2021 What's for dinner tonight?

[Artemis Windsong]

Spaghetti dinner out.

[weltschmerz]

No idea. It's soup weather, but I'm soupless.

[Deleted]

I've noticed that I buy food, but I don't cook it any more.  So my freezer is packed.  I throw away bread and milk every week, and I am only buying 16 oz. of milk.  Eggs and potatoes are close behind although they usually last two weeks or so.

Cooking for one is absolutely no fun.  Ironically, I cooked for one all the time when DH was here since we didn't like a lot of the same things.  But we sat down to dinner together most nights, anyway.

Any suggestions for how to get out of this funk?

[countrygirl2]

No, I'm trying to cook less.

Today we ate breakfast out and it was good a little diner hubs had heard about.
Dinner was at Bandannas a really good barbecue restaurant, I had ribs, cole slaw, and
okra brought half of it home,  DD did too.

[weltschmerz]

Feb 8, 2020 20:22:38 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I've noticed that I buy food, but I don't cook it any more.  So my freezer is packed.  I throw away bread and milk every week, and I am only buying 16 oz. of milk.  Eggs and potatoes are close behind although they usually last two weeks or so.

Cooking for one is absolutely no fun.  Ironically, I cooked for one all the time when DH was here since we didn't like a lot of the same things.  But we sat down to dinner together most nights, anyway.

Any suggestions for how to get out of this funk?

Sorry, but I don't. I cook for one all the time. I enjoy it. I even plate it all fancy. I'm worth it.
Maybe if you watched some cooking shows for inspiration?  I love cooking shows, like Chopped and Master Chef.

[buystoys]

I just quit trying to cook for one and went ahead and cooked for 2-5.  I'd have one serving and then put the rest into containers for meals at another time. 

[chiver78]

what ^she said. I'm also in a big cooking rut myself, so I may not be the best advice-giver. 

today, I'm doing a Sunday dinner - pork roast is in the Instant Pot (recipe), Brussels are roasting, and I've got colcannon in progress. just need the damn pot of water to start boiling lol...   this should be a few meals, at least the pork and potatoes. roasting more veggies later is easy enough. 

cost - $5 for the pork, $2 for the potatoes, $2 for the Brussels. everything else was here. 

ETA: I don't love this Instant Pot recipe. I added more seasonings than called for, and it seems bland. I think it is also a little overcooked. oh well. the whole roast is sliced, so I'll have to get creative with leftovers. 🤷‍♀️

[countrygirl2]

A small pork tenderloin marinated in peppercorns and sauce in the instant pot cooking.

Boiled eggs the other day, just boiled potatoes, going to make potato salad, been quite awhile
since I have made any.  Maybe some cole slaw, we like that. Either with vinegar and sugar or with Marzetti's cole slaw sauce.

[chiver78]

I'm about to make a small pan of jalapeno bacon mac 'n cheese for extra pickins this week. I'll be using up the bacon I cooked Friday, the other half of the pepper jack block in the fridge, and half a box of pasta from the pantry. I might have panko breadcrumbs to use up as well, idk. if not, it won't have a topping and won't bake as long

[andi9899]

I'm making potato soup. With bacon and cheese on top.

[wvugurl26]

Chicken parmesan subs and salad. DH paid for subs. We got home after 7 from a movie. Still finalizing days for meals next week.

[andi9899]

Feb 8, 2020 20:22:38 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I've noticed that I buy food, but I don't cook it any more.  So my freezer is packed.  I throw away bread and milk every week, and I am only buying 16 oz. of milk.  Eggs and potatoes are close behind although they usually last two weeks or so.

Cooking for one is absolutely no fun.  Ironically, I cooked for one all the time when DH was here since we didn't like a lot of the same things.  But we sat down to dinner together most nights, anyway.

Any suggestions for how to get out of this funk?

I'm not good at cooking for one. I usually make something one night and then something different the next night. Then I alternate leftovers so I'm not eating the same thing over and over for a long time.

[snapdragon]

I am having chicken noodle soup tonight and tomorrow I will do a stir fry with chicken strips.

[Blonde Granny]

I'm going to Harps grocery store for their Monday fried chicken with 2 sides for $6. It is the best chicken I think I've ever had.

[wvugurl26]

DH is making tacos tonight. Estimated costs $6.

Tuesday night beef and broccoli with rice. I don't remember how much the meat costs. So we'll say $9 to give a generous estimate to the beef portion.

Wednesday night pork roast, mashed potatoes and salad. DH request for pork roast. Estimated costs $10.

Thursday night leftovers as I have an evening appointment.

Friday night DH claims to be handling since it's Valentine's day.

[chiver78]

how do you cook your pork roast, wvugirl? I'm looking for non-crockpot recipes, but the IP one I used yesterday wasnt a winner.

[countrygirl2]

Shrimp with dip and French fries, that's what hubs and DD want.  There is left over potato salad, but potatoes and potatoes?? LOL!

[Deleted]

Mine was lunch, not dinner, although it was the big meal of the day.

I had a honeyed pork chop (sauce is made of soy sauce, honey, chopped onion, ginger, pepper, and water), mashed potato, and black-eyed peas.  It was a new recipe for me, but that pork chop was outstanding! And I had forgotten how good the black-eyed peas I made at NY's were.  

[wvugurl26]

So I went looking on my pinterest board to see if I'd saved the last instant pot roast recipe I used. It was the same one you posted chiver.

DH has some pretty plain tastes when it comes to meat and potatoes meals. As long as it has salt and pepper on it and there's gravy he is happy. I assume you were looking for more flavor?

I bought a pork loin roast Sunday. I have a couple Hello Fresh recipes for that.

[chiver78]

yup, more flavor. I probably used 2-3 times as much seasonings as called for to rub it. oh well. 🤷‍♀️

[Artemis Windsong]

Chili cheese over crispy crowns.

[weltschmerz]

Bangers and Mash.
Turkey sausage with Russian mustard, mashed potato with a crap-ton of sour cream and butter, and sweet corn that I froze from last summer.

[chiver78]

I chopped up a romaine heart and one slice of the pork roast from Sunday, and made a Caesar salad. shredded parmesan, croutons, and dressing are always available in this house. 

[chiver78]

I found a small broccoli crown in the crisper, so I roasted it and nuked a slice of Sunday's pork roast and some colcannon. cost - free 😁

there's still one more portion of pork and a lot more colcannon than I expected by now, but whatever is left is getting pitched tomorrow bc 5 days old. I think I would have done better with it if I liked how the pork had turned out. it wasn't awful in last nights salad, but I won't use that recipe again.

[wvugurl26]

www.hellofresh.com/recipes/cherry-balsamic-pork-59ce4b8830a03b0947220532

I made tonight's pork loin roast using that recipe. I served it with mashed potatoes and salad.

Wednesday night I got home late so I changed the plan. I made chicken wraps with tortillas, shredded chicken, broccoli/rice mix, black beans, lettuce, sour cream and cheese. I actually had all ingredients on hand. I avoided DH's suggestion of take out.

Friday night DH is paying and making dinner. Filets, sweet potatoes and salad is the plan.

[chiver78]

this morning I checked out the freezer before hitting the grocery store for produce. I pulled out a bag of frozen BSCB and started the crockpot early with black bean pulled chicken. I had a small cup of it after shredding the meat around 4, and then made myself a quesadilla when I got home a little while ago.

theres probably 4c of pulled chicken packed up in the fridge, I may just freeze one container straight out now that it's all cooled.

cost - $2 for shredded iceberg, $3 for the brick of pepper jack cheese. I'll use both again for tacos with the leftovers. everything else was here.

[countrygirl2]

We had filets, baked potatoes, with sour cream, and salad, also an avocado on the side.

[weltschmerz]

A bowl of pistachios. I'm not very hungry.

[wvugurl26]

Tuesday night filets, salad and baked sweet potatoes. DH paid for filets. I think $16 for half the package. The other 2 are in the freezer for another night.

He didn't leave in time to cook Friday night so I got take out from the local bbq place.

Wednesday night will be a parmesan sauce chicken with spinach served with mashed potatoes and salad on the side. Estimated costs $8.

Thursday night leftovers as I have an evening appointment.

DH is on his own for the weekend as I'm going to visit family.

[cktc]

Made Zucchini boat enchiladas tonight with some rotisserie chicken. The bones are now in the instant pot and will become chicken pozole later this week.