Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I seem to be having a hard time actually making some kind of coherent meal these days, so I'm starting this thread for inspiration. I look in my fridge, and I find an orange, so I eat that. Then I find some pistachios and I eat them, then maybe some cheese, and then at 9:30 I'll realize I'm still hungry so I'll make some rice. But it's just not satisfying. So tonight I think I am going to make brown rice macaroni with homemade cheese sauce, broccoli, and chicken. To make homemade cheese sauce, I just make a roux out of sweet rice flour and butter, add sea salt and smoked paprika, then slowly stir in some milk and heat until it's not quite boiling, and then stir in some grated sharp cheddar until it melts. It takes much less time than it sounds like it does. Anyone else having anything good for dinner?

Leftover Indian takeout. (Probably not what you were looking for.)

Tonight? Yellow's parents are taking us out for dinner for their anniversary. Probably also not what you were looking for.

Last night, though, we made scrambled eggs with onion, mushrooms, and orange peppers and put it with cheese in tortillas and made quesadillas.

New potatoes and peas. (Easy peasy: basically white sauce + Peas + potatoes)

Tomorrow I'm thinking three bean casserole, as I just discovered some bacon in the freezer I'd forgotten about. (Also easy: brown meat/bacon if you want it, toss in 2-3 cans of pork and beans, and a can each of butter beans and kidney beans. Bring to a boil, toss in some brown sugar, {a tablespoon or three} and a shot of ketchup. Simmer till you're ready to serve.)

My mom has told me about when her sisters and her each were in charge of dinner for a week. One sister always made hamburger, potatoes and peas, every night for every week it was her turn.

My favorite quick meal are cheese crisps (the Arizona term for quesadillas).

Turn the oven on broil.
Put cheese on the tortillas (a thin layer is best because the tortilla will crisp better)
place on a cookie sheet in the oven until the edges of the tortilla are brown

Also, I usually make a can of refried beans (or make my own if I had enough foresight to put them in the crock pot), mix it with enchilada or another hot sauce (which can be mild, it's mostly for flavor), and a handful of cheese. It makes a wonderful dip for the cheese crisp or chips.

Cook time? 10 minutes, start to finish.

We had jambalaya last night; chicken, potatoes, risotto, and broccoli the night before; pizza the night before; pot roast; then taco soup, I think. We usually have some kind of pasta and some kind of tex-mex dish once a week.

One of my household's favorite meals is quiche. Eggs, milk, cheese, some spices, and whatever we have on hand that sounds good. Usually we do one vegetable and one meat.

Craig Jessop wrote:My favorite quick meal are cheese crisps (the Arizona term for quesadillas).

Turn the oven on broil.
Put cheese on the tortillas (a thin layer is best because the tortilla will crisp better)
place on a cookie sheet in the oven until the edges of the tortilla are brown

We make cheese crisps, too! Except we microwave them. And put other yummy stuff on them like bacon bits and chives and garlic/onion salt. And then after it's melted, we roll them up and eat them like that. Mmmmm.

I'm making this tonight! If you subbed in quinoa for the bulgur, it'd be gluten-free, yeah?

Eirene wrote:I'm making this tonight! If you subbed in quinoa for the bulgur, it'd be gluten-free, yeah?

Yeah, that would be awesome with quinoa! And I have some quinoa that I need to use up.

I'm loving all of these ideas. Including the leftover Indian takeout. And those cheese crisps would be great for using up the 80 tortillas that I bought for some reason. I'm moving at the end of May, so I'm trying to use up all of these random bits of stuff that I have.

If you've got lots of extra tortillas, try migas. It is essentially strips of tortilla fried with eggs, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese. Easy to make, and quite tasty.

We had coconut chicken for dinner. It was yummy, but we only used one jalapeno when it called for two and for my taste it was just a little too mild.

The night before we had bone-in ribs.

We have yummy food because I'm not cooking.

Hmm, not sure what to do with tortillas, though. I like the ideas previously discussed.

Also, enchiladas are always a good idea, but don't do it the gringo way. Cheddar cheese should not be involved, Cotija cheese should. And if you don't want to make a sauce from scratch (though it isn't hard, it can be a bit time consuming) just make sure you buy one that isn't tomato based. And top them with fried potatoes and lettuce.

Yeah, I wish I could get cotija cheese around here, but there are only like 5 Mexican people in this whole province, so that's not going to happen. There's some artisan cow's milk feta from the farmer's market, though, that tastes a bit like queso blanco, and it's good in enchiladas. I brought the corn tortillas back from Utah. I usually make my own, though (my tortilla press was also brought back from Utah). You can buy them here, they're just ridiculously expensive. But sauce I'm all over. I have a jar of this sauce I made from roasted tomatillos in my freezer somewhere.

My roommates made the most heart-clogging 'enchiladas' I'd ever seen. Chicken, cheese and cream cheese made up the filling, then the enchiladas were smothered with heavy cream in lieu of enchilada sauce.

I'm really confused about why Arizonans don't say "quesadilla."

Katya wrote:I'm really confused about why Arizonans don't say "quesadilla."

Because. That's just the way it is.

Craig Jessop wrote:

Katya wrote:I'm really confused about why Arizonans don't say "quesadilla."

Because. That's just the way it is.

Aaand you're majoring in linguistics?

ok, I have had cheese crisps and I've had quesadillas, and in my mind they are two separate things, although with the same ingredients. A quesadilla requires a top tortilla in my mind.