The All-New What's For Dinner Thread!!(recipe index in OP)

[Nancyg56]

Janice- first Lucas is heading out and then you are next This is so much fun!

Kathy- you are going to skip mashed potatoes????????? Noooooooooooooo, don't do that. You can have mashed potatoes, just use a good chicken stock instead of butter and cream. It takes a little getting used to but since Kady was diagnosed that it all we use and now they taste really good.

 

[liamsaunt]

I make something I hate, like peach cobbler.

You hate peach cobbler??

Send yours to me, thanks!

Best laid plans...

Here are some photos from yesterday's garlic fest. I am going to be honest and tell you that I was pretty disappointed. Laura can chime in here if she wants but basically I felt that all of the flavors were really off. It was just too much garlic. We were working from an article in Wednesday's New York Times food section on garlic foods....I'll show you the pictures and comment on what was wrong for us.

First off, an appetizer of white beans and garlic scapes. This actually was pretty good--but we had to add much more lemon than the recipe called for--at least one full lemon. Plus, we added herbs. We also felt it was a little too salty:

Here is grilled cornell chicken with garlic scapes substituted for the poultry seasoning, with garlic aioli for dipping. This was just fine (Note: our recipe, not from the NY Times menu):

Garlic cheese flatbread...again, too just a LITTLE too garlicky, and too much topping:

The biggest disappontment, from the NY Times article, pasta with wilted arugula, roasted garlic, and pancetta. This was just flat out bad. First off, the recipe called for four heads of roasted garlic for one pound pasta. I LOVE garlic, but come on, that is way too much! So, I used one head. It was still overpoweringly garlickly, and the amount of pancetta called for (8 ounces to one lb. pasta) was WAAAAY too much. I used 6 ounces and it was still crazy too much pancetta. I LOVE bold flavors of food, but this was ridiculous. I threw out what was not eaten at dinner. This dish was expensive to make so I am kind of peeved at the outcome.

But now, the good part! Before dinner, I made a great big pitcher of sangria:

Yum, yum! One bottle cotes du rhone, 8 ounces club soda, 1/2 can goya peach nectar, 1/4 cup cointreau, fruit to taste (I used peaches, plums, nectarines, and strawberries) and LOTS of ice. This made eight drinks.

I also made a huge vegetable salad, Can't go wrong with crunchy veggies:

 

[liamsaunt]

Sunday linner. My parents are on something called the "trilogy diet." Have you heard of it? I don't really get how it works--the only thing I know for sure is that they can't eat most carbs. So, here is dinner.

Roasted asparagus:

Roasted potatoes (for us carb-loving heathens!)

Oyster crumbed New England haddock. Note the crumb-free section of the dish--that is for the trilogy-dieting parents. But, at this same meal, we had Mom's famous eggplant sticks, which are coated with breadcrumbs, and they ate as many of those as they wanted?

 

[Nancyg56]

Becky and Laura- first, Aunday dinner looks so yummy. I am one of those carb lovin heathens, so no trilogy thing for me! Do you ladies like the scapes? I really did not care for them but was so disappointed that I did not. I wonder if we did something wrong, but your food looks so much better than my scaped creations tasted.

Becky- I love roasted garlic and I tend to toss way more in dishes than recipes call for but I never would have been able to use 4 heads in any one dish . One head is usually as much as I dare.

Dinner is in the oven.

I have a honey/mustard coated roast pork, curried sweet potatoes, mashed for the ones (Kady) who will not eat "orange" potatoes, French green beans, roasted tri-colored carrots, salad and gravy.

Marisa is making lunches for the week, so she grilled chicken, cooked some WW couscous, steamed broccoli. We'll use the rest of tonight's leftovers as well.

 

[TheBeadPirate]

Nancy- what's WW couscous? I know WW is weight watchers, but is it something they put out or some way of preparing it that makes it WW?

Becky- on that vegetable salad...is there lettuce under there? Do you just scoop out what you want of each veggie or toss it all together? Sorry to sound dense but that was gorgeous and got me drooling. Do you do dressing or dip with it?

I'm finding, for some reason, my tastes are changing nowadays. Veggies look better than they ever have and I've always been more of a savory gal, but now sweets seem too sugary sweet. I almost never eat candy anymore and I used to be a chocoholic.

And Rick thinks I'm trying to kill him because there are far more veggies than meat nowadays. I was told he was not a rabbit. Whatever!

Dinner tonight- we went to Pappadeaux and shared a greek salad and I had grilled sea scallops and Rick did the baked oyster trio. It was yummy.

 

[TigerKat]

Kathy - I hope you are feeling better today. I hope your willpower is better than mine. I don't think I go forgo the mashed taters.

Kathy- you are going to skip mashed potatoes????????? Noooooooooooooo, don't do that. You can have mashed potatoes, just use a good chicken stock instead of butter and cream. It takes a little getting used to but since Kady was diagnosed that it all we use and now they taste really good.

After doing a lot of reading on what I need to avoid I'm going to start a low-carb diet. My problem area is my belly, that's where ALL of my weight is. I have no hips, no butt and skinny legs. Everything I've read and heard is that I need to eliminate carbs. Well I don't like to eliminate anything so I'm going to cut back...a LOT. I figure with the working out starting in a few weeks (I plan on hitting the gym at least 5 days a week) and doing my treadmill at home, I should start seeing a difference in about a month??????

 

[HERSEY]

My computer just ate my last post. Surfice it to say it was really good.

Here is the readers digest version:

Becky That's a lot of garlic 4 head of garlic to 1 lb of pasta must be a misprint.

Laura the carbs in the eggplant sticks are offset by the vegetables rendering them useless.

Lori What has Rick done to you? No candy too sweet. I think you have spent too much time on the road. Veggies have their place. I love a good salad.

Kathy I think you should start seeing a difference in a couple of weeks. Don't get too carried away. Seriously carbs are necessary for a healthy diet just cut back but not severly.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Hello from Cape Cod!

WFD? LOBSTER!!!!!!

 

[TheBeadPirate]

My computer just ate my last post. Surfice it to say it was really good.

Here is the readers digest version:

Becky That's a lot of garlic 4 head of garlic to 1 lb of pasta must be a misprint.

Laura the carbs in the eggplant sticks are offset by the vegetables rendering them useless.

Lori What has Rick done to you? No candy too sweet. I think you have spent too much time on the road. Veggies have their place. I love a good salad.

Kathy I think you should start seeing a difference in a couple of weeks. Don't get too carried away. Seriously carbs are necessary for a healthy diet just cut back but not severly.

I told him ice wine and Rosa Regale were dessert enough for me. He agreed.

Then I told him technically they were fruit.

He said a curse word.

I giggled(I actually thought it was hysterical).

Chicago traffic is even bad on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[HERSEY]

I told him ice wine and Rosa Regale were dessert enough for me. He agreed.

Then I told him technically they were fruit.

He said a curse word.

I giggled(I actually thought it was hysterical).

Chicago traffic is even bad on a Sunday afternoon.

The cross town game is tonight between the CUBS and the sox. It is a huge deal here. The rivalry is almost as bad and the Cards and the Cubs.

 

[TigerKat]

Becky - Your pics are amazing as always!

 

[liamandcaili]

Anyone have experience with the size of the studio at OKW. I think it will be nice to have the extra room with all of DS's extra baggage (stroller/ car seat, etc.)

Greg and I had a studio at OKW on our honeymoon. We thought it was quite spacious. We have stayed in a BWV studio, and that was much smaller. Of course, it may have seemed that way because we were there with the kids.

Becky- on that vegetable salad...is there lettuce under there? Do you just scoop out what you want of each veggie or toss it all together? Sorry to sound dense but that was gorgeous and got me drooling. Do you do dressing or dip with it?

Lori, the salad did not get mixed. Everyone just helped themselves to what they wanted, and there was salad underneath. My mom made a dijon dressing, which was just okay to me.

After doing a lot of reading on what I need to avoid I'm going to start a low-carb diet. I figure with the working out starting in a few weeks (I plan on hitting the gym at least 5 days a week) and doing my treadmill at home, I should start seeing a difference in about a month??????

Good luck, Kathy!

My parents are on something called the "trilogy diet." Have you heard of it? I don't really get how it works--the only thing I know for sure is that they can't eat most carbs.

Except, apparently, when we aren't around or if the carb in question is beer. Beck caught them with potato chips last night and tomorrow they are having ravioli.

Like Beck said, the garlic fest was a bit of a disappointment. I wouldn't go out of my way to use scapes again -- they are much stronger than the recipes we were using indicated -- and I will not put pancetta in my pasta again. Today's meal was good, but I am already hungry.

 

[Nancyg56]

We too have a quest to stay at all or nearly all of the resorts. Next will be AKL for Mr A he really wants to stay there.

AKL is my favorite resort. If Marisa and Jeff did not like the monorail so much I would have chosen it again. There is something special when you can sit on your balcony and watch exotic animals grazing.

Nancy- what's WW couscous? I know WW is weight watchers, but is it something they put out or some way of preparing it that makes it WW?

The WW is Whole Wheat. We are following the Core plan for weight watchers and we are allowed grains without counting points if they are whole wheat.

After doing a lot of reading on what I need to avoid I'm going to start a low-carb diet. My problem area is my belly, that's where ALL of my weight is. I have no hips, no butt and skinny legs. Everything I've read and heard is that I need to eliminate carbs. Well I don't like to eliminate anything so I'm going to cut back...a LOT. I figure with the working out starting in a few weeks (I plan on hitting the gym at least 5 days a week) and doing my treadmill at home, I should start seeing a difference in about a month??????

I have equal opportunity fat everywhere. No skinny butt, legs arms etc. No skinny nothing!

I read that calcium burns belly fat and have three servings a day.

Like Beck said, the garlic fest was a bit of a disappointment. I wouldn't go out of my way to use scapes again -- they are much stronger than the recipes we were using indicated -- and I will not put pancetta in my pasta again. Today's meal was good, but I am already hungry.

That was my impression of the scapes as well. We took a ride to the garlic farm to buy them and will not make that trip again. They were like a bitter garlic onion sort of thing to me.

Your parents are killing me

Dinner was super tonight. DH gave it 5 stars out of 5. He did not like the maple on the pork chops last week so he was afraid

 

[Aimeedyan]

I ended up spending the day in bed yesterday, just felt lousy, achy & tired. So far today, just a bit better but I've got to get my butt up and moving, too many things to do.

Ended up getting take-out again (3 nights in a row) .Shrimp had to be frozen so I'm going to have to do DS's favorite, country fried steak, mashed taters and greens.

I'm glad you're feeling better.

How do you make your country fried steak? We haven't mastered a method here yet.

Hey Guys, Quick check in from OKW!!!

It is raining but supposed to stop so we will head to the pool and then to Raglan!!!

We rented a car this time and so far really like that.

Oh, I hope you have a fantastic visit! My momma will be working in the parks this week but it might be odd if I asked you to go give her a hug for me, wouldn't it?

We always get a car too and love it.

Here are some photos from yesterday's garlic fest. I am going to be honest and tell you that I was pretty disappointed. Laura can chime in here if she wants but basically I felt that all of the flavors were really off. It was just too much garlic. We were working from an article in Wednesday's New York Times food section on garlic foods....I'll show you the pictures and comment on what was wrong for us.

What a bummer. I hate when I spend a lot of $ and time and the whole thing is a bust.


My fried rice last night rocked - whatever I did, it worked.

I have chicken legs thawing that I was going to grill with BBQ sauce slathered on them... but it's 7pm, the legs take 45 minutes, and I don't want to bother trying to figure out sides. So I told DH we may be getting Sonic or McDonalds. I'm such a lazy wimp by the end of Sundays.

 

[OKWMom]

Sunday linner. My parents are on something called the "trilogy diet." Have you heard of it? I don't really get how it works--the only thing I know for sure is that they can't eat most carbs. So, here is dinner.

Never heard of the diet, but your linner looked yummy. Especially the heathen potatoes.

I'll remember to send my share of any peach cobbler your way. I had a traumatic childhood experience with peaches. Not as bad as your childhood trauma involving lamb, but horrible nonetheless. I have a very strict no peach rule. This includes any soap or candle product smelling of peaches.

I'm finding, for some reason, my tastes are changing nowadays. Veggies look better than they ever have and I've always been more of a savory gal, but now sweets seem too sugary sweet. I almost never eat candy anymore and I used to be a chocoholic.

When you find out how that happened, please let me know. I could stand to give up sweets.

After doing a lot of reading on what I need to avoid I'm going to start a low-carb diet. My problem area is my belly, that's where ALL of my weight is. I have no hips, no butt and skinny legs. Everything I've read and heard is that I need to eliminate carbs. Well I don't like to eliminate anything so I'm going to cut back...a LOT. I figure with the working out starting in a few weeks (I plan on hitting the gym at least 5 days a week) and doing my treadmill at home, I should start seeing a difference in about a month??????

Good luck!

Hello from Cape Cod!

WFD? LOBSTER!!!!!!

YUMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!

I have equal opportunity fat everywhere. No skinny butt, legs arms etc. No skinny nothing!

Me too Nancy. Me too.

Glad Buddy liked dinner today. I can't say the same for Kenny. After two bites, he told me that anytime I was craving lettuce wraps he would be glad to buy me dinner at Changs. Need I say more.

Oh well. At least I now have another dinner to serve whenever he has made me mad. (See Nancy, I'm learning.)

 

[Nancyg56]

Oh well. At least I now have another dinner to serve whenever he has made me mad. (See Nancy, I'm learning.)

You make me proud

 

[TigerKat]

After two bites, he told me that anytime I was craving lettuce wraps he would be glad to buy me dinner at Changs. Need I say more.

Oh well. At least I now have another dinner to serve whenever he has made me mad. (See Nancy, I'm learning.)

You make me proud

Y'all are so funny. Last weekend we had Chang's lettuce wraps for the first time and I fell in love with them. I mentioned to Johnny & Kyle that I had seen a copykat recipe for it and wanted to try it for dinner one night, they both looked at me and said as long as we have two entrees to go with it. So needless to say next time I want the lettuce wraps, we're going to Changs.

 

[TigerKat]

How do you make your country fried steak? We haven't mastered a method here yet.

Here's a link to the recipe that I use, it really comes out great!

http://www.wwltv.com/frankdavis/gsrecipes/chickenfriedsteak.htm

I use any kind of chicken fry mix that I can find.

 

[TigerKat]

Nancy,

I want to post your pork chop recipe that is on pg. 144, what do you want me to name it?

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Tonight I am making chicken stir-fry and teriyaki noodles.