I'm feeling very uncreative in the kitchen these days. Okay, so there are a couple of vegetables for dinner, and maybe some meat or legumes. But to fill us up, we need some carbs. Thing is, how many ways are there to prepare the starchy dishes? Sure, sure, there are minor refinements in how it's presented. But it seems like we're cycling through
1) potatoes -- baked, mashed, or oven-fried
2) wheat -- bread or ww pasta or cornbread
3) rice
What else is there? Sure, we could do the "variety grains" like amaranth or spelt or barley. But honestly, those are not something we're used to, and they just plain take thought to learn about recipes, and how early I need to start the dish, and other brain-draining efforts. I'm trying to convince myself that it's OK to make it simple and boring: an hour before supper each day, start either the boiled potatoes or the rice or the pasta-water. Or just slice the loaf of bread.
Can I convince myself that every dinner doesn't have to titillate the palate? It seems that I'm getting the most suppertime compliments when I dish up ham and au gratins, or hamburgers, or pizza. Hey, if it pleases them, isn't too expensive, and is easy, why do I yearn to be creative too???
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Pizza is always good. So is bread. When my mom or I (that is, I with my mom's help...) get around to making a batch of whole wheat bread, for the next few days I'll tend to just eat a piece or four whenever I'm hungry. I don't even feel the need to toast it or make a sandwich or anything.
ReplyDeleteYou can make extra baked potatoes, refrigerate them. For another meal, shred them, fry them and top them with sour cream. Make extra mashed potatoes and fry them in patties. We always liked them with eggs. I cook rice with froz spinach and a can of corn. How 'bout making lots of potato pancakes and freezing them to serve at will? Boy, I really do like my potatoes fried, don't I?
ReplyDeleteSusan, I have two good African dishes that are simple, served over rice and not too costly. May I email them to you? Might help rice be a little more interesting. Ach, never mind. I'll get them into a blog post. It's about time I did.
ReplyDeleteOh, and we love potato pancakes around here; topped with misc. stuff from applesauce to cheese to salsa.
We seem to be adding rice to just about every meal lately. I've found that it's not boring as long as whatever I put on top of it varies. Sometimes we have roasted veggies and sometimes it's a casserole that just wouldn't fill everyone up by itself. Just to spice things up a bit I sometimes substitute pasta :)
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