Sunday, February 17, 2008

Needing a Meal Muse

40 mph winds are making today a blustery winter day.
I've got menu plans and grocery shopping on the brain. I'm even going out later to shop on this frigid day. So I'm wondering, what's on your menu lately? Got any good suggestions?

I'm in a cooking rut and am actually going to make supper for the next two nights. Lately we've been doing really quick meals consisting of very little actual preparation. Since I'm home today and tomorrow, I'm going to feed my family.

I go in spurts. Sometimes cooking genius, delicious meals. Right now, it's been lots of pb&j. Which happens to be what my kids are eating for lunch right now.

So I'm planning to post my menu plan when it's done. If anyone's got a great idea in the mean time, please share!

Also, I keep reading about people making lentil soup all over the place. Seriously? I've got some bad preconceived notions about lentil soup, so if you've got a recipe to change my mind, tell me about it!

I want to kick it up a notch this week and am looking for some winter comfort food.

11 comments:

Beck said...

Try this lentil soup:
http://becksrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/02/spanish-lentil-and-sausage-soup.html
It's my FAVORITE. This one is good, too:
http://becksrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/11/gypsy-soup-ala-me.html
I have had some dire lentil soups - I made one just this week! - but lentils are so nutritionally compact and so cheap and so easy to cook, really, that it's worth figuring out a way to eat them happily...
Maybe I'll post a menu plan tomorrow, too.

Sunshine said...

I'm a sucker for anything popped from Food Network. And I just started trying relishrelish.com, it's awesome.

Sarah said...

Maybe try a beef and barley type soup instead of lentil? I have no recipes to offer, I just know that I prefer the barley to lentils, and I think it's probably equivalent in nutrition and value.

Mimi in the Midwest said...

OM, you can add lentils to any soup, like beef vegetable, chili, etc. They are just like another bean so any thing that has beans in it can have lentils.

Bea said...

Oooh, I'm the wrong person to ask. I'm in such a rut myself lately - it seems as if I can manage to make one meal per week, and the rest of the time it's pizza or subs.

Mimi in the Midwest said...

p.s. Lentils take a longer time to cook than most vegetables so either let the soup cook longer or pre cook the lentils.

nikkis30by30 said...

Winter comfort foods in my house:

BBQ MEatballs and cheesy potatoes
Chicken Noodles
Chicken Dumplings
Cheesy Potato soup
Beer Cheese soup (sometimes with potatoes and broccoli)

Call me if you want the recipes!!!!

Katie Brenneman said...

My "I'm in a rut food is Chicken and rice. cook up some chicken breasts- I season however I want, lemon pepper, cajun etc, bring a can of cream of chicken soup to a boil (add the water please), then add 2 cups of rice and the precooked chicken, simmer for 5 minutes and voila! Hey its a campbells soup can recipe, but I love it. Add peas or brocolli if desired.

California mom said...

Well, if you like pork you can grab your crock pot. Here's a recipe for Kaluaha (sp?) pork.

3 Pound pork roast (the recipe says butt or shoulder roast, but we used boneless rump roast and it worked great)
Coarse salt
clove of garlic
liquid smoke
shredded cabbage

Before putting roast in crock pot make a few small slits in roast and rub generously with coarse salt(you can use it to individual taste), put roast in crock pot add garlic clove, and liquid smoke (about a tablespoon) and cook on low for 10-12 hours. When cooked, remove pork and shred it and then drain any liquid in crock pot and add 1-2cups of water in bottom and put shredded pork back in crock pot then pour in the shredded cabbage and cook for about 2-3 hours on high adding water if needed. Then serve with rice and macaroni salad. (This is a hawaiian dish that is sooo yummy)

Marmite Breath said...

Two fantastic places to eat lentil soup here in Omaha.....

Amsterdam in the Dundee part of town, and McFoster's Natural Kind. They both have great lentil soup!

Mimi said...

I love lentil soup. With pear barley in it ... yum!