I need to know because I am making a very long list. Let me explain.
Do you plan your meals a week ahead? Do you make a menu for the week then shop accordingly? What do you think about meal plans. I think about them a lot but I am a great thinker!
I kind of make a plan when I have a house full of people. I look to see what we have in the freezers and gardens and plan my dinner around that. At least a day ahead anyway. In the morning I write on my black board what we are eating that day, so if I get held up outside with the milk cow or something or if I am working down the back pretending I don’t know what time it is, anyone can begin the dinner because the menu is on the board and the recipe cards are on the bench.
But I am not consistent. And if I do NOT have a plan (which is most of the time) I always have this low moan clamour in my brain all day, a kind of white noise anxiety – ” What shall I make for dinner? What shall I make for dinner? What shall I make for dinner, what shall … then the moan comes up above my subconscious. “Who put me in charge?! Why do I have to be in charge?! WHAT WILL I MAKE FOR DINNER!” – then it drops back to the white noise clamour so I can try to ignore it again – well, you get the idea.
So I began to make a long list of all the meals I might make with the ingredients commonly found here. You know what they are – you have watched me grow them for years. Not fancy, but good. Later I will shuffle the list into menu’s organise then into seasonal weeks, add left over days, and create the flow (like a roast chicken today becomes tomorrows chicken and noodle soup, beef stew left overs become shepherds pie, etc ), then my decision is made and I can proceed and the white noise anxiety will go away.
So to the list –
I stood with chalk in hand and could only write three meals on the board. I wrote split pea soup because that was what John was making for dinner and I could smell it. Then pumpkin soup because I saw a butternut squash on the bench. Then gnocchi with sage and burnt butter because my daughter told me she had that for dinner last night but I can’t have sage as it is all frozen to the ground. Then I ran out of ideas again.
SO. What are you having for dinner? What shall I have for dinner? Any ideas for my list?
Love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
162 responses to “What are you having for dinner?”
Hello Celi. If in doubt on a weekday, I go to a friend’s kitchen (Korean, Italian or French). On a weekend, I would do my usual roasted organic veggies with olive oil/lemon juice/rock salt dressing. With a dessert of dried figs and camembert. Easy, tasty and no fuss to clean up. Sometimes, I make breakfast for dinner: oatmeal or an omlette. It’s quite liberating when you grab whatever is in front of you and cook it. You have a darling setup right at home, so I am sure that your table will be full of lovely treats by dinnertime. Be well. xo SB
That salad sounds divine – OK – on to the board it goes!! thank you. c
You’re welcome. Enjoy. xo
I don’t think this’ll help much – during shooting season I normally buy a brace of pheasants every week at the farmers’ market. Currently they cost £7 for the pair and are the size of chicken. They are quite versatile and will take strong flavours like curry. That’s a few days worth of meals and I buy season vegetables from the farmer. As the temperature has been so warm this winter, he had green peppers last week and I believe some people have had an exceptionally early crop of asparagus! 🙂
asparagus already!? goodness, i have not even got around to cleaning my patch off yet! .. The hunters around here and finding it harder and harder to find pheasant now. In fact I knew a group who walked the ditches and creeks for three days and did not even see one. I never even hear them anymore.. The mowers clean up most of them.. c
It’s not normal, the temperature didn’t go down below 10ºC until last week. Pheasants are plentiful here, due to a rich banker obsession with shooting hundreds of them. They are hatched and released into the wild every spring.
Pan fried Tasmanian salmon with steamed sweetcorn on the cob, a salad of baby spinach and rocket with baby tomatoes, avocado, carrot and apple, dressed with aioli, and a baked sweet potato with the salmon pan juice drizzled over it. Fresh mango off the tree for dessert.
On the stove is Moroccan lamb soup, made from meaty lamb bones from the butcher, roasted in the oven to caramelise, then turned into stock with the meat stripped off. In the soup is brown rice, three bean mix, pumpkin onion, garlic and carrot, and it’s flavoured with ras-al-hanout, salt and pepper.
Tomorrow I shall make the Cheergerm’s spicy cauliflower fritters, from half a head of cauliflower blitzed in the blender till it’s like large breadcrumbs, stirred into a batter of 3 beaten eggs, 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 cup of water, together with a finely minced half onion and 1 clove of garlic and a heaped tablespoon of garam masala and a finely chopped chilli. Fry large dollops of the mixture first till brown on both sides, and then put in oven for 15 mins on 350F/175C. I’ll probably serve them with either chicken curry made from leftovers, or chicken laksa with noodles, ditto!
Does that help with any inspiration at all?
Mmmmh, just want that cauliflower Fritters right now! Along with a fresh salad, that’s enough. No meat needed. Thank you for sharing the recipe, Kate!
They’re really good, and nice with a poached egg on top, too.
I want to come and eat at your table! Totally amazing!
yes the cauliflower fritter is great – i will try it – but I thought you did not eat flour? what do you use instead? c
I use a gluten free flour alternative made from rice/corn/potato. It doesn’t perform quite as well as wheat flour, but good enough! I’ve also greatly increased the garam masala content from Lisa’s recipe, and I make my cauliflower pieces a lot smaller than she does for a slightly flatter and less bobbly fritter.
Your menu looks amazing! I want to add myself to the list of people that want to eat at your house! I’m really curious about this flour mix. I have a daughter who can’t eat gluten without feeling icky. She’s not celiac, but it helps her if I cut down on gluten in the kitchen. Can you be more specific about this flour mix? I’d love to try it…do you use it for everything? Right now we’re using a mix of rice flour and tapioca which is not bad.
For baking, I use a commercial GF flour. For this recipe, I’d use two thirds millet or sorghum or brown rice flour for the most part, and one third commercial stuff. You want a nice crispy finish, and for that reason, I’d avoid using too much tapioca or potato starch for this recipe as they tend to get a bit heavy and puddingy. Rice flour, corn starch, soy flour, millet, sorghum or buckwheat are all fine, and if you’re making batter for something sweet, coconut flour is good. Green banana flour is brilliant and very low GI but it absorbs enormous amounts of water, so you’d need to fiddle around with the quantities. I don’t know what you can source where you are – I’ve always found Italy pretty good with the GF ingredients, France less so…
I’ve never found a commercial GF flour, but I do have many of the other options. Thank you!! (I discovered the absorbency of coconut flour the hard way!)
I love to cook… And I never make a shopping list from a recipe, I just buy what looks good and then think what to make from it.
That’s two meals I would gladly eat now this minute!
You’d be welcome to join us any time, Viv, both of you!
Kate, don’t think you and I would have a single issue about what to cook . . . . moreish to the max . . .
Thank you! If you’re ever passing this way….
Ha! So you don’t think I would 😀 !! ?
Why not? And my door is open to all the Fellowship. Just make sure you come at a kinder time of year than what we currently have. Most people don’t enjoy 31C combined with 79% humidity, which is what we have today!
Oh goody, thought I was the only one who battles to think about what for dinner. Pete came up with the idea of us starting a menu, just like in a restaurant of what we like to eat and then use that for inspiration. Such a clever chap my Pete – we started and then got stuck with ideas so we build on it now with the meals we really enjoy.
Haven’t a clue what I am making tonight and it is already lunch time! Pete is away so it might just be a piece of chicken and salad.
Have a beautiful weekend C.
🙂 xo
I actually quite enjoy the meals alone – i have to say I only cook because John likes to eat big meals – otherwise i would live on steak or chicken and salad.. c
HAHA, I only cook because my John would eat sausage every day! (Yes, that John, the one with 3 bypasses).
Oh dear!
I cook 2-3 main dishes along with squash and sweet potatoes on weekends and eat through the week. Some friends tell me they can’t eat leftovers, I say it’s not left overs until I eat it at least once. 😉 Today soup bones are in the crockpot for stock and tonight there will be oxtail soup cooking happily away. High tomorrow is forecast at -1, soup weather to me. Stay warm today Celi.
Yes this cold makes soups taste so much nicer! c
Tonight, salad with rice crackers and brie. Tomorrow I will buy roast of the day (usually lamb) and a selection of roasted potatoes and vegetables from my local grocery store. Cooking for 1 is the pits. When I have guests I draw up a meal plan and shop accordingly. If leftovers aren’t fed to the dog and are put into the fridge they usually end up looking like science experiments and have to be hurled out. Not much inspiration here I’m afraid. Laura
I lived alone for years too and my meals were wonderfully simple, sometimes just an avocado and crackers would do.. c
I grow pinto beans in the summer and can them. If I need a quick meal, I can open a jar and whip up some cornbread. This is our favorite winter meal. Also, having jars of pintos is a great addition if someone pops in and I need a little extra something and leftovers make great refried beans for taco night.
I love my slow cooker! I’m gone 11 hours a day so having something ready when I get home is very nice. I have a home grown chicken going in the cooker today with potatoes and carrots. Another favorite is a pork roast cooked all day and then shredded and add BBQ sauce.
We also love breakfast for dinner. Eggs, bacon, and biscuits and gravy. Can you tell I’m from the south? HA
PInto beans – hmm – maybe I should try to grow those again – I only tried once and the rabbits ate them all! c
I haven’t had that happen yet
I just discovered dill pickle soup. {http://noblepig.com/2013/03/dill-pickle-soup/) Rich and creamy with a nice bite from the pickles. Perfect for winter–made with stored root veggies and pickles from your stored stash. Add warm bread for dipping. YUM!
Dill pickle soup – wow – onto the list that goes! c
In Eastern Europe make that dill pickle and kidney soup: a fantastic combo 🙂 !
Actually went and talked to Mr Google ’cause loved this so much as a ‘picky’ child !! The recipe is usually under the name ‘rassolnik’ and both Poland and Russia claim the provenance! It really is yum!!!!
Tonight is breakfast for dinner – pancakes, eggs, grits,fruit. Girl-child leaves for school tomorrow, so it’s her choice. I do pizza one night a week, making the crust and sauce myself. I do chili in my slow cooker pretty often, and spicy black beans. They are hearty and filling. I’m like you. I cannot relax until I know what I am feeding the family. I need the plan. I do my menus two weeks out and write it on a board so we know what we’re eating and when. I am most relaxed when I am organized. I
Spicy black beans – john would like those – I will pop that on the list and search out a recipe.. c
That is a good one, liked it very much: http://userealbutter.com/2014/01/10/black-bean-soup-recipe/
… and google for Feijoada, a Brazilian dish
Feijoada is fabulous!!! It is the mainstay of Brazil!!! 🙂
Just got home from the movies with a beautiful friend and we had a quick thai meal before … But once we got to the restaurant I didn’t feel like anything on the menu. So I ended up having Sweet n Sour Pork cos I hadn’t had it in ages … It was the saltiest dish I’ve eaten in a long time!! o.O Thank God she left us a big dish of steamed rice {white tho – ugh!} so I could cut the salt with that.
I write a basic menu on the calander a fortnight or so ahead, so I know what we have and what we need to make it thru each week … the kids reallllly enjoy helping and having a say in what we eat 🙂
Interesting how many of you do plan your meals – this is great! c
chicken and dumplings with lots of onion, carrots, celery, potatoes and parsley
Chicken and dumplings – check! c
Beef Barley soup, its a winter mainstay at my place, love my soups and stews
I have been craving making little pasta pockets and stuffed bread calzones.. and have been thinking about making cabbage with onion and fat coil of german farmers sausage baked with loads of onions..
you are making me hungry, but what I really need is for one of my ewes to lamb so I can get fresh milk in the house
Beef barley soup – onto the list it goes! thank you.. c
I make a general plan for the week ahead. If the husband wants beef during the week (which he usually does!), I check the sales pages and see what looks interesting. There are no winter farm markets right near us). We always have homegrown lamb, goat, pork and chicken in the freezer, so I just have to try and come up with something i’m not bored with! I love beans of all types, my husband does not, so I try to have a bean dish for leftovers that I can take for work lunches. It makes me crazy! I hate the planning, especially during the school year, but I do love to cook.
Tonight we are going to be roasting a chicken. As it’s an ice and snow day, I am looking forward to it! We might have to do some scalloped potatoes as well!
Scalloped potatoes – how could I have forgotton those! c
Scalloped potatoes with chicken and veggies. The spouse does the majority of cooking and makes this with chunks of chicken breast sauteed in butter and onion, the veggies are usually broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and more onion, the whole works gets mixed together and baked as a casserole, sometimes with cheese on top, sometimes not. Great for a cold winter evening. I have a recipe for either beef or pork with sweet gherkin sauce which everyone liked a lot, I’ll see if I can find it and email it to you. My mother would make a big meatloaf, with crusted pan fried pototoes and onion or what she called “one dish meal” that was a pound of ground beef seasoned placed in the bottom of a big ovensafe bowl, then green beans over that, then sliced carrots then onions and thinly sliced potatoes mixed and laid on top with water to just cover and then in the oven till the meat was done, she didn’t bother to thicken the juice but you could if you like.
sweet gherkin sauce! I love your mothers meatloaf dinner – i will out that one on the board too c
The day before yesterday’s meal has been my beloved vegetables and noodles dish made from smoked porc belly (or call it bacon) and onions browned a little in the pot, tomatoe paste and bite size cubes of green bell pepper and cucumber added, cooked in very little meat stock, seasoned with paprika and pepper (little chili if needed), then after a good cook half a can of tomatoes added (I take fresh ones in summer of course) while spiral shaped pasta is cooking aside. The bell peppers (still) come from my balcony crop. Cooked cucumber needs a bit getting used to if you haven’t had it before.
Living and cooking alone it has become a rule in my household that I always or mostly have a second portion of the dish the day after and love it as well if not more – with the advantage of not having to cook every single day. I do not like very much the idea to freeze and thaw ready cooked meals.
As there are some bell pepper halves and half of the can of tomatoes left I intend to make Lecsó today – a hot (if you like) Hungarian red and green bell pepper dish along with onions, garlic, potatoes and chorizo.
I check, plan, make lists and decide after my liking. My lists are just papers filled with cooking ideas, when one dish is made I tick it off. I learned to keep this papers (and there are lots) for reuse when I run out of ideas. I even tried to write down the dishes I cooked into a small calender lying in my kitchen for having an overlook for the past and as a pool of ideas in the future. – I started a list in my PC too, to get rid of all the papers and so I have a document with the name “What shall I cook today?”. There I add the cookbook names and page no. where the recipe is taken from or – if it is taken from my huge amount of online collected recipes – I create a hyperlink into that document so I can get very quickly to the source. The PC thing needs a bit of time but it’s not bad I think.
Today we’ve got a lovely white blanket of soft snow outside. It’s still snowing along – finest powder coming calmly from the sky. Wish you a good decision making and a very nice week end, Cel!
Oh I wish I could find good chorizo here – I am going to look up Lesco – it sounds great for a summer meal when we have heaps of capsicums.. thank you c
There’s a really good recipe on http://smallholdingdreams.com/2014/07/24/home-made-mexican-style-chorizo/
I just made that – thank you, Claire! They’re fine…
Thank you irmi – I will look at it now.
they do have the fancy machine though.. c
Give them a try – even just made by hand, they are fine. – The owner of that page, Claire, is bluebunny01 – when commenting here on your side… That’s why and how I found that great recipe. 🙂
it is a great recipe!
Currently cooking in my kitchen are two dishes destined for the freezer and ultimately our new season’s dinner guests; Duck Ragu and the filling for Steak and (local) Ale Pie.
Christine
Steak and Ale pie! Yes. onto the list it goes.. c