1 lb cooked and shredded chicken
1 can pinto beans (drained)
1 small zucchini (sliced)
1 pkg mushrooms (sliced)
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 packets taco seasoning
2/3 c water
Flour tortillas - soft taco sized
Add a little olive oil to a large pan and sautee the onions and mushrooms until almost done. Add the zucchini and sautee lightly (but not until done or it will end up overdone). Add the chicken, beans, and taco seasoning. Stir in water. Simmer until liquid is thick.
Warm the tortillas. Fill and wrap. You can add any garnishes you like before filling. I’ve been having mine with guacamole.
Sunday I made 15-bean soup with a leftover lotsa-meat-on-it ham bone. With cornbread doctored with green chilis and frozen corn kernels.
Last night I made chicken fried steak, mashed taters, cream gravy and peas.
Tonight I made shrimp creole and dirty rice, with green beans.
Later this week I have planned:
Crab cakes and lobster bisque with a tossed salad.
Venison chili.
BBQ chicken legs and link sausage, with leftover bean soup as a side dish. Maybe potato salad if I get adventurous.
Chicken and dumplings made with poached chicken breast, chopped carrots and celery in boxed chicken stock. Dumplings are made with store-bought biscuits in a can, torn into small pieces.
Wow, there are a lot of good cooks on this forum.:eek: I felt peckish reading this thread and I just finished dinner!
Tonight we had homegrown lamb, steamed homegrown purple potatoes (the last, I’m sorry to say), homegrown spaghetti squash baked while the lamb roasted, and some homemade lemon/lime chutney that I like with lamb. The kids had carrot sticks as their vegetable as they don’t eat squash. I had time to bake dinner rolls, which will also do in the kids’ school lunches tomorrow.
But you know, there are days when I don’t cook, and there are days when I don’t want to cook or even think about what I’m going to do about dinner. If I lived alone, I’d probably be one of those old ladies that lives on tea and toast and dies of a broken hip.
Some excellent recipes in this thread. Will save them. Thanks.
I basically live on lean chicken and relatively lean beef, as I am trying to get into some semblance of shape.
The key is to use all of the different spices and sauces you have available to make them as palatable as possible. That said, this thread makes me miss lamb. A lot. (Mostly because it’s hard to get lamb from the supermarkets in this area except in whole legs, and I don’t have an occasion or an audience to cook a whole leg that often.)
I love this marinade, but it’s not specifically a fajita marinade.
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 c olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 lemon, zested
2 tsp salt
1 tsp hot sauce
6 (6-oz) chicken breasts
Mix all ingredients except chicken in a large Zip-loc bag. Add chicken and squish to coat. Marinade for 1 hour.
Last time I made this, we had grilled chicken breasts for dinner, then I used extra grilled breasts for fajita quesadillas later in the week. I think it would work well with other seasonings like cumin and chili powder in place of the basil and oregano. They come out moist and tender.
I hear ya on the broke, fortunately I have the cooking essentials already stocked up so all I have to buy are the ingredients, that New York was on sale which is the only reason I got it
tonight I had some of my frozen dinners that I cook, vacuum seal and freeze. had Pot roast and Roasted Veggies.
for the roasted veggies I went kinda crazy this time.
Costco had a 5 pound bag of fingerling taters for just over 5 bucks (good price for taters anyway) they were mixed white/red/purple ones so I couldnt resist.
so as follows
5 pounds taters (yeah only if you plan on left overs and have a big roasting pan, if not go with a cookie sheet)
2-5 carrots depends on how much you like them
onions, I used about 4 small ones
garlic cloves, whole as many as you like (mmmm roasted garlic)
olive oil, not much 2-3 spoonfuls
salt and pepper to taste
basil
oregano
a bit of thyme
and sundried tomatoes in oil (a handful chopped up pretty small)
cut taters down to bite sized pieces or bigger, ad all spices (hold off on tomatoes) and bake in oven at around 325-350 ish for 15-20 min
cut and ad carrots and back in oven for another 15-20 min (note times dont matter to much here as long as you keep stirring and dont go to hot this is hard to mess up)
cut onions up and after the taters have been in for 1 hour add the rest, cooking for another hour with stirs every 15-20 min, after an hour check to be sure the garlic is soft and mushy, if not keep cooking in 15 min intervals.
this time I added goat cheese cheddar before I froze it for extra deliciousness.
Leftover leg or shoulder of lamb makes the best fajitas known to man. I cut it into longish pieces (not diced, I mean) and fry it quick in a little oil with fajita seasonings, it becomes a whole other meat, quite delicious in its own way. You can certainly cut the meat off the bone and freeze it until you feel like making fajitas, too. It’s not something you have to do the next day.
We prefer lamb fajitas over any other kind, at our house.
A few nights ago we tried a Rachael Ray recipe for Rosemary Garlic Chicken that was insanely good. With that we had Roasted Rosemary Potatoes which might have also been from Ray… It worked well since most of the ingredients were the same between the two dishes.
Monday night I made sirloin steak a la moutarde using the mustard sauce recipe for kidney from Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, and set it on a bed of mashed turnips boiled in chicken stock.
Thanks, Dolores, for the marinade. Sounds good and definitely something I will try. You’ve also got me thinking about some chicken and dumplings…I’m having guests this weekend, the perfect chance to make a big ol’ batch.
Sunday: Ham Dinner (see that Ham side dish thread for inspiration)
Monday: Leftover ham dinner
Tuesday: Grilled, ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches
Wednesday: Scalloped Potatoes w/lots of ham
Tomorrow: Ham and 8 Bean soup
Friday: anything but freakin’ cured pig.
Last night we had fettuccine cabonara - it’s really easy.
Dice 5 pieces of lean bacon. If you like onion, dice a shallot, small brown onion or a couple of spring onions as well. Chuck in a fry pan to sizzle until the bacon is crisp and the onion is glossy. If the bacon is fatty, you won’t need any oil, but if you prefer lean bacon, spray the pan with a bit of olive oil first. I also find that I get crispier bacon if I start with a cold pan, but YMMV.
While the bacon sizzles, put a big ol’ pot of water on to boil. In a small bowl mix together two egg yolks, a 1/3 cup of grated parmesan, a 1/3 cup of cream and some cracked black pepper and parsley to taste. I use the stuff in a tube cos it keeps forever and my potted parsley isn’t exactly thriving, but chopped fresh is best. Dried will do.
Chuck a pack of fettuccine on and cook to packet instructions. I use the Latina Fresh stuff, but you might prefer dried, or have a local fresh pasta place.
When the pasta is done, drain and return the pot to a very low heat. *Quickly * add the egg mixture, the bacon mixture and pasta and stir thoroughly so the pasta is coated. Serve with a pinch of fresh grated parmesan on top. This cools quickly, so I like to warm the serving plates first to the pasta stays nice and hot while we eat.
This is enough for two people as a main meal, or three as a side dish.
Other meals this week have been home-made pizza (but using pre-prepared base), Thai takeaway (I was running late and the shop was right there!) and sausage rolls, party pies and a milkshake (after I gave blood).
