Everyday Systems

I'm stuck!

Breakfast is a breeze: Multigrain Cherrios with fruit and whole milk (that's right I said whole). Sometimes an everything bagel with fruit.

Lunch: too many options to list (but I love wraps with fruit on the side, soup and salad...etc).

Dinner is impossible! Here's the deal...I eat lunch at noon (scheduled lunch break at work). By the time I get home and sit down to dinner it's 6:30 and I am starving. I am dealing with that issue. However, I keep falling back on the same recipes and meals. Alot of these meals are heavy on meat and potatoes or very Italian.

I need to change the way I cook for dinner. Any ideas?

Buffalo Gal

Scroll further down this page and you will find a thread about this. It sounds like you need a little advanced planning so that you already have the dinner prep under control.

Here's some ideas:

I'm fond of Everyday Food magazine, their cookbook Great Food Fast, and the web sites:

www.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight

http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/

And for your leisure enjoyment -- here's 5,000 recipes from a contest earlier this week:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008 ... /#comments

No idea what's for dinner yet -- I'm off school and work today so I will definitely be cooking.

Breakfast was McDonalds breakfast burrito (shopping this morning)

Lunch homemade mini pizza and strawberry yogurt.
(Pizza made using pita bread for the crust, with the usual tomato sauce, cheese, and 5 slices of pepperoni.)

Becky

Sounds good, CatLady!
We don't have a grill right now -- wish we did!

I ended up having boneless chicken breasts sauted with tomato/garlic/basil over rice. It is so easy and always turns out good.

wosnes wrote:Here's some ideas:

I'm fond of Everyday Food magazine, their cookbook Great Food Fast, and the web sites:

www.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight

http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/

And for your leisure enjoyment -- here's 5,000 recipes from a contest earlier this week:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008 ... /#comments

Wosnes, the pioneer woman site has me cracking up. I loved her description of biscuits and gravy. It opens with "To those of you who arrived here thinking you were visiting the website for Cooking Light magazine: turn around. Run. Far, far away. And whatever you do, don’t look back." (And a good description of how to make gravy, too.)

And this, from her pie crust recipe, which closes with "It will inspire you to greatness in your life. And it will make your hips quiver with excitement. And fear."

What a riot!

KCCC wrote:

wosnes wrote:Here's some ideas:

I'm fond of Everyday Food magazine, their cookbook Great Food Fast, and the web sites:

www.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight

http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/

And for your leisure enjoyment -- here's 5,000 recipes from a contest earlier this week:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008 ... /#comments

Wosnes, the pioneer woman site has me cracking up. I loved her description of biscuits and gravy. It opens with "To those of you who arrived here thinking you were visiting the website for Cooking Light magazine: turn around. Run. Far, far away. And whatever you do, don’t look back." (And a good description of how to make gravy, too.)

And this, from her pie crust recipe, which closes with "It will inspire you to greatness in your life. And it will make your hips quiver with excitement. And fear."

What a riot!

All of PW's pictures drive me nuts, but I love her writing. Who really needs 21 pics of how to roll a log of goat cheese in parsley?

Tonight I had a cobb salad w/ mixed greens, grilled chicken, crumbled blue cheese, hard boiled egg, olives, chopped bacon and chopped tomato w/ homemade dressing. I also stuck a half of my kid's grilled cheese sandwhich on my plate cuz it looked so good (and she didn't want it).

You should definitely have a dinner plan every night. I like Donna Hay's cookbooks. She has some 10 min recipes in there and the food is great.

http://www.amazon.com/Off-Shelf-Cooking ... _b_title_3

Happy Cooking!

We went out last night, to a restaurant that my friend's bil (brother in law) recently purchased. He is a phenomenal cook, and we met a good friend there. It was a wonderful time!

I had the all you can eat fish fry. I used virtual plating to eat one small slice of bread and one mozzarella stick before the meal. Had the two pieces of fish, a potato pancake with applesauce on top (so delish), a small dab of really good coleslaw, and some garlic mushrooms. Did not get seconds on any of the items because I was full, although I was tempted to have another plank of fish or another potato pancake!

I had a taste of dh's mashed potatoes. Gave dh and dd a good sized taste of my fish. And....while I did not order dessert, when my friend offered a taste of her cheesecake with caramel and almonds, I DEFINITELY took one bite. It was wonderful.

I'm not counting this as green on my habitcal, due to the cheesecake. I was already full, and it was a sweet. But I'm not making it a red failure, either, because it was such a success for me to not order my own dessert! And to not taste the other two desserts on the table! And it was wonderful to have the entire enjoyable meal without thinking I was on a "diet" or being deprived. I was mindful of No S, but not deprived in any way.

My 12 y/o advised me to call it an S day, because we don't go out very often, and it was special to have friends along. But I don't want to start calling various days S days! So its not yellow. I think I'll leave the habitcal white for Friday!

Dinner tonight:

Chicken tenderloins (put them in a glass baking dish, sprinkled in garlic powder and poured regular zesty Italian dressing over them and baking now at 350 for 45 minutes...)
Vigo yellow rice
Mixed greens and tomato salad with olive oil and lemon juice and some salt.
Grapes for dessert

As you can see, I am not a chef! (Hubby who is a great cook, has not been cooking as much. )

So, if anyone knows any dinners as simple as the one above....please post!

Thanks!

I will also check the links above!

CrazyCatLady wrote:I'm not counting this as green on my habitcal, due to the cheesecake. I was already full, and it was a sweet. But I'm not making it a red failure, either, because it was such a success for me to not order my own dessert! And to not taste the other two desserts on the table! And it was wonderful to have the entire enjoyable meal without thinking I was on a "diet" or being deprived. I was mindful of No S, but not deprived in any way.

My 12 y/o advised me to call it an S day, because we don't go out very often, and it was special to have friends along. But I don't want to start calling various days S days! So its not yellow. I think I'll leave the habitcal white for Friday!

I would have either called it an S day or an S event. Usually I think one is aware of S days in advance -- we know when holidays, birthdays, anniversarys and even random special occasions (weddings, graduations and so on) are. Occasionally something pops up and it really is special for one reason or another. My criteria for the random S day is: is it infrequent and is it pleasurable?

There's a dish I've been wanting to try, it involves chickpeas, spinach, yogurt and a whole bunch of middle eastern spices on a bed of couscous, I think I'll do that tonight.

I'm also contemplating baking either almond bread or a good chocolate bread, if I can find one.