Sunday in the kitchen :)

themuffinman16

I love big sunday dinners. It's my favorite memories, as a child, with my family.  Every sunday we'd gather around to eat a nice home cooked meal. While I don't have a house yet, I often enjoy borrowing other people's bigger kitchens to cook. I am making Ina Garten's individual chicken pot pies, tomorrow. It takes four hours to cook, but is well worth it.  I add fresh thyme, instead of parsley, and add a little white wine (for more depth of flavor). I add carrots, pearl onions, and celery (not a fan of peas).  I am making a double batch, and hitting the gym, before I have to take out the seams in all of my pants!  What's everyone else making this week?

lyndausvi

I love Sunday dinners.  We did that growing up too.  When we lived in the islands every Sunday 6-15 of us would get together for Sunday dinner.

I miss those day.  Now DH works on Sundays, boo.

 Anyway, I do not do big Sunday cooking, nor do we do an real meal planning.   This week I just plan to empty out the pantry and freezer.   I just will wing it each day.   

themuffinman16

lyndausvi said:

I love Sunday dinners.  We did that growing up too.  When we lived in the islands every Sunday 6-15 of us would get together for Sunday dinner.

I miss those day.  Now DH works on Sundays, boo.

 Anyway, I do not do big Sunday cooking, nor do we do an real meal planning.   This week I just plan to empty out the pantry and freezer.   I just will wing it each day.   

Giada Laurentiis has some great recipes for cooking simple meals using what you have in your pantry. It's great when you want to put together something great, but don't want to make a trip to the store. It's in her Everyday Italian cookbook.

climbingsingle

That sounds delicious.

No big Sunday cooking this week as I'm sick. But last week I made turkey chili.

themuffinman16

climbingwife said:

That sounds delicious.

No big Sunday cooking this week as I'm sick. But last week I made turkey chili.

I hope you feel better. Do you mind sharing your turkey chili recipe with me, when you are feeling better?

lyndausvi

themuffinman16 said:

lyndausvi said:

I love Sunday dinners.  We did that growing up too.  When we lived in the islands every Sunday 6-15 of us would get together for Sunday dinner.

I miss those day.  Now DH works on Sundays, boo.

 Anyway, I do not do big Sunday cooking, nor do we do an real meal planning.   This week I just plan to empty out the pantry and freezer.   I just will wing it each day.   

Giada Laurentiis has some great recipes for cooking simple meals using what you have in your pantry. It's great when you want to put together something great, but don't want to make a trip to the store. It's in her Everyday Italian cookbook.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Her mom loves my DH. 

 I'm actually a pretty basic cook.  I normally just grab a protein, bunch of veggies and sometimes a starch and call it a day.  Sometimes I do pasta.  I just cook for myself, as DH is only home for dinner 3 nights a week.   

Nights DH is home is a free for all.  Sometimes he cooks, sometimes we eat out.  DH flat out refuses to meal plan.  He even gets mad if I ask at breakfast what he wants for dinner.  He very much just goes with the follow.   Being a chef he has no problem figuring out what to do with ingredients in the pantry/freezer.

themuffinman16

lyndausvi said:

themuffinman16 said:

lyndausvi said:

I love Sunday dinners.  We did that growing up too.  When we lived in the islands every Sunday 6-15 of us would get together for Sunday dinner.

I miss those day.  Now DH works on Sundays, boo.

 Anyway, I do not do big Sunday cooking, nor do we do an real meal planning.   This week I just plan to empty out the pantry and freezer.   I just will wing it each day.   

Giada Laurentiis has some great recipes for cooking simple meals using what you have in your pantry. It's great when you want to put together something great, but don't want to make a trip to the store. It's in her Everyday Italian cookbook.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Her mom loves my DH. 

 I'm actually a pretty basic cook.  I normally just grab a protein, bunch of veggies and sometimes a strach and call it a day.  Sometimes I do pasta.  I just cook for myself, as DH is only home for dinner 3 nights a week.   

Nights DH is home is a free for all.  Sometimes he cooks, sometimes we eat out.  DH flat out refuses to meal plan.  He even gets mad if I ask at breakfast what he wants for dinner.  He very much just goes with the follow.   Being a chef he has no problem figuring out what to do with ingredients in the pantry/freezer.

Is it okay to be jealous?

lyndausvi

themuffinman16 said:

lyndausvi said:

themuffinman16 said:

lyndausvi said:

I love Sunday dinners.  We did that growing up too.  When we lived in the islands every Sunday 6-15 of us would get together for Sunday dinner.

I miss those day.  Now DH works on Sundays, boo.

 Anyway, I do not do big Sunday cooking, nor do we do an real meal planning.   This week I just plan to empty out the pantry and freezer.   I just will wing it each day.   

Giada Laurentiis has some great recipes for cooking simple meals using what you have in your pantry. It's great when you want to put together something great, but don't want to make a trip to the store. It's in her Everyday Italian cookbook.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Her mom loves my DH. 

 I'm actually a pretty basic cook.  I normally just grab a protein, bunch of veggies and sometimes a strach and call it a day.  Sometimes I do pasta.  I just cook for myself, as DH is only home for dinner 3 nights a week.   

Nights DH is home is a free for all.  Sometimes he cooks, sometimes we eat out.  DH flat out refuses to meal plan.  He even gets mad if I ask at breakfast what he wants for dinner.  He very much just goes with the follow.   Being a chef he has no problem figuring out what to do with ingredients in the pantry/freezer.

Is it okay to be jealous?

begin a chef's wife isn't all that it's crack up to be.  This time of year he is home 3 nights a week.  6 months of the year it's 0 nights a week.  Yep, he works 7 days a week for 6 months in a row.  Holiday?  Yeah, forget about those.  

Cooking fancy meals for you?  Yeah, forget that too.  The last thing he wants to do is cook a fancy meal on his day off.

themuffinman16

Boo! That stinks!

huskypuppy14

Like Lynda's husband, my husband works at night. He's only off 2 nights a week. I pretty much do the same thing as her, protein, starch, and vegetable. 

We do do meal planning for the days he his home. Nothing big, more like, want chicken on Monday?

lyndausvi

huskypuppy14 said:

Like Lynda's husband, my husband works at night. He's only off 2 nights a week. I pretty much do the same thing as her, protein, starch, and vegetable. 

We do do meal planning for the days he his home. Nothing big, more like, want chicken on Monday?

I find it easy to cook like that.   I just pick a protein and then decide from there.  Sometimes I grill, bake, sauté, stir-fry.   Most of meals are cooked in under 30 minutes.  

About once a quarter I make up a big batch of meatballs and red sauce.  Then I portion them out using my food saver vacuum sealer.  Boom, I have 7 or so meals in the freezer.  Pull out a packet, throw it in some boiling water. Cook up some pasta. In 15-20 mins I have a meal.   I also make up pulled pork and portion them out for future meals. Again 15-20 mins later I have a meal.

missdelilah

I definitely miss the Sunday roast, but unfortunately at this point we have about one friend who would show up to one, and at that point it seems a little wasteful.

My friend at home convinced me to join her on this incredibly fiddly diet.  DH thinks it's a lot of trash, but it makes a lot of sense to me.  It's basically the "eat like your great grandparents" diet, so I'm seriously giving it a go, and DH is eating that when he's at home, but not while he's at work.  So that's what we're/I'm doing today/this evening.  Looking through new cookbook and trying to find something DH won't wrinkle his nose up at.  

blabla89

@themuffinman16 will you share your recipe, pretty please?

Sunday dinner (or any sit-down dinner, for that matter) wasn't a thing in my family, but it sounds lovely. Sundays
are busy and I spend most of the day at church seeing friends, then
stop at the grocery store and try to find the motivation to do some meal
prepping when I get home. I'm hoping that once I move in with FI we can start a dinner group with some friends from church who live nearby.

themuffinman16

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-pot-pie-recipe.html

This is how I tweaked the recipe to give it more depth: I do not add salt to the chicken when I roast it.  I add the butter and the onions to the Dutch oven (why do i still chuckle when I say dutch oven?). Then I add rustic chunks of celery and carrots and sauté with the onions for 10-15 minutes. I cook the flour for two minutes, and add one cup of chardonnay. I let that reduce, then I add 4 cups of the hot chicken stock.   The bouillon and  chicken stock can add salt to the recipe so add half the salt in increments and test, so it isn't overly salty. I substitute half and half for heavy cream. Instead of the parsley, i add 2 Tbs of Thyme.

sophhabobopha

We do Saturday dinners/drinking/game nights at SIL's about twice a month. Love it.

AlexisA01

My FSIL will be making her amazing baked Asian marinated chicken. I will be making an apple tarte for dessert. I can't wait to cook tomorrow. My parents will be joining FMIL and FSIL at her place for our dinner. I am so excited.

missdelilah

I think I'm going to have a steal a tradition from one of MI friends.  They do monthly dinner/wine/movie nights in their wedding gowns.  Well, seriously, when will I ever wear it again?

kmmssg

lyndausvi said:

huskypuppy14 said:

Like Lynda's husband, my husband works at night. He's only off 2 nights a week. I pretty much do the same thing as her, protein, starch, and vegetable. 

We do do meal planning for the days he his home. Nothing big, more like, want chicken on Monday?

I find it easy to cook like that.   I just pick a protein and then decide from there.  Sometimes I grill, bake, sauté, stir-fry.   Most of meals are cooked in under 30 minutes.  

About once a quarter I make up a big batch of meatballs and red sauce.  Then I portion them out using my food saver vacuum sealer.  Boom, I have 7 or so meals in the freezer.  Pull out a packet, throw it in some boiling water. Cook up some pasta. In 15-20 mins I have a meal.   I also make up pulled pork and portion them out for future meals. Again 15-20 mins later I have a meal.

I DON'T SEE A BOX....

You will pry my foodsaver from my cold dead hands. OMG I adore that thing!

kmmssg

Ok now I see the box

theartistformerlyknownas

Can someone please just bring me some pumpkin bread? You'll find me on the couch. Thanks.

lyndausvi

kmmssg said:

lyndausvi said:

huskypuppy14 said:

Like Lynda's husband, my husband works at night. He's only off 2 nights a week. I pretty much do the same thing as her, protein, starch, and vegetable. 

We do do meal planning for the days he his home. Nothing big, more like, want chicken on Monday?

I find it easy to cook like that.   I just pick a protein and then decide from there.  Sometimes I grill, bake, sauté, stir-fry.   Most of meals are cooked in under 30 minutes.  

About once a quarter I make up a big batch of meatballs and red sauce.  Then I portion them out using my food saver vacuum sealer.  Boom, I have 7 or so meals in the freezer.  Pull out a packet, throw it in some boiling water. Cook up some pasta. In 15-20 mins I have a meal.   I also make up pulled pork and portion them out for future meals. Again 15-20 mins later I have a meal.

I DON'T SEE A BOX....

You will pry my foodsaver from my cold dead hands. OMG I adore that thing!

@kmmssg  - we just go a new one. I had a small for over 10 years and it finally died.  That month without was hard.  I would go to the store and see meat on sale and be all sad I couldn't repackage them.    I may or may not had be stalking QVC and UPS for it's delivery date.

lurkergirl

@lyndausvi what bags do you use?  I love the foodsaver, but when I tried throwing a bag in boiling water, I wound up with a pot of melted plastic.  I usually thaw it in hot tap water (ours is set high and does get really hot), then dump it in a pot to heat.  I would love to be able to do it all in one step!

lyndausvi

lurkergirl said:

@lyndausvi what bags do you use?  I love the foodsaver, but when I tried throwing a bag in boiling water, I wound up with a pot of melted plastic.  I usually thaw it in hot tap water (ours is set high and does get really hot), then dump it in a pot to heat.  I would love to be able to do it all in one step!

I just use normal food saver bags.    

I put the frozen bag in the water and then bring both up to a boil.    I have had the side split before.  I chalked it up to overstuffing the bag (they were small bags).  My new one is larger with larger bags.  I just got the new one last week. I haven't made meatballs yet to test out the new bags.

julieanne912

I love to cook, but it's harder to do nice meals these days since my weekends are so busy, and on weekdays, I'm gone from about 7am to 6pm.  But, tonight will be a tri-tip roast (I like doing tri tips cause they're much smaller than a regular roast), probably baked potato, and some kind of vegetable, I have broccoli, asparagus, and spring mix in my fridge.  I repurpose the leftover meat for sandwiches for lunch during the week.

On my menu this week, I have honey mustard chicken bowls (basically chicken on rice with some veggies, with a sauce, in a bowl), Sticky Garlic Chicken with broccoli and rice, and then one of the nights I will do some frozen fish from Costco and probably more rice.  Now that I look at it it's a lot of chicken and rice LOL  Budget cooking anybody?  

Tuesday night we're going to a hockey game so dinner will be there or afterwards. 

kmmssg

julieanne912 said:

I love to cook, but it's harder to do nice meals these days since my weekends are so busy, and on weekdays, I'm gone from about 7am to 6pm.  But, tonight will be a tri-tip roast (I like doing tri tips cause they're much smaller than a regular roast), probably baked potato, and some kind of vegetable, I have broccoli, asparagus, and spring mix in my fridge.  I repurpose the leftover meat for sandwiches for lunch during the week.

On my menu this week, I have honey mustard chicken bowls (basically chicken on rice with some veggies, with a sauce, in a bowl), Sticky Garlic Chicken with broccoli and rice, and then one of the nights I will do some frozen fish from Costco and probably more rice.  Now that I look at it it's a lot of chicken and rice LOL  Budget cooking anybody?  

Tuesday night we're going to a hockey game so dinner will be there or afterwards. 

I'm available every night but the rfish night (fish is of Satan) - and I am a really good baker and will bring the dessert of your choice.

julieanne912

kmmssg said:

julieanne912 said:

I love to cook, but it's harder to do nice meals these days since my weekends are so busy, and on weekdays, I'm gone from about 7am to 6pm.  But, tonight will be a tri-tip roast (I like doing tri tips cause they're much smaller than a regular roast), probably baked potato, and some kind of vegetable, I have broccoli, asparagus, and spring mix in my fridge.  I repurpose the leftover meat for sandwiches for lunch during the week.

On my menu this week, I have honey mustard chicken bowls (basically chicken on rice with some veggies, with a sauce, in a bowl), Sticky Garlic Chicken with broccoli and rice, and then one of the nights I will do some frozen fish from Costco and probably more rice.  Now that I look at it it's a lot of chicken and rice LOL  Budget cooking anybody?  

Tuesday night we're going to a hockey game so dinner will be there or afterwards. 

I'm available every night but the rfish night (fish is of Satan) - and I am a really good baker and will bring the dessert of your choice.

Ha come anytime!  I am actually not a fish fan either, but FI loves it.  I get these preseasoned mahi mahi filets that I can stomach at Costco, but most of the time fish for me is NO GOOD.  He would love it if I would make salmon as he loves that, but that will not be happening, I cannot even stand the smell of it.  

themuffinman16

To me, the smell of fish cooking might as well be a vagina in a microwave

lurkergirl

themuffinman16 said:

To me, the smell of fish cooking might as well be a vagina in a microwave

allispain

I love using weekends to make up big batches of food that can be brought to work as lunches throughout the week - weeknights tend to be more the protein + starch + (frozen) veggie type of thing, since I'm often at work 10-11 hour days (and DH's cooking skills = pancakes).

Last night I made up a batch of homemade Italian wedding soup with homemade turkey meatballs. Super easy, since it involved the slow cooker. Tonight I'm thinking a big pot of lemon-ricotta pasta with spinach and red peppers tossed in. Both reheat nicely :-)

theartistformerlyknownas

allispain said:

I love using weekends to make up big batches of food that can be brought to work as lunches throughout the week - weeknights tend to be more the protein + starch + (frozen) veggie type of thing, since I'm often at work 10-11 hour days (and DH's cooking skills = pancakes).

Last night I made up a batch of homemade Italian wedding soup with homemade turkey meatballs. Super easy, since it involved the slow cooker. Tonight I'm thinking a big pot of lemon-ricotta pasta with spinach and red peppers tossed in. Both reheat nicely :-)

Mmmmm that soup sounds great!

allispain

lolo883 said:

allispain said:

I love using weekends to make up big batches of food that can be brought to work as lunches throughout the week - weeknights tend to be more the protein + starch + (frozen) veggie type of thing, since I'm often at work 10-11 hour days (and DH's cooking skills = pancakes).

Last night I made up a batch of homemade Italian wedding soup with homemade turkey meatballs. Super easy, since it involved the slow cooker. Tonight I'm thinking a big pot of lemon-ricotta pasta with spinach and red peppers tossed in. Both reheat nicely :-)

Mmmmm that soup sounds great!

It really was. DH is super picky about soups and rarely eats them, but he went back for seconds :-)