So Sick of Our Dinner Menu!

We Love having breakfast for dinner !!!! Eggs (served in all ways) french toast, waffles, cereal (on nights when thats all you have time for) bacon, sausage, home fries the list goes on !

Love her or hate her, try Rachel Ray 365 days of Recipes...great book. I have all her cookbooks and her meals are easy, fast, and usually pretty healthy-easy to make changes to them if not, I do it all the time!

Use the grocery sales to help you pick out new things, this is how I tend to shop. Use the specials, sales, meal deals to create a 7-10 day menu, then use the menu to make your shopping list.

If you don't have one, get a slow cooker. It's great, particularly in fall and winter. Soups, stews, chili, so many easy things to do in it, that take virtually no effort!

here's a place to go crazy over:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

Me too. that's why we had apple pie for dinner tonight :)

I got a pressure cooker from my MIL. At the time I thought it was the most ridiculous gift EVER--but I use it constantly to make really fast, delicious dinners. I've made chicken and dumplings (in about 1 hr from frozen chicken), beef stew (again about 1 hr with frozen stew meat), risotto with pork, all this week in my beloved pressure cooker. We also like "fancy" sandwiches for dinner--some nice deli meat, nice bread maybe with some pesto and goat cheese that gets heated in the oven with maybe a big salad on the side--it's a family favorite. Oh, and black bean burritos. It never occurs to us to start dinner early so these are all really fast meals!

We rotate a lot of the same things, too, but here are some of ours (send me a message if you want any recipes, I don't want to waste too much space here):

Fettucine Alfredo (homemade sauce, easiest in the world, you can use different pasta or tortellini).

Breakfast burritoes (my husband loves), mostly just egg scrambled with chunks of potato, olives, cheese, peppers, etc. in a tortilla shell.

Pizza (again, homemade down to the sauce).

Swedish Meatballs (served over egg noodles--the only meal my kids are guaranteed to devour).

I like soups in the winter, but nobody else really eats them here. I make them out of anything and everything, but really like "green" soups with ginger (any green veggies, plus some kind of barley or rice).

Stew in the crock pot. My husband and I co-create and never quite remember how we make it since we're always adding this and that, but it usually tastes great.

Roast in the oven (not all the time).

For burgers, I mix barbecue sauce in with the meat as well as shredded cheese to add flavor for the kids. We add toppings like bacon crumbles, jalapeno peppers, and cheddar, or walnuts and bleu cheese. I especially like the walnuts and bleu cheese if you use fresh parsley for the greens.

We also really like chicken and dumpling soup.

Another idea is dinner salads (loaded).

I love Rachel Ray and Melissa D'Arabia - their meals are quick, easy, inexpensive and yummy. We only eat poultry and seafood and since my son is now on a no seafood kick we are doing lots of poultry!!!

I use allrecipes.com and do an ingredient search to find ideas. I'll check my pantry, pick a few ingredients and type them in and see what pops up. I also do at least on meatless night per week - baked macroni and veggies, vegetarian lasgana. I tend to make a huge pot of red sauce on a weekend, freeze in dinner size portions - then viola! quick pasta whenever. Beans and rice are staples in the winter (yes, I relent and use ham in these).

I think we all get bored with our food - when we do I find a new recipe with different flavours - I do Indian or Asian for a nice pick me up.

If you find any new chicken recipes please post them!!!! My freezer is starting to cluck.

Chicken or steak fajitas with cut up peppers, onions and mango, yum! shrimp scampi, sometimes over pasta. Soft tacos with corn tortillas and avocado, tomato, cilantro, onion, queso fresco and lean seasoned ground beef. Manicotti instead of lasagna, raviolis, sometimes pesto sauce instead of traditional marinara. Turkey ham and/or roast beef and swiss sandwiches on croissants with soup on the side, so delicious!
Chili cheese nachos with tomato and onion and sour cream for toppings. Make your own pizza with a digiorno pizza crust and all kinds of toppings. All-beef hot dogs with all the trimmimgs. Asian vegetables stir-fried with chicken or shrimp and egg rolls. Now i'm getting hungry! lol

We have the following since now on a strict budget I had to make some changes.
Rotissere chicken for Sam's,Hawaiian Rolls,,ashed potatoes,veggie raw or cooked
Frozen Lasagna,garlic bread,salad,or other veggie
Spaghetti,garlic bread
Chili,Corn Bread or cinnamon rolls
Beef Stew with potaotes,celery & carrots
Slow cooked roast with Sazon seasoning white rice & fresh pinto beans with tortialls if we have any
Tacos,soft tacos,burritos bean & cheese along with Over the border sals & chips
grilled chesse with fruit chips
BLT"s with raw carrots & ranch
Meatloaf eveyonce in a while,veggies,mashed potatoes
Pork chops grilled,baked or fried & breaded with veggie mashed potatoes
Chicken Soup rfeshly made for this evenings meal
I buy frozen nuggets,chicken strips,chicken sandwhich,if do these types of food usually for lunch & we eat fruit & chips or pretzels
In the summer time it's so much easier to buy fruit for us that is what we live on my 3 kids & I.I'm sure i'm missing meals but this is just the top of my head.I hate cooking but if I have it i'll make it or that is what I want to eat my kids don't always like it but hey we have to eat nutrition not just junk we rarely eat out if so it is pizza from LIL Ceasars,Mc Donalds or a buffet

I am on a kick for this cooking show, so I am recommending it to EVERYONE. America's Test Kitchen has some great cookbooks, and I haven't had anything fail yet.

We were getting that way, too. I found The Pioneer Woman's website, and that has helped mix things up a bit. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
We have loved everything we have tried from her blog. She's great. I think that most families sort of get into this rut because it is comfortable, everyone likes the standard meals that you cook, you don't have to think too much grocery shopping. It's normal. But, perhaps you could try one new meal a week. Keep the ones you love, toss those you don't. One of my new favorite meals is homemade Chipotle. I just googled recipes and went for it.

Well, we had:
Chilli
Cassoulet
Couscous with Veggies
Omeletes for dinner
Corn Chowder
Teriyaki Chicken grilled outside and Miso soup
Spaghetti
Pot Roast
Pasta Salad
Sandwiches for Dinner
Stuffed Potatoes... and salad

When I am tired of what I usually cook... I like to make dishes from other ethnic groups.

BUT, I have found, from Williams & Sonoma... these "cooking sauces" that comes in jars... and it is SO GOOD! I really recommend it.... And its so easy to make a dish, using these. Here's a link for it:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/food/cooking-sauces/?...
The Indian simmering sauces are yummy! If you like Indian food.
Anyway, these Williams & Sonoma cooking sauces are to me, worth the price, and its a good change from the 'usual' stuff I cook... and it tastes like you got restaurant take out... but cooked it at home! And my family likes it.

Just some ideas,
all the best,
Susan

Get a basic cookbook and look through it for ideas. Make up your own cookbook with the recipes you like and add to it. Change up the way you prepare the meats with different spices and try different veggies. Do a stir fry of the veggies and take the pork chops and chop them into pieces and add to the stir fry serve over rice with soy sauce.

I like my meals to be colorful (orange, green, yellow and the like) and try to serve them so that they appeal to the eye. Remember you eat with your eyes as well as your mouth.

Some ideas -- take a piece of meat and cook it down or turn it into stew or soup. Get an onion, your green peppers a little garlic and cut it up add a some Italian sausages and tomato sauce serve over your pasta. Make some homemade stewed tomatoes (green peppers, celery, onions and diced tomatoes and serve as your vegetable with your meatloaf. I like to have a green vegetable with my meal so that you get the benefits of chlorophyl (sorry for spelling) as it helps you digest foods. Breakfast for dinner is a nice change. Make a night to have left overs and fancy them up a bit. Take out the pickle jar and have a sandwich night or even grilled cheese and vegetable soup. Check out what some spices do for your health cinnamon for digestion, ginger a diuretic, garlic for blood pressure, and the list goes on.
Salads are quick if you don't have the veggies out and ready.

There is also fish some can be baked and others can be pan fried with spices.

Think of your meals as a science experiment and try out different things and keep a notebook of what was successful and what was not. Also get out the fruit and eat it and some of that helps to break down fats and help you digest your meals.

Once you and your family like mom's new food, make sure you have a recipe or formula for success so that you can repeat them again.

I love food of all types and cultures so it is not hard for me to prepare a meal. When my kids were young I used to make homemade pizza and that included the sauce and the pizza dough. I love steamed veggies from the microwave (not the package thingies), whatever veggie is in season. Some of them I have frozen for the winter when I make soups or stews.

Good luck and may you become the next Rachel Ray.

The other S.