What do your meals look like (show me pictures)....

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Replies

  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    My new job is kind of high pressure and I get home a little late in the evenings. Struggling with doing the cooking on weeknights. ]

    Time constraints are a major impediment to eating well. I can empathize. I went off the good path when I was working and traveling for the job. I have paid a price, but am finding that it is never too late to do a course correction. The surprising thing is that so far, retirement has had frequent time challenges. It hastn't been all idling about and recreating, lol.

    With our recent busy demands, we'd fallen back onto commercial bread, for instance - but we ensure to buy "good" commercial bread - and it is not preferable by taste, ingredients or diet impact relative to any of the breads I make for us. Tonight, I have made a 3-loaf batch, which includes a gift loaf for a party tomorrow, accounting for the "artisan whitebread" appearance ... and made using only unbleached bread flour, filtered water, sea salt and yeast as ingredients.

    So, one loaf as gift, one for now, one for the freezer.

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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    Adventurista wrote: »
    Yum! Everything looking good. Almost tempted to try making souffles now, lol

    Rare dinner takeout - woodfire 10" veggie pizza (for 2.)

    next adventure ... making your own pizza ...
  • Adventurista
    Adventurista Posts: 1,440 Member
    edited August 10
    Anyone ever try a pizza on the bbq? Closest i could come to woodfired i think. Their website said they flash cook at 900deg. Surprised me, we monitor to stay below 500. So not sure where to begin for a crust or deep dish on the grill.

    This was the takeout from the woodfired oven. Handtossed. Had a good, not too chewy nor too crispy qualities.
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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    Adventurista wrote: »
    Anyone ever try a pizza on the bbq? Closest i could come to woodfired i think. Their website said they flash cook at 900deg. Surprised me, we monitor to stay below 500. So not sure where to begin for a crust or deep dish on the grill.

    This was the takeout from the woodfired oven. Handtossed. Had a good, not too chewy nor too crispy qualities.

    par-bake the crust before putting your toppings on. there's youtube on this somewhere. i also put down a bbq-specific silpat mat like in the picture (although the pic obviously isn't pizza).

    i4ebuy40zps9.jpg
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    Cooked a little more labour intensive today as it is weekend. Salmon tartare with crackers made by microwaving poppadoms sold for frying at home as a starter. Roll your own California handrolls (=homestyle sushi taught to me by a half Japanese girlfriend). Miso soup.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    @mjbnj0001
    I bring homemade bread as a hostess gift to dinner parties too.

    @Adventurista
    Cheese souffle is much easier than you would think despite it's finicky reputation. I use it as a basis for a dependable weeknight meal. The only problem is that it generates rather a lot of dirty dishes because you use one saucepan for making the cheesey bechamel and another spotless vessel for beating the egg whites and then you bake the combined mixture in ramekins. Recipe below has the proportions I use but I skip the rucola. I also bake longer for 20-22 minutes because I like my souffle to have a dry texture inside. I find it easiest to use a large pyrex measuring cup for beating the whites. After the cheese mixture and egg whites are mixed up, it is convenient to use the measuring cup to pour the batter into the ramekins.
    https://bestrecipes.co/recipes/air-fryer-arugula-cheddar-egg-souffles
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    Wonky maki's for breakfast rolled from last night's leftovers.
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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    @mjbnj0001
    I bring homemade bread as a hostess gift to dinner parties too.

    It was appreciated,and it worked out really well. We're at the New Jersey Shore and this was an outdoor dinner party. Clams and chicken were the main items (grilled), and the bread made a great dipping item to soak up some of the savory clam broth. I was going to tell the hostess in an aside that the loaf would only last a couple of days (no preservatives), but it hardly lasted an hour.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    Thai garlic and pepper chicken stretched with a julienned carrot because I was worried that a single small chicken breast for the two of us looked so meagre. Asian food is a great way to stretch meat. Sides of sauteed bokchoi and brown rice.
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  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    I thought I posted this earlier today but couldn't find it. A batch of masa harina tortillas I made today and put in the freezer to help manage weekday meals. Tacos are a good way to use up leftovers from the night before. I was thinking of using quick pickles, tomato salsa and whipped feta with to brighten up leftover stews and curries in tacos. I pull out braised dishes from the freezer frquently for weeknight dinners. Any ideas for brightening up braised meats in tacos would be welcome.
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  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,300 Member
    edited August 11
    acpgee wrote: »
    I thought I posted this earlier today but couldn't find it. A batch of masa harina tortillas I made today and put in the freezer to help manage weekday meals. Tacos are a good way to use up leftovers from the night before. I was thinking of using quick pickles, tomato salsa and whipped feta with to brighten up leftover stews and curries in tacos. I pull out braised dishes from the freezer frquently for weeknight dinners. Any ideas for brightening up braised meats in tacos would be welcome.
    0s58i2a9yr9f.jpeg

    Yum! I make almond tortillas and leave them in fridge and they disappear lol

    I have a recipe for Mexican braised beef. It calls for adobo, garlic, onion, chipotle peppers, cumin, oregano and a pinch of brown sugar. (a diced date works nicely too) It’s really tasty!!

    I got it here - https://www.lordbyronskitchen.com/braised-mexican-beef/
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    mjbnj0001 wrote: »
    Adventurista wrote: »
    Anyone ever try a pizza on the bbq? Closest i could come to woodfired i think. Their website said they flash cook at 900deg. Surprised me, we monitor to stay below 500. So not sure where to begin for a crust or deep dish on the grill.

    This was the takeout from the woodfired oven. Handtossed. Had a good, not too chewy nor too crispy qualities.

    par-bake the crust before putting your toppings on. there's youtube on this somewhere. i also put down a bbq-specific silpat mat like in the picture (although the pic obviously isn't pizza).

    i4ebuy40zps9.jpg

    @Adventurista i had a chance to see this posting this morning. i had dashed it off in somewhat of a hurry. by "par-bake" i implied par-cook on the grill to get the crust to begin developing before putting on the faster-to-cook toppings. there's a bunch of youtube videos on this approach. i use the silpat mat to keep the soft dough from drooping through the grill grates. the mat transmits enough heat to support generating grill marks - granted, less so than a naked grill - but i find the benefits worth it. it also eliminates the need for a pizza peel - i just grab the edge of the mat with my tongs and slide it off the grill onto a sheet pan to hold it while i do the next step. then i slide it back onto the grill with the tongs on the mat's rear edge. no muss, no fuss, lol. i use the mats for stuff like veggies and fish; also with chicken and burgers, but it keeps the expressed liquid with the cooking food, so it becomes much more like a pan-cooked meal with light grillmarks. OTOH, the grill stays pretty clean.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,867 Member
    Weeknight meal. Pappardelle with tomato sauce defrosted from a batch in the freezer spiked with a little nduja. We keep a jar of nduja in the fridge. Secondo of saltimboca with sauteed spinach. Saltimboca is another main where one small chicken breast feeds two adults. You do need to slice the breast in half horizontally, then pound thin. This was easy enough to do on a weeknight where I got home at 20:00. I made the sauce with sake and a squeeze of lime as we didn't have white wine in the house.
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  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,195 Member
    Tonight (Monday), a fridge-emptying exercise in advance of family coming down this weekend from Canada. Turkey burgers (commercial, frozen) on homemade rolls (last of a batch frozen - and posted here - a couple of weeks ago), with cheese. Fresh roasted cauli and our ubiquitous chopped salad as sides. The cauli was flavored with smoked paprika, gran. garlic, gran. onion, black pepper and a sprinkle of sea salt, mixed with olive oil.

    Of probable interest to this "Recipes" group, my "food experiment" tonight was with the turkey - rather than using our outdoor grill, I piggybacked on the oven already being used to roast the cauliflower. I had the convection feature operating; suspecting this would dry out the turkey before it fully cooked (pkg directions are 10-12 min at 375F if normal oven roasting), I capped the frozen patties with a slice of onion before resting them on a raised rack (in a sheet pan), which permitted the convection airflow to pass around them freely. This doubled the cooking time to 25 minutes, kept things moist, and had the side effects of adding some flavor to the patties while also reducing the acridity of the red onions. I haven't yet computed the macro numbers with MFP. I expect them to be fairly moderate and within my daily goals, esp. following a lite lunch today.

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