Our Favorite Meals

I aspire to be a meal planner but I just can't make it happen. However, we do have some favorite meals and snacks which we eat all the time. I like to keep a list so when I'm feeling brain dead we still eat dinner.

Soupy Things...
 

Tomato Soup. Super easy.

Vegetable Stew. Anything goes.

White Bean Soup with garden fresh kale or mustard greens.

Caldo de queso con papas. Mexican cheese and potato soup.
Cilantro Soup

Black Bean and Pumpkin Stew
Black Bean Soup

Chicken and Rice Soup. Heavy on the garlic.
Tomato Basil Cream Soup. Only in summer since dried basil is never worth using.
Gazpacho. Also only a summer food since it's mostly cucumbers and tomatoes.

Things...

Tacos. Bean and cheese, vegetables, yogurt, sometimes meat.

Vegetables Saute with Beans and Rice. Literally, I saute some vegetables and then serve it over rice and beans. Often cheese of some kind is involved on top, particularly feta. Sometimes salsa or avocados make an appearance.

Pizza. Whole wheat of course. Cabbage, kale, and broccoli are sooo good on pizza. And I adore pepperoni and salami.

Quiches. Spinach and mushroom, miscellaneous vegetable with ham or bacon.
Roasted Vegetables on Bread toasted with olive oil. During the summer it's eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic with feta or parm. In the winter it's root crops and winter squash, kale, garlic...
Pancakes. My husband makes great pancakes. I especially love them with blueberries.
Egg tacos
Eggs and bacon. I've been curing my own bacon.
Baked Taters
Quesadillas. Whole wheat tortillas, often kale, green chilies, sometimes sweet potatoes and pork or just sweet potatoes, whatever leftover roasted veg we have, radishes, turnips, just beans and cheese... 

Casserole-esk...

Salmon Noodle Casserole. Like tuna noddle casserole but I don't eat tuna anymore. Heavy on the mustard greens. Sometimes I add in kippered herring.

Chili-mac. I make carne guisada and mix it with homemade whole wheat noodles, extra onions, and cheese. Holy-moly.

Broccoli or Squash Rice Casserole (depending on what season we're in). I like to add a little arborio to the brown rice. Makes it quite creamy.

Vegetable Shepard's Pie. Lentils, seasonal veg, topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar.

Lasagnas. Butternut and kale is a fave. Roasted vegetables, especially broccoli, are great. I always put white beans inside too.

Enchiladas. Homesick Texan rocks. I use her recipes all the time. Broccoli and potato is a favorite combo. Sometimes it's just cheese and onion, sometimes meat.
Risotto. Green bean risotto is one of my summer favorites.

Meats are involved...

Rosemary and White Wine Beef Roast. I cook a beef shank (because it's cheap and has the bone) covered, in the oven with onions, garlic, rosemary, and white wine until it cooks down into this syrupy sauce and the meat is spoon tender. Yum-o! (Don't forget to make broth!)

Carnitas. Be still my heart!

Tamales. One of my favorite family traditions.

Indian Food. Especially Rogan Josh, Saag Paneer, Murgh Masala, Butter Chicken, Parsi Chicken with Apricots, Stuffed Okra, Eggplant in the Pickling Style, and Mogul Style Lamb with Turnips.
Roast Chicken. First we roast it and sometimes we eat it plain. But often we put it in a taco. Then I cook the bones down into a rich, gelatinous stock.
Cheeseburgers. I just really really like cheeseburgers. With jalapenos.
Carne Guisada. Good with tortillas, over rice, over potatoes...
Meat We've Been Given. My husband has a friend at work who loves our eggs. In exchange he periodically gives us meat he hunted or fished. So lately we've been eating deer steaks pounded thin, dredged in flour and pan fried. For a while we had broiled or fried fish every week. I love this deal!

Snacks...

Scones

Crackers

Ginger Cookies

Granola

Cornbread. With chicharrones, or cracklins... whatever you might locally call them - the crunchy, melty bits left over from rendering lard. Amazing.

Wheat Bread
Cheese and Apples!
Stuffed Jalapeno Bread. I mix cream cheese and shredded cheddar (the filling for stuffed jalapenos) with pickled jalapenos, spread it on whole wheat bread and toast it. Tastes like stuffed jalapenos on toast.
Strained Yogurt. Have you guys ever strained yogurt before? It's amazing stuff. We use yogurt instead of sour cream and strained yogurt is a better substitute. As a snack though I regularly mix a little honey and vanilla, possibly blueberries, into my strained yogurt and to me it tastes just like pudding. People tell me that if you strain it enough you can get something close to cheese. Mine never gets that thick but I keep trying.


So these are the foods we eat over and over again. Other things make an appearance, but these are our staples.

What are your family's regular dishes?