List your top three to fiveish typical dinner menus

[cmonkey]

Is it possible to combine scrambled eggs and baked potato's? I'm trying to find some cheap and simple meals here that don't involve rice and that involve eggs(and potato's, lol)

Add some ham and you have denver eggs. Peppers/(onion/shallot)/garlic make great additions.

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.

There are 10 minute pizza dough recipes out there. We have one on an index card in our recipe box. It is fantastic and trumps anything else. First do your dough and let it sit. While it sits assemble your ingredients. When you're assembled the dough is ready to form. Bake 15 minutes. So if you are quick you can be eating a made from scratch pizza in less than 30 minutes start to finish. The DW can do it quicker.

[IlliniDave]

Hmmm. You said "these days" so for me.

1. Bean Burritos
2. Bean Burritos
3. Bean Burritos
4. Bean Burritos
5. Bean Burritos

But in the wider sense simple pasta w/red sauce (usually linguini and sauce made from a can of crushed tomatoes, basil, garlic, red pepper), pork shoulder steak cooked over fire or pan fried with baked sweet potatoes, Shrimp with a ginger/curry broth (I use the swansons when it's BOGO, or chicken broth with fresh ground ginger and curry powder to taste). Usually with some sort of an oriental stir fry veggie mix when the frozen veggies are BOGO, or maybe rice on rare occasions. Scrambled eggs with chili peppers and bacon. Those are the three that occur most often. Usually once or twice a month I'll have frozen pizza, Home Run Inn or Unos. Split pea or lentil soup shows up pretty often too.

[Chris]

1. Quinoa + black beans + diced tomato + cheddar + shredded jicama (in-season)
2. Pasta + peas + tuna + cheddar + mustard
3. Pork tenderloin + plums + red onion + mashed potatoes
4. Turkey (any kind) + mashed potatoes + mixed veg + stuffing + cranberry (Thanksgiving casserole)

Unfortunately for #3, I find that the pre-marinated pork tenderloin is often on manager's special, but the regular ones do not.

[saving-10-years]

This somewhat depends on who is cooking. Its less predictable if its me cooking but these are all recipes that appear regularly as DH knows how to cook them. He has a limit of around five things he can cook and any new recipe knocks the others out.

• Speedy bean soup (beans cooked in pressure cooker and added to (usually) homemade stock with any types of vegetables which happen to be leftover or otherwise available. Other fancier soups may be substituted, especially one called ‘mustard coloured soup’ by my DS made from lentils, onions, carrots, apples and (optionally) bacon.
• Homemade pizza (usually with mozerella, passata or tomato sauce, extra bell pepper, tomato and/or olives and salami/pepperoni depending on what we have. Spinkle with basil if available fresh or frozen (usually is).
• Homemade hummus in rolls, on toast, baked potatoes or folded through pasta.
• Rissoto – lettuce when its cheap or we have grown some and squash/pumpkin when those are cheap or we have grown some.
• Stir fry with rice or in wraps featuring meat/vegetables left over from roast meal (if we have one that week). With Sriracha sauce.

Where vegetables are not a large component then we will have sides of steamed vegetables or salad. If we have a chicken we will roast one day, make stock from carcass have stir fried with pasta or rice (or if it’s a big chicken then both (two days) and soup/rissoto made from stock for lunches (see above). We have been trying to use less meat mainly by adding beans to meat to substitute.

Great ideas and nice thread.

[heyhey]

1. brown rice + green lentils/black beans + sausage + onion + carrot/tomato/mushroom/onion/cabbage as available, in pressure cooker
2. soup of pink lentils + sweet potato + frozen mixed veg (or whatever veg) blended
3. sardines (canned) + pasta + tomato/broccoli/carrot/mushroom/onion
4. fried eggs + sweet potato + courgette (zucchini) + onion
5. red kidney beans + aubergine (eggplant) + courgette + red peppers + onion + can tomatoes + rice

For lunch I like hummus made with approx equal weight of chickpeas and sweet potato, plus garlic, oil, lemon juice, paprika.
Or frittata of sweet potato/beetroot chopped small in food processor, sauteed then mixed with beaten eggs, with salad.

[stayhigh]

1. Stir fry/boiled/baked discounted vegetables + chicken/salmon or other dead animal as available
2. Lentils/beans + random sauce + something from #1
3. Long grain rice/pasta/potatoes + something from #1
4. Broth, which is usually converter to tomato or beetroot soup after day or two.
5. Random meals based on big sales. For example, after Halloween I bought 95%+ discounted pumpkins and made pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto, and when I was fed up eating them all the time, I just put leftovers to freezer as a emergency lunch, when I'm too lazy to cook. Same with tomatoes (I had tomato everything, every day for at least 10 days!), apples (apple cake, apple jam or apples baked with rice anyone?) can beans, potatoes etc...

Having LOTS of different spices and mixing them together on many occasions, without following any recipes, makes every single meal quite special.

[George the original one]

1. Salad
2. Homemade stew/soup (beef stew, chicken soup, turkey soup, veggie bean stew, veggie black bean chili, ham & bean)
3. Bertolli's chicken florentine with farfala, wife often adds extra spinach
4. Pork chops with sauerkraut
5. Roast chicken or beef with potatoes or rice, onions
6. Baked salmon/steelhead/trout with potatoes or rice

[Dragline]

Mmmm, sauerkraut. We don't have it much because I'm the only one that likes it in my house.

Then there is liver . . .

[vexed87]

There are 10 minute pizza dough recipes out there.

I'll give it a go, the receipe could revolutionise Friday evenings. Thanks

[jacob]

I used to make pizza dough (thin crust) with just two ingredients. Water and flour. It works. Let it bake a bit first (5-10 mins IIRC, it's been two decades since I made it) before pouring the topping on.

[Ego]

Hard to beat Trader Joe's Whole Wheat frozen pizza dough balls at $1.19.

[EdithKeeler]

1. Some kind of pasta with some kind of sauce. Sometimes store-bought, sometimes homemade. Usually with some vegetables (often spinach) mixed in.
2. Eggs--usually scrambled with veggies and some kind of meat, though I've been cutting back on meat lately.
3. Lately I've been on a salmon patty kick--not sure why, but I'm sort of craving them, and have eaten them twice a week for three weeks. Salmon patties made with seasoned breadcrumbs, diced onion and celery, an egg, fried in just a bit of oil. I always have these with buttered parsley potatoes and sliced up cucumbers and onion with a sour cream and vinegar dressing. It has to be that combo.
4. Leftovers from lunch eaten out.
5. Soup and sandwich.

I used to eat a lot of hotdogs, but decided to give them up. I miss them, though....

[jacob]

5. Soup and sandwich.

How does this work?

[tommytebco]

Okay, I can contribute to this thread:
1 Stir Fry chicken, beef or pork.always Onion celery and garlic plus other veggies on hand in season over rice
2. Spaghetti with meat sauce.
3 Chicken breast, skin on, fried with sweet potato chunks until sweet potatoes start to carmelize in chicken fat. serve with salad and green beans
4. Hash. left over roast, potatoes onions and garlic
4a and the roast of course, in a meal before the hash.
5. Dry beans cooked with a ham hock
6. chili con carne.sometimes white bean chili with chicken leg quarters.
7 Omelets a lot lately, since eggs are no longer "toxic"

[jennypenny]

I'm not sure what to post because we have more than 5 meals in the regular rotation. And as llorona said, this is our winter menu, so it's mostly pantry/freezer meals. Anyway, here's our current rotation ...

Chili
Shepherd's Pie
Kielbasa, sauerkraut and pierogies
Pork, apples and onions (in the crock pot) or Bacon, apples and onions (on the stove)
Meatballs (either Italian style or Kjottkaker, occasionally Polynesian)
An Asian meal (usually Singapore noodles but sometimes teriyaki, chow fun, or pepper steak)
Sausage or pepperoni with onions and peppers over pasta
Ranch chicken or Paprika chicken, usually cut into strip sizes so they can be tossed into a salad
eggs and potatoes (usually eggs cooked to order and baked potatoes that are diced and and coated with salt, pepper, mustard, and a little oil)

Batch cooking (I used to get 3 meals out of each batch but I don't now that my boys are teenagers)
Roast Beast, then goulash with leftovers
Roast Chicken, then chicken soup (usually taco soup but sometimes traditional soup)
Roast Turkey, then turkey open-face sandwiches

I also make a couple of batters to leave in the fridge for mid-week baking. It's usually a breakfast thing like pancakes and then a cookie dough. I find if I bake all of the cookies on Sunday they're gone by Tuesday, but if I pop a few into the oven for dessert every night the batter lasts the week. Same with the pancakes. Once a month, I bake several loaves of bread and put them in the freezer so I can pull one or two out each week. I bake regular bread loaves and different sweet loaves depending on the season (pumpkin, banana, blueberry, etc).

I guess that's more than fiveish.

[peerifloori]

Depends on who is cooking. My husband usually cooks 1 & 2, I usually cook 3-5. I prefer beans and eggs to meat most of the time. He's vice versa.

1. Salmon OR chicken OR venison (grilled) + rice + broccoli OR salad
2. Tacos (with choice of protein + beans + veggies + toppings)
3. Beans and rice (sometimes with fried egg + salsa on top), side of veggies
4. Veggie omelet/frittata/scramble
5. Soups, various (fish chowder, chicken veggie, lentil, etc)


Occasionally we have:
homemade pizza
thai curry over rice
african peanut stew over rice
polenta + tomato sauce with veggies
chili
mashed potatoes with garlic & carrot
sweet potatoes cooked with onion

[Dragline]

Mmmm -- venison. I am always enamored by more wild protein sources than the typical ones.

But I wonder why we don't make more use (consumption) of the organs. (Okay, I know I'm kind of weird on that. And I know not to eat bear liver, especially polar bear.)

[Ydobon]

I am seeing a lot of love for black beans.

[Ego]

Steamed then very gently stir-fried:
broccoli
bok choy
snow peas
bunapi mushrooms
bunashimeji mushrooms
green onions
brussels sprouts
Kimbo Spiced Thin Tofu
Olive oil, garlic salt, chili flakes, pepper

On a bed of (soba) buckwheat noodles

[peerifloori]

Mmmm -- venison. I am always enamored by more wild protein sources than the typical ones.

But I wonder why we don't make more use (consumption) of the organs. (Okay, I know I'm kind of weird on that. And I know not to eat bear liver, especially polar bear.)

Because most people in this country thinks that meat comes from plastic packages in grocery stores, not complete whole animals? When my husband gets a deer, the first night we always have heart tacos and they are the best. That's about as far as we go with organ meat though.

In Cameroon, they made a goat-pepper soup with kidneys and liver that was phenomenal.