One thing that kind of intrigues me is that every family seems to eat a little differently. There are the gourmet chefs, the never-cooks, the picky eaters—but even among those who eat fairly “normal” (normal to me, that is) meals each night, I’m often surprised when I find out how different any given family’s normal is from ours. So for this post, I’m going to list a pretty generic week’s worth of our meals. I’d love to hear what you eat on a regular basis as well! And if anyone wants to start swapping recipes, we can do that too.
Homemade Pizza
We love this so much we eat it about every two to three weeks. I make my own dough and sauce, but I use extremely easy (and good) recipes for both. Not to boast, but some have said that my pizza is better than restaurant pizza. I don’t know that I agree (it’s certainly better than Little Caesar’s), but it sure is fun to choose your own toppings.
Hamburgers
This isn’t the healthiest meal, but we do it pretty often as well. It’s just really fast and easy to make, it makes very few dishes, and everyone likes it. Some nights, that’s enough for me.
Stroganoff
Nothing fancy, just ground beef, canned mushroom soup, sour cream, and a little paprika and Worcestershire sauce for flavoring, served over noodles. I always have canned green beans with mine; I literally can’t eat the meal without the green beans. Sometimes I’ll eat a whole can by myself. Mmmm.
Variations on a Taco Theme
About once every two weeks, I do a variation on tacos: tacos, smothered burritos, beef and bean enchiladas, etc. I love Mexican food, so I often have another Mexican meal each two-week period as well, but it’s usually more difficult to make.
Chicken, Rice, and a Vegetable
I mix up my chicken recipes so I don’t get totally bored. Our family’s kind of unique in that Jon Boy doesn’t like potatoes, so we eat a lot of rice and noodles. Rice is healthier and easier, so I tend to make it more often than noodles. I think my current favorite chicken recipes are the Pepper Lime Chicken from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and a concoction of my own wherein the chicken is breaded in herbed breadcrumbs. For the latter, I like to play with the herb combinations depending on my mood.
Breakfast
We’re not big breakfast eaters, mostly because we have a hard time eating a lot right after we wake up, and we’re in too much of a hurry in the mornings to do more than cereal anyway. But I love breakfast foods, so I just make them at dinnertime. 🙂 Pancakes, waffles with strawberries, French toast, German pancakes, omelettes, breakfast burritos . . . yum!
Black Beans and Rice
I only make this about once a month, but it’s one of my favorite meals, so I had to list it. It’s easy and nutritious, and once again, everyone likes it. I love to put canned mandarin oranges, salsa, tomatoes, coconut, and hard-boiled eggs on top. Jon Boy prefers sour cream and cheese on his. I love customizable meals for families because everyone has their own tastes, and it allows the family to eat together without arguing over what to have as much.
Bonus: Jambalaya
Another one we eat about once a month. I’d probably make it more often, but with bacon, kielbasa sausage, and chicken in it, it’s not the cheapest meal to make.
So, what are your staple meals?
Hm. Good idea. I think I’ll post about it instead of a long comment, though.
Melissa does the majority of the cooking around here, and she just went vegan last month, so our menu is in flux for now (if I want meat, I have to go to Burger King or something like that). She likes to try new things all the time, so I don’t know if we’ll ever settle into a familiar repertoire. If you’re interested, we could send you some of the less-bizarre vegan recipes we’ve enjoyed.
When we cook dinner, our most frequent recipes are Braden’s mum’s lasagna, Braden’s grandpa’s herb rice, salsa chicken, and soup (broccoli cheese, chicken noodle, tortilla, black bean chili, or glop). Sometimes mashed potatoes or chicken parmesan or some variation on salmon. There are usually so many leftovers that we struggle to finish them within a week.
However, [shame-faced] I almost never cook dinner if we don’t have company coming. We eat lots of tomato sandwiches (which I *love*). It’s a rare week in which we haven’t eaten them at least three times. I’ve been trying to steam veggies more often, so we have those a lot, too.
For breakfast, it’s cereal (me) or toast (Bawb). (Bawb likes to share his toast with the puppies, so on the rare occasion when I have toast for breakfast, I’m surrounded by drooling dogs.)