a few I like and it's a guilty pleasure and a comfort-food thing for me.
This isn't mine and I haven't tried it yet, but we've talked about kale chips and I thought I'd share this sweeter version from another thread, sounds really good to me:
"I experimented to day making Kale chips. I poured some maple syrup in bowl (maybe a quarter cup?) a hand full of sweetened coconut and a few cups Kale from a bag (prewashed stuff) and mixed it all up. then I put in in the toaster oven for 1.5-2 hours on the dehydrate setting, which I think is like 100 or 150 degrees. Not all of it crisped, I might but a grate of some sort under it next time to lift it off the pan, but it is still a pretty tasty snack and alot less expensive than the $7 bags at Whole Foods that inspired the experiment."
So I'm going to try that next time I buy kale, but I'll use the oven (at maybe 200??) and see what happens.
Bon appetit!
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Thanks, Seaside! Most of the time I am nicely distracted
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I need some inspiration... I bought a 5# bag of potatoes, and since I live alone they tend to go bad before I get them all eaten, so I'm trying to use them up this time. I made a veggie stew that I love and I may make potato soup before I'm done, but I could use some inspiration on what else to do with them (besides mashed, baked, scalloped, or fries/hash brown/oven fries). Ideally low-fat... and ideally as part of a main dish. Any favorite recipes, anyone? Thanks!
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seaside- I usually just set the crust out while I'm getting everything together and they are fine when I'm ready to put the stuff in it. If they are too defrosted they are hard to work with and they fall apart. I also usually leave the top crust in the foil pan that it comes in and I just turn it upside down on top of the other one.0
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ShooShoo,
Thanks for the info.... Very clever idea on the deep dish pie crust on top!!
Naturegrrl,
I'm in the same jam. They had potatoes on sale last week and the 10 lb bag was actually less than the 5 lb one... Problem is what to do with them all.
Don't know if you like curry or not but, I've been eyeing this one for awhile and may try it this week
It from a web site called simplyrecipes.com (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chickpea_potato_curry/). I make a LOT of things from her site and haven't hit a bad recipe yet!
If you eat ground beef, I have a black bean and potato stew recipe using canned black beans that I like.
This recipe is a favorite of mine especially in the summer, when we have leftover corn on the cob to use but, is just fine with frozen corn.... I generally skip the garnish... http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/harvest-creamy-corn-choup-with-parsley-recipe/index.html
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Seaside- I do a pot i with a similar recipe. An old co worker of mine and I played with ingredients until we thought it was good.
I cook 3 chicken breast in the oven till done with just some salt and pepper, let it cool and shred into a bowl. Add one package frozen peas and carrots, thawed, 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1 can sliced new potatoes and a 1/2 jar of pearl onions. Mix it all up with a little salt and pepper. I buy a package of the Pillsbury pie crusts and let sit on the counter to warm a bit while I mis things together, Slit the top for venting. If you want less carbs just omit the bottom pie crust and put into a casserole dish with the one crust on top. It's very quick and easy and I usually have all the ingredients on hand. I will warm you that it makes a huge pot pie we have never finished one in one dinner, it usually goes for two nights for us.
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In anticipation of the return of snow for us today I am doing a roast in the oven tonight. I hope it is the last one of the season for us! After getting a taste of grilling and eating lighter I am ready for the summer recipes!
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