Dinner's Getting Boring, Any Suggestions??

I was young when I married only knew how to cook spaghetti, hamberger helper and baked meats. I go to kraftfoods.com and my hubby think I am the best cook in the world. LOL. He asks how do I come up with this stuff and brags to everyone how good of a cook I am. I die laughing to myself because he just dont know. lol. Also try campbellskitchen.com. Liptonsecrets also

Super easy!! Put 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1cup salsa and 4 chicken breat into a crock pot. Cook ;). When it is time for dinner shred the chicken and mix it up. put with a can of black beans, tortillas, and toppings for a complete dinner. So easy and so good. I know it sounds weird but it is really good!!

Quick and easy:
Curry rice (My son's favorite)
Cream stew
Lentil stew
Iridofu (tofu with veggies) (My son's favorite)
Oyakodon (Japanese style omelet: chicken, veggies, egg)
Nikujaga (Japanese version of meat and potatoes: beef or pork)
Taco soup
Pizza
Meatballs (I add a lot of veggies.)
Ginger pork
Hijiki (kind of seaweed with veggies)
Pumpkin chicken
Sweetpotato and chicken with veggies and apple
Falafal
hamburger (add veggies)
Salmon rice balls
Green curry
Spaghetti with tuna , onion, eggplant sauce
Salmon steak
Yakisoba (kind of fried noodle dish)
Udon (Japanese noodles)
Macaroni and cheese (add lots of veggies)

Things that take a little longer to cook but give you lots of leftovers:
(I make sauces from scratch and anything that requires tomato base needs to cook at least an hour to get rid of the tartiness without using sugar.)
Chili beef
Ratatouille (My son's favorite)
lasagna (two types: tomato base, pumpkin base)
Pumpkin Dirt stew (My son's favorite)
Chicken noodle soup (Homemade whole wheat noodles)
Cottage Pie

That's what is cooking at our house! I add veggies to everything I make, no fewer than three veggies in a dish, most have five or more different veggies. The exception being the salmon rice balls. If you see something interesting, I can send you the recipe. Happy eating!

How about a quick lasagna casserole - fry half pound italian sausage with onion and garlic, mix with a tub of Ricotta cheese, then layer with wide noodles (they don't have to be lasagna noodles, just wide noodles), on top of each layer, put red spaghetti sauce and shredded mozarella cheese. Bake until bubbling. It's pretty quick and pretty good. It's great for leftovers too.

I get a daily recipe in my email from Cooking Light...they're pretty healthy and easy to make. If its something that I think my family will like...I save it to a recipe file and then when I'm planning my menu I pull it up for some ideas.

There are also tons of blogs out there that have great ideas for quick dinners.

I also get Cooking light magazine...they have a section every month of dinners to make in 20 min/40min...I've found some great recipes that way.

Good luck....it does tend to get boring doesn't it? I guess we all get in a rut at times.

I use allrecipes.com. Its free and they give you five recipes per day via e-mail. Usually two are main dishes and the other three are side dishes and/or desserts. Plus you can type in ingredients and they will give you recipes that use those ingredients.

A real good way to save on your food budget is to use those things on sale in your menus. So look at the sales ads and then plug in the sale items into their recipe finder and you automatically have ideas that use the items you have or that are on sale.

BTW, the average family has 6-10 recipes that they use all the time.

Good luck to you and yours.

Kraft Food and Family magazine has some good recipes! They all have pictures (which I NEED in a recipe) and are really fairly easy! If you google it, I am sure you would find the info needed to subscribe...it comes out a few times a year - maybe quarterly? But I think it is a reasonable rate and there are always deals to renew. :-) Good luck!! :-)

Baked Frenchs Fried Onion Chicken--
-2 eggs
-Frenchs fried onion ( crushed into small pieces )
-chicken tenders
Coat the tenders in egg mix and fried onions, place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake.
I grabbed this recipe from a commercial and its delicious. Super fast and easy. I served it with buttered corn and steamed asparagus.

I put together some kind of experimental casserole tonight that ended up really good. Polish sausage sliced, potatoes ( I had canned that I was going to use in a stew but real ones would work better) sliced , then a little milk , flour , garlic salt and some cheese mixed in then later sprinkled on top.
I do things like use ground pork for spaghetti and chili.
Allrecipes.com is another good resource .

This recipe is a favorite from well over 30 years ago.....

Brown a lb. of ground meat and drain. Stir in a can of cream of mushroom soup and some frozen veggies. Bake for about 25 minutes, then place canned biscuits on top and bake for an additional 12 minutes or until biscuits are browned. It's SUPER easy and it's good comfort food.

Most of these plates are relatively easy, As long as you start 1hr in advance. lasagna,
cornbread,
peppers stuffed with meat, and a side of rice
Chicken soup
Cheesy nachos meat or chicken
Pasta Alfredo

If I think of more, I will post!

My son loves pesto. I put it in pasta, on grilled chicken, makes dips for bread. You can buy it made or make your own.

If you, or anyone else, is interested in a Word Document that I have cut and pasted easy recipes into, let me know and message me your email address and I'll send it. I have been trying new things lately and hubby is very happy. Here's an easy crock pot recipe:

Crock Pot Chicken W/ Black Beans and Cream Cheese...yum!
By Jen Santiago on April 16, 2004

Photo by keepin'itsimple
1408 Reviews
•
• Prep Time: 3 mins
• Total Time: 4 hrs 3 mins
• Servings: 4
About This Recipe
"I love this Crock-Pot chicken recipe for two reasons: one, my family loves it and two, it is so easy to make! I got this recipe from my sister. She has two children of her own, and they love it too! It's also the best leftovers in the world -- if there are any!"
Ingredients
o 4 -5 boneless chicken breasts
o 1 (15 1/2 ounce) cans black beans
o 1 (15 ounce) cans corn
o 1 (15 ounce) jars salsa, any kind
o 1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
Directions
1. Take 4-5 frozen, yes, frozen, boneless chicken breasts put into crock pot.
2. Add 1 can of black beans, drained, 1 jar of salsa, 1 can of corn drained.
3. Keep in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked.
4. Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it on top!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour.
5. All done and enjoy!

I get into a rut & love when everyone shares their recipes.

How about:
Shepherd's pie

grilled steaks, twice baked potatoes

taco salad

rotisserie chicken w/mashed potatoes & gravy

Hamburger helper?

Hamburgers

chicken salad

chicken pot pie

chili beans, cornbread, salad

carne asada fajitas

salmon

steak salad

We like Stuffed baked potatoes.. anything can go on top.. grilled chicken, Avocados, sesame seeds.. Onion dip

Chicken and dumplings

Sausage wraps

tortollini

Ravioli

Grilled seafood

Shrimp tacos in flour tortillas

Breakfast tacos for dinner

Meatball sandwiches

Roast a Turkey, Freeze half of it.

Turkey Tetrazzini

BBQ chicken

Chicken enchiladas

Stuffed zucchini

Sunset magazine has great recipes - you can look them up on their webpage. They are different too.

I recently went to WebMD and created an account to get their newsletters emailed. There was an option to get a daily recipe sent to your inbox. I've only been getting them a couple weeks and we've already made several of them, one of which we liked so much it's going into the regular rotation. I'd suggest that. A new, and healthy, idea every day.

Chicken salad homemade is delicious! I can give you the recipe if you are interested.

I also do a homemade creamy chicken, either over rice/noodles or in a baking dish with stuffing on top.

Homemade meatloaf and gravy is one of our staples. Sausage and peppers, spaghetti and meatballs, steaks, pot roast, ham, ....

We are kind of in a rut too.... sharing recipes really does help ;)

I made salmon marsala tonight and it was on of the quickest meals i've made in a long time. And so delicious. My husband doesn't like fish and went for seconds The kids liked it too.

So, I set some brown rice to cook in the microwave according to package instructions. I mixed some whole wheat flour with salt, pepper, onion powder, and a little garlic. I skinned my salmon, cut it into portions, floured it and sautéed over medium heat in a combination of extra virgin olive oil and fat-free butter spray. I deglazed with 1 cup of marsala wine and added a package of baby bella mushrooms I had sliced. I took the salmon out to rest while the wine reduced and thickened and the mushrooms cooked. I added the salmon back to the pan and covered during the last couple minutes of the rice cooking. Big hit!

My husband and I have also instituted Foreign Food Night. He will pick a country (or region of the world) and I will try to make something at least inspired by those flavors. For Greek, I took a pork tenderloin and roasted it with a spice mixture for "Mediterranean Roast Lamb." And then I made a couscous salad and a Tzadziki sauce. (So easy. Just get plain greek yogurt, shred some cucumber in it and season with salt, pepper and garlic.)

Another easy country.... Poland. Got some Kielbasa (you can get Turkey Kielbasa to cut down on fat) and some pirogues. I caramelized some onions and served with a mustard sauce. Yum.

My husband had the most limited diet of any adult I had ever known when I started cooking for him. Not so much anymore. :-)

LOL...You lost me at "quick and easy".

My version of quick and easy is frozen food (bake, sautee, or zap) or sammies.

Granted, there are about 1000 hot or cold sammies that can be made, so the list cycles through fairly slowly. Ham and swiss baguettes, philly cheesesteak, bistro beef, pineapple teriyaki chicken, fresh mozz/basil/pesto/tomato, BLTs, BLTAs, CBLTAs, fried egg, deviled egg, turkey cranberry, turkey pepper, 50 kinds of paninis... the list gets even longer if you include various forms of quesodillas (chicken, steak, cuban pork, mushroom, bbq, artichoke red pepper, chipoltle, shrimp).... well... you get the drift. Dinner between bread (or tortillas). Preferably using leftovers.