List your top three to fiveish typical dinner menus

[jacob]

Slash What do you mostly eat for dinner these days?

1) Pasta or rice topped with a "sauce" that's made out of black beans, olives, canned diced tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, garlic, and "Italian" spices. Topped with cheese, sauerkraut, ketchup, and police grade pepper spray.
2) Stir fry based on rice, black beans, zucchini/bell pepper/egg plant, fried egg, and "Indian" spices. Topped with soy sauce.
3) Oven-roasted potatoes with ketchup, mustard, fried egg(mostly) or hamburger or yummy meat product waste hotdogs.
4) "Leftover omelet" which is boiled potatoes + 10 eggs + yesterday's (2) or (3).
5) "Leftover squared" which is (1)+(2)+(3)+(4) with a can of OEM (from Aldi) Bush Beans all in a pan. This is my favourite.

[cmonkey]

1. Some type of pasta (alfredo or tomato sauce) with some cheese on top.
2. Some sort of egg dish (we have so many to eat..). I ate half a dozen scrambled yesterday morning just myself.
3. Some sort of rice/bean (mexican is a top choice)
4. Any mash up of garden veggies we have preserved/frozen. Lots of sweet potatoes, squash, beans, corn.
5. Other times its usually just whatever we can find/leftovers. Or snacks (hummus!) if we need to run to the grocery and haven't yet.
6. Homemade pizza. We have this quite often.

We've been doing well this month with groceries. I learned how to pressure cook beans!

Thanks for the good ideas.

[Dragline]

1. Chicken fajitas (stir fried with peppers) and black beans
2. Meatloaf
3. Red beans and rice with spicy sausage
4. Chicken masala
4. Anything in crock pot -- chili, stew, etc.

We always have a plate of raw vegetables, some salad greens and some berries or other fruit with just about everything. And hot sauce for me.

[slsdly]

1) Thick soups galore, stuffed with vegetables. Bean, chowder, chicken, chili.
2) Curry with beans/vegetables in shells.
3) Chutney with beans/vegetables over rice.
4) Pesto pizza.

[GandK]

Each of these are usually served with either meatballs or grilled chicken for the guys in my home. I don't eat meat.

1. Rice covered with vegetables (fresh or frozen) that were either stir-fried with teriyaki or are covered with a masala sauce. Twice a week, I'd say, and there are always leftovers.
2. Spaghetti or stuffed shells marinara. Once a week at least. This is generally followed by any leftover marinara meatballs/chicken being served in a sub sandwich for G the following day for lunch, covered with mozzarella.
3. Salad bar with either some form of bread as a side, or a baked potato. Once a week at least.
4. Taco/nacho bar. This is the kids' favorite, but it takes more prep than other meals because of the "meat v/s beans" issue. We probably do this once every 2 weeks.
5. Pizza, either homemade or buy-and-bake. Again, about once every 2 weeks.

G and I enjoy soups/stews, but the boys don't. I expect we will eat more of those once they leave the nest.

[Ego]

Big salad with a side of....

-Roasted button mushrooms, tofu, broccoli, and red peppers drizzled in olive oil and Valentina's (yesterday).
-Refried beans and rice with corn tortillas and guacamole (Monday and Tuesday).
-Sieten Chunks with buckwheat noodles and edamame beans (last Friday).
-Quinoa and lentils (Saturday)

[jacob]

@Ego - Ahhh man, that's disgustingly healthy ;-P What's your cheat meal. You gotta have one, right?!

[1taskaday]

1.Roast chicken,boiled vegetables and potatoes,(with loads of butter).
2.Spaghetti Bolognese.
3.Chicken curry and boiled rice.
4.Really hot spicy tomato soup-my night shift comfort food.
5.Pork chops,boiled vegetables and potatoes (and loads of butter).

All ingredients on weekly repeated internet grocery delivery order.
Preparation time under 20 mins.
Pretty boring and repetitive but cooked from raw ingredients.
No interest in food or cooking.
If any complaints about repetition-they can cook for themselves.

[Ego]

@Ego - Ahhh man, that's disgustingly healthy ;-P What's your cheat meal. You gotta have one, right?!

Hah. No, not really. If we go to dinner at someone's home we will eat whatever they serve (except eggs, I HATE EGGS!... and menudo, bleck.) so I guess those would be our cheat meals.

Mrs. Ego got a job teaching healthy cooking/eating courses for a non-profit so she is suddenly pitching in with the cooking at home as well. We get to keep the leftover ingredients (which are purchased at Whole Foods, ) so we're adding a lot of interesting new things to our menu.

[cmonkey]

Example - for tonight we are having sliced, baked in olive oil sweet potatoes/yellow potatoes, applesauce and scrambled eggs. So its a random night, but still delicious.

Bonus - 100% came from our homestead (including the ketchup).

[zarathustra]

I typically don't eat until one big and calorically-dense meal in the mid-afternoon, sometimes some fatty coffee before working out in the late morning. i usually have a glass of red wine after work, sometimes with a small snack if I'm hungry again.

I like to batch cook on Sundays. Here are my most frequent choices:

(1) moroccan meatloaf (5-6 days) (lamb + beef) and some veggies if they are around
(2) lentils + veggies + pork sausage + "indian" spices (4-5 days)
(3) chicken week: garlic parmesan chicken wings (3-4 days), w/ garlic chinese eggplant (garlic-y chicken week i should say), then make some broth from the bones
(4) my partner loves to do batch-cooked & garden-retrieved lentils/kale/rice/any-greens-around combo for breakfast when i'm over

[llorona]

1. Boiled lentils
2. Lentil soup
3. Baked lentils
4. Curried lentils
5. Lentil burgers

J/K

During the winter, our menu usually resembles this:
1. Roast chicken, baked or mashed potatoes, vegetables
2. Some form of leftover chicken, usually enchiladas, tacos, chicken-potato hash, etc. and a green salad
3. Black beans, cornbread, and vegetables
4. Indian shrimp curry with spinach paratha (whole-wheat flatbread), yogurt, and chutney
5. Spaghetti and steamed broccoli or a green salad
6. Scrounge around. If there are no leftovers, usually we'll have a quesadilla, grilled cheese sandwich, or omelet.

I notice that we tend to eat lighter meals and a lot more vegetables during the summer months. This year, I'm going to do a better job of freezing our garden-grown veggies for the winter.

[theanimal]

I don't have much variety most of the year. For the past few months I have eaten some variety of the following almost every day:

-Black bean patty topped with grilled mushrooms and onions
-either beans and rice or vegetable curry and rice or hummus wrap
-Fish/fish tacos
-A couple baked potatoes covered in salsa
-Raw oats, raisins, walnuts, slivered almonds, cinnamon, honey and cold water
-An apple or some whole almonds

Today was an exception. I had caribou

[Did]

Tend to avoid bread potatoes etc to avoid myriad of health problems as discussed in Grain Brain, Wheat Belly etc. Veges beans and meat mainly but cooked with skill cf a lot here by the looks of it. Lots of quality fat. Cooking is a skill to be learned like pottery or watch fixing. Frugality does not have to mean garbage meals.

[dalralmi]

1. Turkey tacos.
2. Chili or stew
3. Casseroles which last a week. Mostly potatoes though so it makes a good side dish later on.
4. Indian chicken curries with cauliflower sometimes over rice sometimes with naan.
5. Baked chicken and asparagus.

[wood]

Base: Fried onion with tomato slices, add some water and mash it up

Spice selection: mostly indian (different masala's, salt/pepper, chili, lemon, garlic, coriander, etc) - this is one way of creating variety
Add to the stew: meat on offer (mostly minced meat, pork or chicken), lentils or beans
Vegetables to add: carrots, broccoli, sweet pepper, potato or anything suitable thats on offer
On the side: rice, pasta, ugali or potatoes

This makes dinner for two at a cost of $ 1-3 per person.

I'm not seing a lot of fish in all these recipes?

[7Wannabe5]

My menu is pretty varied lately because I live within short walk of many inexpensive ethnic markets. Some recent meals would be:

1) The thin, stretchy form of pita bread with feta, hummus, garlic sauce, olives, mixed greens.
2) Split pea soup, toasted muenster cheese on pumpernickel.
3) Eggplant, Thai chili, onion, stir-fry with rice.
4) Slice of deep-dish pepperoni pizza
5) Saurkraut pierogi with sour cream, sliced beets

[vexed87]

Great thread, some nice ideas here to mix up our routine.

We do:

1)Beef or Veg Chilli sauce with Long Grain Rice, Sweet Potato or Baked Potato
2)Pasta with vegetables and tomato & italian herbs sauce, often spicy or dash of red wine.
3)Fajitas/Burritos, usually chicken or beef, but lately have tried to use more beans.
4)Jacket Potato and Baked Beans
5)Stir fry veggies (sometimes with salmon fillet) and egg noddles or egg fried rice.

Occasionally I do home made pizza too, though waiting for the dough to rise when I get in from work means this is usually a weekend affair.

Leftovers are typically eaten for lunch the next day.

[GandK]

@wood: I love fish, but 50% of my household thinks it's the nastiest thing ever, so I never serve it. We do occasionally have shrimp at home when it drops into our desired price range.

@Did: I wish we ate less bread/pasta, but in a family full of Italians, that's not going to happen. Bread = keeping the peace. Ditto meat.

[BPA]

1. lots of soups (chicken vegetable, cream of broccoli are the favourites) with homemade baguette
2. pasta with tomato sauce, vegetables, and parm or salsa
3. lately, lots of pulled pork (since pork prices are so low compared to other meat) with homemade rolls and sides of on sale vegetables
4. roast poultry (whatever has been on sale) with mashed potatoes and on sale vegetables
5. pizza (either homemade or frozen bought on sale)

I need to revisit beans in my own cooking. My partner (who doesn't live with me) tends to make bean dishes when we eat together, so I tend not to make them when it is my turn.

Jacob: You'd better watch out. Your reputation for loving lentils is going to be tarnished with your list.