Recipe help
So I made this the other night in the crockpot and though it was okay, it needs some tweaking. Tweaking isn’t my thing so I turn to you fine people.
I put in approx:
4 pounds potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 chopped onion
Some chopped cooked ham
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 soup can of milk
some garlic powder and some s&p
It was kind of bland. One of the kids remarked that they thought it would be “something special, but it just tasted like au gratin potatoes out of the box” which, yanno, replicating boxed Betty Crocker isn’t an insult (to me). But how can I make it ‘something special’? Spices, meats, veggies? What?
Oh. I don’t think I mentioned this here, though I could have. Anyway, several weeks ago, maybe even months ago, on one of those days where I was out running errands all day and had no time to cook, I picked up a bag of frozen chicken strips and frozen french fries, which used to be a staple for meals in my pre-Master, non-cooking days, and not a single person was pleased with it as a meal.
In fact, it was said as they poked at it that I’d spoiled them now with cooking real meals and that frozen stuff “tasted like crap”. That just warmed my domestic little heart.
My whole grocery shopping experience is totally different now. I rarely even step foot into the prepared food aisles. I only go in the freezer section for frozen vegetables. I mostly shop the perimeter, starting in dairy, circling to meats and around to produce.
I still need to incorporate more rice and grains into my cooking and move a little further away from pastas and potatoes. None of us have ever been big rice eaters so it’s difficult to figure out how to cook it without having the same tired thing over and over again. Most of the rice dishes that I’ve experimented with have been yucky anyway and with the grocery budget being tight, I find myself shying away from iffy foods and sticking to what I know will get eaten. I’d really like to find a good rice and bean dish though.
I’m also looking to try some whole grain/wheat breads in the breadmaker. I’ve pretty well stopped using the machine since the only thing I could make in it was white bread and white dinner rolls and have been buying whole grain bread. But surely I can make something just as easily, and probably cheaper. So if anyone has a recipe for that, shoot it my way, please.
Also, thanks for all the chili recipes! That’s awesome. Maybe now I can redeem myself from that awful coffee-chocolate catastrophe.
Uncategorized | kaya | 
Tuesday June 29th, 2010 7:37am | 
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