Help me figure out first-night-of-visit dinner

[Anonymous]

Dad is meat and potatoes who doesn’t like chicken. Mom is “on a diet unless of course I don’t feel like it, in which case I will skip over the zucchini noodles you made specially for me and go to regular noodles,” and thus completely unpredictable.

Need ideas for first-night dinner. Other nights will be:

23rd: Pizza takeout with entree salad options

Christmas Eve: regular chili and healthy chicken and vegetable chili, cornbread, salad

Christmas Day: ham with lots of sides, including entree salad and roasted vegetables

Should I just do meat sauce with regular spaghetti noodles and zucchini noodles on the first night? Even though that’s kind of similar to chili? Dad doesn’t really like pulled pork, or I might do something like that. I can’t think of anything. Taco bar? I kind of hate all that assembly for taco bar.

[Anonymous]

I might still do taco bar -- you can make the main filling in advance and reheat, and everything else is bought, except for maybe that tomatoes need chopping. Everything else can be bought in a bag from the store and put out -- shredded cheese, salsa, lettuce, sour cream, shells/tortillas, and guacamole. Everyone can focus on the components they care about - mom can have taco salad.

[Anonymous]

Instead of thinking about what they prefer to eat, think about what they absolutely cannot eat (allergies, high blood pressure/cholesterol or whatever), as well as what they'd rather not eat. For your father, he wants meat for lunch and dinner, but not chicken. This means you can do pulled pork if that's what you want to do. Your mother, if she's unreliable, doesn't need special dishes unless someone else will partake too. However you can cook more healthy sides for everyone. She can just eat smaller portions (I'm on a diet, and that's what I do, successfully )

[Anonymous]

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I might still do taco bar -- you can make the main filling in advance and reheat, and everything else is bought, except for maybe that tomatoes need chopping. Everything else can be bought in a bag from the store and put out -- shredded cheese, salsa, lettuce, sour cream, shells/tortillas, and guacamole. Everyone can focus on the components they care about - mom can have taco salad.

I was going to suggest tacos too. Include heating up a can of black beans

[Anonymous]

I'd make braised beef or pot roast, with a tray of roasted root vegetables. Make a pot of farro or barley on the side. Mom can have roasted veggies and grains if she happens to be on a diet that day, everyone else can have their beef with grains and veggies on the side.

[Anonymous]

Rice bowls. Cook some protein (salmon and/or chicken and/or beef), chop of veggies to go on top (carrots, sugar snaps, avo, cucumbers, lightly steamed broccoli), cashews or peanuts, then serve with some kind of sauce option (we often make our own but you could easily buy a store bought). Everyone assembles their own how they like.

[Anonymous]

Can you do a mississippi pot roast in the crock pot and then put it on top of no noodles, egg noodles or mashed potatoes?

[Anonymous]

If it were me I’d do a vegetable soup with baked potatoes and salad.

[Anonymous]

I do a red sauce with shredded chicken. Basically some chicken tenderloins covers in marinara, onions, garlic, peppers, herbs, olive oil, and spices in the oven baked for about an hour at 400. It comes out like a shredded cacciatore (you have to shred it) and it's a lovely "meat" sauce. Maybe you could do this with a cut of red meat? I don't eat red meat so I don't know what.

Add pasta, salad, and bread. I've also done it with scalloped potatoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rice bowls. Cook some protein (salmon and/or chicken and/or beef), chop of veggies to go on top (carrots, sugar snaps, avo, cucumbers, lightly steamed broccoli), cashews or peanuts, then serve with some kind of sauce option (we often make our own but you could easily buy a store bought). Everyone assembles their own how they like.

Nobody likes this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rice bowls. Cook some protein (salmon and/or chicken and/or beef), chop of veggies to go on top (carrots, sugar snaps, avo, cucumbers, lightly steamed broccoli), cashews or peanuts, then serve with some kind of sauce option (we often make our own but you could easily buy a store bought). Everyone assembles their own how they like.

Nobody likes this.

Are you racist, PP?

I know plenty of people who love this concept. I don't, and I'm Asian, but your blanket statement makes you sound anti-Asian, frankly. I wouldn't have written that.

[Anonymous]

Moby Dick carry out lamb, chicken and felafel with rice, bread and salad, add hummus and tzatziki.

[Anonymous]

Another vote for pot roast and roasted vegetables. I do mine over mashed potatoes.

Enchiladas would be good too and could be assembled ahead of time to just go in the oven. You can do a mix of chicken/pork/beef.

[Anonymous]

Steaks, potatoes and grilled vegetables