One of the things that makes me feel most normal – or maybe, most in control of my universe – is being able to cook Homemade Dinners.
This is not to take anything away from Convenience Meals, which I both 1) love and 2) have made generous use of these past many months. There were quite a few weeks in there when my husband and child and I subsisted on a hearty mix of microwave meals (The Purple Carrot Vegan Frozen Plant Based Loaded Vegetable Fried Rice is quite delicious as well as nourishing, despite the lengthy name) and takeout (I am quite delighted to find that there are both excellent pizza and delicious, legitimately spicy Indian food within minutes of my new house).
But even though I am grateful for them, and they have been a big help in getting us through the most chaotic part of the move, Convenience Meals aren’t something I want every day. I want to cook homemade food and eat it on non-plastic dinnerware. I like eating boring old Meat Plus Veg. I prefer spending $200-ish a week on food, rather than shelling out $50+ every time I set foot in a Five Guys or the grocery store to pick up last minute dinner options.
We are slowly but steadily getting back to eating Homemade Dinners. I am slowly but steadily figuring out how to prepare and cook meals in our new kitchen. I am (mostly) remembering to get everything I need out of the fridge in one go, because once it closes the door seals tightly for an undetermined number of minutes and not even the strongest member of my household can open it until it decides it’s done doing whatever it does during that time. I have no idea why the stove rattles like a freight train when the oven gets to temperature, but that seems like a problem for future Suzanne. It just feels good to make reasonably well-balanced meals and sit down and eat them together.
Here’s what I have on tap for this week:
- Sesame Soy Chicken Bowls: This sounds easy and yummy, and the coconut rice can stretch to another night. I will probably through in some edamame along with the carrots and cabbage, just because it seems like it would be a good addition. Plus, I can usually get Carla to eat edamame.
- Mediterranean Sheet Pan Bowls with Cilantro Vinaigrette: We haven’t had this in awhile, and the abundance of veggies reminds me fondly of Nicole and anything I can do to add more Nicole Energy to my life will only benefit me and everyone around me, plus the cilantro vinaigrette is really tasty.
- Chickpea Curry: It’s been a very long time since I’ve made this, but it will scratch a food craving itch. Plus, I can use the leftover coconut rice to sop up the sauce. As is my custom with curries, I will add sliced bell pepper to the rice before topping with the curry.
- Fall Salad: I am not going to allow the current lack of fall weather to prevent me from reveling in fall flavors. This salad is a longtime favorite and I am ready to eat it. Will I have salmon on my salad instead of chicken? Not sure.
- Gochujang Chicken and Broccoli: I was pretty sure I had spotted an unopened bottle of gochujang sauce during the move, which made my ears perk up when I came across this recipe. Sure enough I found it in the pantry. But… it expired in 2021. Too late, though – I already committed this recipe to my meal plan for the week, so I guess I’ll be buying a new bottle of gochujang! (And finding ways to use it up.)
We also have a birthday to celebrate this week, so I’ll be making Mud Pie for the birthday boy, at his request. He prefers coffee ice cream to chocolate, and my plan is to buy a pre-made chocolate cookie crust rather than making my own. We will probably also go out to dinner on his actual birthday. I fear it may be kind of dull day, as far as birthdays go; we are both so stunned by all the costs of moving that neither of us has the fortitude to spend money on birthday gifts. (I did get him a couple of small things, but I did not get him the nugget ice maker of his dreams.)
What are your favorite Convenience Meals? I love a good microwavable mac-and-cheese. Both the Hatch Chili Mac & Cheese and the Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese from Trader Joe’s are delicious. I also like the Life Cuisine Vermont White Cheddar Broccoli Bowl and the EVOL Truffle Parmesan Mac & Cheese. If I’m not eating mac and cheese, I’m jonesing for pizza, and Red Baron Classic Crust Pepperoni Pizza will forever be my favorite frozen version.
Anything frozen from TJ’s is a convenience win for me or anything I can reheat from the Whole Foods deli. I abhor takeout on the regular (except in the summer when we regularly order from the golf course restaurant which sure we could do year-round, but it just feels summery). Last week, Noodles was $65 and gross for me plus 4 kids, and Ben spent $30 for the other kid and himself at a place near campus and we were all unsatisfied. Bah.
Ooh! I think I’ve made the sesame soy chicken bowls. From what I remember, the coconut rice didn’t turn out well enough to justify the extra work so the next time I just made plain rice. But it was a hit with the family.
I agree, all I want out of life is to be able to cook dinner. And with our current schedule it’s not possible…sigh.
That mud pie recipe…
Doing some cooking makes a house feel like home. I love Trader Joe’s frozen mac and cheese. Tastes like my grandmother’s homemade stuff.
I agree that cooking familiar meals at home makes a house seem more like a home. I don’t know about gochujang sauce, so I’m off to investigate it.
Awwwww you are just the best. I’m blushing! We just had a sheet pan veggie Buddha bowl a couple of days ago!
This also reminds me of how much I love coconut rice and how long it’s been since I have had it. Maybe that will be something delicious for this week! I was thinking about noodles for stir fry tomorrow but perhaps I shall switch it up a bit!
My MIL asked if I wanted some of the last tomatoes from her garden, so I said sure, I’d take a couple. Then she gave me like 30. So I roasted them all up and have been making them into sauce for pasta and they are so good. SHEET PAN EVERYTHING FOR LIFE.
I have not had a mud pie in forever but I must do this now. Happy birthday to him!
Mud pie with coffee ice cream? Sign me up!
These recipes all look really good. I just printed up the one for the chicken and broccoli and somehow I messed up my printer settings and it printed backwards, meaning I can read it if I hold it up to the mirror. WTF people?
We have that nugget ice machine and it is indeed amazing but also it is so pricey that you have to think about it for a solid five or six years before you buy it. But you’ll love it once your five or six years of thinking about it is up.
I like Stouffer’s lasagna and a bag of rolls from the grocery store bakery. And I like Red Baron pepperoni pizza.
Oh, I’d LOVE convenience foods. Honestly, our quick go-to dinner is scrambled eggs (I know that isn’t appealing to you) and popcorn. We’ve had that for dinner so many more times than I care to admit to you.
But back in the day when I ate non-homemade foods I loved a Taco Salad Supreme from Taco Bell. I also really enjoyed a baked potato and Frosty from Wendy’s. Ooohhh…and basically the entire Arby’s menu. Hm. Maybe I’m a fast food fan? This is something to consider.
(Note: Other than the Frosty from Wendy’s, which I occasionally get on a road trip, it has been a decade since I’ve had any of those things I mentioned. Don’t be mad at me, Internet. I was young once.)
So the fridge door thing can be a vacuum forming if you shut the door really quickly, then it has to normalize before you can open it. We had one where if we shut it fast it’d do that and lock up, but if we were slow to shut it it wouldn’t lock us out.
It sucks though, so add “get new fridge” to the $3,400 list
Yay, Dinners This Week is back!
We are lamentably Trader-Joe-less in Canada, so I can’t even mention my go-to convenience meals because they would just sound sad and probably make you judge me.
Agree about the Nicole energy.
Okay, I know I said your woes would be temporary but that fridge thing would SUCK, especially for peri-menopause-memory-impaired me. WHAT THE HECK, SUZANNE’s FRIDGE.
Day-um, that is now the nugget ice machine maker of my dreams too. An ice maker was one of the last two or three Covid Lockdown Purchases I nearly made before I realized I had really been over-indulging in retail therapy to keep my dopamine up during lockdown. Kind of wish I’d just gone for it now.
That chickpea curry looks really good. I saved the recipe and I think I give a try next week when I am on my own. The husband improbably no fan of said dish.
I started to like the precooked rice variations that are available in the store. I just add fresh veggies or some beans or. mozzarella cheese – depending the flavor I use – and then it’s done in 2 minutes. We do not have a microwave so precooked meals are always oven based.
Hmm, that fridge thing sounds ANNOYING. But I agree- takeout is fun, convenience meals are convenient, but after a while you start craving a real meal. That chickpea recipe looks really good and I think I might make it tonight! The Pioneer Woman wouldn’t steer us wrong.
Fav easy meals:
– Mac n Cheese
– Scrambled eggs + bacon in wraps
– Waffles
We tend to each one of these each week. I’m also loving steaming veggies in the microwave which I never did before. They’re not as good as stove-top steaming, but it’s a lot less work. And we just bought a rice cooker after years of making it on the stovetop and I CAN’T GET ENOUGH. It’s so, so easy to make rice again!
Beth went on a short business trip recently, which tends to make me slack off in the cooking department. We had frozen dinners one night (Amy’s lasagna for the kids, enchiladas for me). Then we had frozen ravioli another night– I did make a batch of pesto for that one because we had a big basil plant in the garden that was about to expire. The last night we had French toast with eggs, fruit, and veggie bacon on the side because Beth doesn’t like French toast and the rest of us do.
I totally get what you are saying about cooking real meals vs. convenience; it makes me feel like ME! (Although, dessert for dinner and emergency pizza also make me feel like ME, so….) All the best as you adjust to a new cooking space and settle in to the new place!
I almost never buy food from a restaurant, but when I was working in New Orleans, I had to work out of a hotel, and my go-to was Whole Foods. We would sample the hot soups (do they even still let you do that?!) and then buy a salad bar salad for lunch, which I could often make also last until dinner so I could get two meals out of it.
I am not going to lie; I also ate a few Lean Cuisines in those days but it is not something I am proud of. I do like the Amy’s line of products and used to eat her black bean enchiladas from time to time.
I am glad you are getting back to making your own meals. Eating out can get old fast and it’s so expensive these days! My convenience meals are so basic – I like eggs over easy with toast. Or a can of soup. There aren’t many take and bake or boxed type of meals that I can eat due to my gluten intolerance so that really limits convenience items for me! Grilling is also an easy meal since there usually isn’t much prep work!
I have been doing a lot of easy meals as the school year gets back into full swing. I just realized that Tank comes home on Friday. He’ll be home a little over a week. He will be wanting some serious meals. I might have to whip up some cajun dirty rice or a batch of chili.
Convenience meals can be nice in a pinch, but yeah, I hear you – there’s nothing better than a homecooked meal at the end of the day.