In a dinner rut

[chex]

I'm in serious need of food motivation. All my dinners lately have been fake meat, plus easy fruit like apple sauce, plus easy side like rice-a-roni or pasta and jarred sauce. I've been just throwing crap together, because nothing sounds good lately. The kids turn there nose up at most foods anyway. Mr. chex grew up on one-dish meals slopped onto his plate and crap like Hamburger Helper, so he prefers those kind of meals anyway. It's frustrating to get a simple "oh, okay" when I make an awesome dinner involving some effort, and excitement at bland, prepackaged meals that taste like crap.

I'm making out my shopping list, and I have lasagne, French dips, and a few other meals we haven't had in a while. Hopefully this will pull me out of my food rut.

[Beany]

We used to always have a tradition in our household. Every Sunday was Sunday roast day, and we never missed it. Nowadays, we're all so busy/fed up of them that we don't bother with it. When we got out of that we started exploring what we could add to foods. One of the best was probably adding grated courgette to mincemeat, because you can taste it, but people can't see it to claim that they don't like courgette, and it gets more veg down people's throats. Food ruts are problems, but once you're out, it usually stays away.

But the effort thing annoys me. My parents usually thank me if I make them a meal, but if I make something long and complicated (made vegetarian just for my sister), my sister turns her nose up at it, but if I microwave a packet of noodles, she'll eat them just like that. Is it that hard to get a thank-you from people when you make an effort for them?

Food ruts are still horrible.

[chex]

Well, tonight I did our typical broccoli with cheese, homemade mashed potatoes (but I put all sorts of good shazam! in them) and honey carrots because Froot Loop asked for them. I sent Mr. chex outside to grill up some steaks.

It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but I actually enjoyed dinner for a change!

I would LOVE a dinner of nothing but fruit. Walmart had a crappy selection of berries today, but maybe next weekend, I'll get lots of different fruits, make myself a big bowl of mixed berries for dinner, and make an easy one dish meal for Mr. chex and the kids.

[Beany]

Would the rest of your family not eat it? One set of my cousins would hate it, but the other set live off of strawberries.

[chex]

My kids would probably enjoy a small one along side their casserole or whatever, but Mr. chex hates berries. He says he likes the flavor, but they aren't substantial enough to chew. He feels a need to chew cottage cheese so hard I can hear his teeth clunking together.

[bella]

Give him some frozen berries to chew on.

How about a fruit or berry pizza? It's with marmalade and ricotta cheese. (let me know if you want a translation)
http://www.kuechengoetter.de/rezepte/Ku ... -1179.html

You could also try to use some different spices to add a new flavour. Or find new recipes you want to try out. Your kids might like them too.

[Beany]

Make him eat blindfolded. See if he actually notices that what you give him isn't substantial enough to chew. You never know, it may work.

[chex]

I'm making French dips for dinner tonight. It's another easy meal, but it's different from the stuff we usually eat. I wish I had some fries to serve along with them, but I didn't have room to keep them in my freezer.

[bella]

Blindfolded food in front of the fridge...

[Beany]

Can't you just serve it and tell him to make himself something else if he doesn't like it? Or are you too kind?

[chex]

Ali, because he would do that quite often, and I'd end up cooking meals for myself. I generally make one meal for everyone, and if you don't like it, tough shazam!. I'll take tastes into consideration though. Like, FL generally doesn't like mashed potatoes, so when I make those, I make sure she likes the veggies we're having, and give her extra veggies instead of potatoes.

The berries are a pregnancy exception, since that's pretty much the only thing that sounds good these days and isn't complete junk.

Night three of my attempt to make real meals:
mashed potatoes (I made extra the other night, so I can just reheat them)
baked tomatoes (because the kids will both eat them, and they go well with the main course)
"chicken" patties with a veggie and cheese spread (inspired by Yaz's stuffed pork chops) and topped with provolone.

It's still a fake meat, a side and a grain, but the grain was homemade, and not a box of rice-a-roni, and the side took a little effort.

[Beany]

On the mashed potato thing, have you tried frying it? It's not very healthy, but my sister only likes it fried.

[chex]

Nope. She gets enough grains, so there's no need to make them even less healthy to get her to eat them. I make her try a bite about once a month.

The chicken was delicious tonight! Credit to the Pistachio family for the inspiration.

[chex]

Night 4: homemade lasagne. I didn't make anything with it, but I didn't just pop a frozen one into the oven!

[chex]

As usual, nothing sounds good. I'm determined to get out of this rut though, so I'm going to at least make dinner fun for the kids. I'm going to throw some "chicken" nuggets in the oven, steam some broccoli and some carrots (separately) and serve it all with a bunch of dipping sauces. Maybe I'll add some bread, if I can come up with something to dip that in. It's easy, but it has a theme, so it'll look like it took effort, right?

[Wesley]

Do you eat eggs? If so, I have a vegetarian Yorkshire Pudding you could try. Have you ever done a Yorkshire Pudding? I undercook mine just a bit so that it is still chewy, but not crisp.

[chex]

Yep. I love eggs.

[Wesley]

I know I discussed this with Clarence, but have you ever had or made a yorkshire pudding?

Recipes vary, but the main difference is you will use vegetable boullion instead of drippings from a roast beef.

Make a batter with about 4 cups of flour, 6 eggs, a cup of milk, salt and pepper. Let it sit for half an hour.

Mix 2 to 4 cups of very strong veggie boullion.

pour the boullion into a casserole, and put it in the oven until it boils.

CAREFULLY pull out the oven rack with the juice and pour the batter into the pan.

Cook at 450 until it starts to bloom. It will rise and make big bubbles. Some people like a crisp pudding, so they let it go at 450 for a little longer and the bubbles get crunchy. I lower the temp back to about 300-325 and let it cook for another 30 minutes. The batter absorbs all the flavor from the juice and you get a tasty treat!~




P.S. I just wing it most times, but you can confirm several recipe variations on teh internets before you get started.

[chex]

Damn my food aversions. All I can think is "but it's hot and savory. I need fruit!"

[Beany]

Noooooo, Yourkshire puds are awesome! You can put fruit and cream in them or put them with a rost dinner, or whatever! We used to put icing sugar and strawberries in them. Obviously when they were cold.