What are you having for dinner?

After reading all our yours I am embarassed to admit for us tonight it was sloppy joes, chips, pickles and green beans! I have 2 picky eaters ages, 5 & 2. Make that 3 picky eaters but he is 29. Please tell me someone else still eats like this sometimes! 8O

[Auspicious]

We like stuff that's different from what we grew up on, but is still very easy to prepare. Tonight he's cooking and he's making . . . well, we just call it "that goat cheese thing." He sautes spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, minced garlic, and sometimes pesto, then mixes in cooked pasta and then sprinkles it with crumbled goat cheese. It takes like 15 minutes--my kind of recipe. We're definitely trying the tortilla soup and thai pumpkin soup.

Sadly, we ended up being sorta disappointed with the Tandoori Chicken recipe (which my boyfriend said would more accurately be called "Chicken with Yogurt Sauce"). It was one of those situations where you taste it and say "hmm, this needs . . . something" but I'm not an intuitive enough cook to be able to guess what that is. Maybe someone else would have better luck with it or like it more:

Tandoori Chicken

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon sliced ginger root
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup nonfat yogurt
4 bonelss, skinless chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients except chicken and pour over chicken breasts. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 24 hours
Place chicken with marinade in a shallow baking pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

(Note, A. our ginger and garlic came out of jars, B. I didn't have any coriander so I doubled the cardamom and C. I made the full amount of sauce but only used two chicken breasts)

[DCJenn]

My poor husband has been exposed to a whole new world of food since he met me. The man had never eaten a decent olive and had no odea how yummy they can be! He had never had goat cheese (an acquired taste, for sure), decent wine- decent liquors- you name it!

Tonight we had bow tie pasta (because the bag was already opened) and a mixture of two left over sauces that I doctored up with sauteed mushrooms and olives. We also had a salad with romaine, grape tomatos and red bell pepper. I used up my Annies Organic Buttermilk dressing.

Can you tell I'm in the "we have to use all of this up in six months" mode?

Jenn

[Meenah]

I had leftover soup from last night. It really wasn't very good. Jory isn't home yet, so he probably ate leftovers from patient trays!!! I can't wait to try out the tortilla soup recipe. Have any of you seen the movie "Tortilla Soup"? What a great movie, especially if you like to cook.

I am in a cooking club, we have been together for 14 months. We meet once a month, we rotate houses and the host house always cooks the entree. At each dinner, over desert we plan the next months theme/menu/who brings what/etc. There are 6 of us, no husbands or children allowed. It is beter than group therapy!!!! This month the theme is German and I have appetizer. does anyone know how hard it is to find a German appetizer, much less a German recipe. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Luanne

[DCJenn]

Luanne-

How about 1) Steaming some white asparagus and serving it with some sort of mustard based dip

2) German cheeses

3) Contact the German embassy in DC and ask. They love that kind of stuff and will probably email you some recipes. I got some great recipes from the Polish Embassy once.

Jenn

Luanne- If you are going to go Old Germany, there are many recipes to choose from and perhaps Swiss cuisine would fit the bill as they are so alike in many ways. I have two suggestions.

:arrow: German Potato Pancakes with applesauce- this I would serve with a Kabinett or a domestic Reisling. I am partial to J Lohr myself as I love a stronger, not so sweet Reisling.

:arrow: Krispy German Meatballs, there are loads of different recipes. Serve with a Gewurtraminer. Chateau Ste. Michelle is a good Domestic Producer.

One of my passions has become German wines. What fun your cooking club should be with all that fatteningly scrumptious food and German beer and wine. Have fun!!

Trisha

[Meenah]

I made the tortilla soup tonight, it was delicious. Many thanks.
Luanne

Tonight it was Marinated Salmon with Roasted carmalized Sweet Potatoes and Red Pepper Salsa.

All right, now you're just showing off.

After reading all our yours I am embarassed to admit for us tonight it was sloppy joes, chips, pickles and green beans! I have 2 picky eaters ages, 5 & 2. Make that 3 picky eaters but he is 29. Please tell me someone else still eats like this sometimes! 8O

With that on the menu, my husband would be right over. In fact, that may be what he gets tomorrow night and he will be so happy. I'll tell him to thank you for the idea.

When he's out with me at one of "my" kind of restaurant, he points to things on the menu with scared eyes and asks "Would I like this?" Poor thing. Whatever did he see in me?

Eliz

Whew! I'm glad hubby went back to work today. He brought a pizza home and I had one of those lovely Lean "Cuisine" things. Maybe I can satrt to refocus on this diet thing, that is till he has his next day off. Great, I just looked and he has this whole weekend off. Lovely. Better stock up for the weekend.

Trisha

[mommax3]

I have been reading this thread and it is making it VERY hard to stay on my diet! I love to cook, but I have figured out that I feel entitled to eat for as long as the meal took to prepare -- so I keep it very simple! Lean Cuisine is right up my alley and I have stopped eating with my family because smelling what they get drives me crazy. I still cook it, but my husband takes over from there, if he is home.

We had the neatest store in San Antonio (Jenn will agree, I know) called Central Market that had EVERYTHING you needed to cook gourmet and stuff I didn't even know existed. One of the grocery stores here gets raves from the natives for doing the same thing, but it is a pi**poor imitation. There are also no good restaurants here, unless you are into discussing the complexities of chicken fried steak or barbeque, so we are always feeling deprived.

I do get Cooking Light and I really enjoy it -- without guilt! So all is not lost.

Sally

[DCJenn]

my experiment

Central Market was listed as one of the top grocery stores in the country and FoodTV had a story on it on one of their shows (The Houston store which is even bigger than the SA store, as hard as that is for me to believe)

Tonight I experimented with the Tortilla soup and judging from the moans and groans from my husband, I'd guess it was a resounding success. I baked a whole chicken until it was almost done- meanwhile chopped an onion and cooked it in some olive oil until it was soft- then threw in two boxes of Swanson low fat chicken broth, 9 roma tomatos that I had chopped in half and four garlic cloves, also chopped. After the chicken was nearly done, I tossed it in the pot. I had seasoned the chicken skin with salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, parsley and a pinch of just about everything else interesting. So, I skinned the chicken before I tossed it in the pot but of course there were residual spices left. Then I added more cumin and more coriander. Cooked the chicken until it just about fell off the bone- and viola! done-

Added some sliced avacado and some shredded queso fresco, I sliced and baked some of the tortillas and tossed them on top with fresh cilantro and that was it. A massive pot of soup in a little over an hour.

Jenn

I saw the part on Unwrapped on the Food network and just about died. I asked DH if we could move to Houston so I could go grocery shopping every day. We want to move back to Texas so bad, this makes it even worse. BooHoo You guys are really lucky.

Trisha

Well, we just had a stretch of leftovers and packaged food (Stouffer's Creat-a-Meal - Chicken Alfredo), and breakfast for dinner (last night we had waffles and sausage for dinner!) and I'm ready to go back to cooking tonight. I'm making a "quick" version of Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. Looking forward to some hearty comfort food.

Tonight was veggie--tomato soup, baked potatoes with chives and parmesan, salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and corn muffins. Long day at work and about 2 hours of sleep last night.