What to make for dinner?

I cook this for my girlfriend and I. I’ll go to the supermarket fish counter, and buy a half- to three-quarter-pound salmon fillet. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but fresh that day is nice. (The butcher should take skin off and everything.) I’ll get home, put some aluminum foil in a shallow dish, spray it with cooking spray, and lay the fish on it. Then I’ll drizzle some olive oil on the fish.

Then, I put some Lawry’s garlic salt on it (not too much), and top it off with some breadcrumbs. I wrap up the foil, and put the whole thing in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes.

While that’s cooking, I’ll make some rice. I like basmati, personally, because it’s fast and tasty. While the water is boiling, I’ll drop a chicken bullion cube in there for flavor.

After 15 minutes, I peek at the fish in the foil to see if it’s mostly white… more like a light pink. If it is, I open up the foil, turn the oven to broil (which rhymes), and wait for the breadcrumbs on top to brown up a bit.

Take the rice, divvy it up onto plates. Take the fish out, slice it in two, and put it on the rice.

Goes great with a pinot grigio and maybe a little salad.

You could try any of the soup recipes that people posted here:
http://www.fluther.com/disc/2068/ideas-for-a-good-vegetarian-soup-recipe/

If you can learn basic stir frying, it’s fast and flexible. It’s also a great “let’s see what ingredients I have in the fridge I can get rid of” way to cook.

Also, you can buy pre-made polenta, cut it into circles, top with goat cheese, tomatoes, sauteed onions and swiss chard, and put it in the oven or broiler. It seems pretty gourmet but is very easy. Another great & easy dinner is “make your own pizza night”... you can buy the dough pre-made if you don’t have time to mix and let rise…and then top with any ingredients you like. Always a winner.

Especially on hot nights, or if you’re in the mood for a lighter dinner, one of my favorites is a big salad. Fry up some bacon (I like turkey-bacon), crumble some delicious blue cheese, hard-boil some eggs, and cut up lots and lots of veggies. Alternately, make a yummy tuna salad (I like it with cut-up apples and dried cranberries, it’s really delicious) and serve over lettuce with lots of veggies.

Also, you can make a nice Medeteranian meal with falafel (you can buy a falafel mix), pita, humous, couscous (or tabouli), a simple yogurt-dill sauce, cucumbers, tomatos, etc.

@sferik; I want to make yr carrot soup for Friday. Can you give some amts? And can it be frozen?

“carrot-ginger soup.
Sauté onion, garlic, and ginger in a large stock pot. Add white wine, vegetable stock, and chopped carrots. Cook over medium heat until the carrots are tender. Puree. Season with lemon juice, curry powder, salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chives or parsley.”

I just made this the other night for a neighbor…easy and comfort food

Spaghetti and Cheese casserole
Preheat oven to 425

Spray pam on a casserole dish

Put two cups cooked spaghetti on the bottom of casserole dish.
Put two cups of grated cheddar cheese over top
Pour melted 2 Tablespoon of butter on top

And pour 1 1/2 cups of milk all over.

Grind some pepper over on top.

Cook for about 30 minutes or until golden brown

Enjoy!

I love to barbecue, too. If you live in an area where barbecuing is OK, and the weather is nice (I’m blessed to live in San Diego) cooking outdoors is fun and easy. It’s hard to mess up hamburgers and hot dogs. Steak is a little more tricky, and fish is difficult (but not impossible with a grilling basket).

If I were you, and wanted to have a steak, go to the supermarket and ask the butcher for a good cut of New York or sirloin. Marinate it in barbecue sauce (or my new favorite is the Jack Daniel’s marinades that come in a bag) overnight for a day or two. Then, cook it on the grill over a medium flame (it’s better to have lower heat than higher—it’s easier to control the doneness). Turn it every five minutes until it’s done to your satisfaction.

Make some shoestring fries in the oven, and then call me over to eat. ;)

The best way to handle this is to not leave it until the last minute. Get some good cookbooks (or even some mediocre cookbooks) and flip through them when you have plenty of time and no pressure. Make a note of the recipes you like, and how complicated they are, and then when you need to pick something to eat, pick the first thing on your list that’s at the right level of complexity for that night.

When my partner and I first moved in together, we did that. We also made an index card with every dish that we thought made a good dinner, and meal planning for the week consisted of picking index cards from the pile. (Some of the options were vague, like “grilled meat,” and that allowed us to go to the butcher’s and pick whatever looked good that day. Others didn’t involve cooking, like “Chinese takeout.”) Then we’d go shopping based on what we’d picked for the week, and so menu planning on a daily basis was more “what do we want to eat tonight, out of the four or five options we have the ingredients for?” than “what do we want to eat tonight, out of all the possibilities out there?”—a much simpler question.

Part of what inspired this is that we discovered that if we didn’t use some kind of system we’d either eat the same four things over and over again or spend too much brainpower agonizing over what to cook and what we had in the house (and making emergency shopping trips because we didn’t plan ahead).

Think of Healthy.I.E:I think you should make Corn.That’s GREAT and VERY tasty.Using Low-fat butter would be nice to go with it(:

how about:
grilled grouper (marinate in orange juice, oil and vinegar)
strawberry and spinach salad with bleu cheese vinagerette
roasted asparagus with white wine butter…..........tasty.