Your family's Top 3 favorite dinners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking for ideas, both quick and easy dinners and anything time-intensive but worth it. What does your family love to eat? What makes your kids say "yay" when they walk in the kitchen and see what's for dinner?

Makes my kids say "yay" with varying levels of effort:

Spaghetti Squash - highest level of effort but requires just time no real skill. This is essentially baked ziti with squash instead of pasta. Cook the squash earlier in the day, separate it and leave it in a colander to get most of the water out. Cook veggies (mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc.) and some Italian sausage, add in pasta sauce (homemade or jarred), stir in the squash and distribute everything well, then layer mozzarella slices on top and bake for 30 minutes or so. Very filling, pretty darned healthy, and my kids have liked it since infancy. One still won't eat pasta but loves this dish.

Enchiladas. Medium level of time but not really labor intensive. Technically I make "pastel Azteca" but I always call it Lazy White Lady Enchiladas. Great for using up leftover smoked pork shoulder. Everybody loves it, it makes lots of leftovers but they all get eaten.

Egg Roll in a Bowl. You can have this on the table in like 15 minutes as long as your meat is thawed. It's the only time we eat turkey outside of Thanksgiving. I like it to mix up the protein a bit, we always double the coleslaw mix and according to my husband the 'macros' are good. Everybody eats it.

I love this but never make it because I hate cutting it open so much. It's so hard to do, and I'm convinced the knife will slip and cut my hand off lol.

[Anonymous]

My family's go-tos:

Homemade burritos, everyone chooses their toppings, you must warm up the tortilla so that it wraps nicely.

Japanese curry (which you buy in blocks), with any kind of meat, potatoes and carrots, and maybe another vegetable.

Very basic Bolognese sauce over pasta (not authentic: we do put tomatoes, and generally ground beef, and also I like to hide kale in there).

These are not spectacular options but rather the dishes that survived the kids' rejection of their dinner, over a long period of time. Also fairly easy to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family loves chicken cutlets like I see many others do as well. But man, it’s one of my most hated things to make. It makes such a mess.

I posted it as my family’s 1st and third favorite meals (haha- my teens would eat them every night if I’d make them). But I agree with you, I HATE making them mainly due to oil splatter but the whole process of pounding the breasts thin, etc.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who get shrimp regularly - where do you buy consistently good shrimp? A lot of the time shrimp kind of tastes like chemicals so I’m scared to buy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking for ideas, both quick and easy dinners and anything time-intensive but worth it. What does your family love to eat? What makes your kids say "yay" when they walk in the kitchen and see what's for dinner?

Makes my kids say "yay" with varying levels of effort:

Spaghetti Squash - highest level of effort but requires just time no real skill. This is essentially baked ziti with squash instead of pasta. Cook the squash earlier in the day, separate it and leave it in a colander to get most of the water out. Cook veggies (mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc.) and some Italian sausage, add in pasta sauce (homemade or jarred), stir in the squash and distribute everything well, then layer mozzarella slices on top and bake for 30 minutes or so. Very filling, pretty darned healthy, and my kids have liked it since infancy. One still won't eat pasta but loves this dish.

Enchiladas. Medium level of time but not really labor intensive. Technically I make "pastel Azteca" but I always call it Lazy White Lady Enchiladas. Great for using up leftover smoked pork shoulder. Everybody loves it, it makes lots of leftovers but they all get eaten.

Egg Roll in a Bowl. You can have this on the table in like 15 minutes as long as your meat is thawed. It's the only time we eat turkey outside of Thanksgiving. I like it to mix up the protein a bit, we always double the coleslaw mix and according to my husband the 'macros' are good. Everybody eats it.

I love this but never make it because I hate cutting it open so much. It's so hard to do, and I'm convinced the knife will slip and cut my hand off lol.

Bread knife!

[Anonymous]

Chicken cutlets for our family too - It's a pain but I feel like I have the system down for pounding and quickly breading the chicken. I hate the oil splatter too.

They like chicken katsu (with rice, salad), chicken parm, chicken piccata (with pasta or mashed potatoes and a veggie).

Dinners on rotation:
Japanese curry with beef or chicken + vegetables
Teriyaki salmon
Bulgogi bowls
Burgers
Spaghetti or any pasta with meat sauce or meatballs
Other pasta dishes- pesto or lemon garlic butter sauce

I would like to add some other dishes, esp asian noodle dishes that look so delicious cooked in a huge wok.... one day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family loves chicken cutlets like I see many others do as well. But man, it’s one of my most hated things to make. It makes such a mess.

chicken cutlets like thin pieces of breaded and fried chicken?

Yes. Between the multiple dishes for the egg wash, bread crumbs, and flour then the frying part that spatters grease everyone, it’s a PIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who get shrimp regularly - where do you buy consistently good shrimp? A lot of the time shrimp kind of tastes like chemicals so I’m scared to buy it.

I buy the frozen Argentinia shrimp from TJ. They are wild caught, raw, and peeled/deveined

[Anonymous]

We love Japanese curry too. It’s even easier if you use ground chicken. For veggies we use cabbage potatoes and carrots, which we always have in the fridge.

[Anonymous]

DS is great about eating a variety of protein. DD is comparatively much better with vegetables. They have very little overlap in enjoyed foods 😒.

The 3 everyone likes:
Egg tacos (French fries or tater tots for potato)
Chicken and waffles (Kodiak frozen)
Hamburgers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family loves chicken cutlets like I see many others do as well. But man, it’s one of my most hated things to make. It makes such a mess.

chicken cutlets like thin pieces of breaded and fried chicken?

NP. This is what I make a lot. I usually use chicken breasts that I pound thin, then bread and fry. It's a pain to make, but it's one of our favorite meals. You have to carefully wipe down surfaces since you're working with raw chicken.

[Anonymous]

Never fails as the top choice: Orange chicken (Trader Joe’s) served with rice and veggies

Constant rotation
Pesto pasta
Burrito Bowls choose your own toppings
Italian wedding soup

[Anonymous]

Chili (vegetarian) with cornbread

Chicken Tinga with rice, beans, all the fixings including homemade pica and guacamole

Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes (with brown gravy for some), a big salad, a fresh green veggie like peas or asparagus, garlic bread

Lasagna is a close one too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who get shrimp regularly - where do you buy consistently good shrimp? A lot of the time shrimp kind of tastes like chemicals so I’m scared to buy it.

I buy the frozen Argentinia shrimp from TJ. They are wild caught, raw, and peeled/deveined

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Tonkatsu curry

Chicken tikka masala and saag paneer

Galbi and soft tofu stew

Recipe tin eats meatloaf

Thai yellow or green curry

Roast chicken

They are swimmers and are starving when they walk through the door, so they will say “yay” to anything edible.