How often do you cook the same meal?

[Phteven]

I try to cook with what's in season and what's on special at my butcher.
Some things we only have once a month or less if the ingredients are season but other things we have quite often. We have lamb curry about once a fortnight because we all like it so much - I have one going in the SC right now.

My MIL cooks the same meal 19 times out of 20!!!! It is rice, salad and a sauce with meat, ginger, onion, tomatoe paste and garlic. Even on the rare occasions that FIL cooks something else she still dishes out meal A with it.
She serves it up for lunch as well as dinner!!!!
I don't know how my FIL copes. My Dad started to complain after eating 3 meals there lol.

[feeb]

We have waves of eating same few things and then not having them for ages.

Most fortnights we will have a spag bol, a roast, chicken wings and what ever else.

[Astrid]

We go through phases with food. Some months it seems like we stick with the same few dishes then all of a sudden we remember a dish we have not made in ages and then our menu seems to change. Most of the time meals are based on what meat is on special or what suits us at the moment, such as a meal that goes for a couple of nights. If a dish turns out really well I will tend to repeat it frequently till I am sick of it. Summers we tend to be a lot more repetitive, basically what cooks well on the BBQ and salad.

Once we have our vegie patch going I am sure things will change.

[New Dawn]

Glad I am not the only one who does the same thing over and over again lol

my moto is if it isnt in a jar or from a packet I cant cook it....I do love to LOOK at recipes but next to never try to cook them...

mostly I cook chicken chicken and a bit more chicken expecally while BHL is away...

Like the ad says "If you dont like chicken there something wrong with you!"

[TheBear]

Bear, I wish I had the time to cook and eat like you do, I think it's a wonderful way to live, so does DH!

It really doesn't have to be a terribly time consuming thing if you don't want it to be, there are lots of little tricks that you can use to minimise the time spent in the kitchen.

If you get a chance, watch how professional chef's work - they will prepare a load of little bins "mis en place" full of all the raw and/or semi-prepared things that they use on a regular basis - from this they can often produce 20-30 different dishes in a few minutes. They are also very good at keeping multiple things going at once - it's no good standing at the stove doing one thing, you may as well have two or three pots going to make better use of your time.

The same techniques can be applied at home - I use a lot of little zip lock bags and vacuum seal bags to allow things to be done in stages, so I can reach into the fridge and grab bags of chopped, prepared veggies, sauces, etc to assemble a dish quickly. If I'm in the kitchen waiting for the toaster, the kettle to boil, or usually cause I've run the hot water for the washing up too hot and I can't put my hands into it - then I'll spend the time chopping or peeling something ready for the next meal, then bag it and put it away until I need it. As an example - many of sauces that I make start with frying onion, celery and carrot so it's always worth making sure that I've got little bags of pre-chopped ready to go into the pan.

The biggest time saver is a good knife and knife skills - practice chopping and cutting things properly concentrate on speed and accuracy and everything else gets faster.

One of my favourite cook books is Nigel Slater's "Appetite" - it's full of very simple, quick basic recipes that encourage variation - for example, one of the recipes is for a pan-fried veal escallope, it then has about 20 variations to serve it with oranges, parsley, garlic, oranges, nuts, basil, etc...it's great because once you have the basic techniques down you are encouraged to broaden your repertoire.

Most packets and jars are massive rip-off for what you are actually getting - especially when they are for classic italian dishes. There is a saying that "French food demonstrates the genius of the chef, Italian food demonstrates the genius of God!" - good italian food is about the simplest form of cooking on the planet, the key thing is getting the ingredient from field to plate with minimal interference. I have a friend that used to buy jars of carbonara sauce to cook a couple of times a week, and was shocked to discover that if you make the sauce fresh then all it contains is eggs, cream, parmesan and optionally ham...and you don't even need to cook it as it is cooked by the heat of the hot pasta. Effectively she was paying $8 per liter for a cream and egg solution in a jar! The directions on the pre-made sauce actually took longer than making it from scratch.

This may be wandering outside the scope of this topic....would it be helpful if I can provide simple recipes to replace the cans, jars and bottled sauces that you commonly use?

[AnyDream]

I don't repeat things very often but there are somethings that might come out on a fortnightly basis, like spag bog, or hot chicken from the shop down the road LOL! I do however have a lot of leftovers when DH is away (ie all the time right now) so I either freeze some and bring it out in a few weeks time, or vary it so it's a bit different on the second night.

I have a good friend who makes spag bog every Sunday night like a religion, it's because it's quick and doesn't require any thought at the end of the weekend.

[The[cookie]Doctor]

this May Be Wandering Outside The Scope Of This Topic....would It Be Helpful If I Can Provide Simple Recipes To Replace The Cans, Jars And Bottled Sauces That You Commonly Use?

Yes Yes Yes!!!

[Phteven]

I have a good friend who makes spag bog every Sunday night like a religion, it's because it's quick and doesn't require any thought at the end of the weekend.

Nothing wrong with starting a family tradition I come from a family that likes a Sunday roast and I have to admit that the world always seems nice and stable when I eat roast on a Sunday.
We get take-away or eat out every Saturday night. It's the cook's night off :P

This may be wandering outside the scope of this topic....would it be helpful if I can provide simple recipes to replace the cans, jars and bottled sauces that you commonly use?

Why not start a new thread. I'm sure that lots of people would find it helpful

[Salsa]

We dont repeat meals much - we do have a few quick and easys, but mostly we cook with what has been brought - usually fresh veg (typically whats got a reduced sticker and whats in season). We have basics we always keep in the cupboard such as garlic, rice, oyster sauce, tin tomatoes, coconut cream, spices etc.
We never ever buy packet or jar sauces, because they are too pricey (ie; a bottle of oyster sauce which can be used for about 5+ meals is about $4, where as a jar for one meal is $2-3) and we dont use them because we dont think they taste as nice as a freshly prepared sauce.

When we do repeat something though we could have it 2x a week.
Such as making egg fried rice, because its so quick, easy, cheap and tastey and we will always have those basic ingediants in stock.
There is perhaps some other dishes that we might make once every 2 weeks, such as a fresh fish meal. (we dont have a regular shopping day so its when ever we go to the shops and remember to get fish).

Alot of our meals are one off`s, but Im hoping to get some reliable recipes and try some new ideas of how to put things together.

[Laranna]

I come from a family that likes a Sunday roast and I have to admit that the world always seems nice and stable when I eat roast on a Sunday.

Dach - same here, my mum has been doing a Sunday roast lunch ever since I can remember and now that all us kids are grown up and have our own families she still does it every week and it's great to go over there every Sunday. We do let her off on her birthday and mothers day though

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

We have the same meal maybe 2-3 times a fortnight... and that's 3-4 different meals repeated and some different ones maybe once a month (that's things like fish and chips or pizza or frozen meals). We usually have a cooked Sunday dinner on Sundays, lasagne every other Monday night, I like the current Sainsbury cheap recipe cards so we have those quite a bit (that's a chicken meal and a salmon risotto atm). And there's the aubegine pasta that we all love and I can have for lunch the next day. I haven't done some of my favourites for a bit so will be doing some old favourites this next couple of months.

I like maybe about 20 dinners that I cook, but we have "easy" food at least twice a week as I'm at work all day and want time with DS, not cooking. And once I'm doing a meal I'll do it several times after that and have to force myself to do something else.

We have a new, never tried before meal AT LEAST once a fortnight, if not once a week, and often that becomes a new favourite and is done every week for a couple of months!

Wow, that was an essay, hth!

[Salsa]

And there's the aubegine pasta that we all love and I can have for lunch the next day.

PLEASE send me the recipe! I have just started a new thread today asking for Aubergine recipes - have a look




All this talk about Sunday roast that some of you still have makes me want to get into doing something like that regular. Its such a lovely tradition. So much 'love' in a proper meal like that. We have just recently stopped doing regular takeaway nights, so perhaps we should exchange it for a good roast dinner - i know its more work than takeaway, but just as enjoyable - if not more so!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I've already replied to it, Salsa!

[Phteven]

i know its more work than takeaway, but just as enjoyable - if not more so!

It's not really a lot of work in a roast - I like to do lamb in the slow cooker and then it's just a matter of veges and gravy.
I make gravy from the meat juices while the meat is resting and the veges are pretty simple too.
Once the boys are older they can do more food prep - they're already very enthusiastic helpers and Yasin is allowed to stir the gravy while I'm standing beside him.

[Salsa]

We dont have a slow cooker, but I see lots of people in Oz seem to use them. I mentioned it to DH but hes reluctant to get one. But in my head it must cook meat that justs tender and juicy -is that right? And can you do batches?

[Phteven]

You must convert your DH!!!
Slow cookers/crock pots are the bestest!!
The meat is so yummy and tender and they're a great money saver because they work best with cheaper cuts of meat. We're having lamb shanks tonight - $4 a kg.
They're also great for Mums and working people because you can put your meal on in the morning and then at the end of the day/witching hour you don't need to worry about.
They're good for the environment too because they use as much power as a lighbulb compared to an oven that is very power intensive.
I usually cook enough for a meal for now and a meal for the freezer but my SC is large enough to fit a meal for now and 3 meals for the freezer. I have a big one because they last for years (no moving parts) and one day I'll have teenage boys on my hands with teenage boy appetites.

[Salsa]

Hmm, I too will have teenage boys oneday...maybe I will buy one sneaky and then just make something in it and surprise him. Hopefully it will be wonderful and then DH will wonder what his attitude towards them was all about?!
I dont know anyone in NZ who has or uses one, they seem so 1970`s to us.

I might go to the slow cooker threads and get some recommendations on brands.

[Bathsheba]

We eat very differently to the way our parents fed us so it's been a bit of a challenge. As children DH and I were fed the basic meat and 3 veg with something different thrown in only once or twice a week. We've turned that around and eat a huge variety of foods and only have a traditional meat and 3 veg about once a week.

We don't eat red meat so I am very conscious of providing enough different sources of protein... so if we have chicken one night I wouldn't offer bird protein the next night... I'd make tofu (in a stir fry) and then the next night I'd offer fish... and then I'd maybe go for an egg dish... then back to chicken or turkey... then a tempeh dish (soya protein) then a different kind of fish (if it was fresh water earlier in the week i'd go for an deep sea fish like tuna). We also eat seasonal... it's cheaper and healthier.

I think variety is extremely important. Sometimes we get into "ruts" but my kids aren't fussy and it's relatively easy to get out of a rut by grabbing one of my favourite cookey books.