What are you cooking for dinner tonight?

[oxocube]

I love to cook but I am so bored cooking the same old stuff, week after week. What are you all cooking for dinner? Can you give me inspiration

Not cooking tonight because I am working but it will be defrosted chicken chow mein (made double at the weekend).

Know the feeling though. I am planning on doing the internet shopping order tonight and so trying to plan a menu for next week and it all seems very samey. I try to try out new recipes but they often turn out to be either impractical or very similar to something in our existing reportoire.

DH is also useless at providing inspiration.

Check out Sainsburys recipie site, always helps me when I get in a rut.
Especially the lemon and lime cheesecake....Yummy!!

Well, I'm opting for a salad but quite a nice, jazzed up one. Sainsbury's have a special '2 for 1' on tiger prawns so I'm putting this with cubed mango, some coriander and mint, sliced, cooked, mangetout, spring onions, little chopped red chilli and some extra salad leaves and then drizzle with Rocks organic lime juice (although any lime cordial would probably do), splash of groundnut oil (don't think it's essential) and a splash of thai fish sauce (don't think essential). Mix it all up and serve with a cooked ciabatta to fill you up. Found this recipe ages ago in some magazine and it is lovely and still takes only about 10-15 mins to do the lot, great!

i would add an additional challenge...

from opening fridge door, getting out utensils etc, to eating.... must be 30mins or less!

janus - that sounds great, just what we need in our house!

yummy, yummy! Keep them coming

Janus, are you doing all this with rugrats at your feet? If so, next stop, my house!

Put 2 pans on to boil, put some new potatoes in one, and some eggs to hard boil in another.

Put in big bowl: salad leaves, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, tin of tuna, some olives, salad onions.

Add cut in half potatoes, chopped egg and then I like the Pizza Express dressing put over the top. Very quick and easy, and you can usually bung in whatever is sitting in the bottom of the fridge!!

had forgotten the tired old dishes in our house might seem fresh and exciting to someone!

preheat over to gas 220C
finely chop two cloves of garlic and one red chilli
finely chop some sprigs of parsley
put three half baked baguettes in oven
stirfry the garlic and chilli in a little olive oil for a few minutes on a low heat - don't burn!
add three handfuls of frozen prawns (the larger ones are better) and stir fry for a couple of minutes
add a glass of wine and cook for a further few minutes - i.e. until bread is done
serve prawns and broth, squeeze over some lemon and sprinkle over chopped parsley
use bread to mop up juices
serve with green salad (invariably ready washed etc. in our house)

serves 2

thanks nigella!

Made Nigel Slater's quick lamb curry at lunchtime and have just made a split pea dahl with spinach to eat with it. dd loves the dahl so we'll have that for lunch as well with rice.

Nigel Slaters Real Cooking or Real Good Food are both really nice cookery books - NOT a low fat option though (that comes after October when new baby has arrived!)

Ks - second your vote for Dean and Deluca, its a lovely book. I visited the deli when I was in NYC and thought I had died and gone to heaven

Oxocube, yes I'm bored with cooking the same old stuff too. Luckily my husband is cooking tonight - chicken curry - a regular offering.

So it is the same old stuff, but at least I'm not cooking it

Home-made sweet and sour - marinade turkey/pork/chicken pieces in 1 tablespoon tomato puree, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon mango chutney (or marmalade only use more) and a teaspoon of vinegar. Fry one onion with 2 cloves of garlic and two chillies (don't overfry chillies), add meat and sauce mixture. Serve with noodles. Very nice, very easy and very quick!

V boring here : Shepherd's pie.

Quite fond of stir fried tuna: ingredients 2 tuna steaks, 1 pack Tescos stir fry 1 pack stir fry sauce, rice if wanted). Fry tuna till cooked, add stir fry veggies & cook according to pack instructions, add stir fry sauce according to pack instructions. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Sometimes I add a little milk to thin the sauce and make it spread through the stir fry better.

mmmmm...shepherds pie, yummy with creamy mash and peas....

Did a new one (to me) from very old Nigel Slater '30 minute suppers' the other night. Grilled whole mackerel - make slashes along both sides into which you rub ground cumin (2 tsps) put under hot grill, not too close, then spoon over a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, pinch of cayenne, crushed garlic, salt and pepper as it cooks (5-6ish minutes each side). I served it with really buttery mash and green salad, seriously yummy!

We had home-made chunky beefburgers with a (ready-washed) green salad. Another standby fave in our house is smoked cod and leek or spinach risotto. Both vegetables go nicely with smoked fish.
Enid, my sis brought home some D & D rainbow sugar sprinkles from NYC. She said the shop made Carluccio's look like Spar...

Spicy tomato meatballs. Chop 2 thirds of an onion into a pan with some olive oil. Fry until cooked. Add 6 chopped fresh tomatoes, a can of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, garlic, herbs (I use dried Italian herbs), spicy chilli sauce and simmer until cooked. Add seasoning to taste.

Mush up a pack of lamb mince with the other third of the onion and some herbs, and then shape into balls. Plop them into the sauce and cook for 15 minutes or so, turning once.

While this is cooking, boil some spaghetti.

I made this up, but it is still delicious (I am not known for my culinary skills!) I don't add any salt or spicy sauce until I have taken a portion out for my ds. He loves it, and so does my dh, and it only takes 30 minutes or so.

2 Noodle recipies for you

Noodle salad

Boil up 4 minute noodles, drain and put aside.
Stir fry some chicken/turkey/whatever. Tonight I marinated it in soy, ginger, honey and lime while the noodles cooked, but whatever is at hand will do.
Put a ring of salad on a plate - baby spinach, tomatoes, spring onions and red pepers tonight, but whatevers in the fridge.
Quickly reheat the noodles in a hot pan, (no water) when the noodles are hot stir in a bit of sweet chilli sauce (I'm addicted to the stuff)
Pile the noodles in the middle of the salad ring.
Pile the meat on top.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you're feeling posh.

Noodle soup

Cook 4 minute noodles and drain.
Using the same pan (less washing!) Make up some chicken stock (cube and water)
Cut up finely any veg that dosen't need much cooking - I usually use mushrooms, baby spinach spring onions peppers etc.
Put the veg in the bottom of large individual bowls.
Add any meat you think might work. In the past I've used cooked chicken, kaberno sausage, chorizo, or indeed no meat at all.
Pile noodles on top.
Get the stock really hot. For the children add the plain stock to the bowls, the heat will cook the veg by the time they get to them.
For the adults add some finely chopped chilli, soy sauce, lime juice, lime leaves if you have them to the stock (you are aiming for hot and sour) Pour into the bowls and enjoy.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust it for individual tastes without any trouble e.g. dh hates tomatoes, so none of them go into his bowl. Whole thing takes 20 minutes max.

You are all making me so jealous i've just had a scabby WW ocean pie peas + s/corn whist Dh has made himself a curry which smells bloody lovely.But i will be slim by christmas(i hope)

One of my favourite quick dinners is Alternative Kedgeree:

Put on 1lb Basmati rice to cook (this could be done earlier as it gets reheated).

Fry 2 crushed garlic cloves and one diced onion in 1oz butter with 1 tsp lemon zest, 1 tsp turmeric and 2 tsp curry powder for 5 min.

Add 8oz diced salmon fillet and 2oz sultanas. Stir until fish is cooked (about 8 min). Stir in rice, diced smoked salmon (optional) and 2 tbsp each flaked almonds and chopped fresh coriander. Use more coriander to garnish.

The recipe says serves 4, but it doesn't unless you all have the appetites of Calista Flockheart. This amount makes a big dinner for dp and me with a bit left for lunch or for the kids (it's not very spicy). Try it, it's yummy!

PS I didn't have this tonight as I went to aerobics, so it was 2 minute fresh pasta. The reason I go to aerobics twice a week is so I can eat big dinners!

We had spinach and mushroom korma tonight from Nigel Slater's Real Food which was delicious. Quite often have bruschetta too:

Cut a pepper into squareish pieces and grill.
Chop some tomatoes, add garlic, olive oil, salt and basil leaves.
Once pepper skins are burnt take the peppers and put in a plastic (carrier will do) bag (it steams the skins off easily - Nigella tip).
While you're waiting for the pepper skins to steam themselves off, toast some round slices of (stale is fine) french bread brushed with olive oil.
Take the skins off the peppers.
Take out the bread once golden and top with tomato mixture and piece of pepper on each one.
Add slice of goats cheese if you like it and grill again. Takes about 10 minutes and really nice (and veggie).

Or Tuna steaks are really nice marinated (even briefly) in garlic, ginger, honey and soy and then cooked as you would a steak (i.e 2 seconds if you like rare fish/meat). What a great thread, will print off I think and try some of these!

Also portabella mushrooms grilled with garlic and olive oil brushed over the insides (I'm not talking about stuffing a mushroom here, honest, we all know life's too short for that!) with a salad and french bread. Mmmm. No wonder I'm fatter than I should be!

Reading all these recipes makes me feel so inadequate. A proper meal for me is popping two chops under the grill and making some real mash with sliced green beans on the side. I take no pleasure from it. Why can't I enjoy cooking more? really frustrating!

I'm also getting tired of cooking the same old stuff - mainly because of ds. I am sick, sick, sick of cauliflower cheese!