One thing that helps is to cook up hamburger ahead of time. We cook it up and then freeze it in recipe sized portions. The same thing would work for chicken, etc.

My husband and I have become HUGE fans of buying rotisserie chickens from the grocery store and either using them in recipes that call for cooked chicken (like pot pie) or shredding them out and freezing them as Twigs mentioned above.
Valia, do you and your sisters have any food allergies or general dislikes? I have a couple fish recipes that I just adore, and they're fast, but not everybody likes fish.

Ditto on making extra and freezing some. I find spaghetti sauce and soups are especially great to freeze, then just pull out when needed. Only thing is, remember to thaw them first. At least, I prefer that than using the microwave to thaw. Not sure why, come to think of it.

Do you have a BBQ/grill, Valia? Because food on there makes for fairly fast, delicious meals.

I also agree that buying those rotisserie chickens at the store are a great time-saver. Thing is, they smell so scrumptious when I get them home that I'm far too tempted to dig in right then.

fantasia, I love your Hungry Caterpillar cake. What a brilliant idea! So, so cute. And scrumptious-looking.

Thank you all for the advice, Twig's, stwin, fk, and Jo! I think we still have some frozen ground venison and other assorted meats my mom left. We've picked up a rotisserie chicken before and frozen some of it, but we seem to have forgotten all our chicken recipes and just eaten it again plain (or for chicken tetrazzini, but that's a favourite that we're trying not to cook too much!).

I'll keep the veggie and meat tips in mind, thanks, Twig's!

Pasta is also a favourite of Winter's, stwin, so we're trying to vary that a bit. I'll keep the quesadillas in mind, thanks!

Well, fk, Meadow likes fish but not Winter and I. (Also, Winter hates cheese, and I'm not a fan of tomato sauce; Meadow loves cheese and is more fond of weird lettuce than either Winter or I.) So, Meadow might like the fish recipes, but I'm not sure if I should ask for them because Winter will not be happy. Food allergies, nothing that can't be worked around and/or may've been grown out of.

We do have a grill, Jo! Unfortunately, I know how to work it in theory but have never actually cooked on it... But maybe I should give it a try.

Confession time: I've only made soup two or three times before and they've been experiments where I just kind of threw things together. So, do you all have any favourite soups that you could recommend?

I made tacos last night, which was pretty straight forward since the venison was cooked and I just had to add seasoning and heat it and the beans up. But it was good, and we had leftovers again for tonight.

Confession time: I've only made soup two or three times before and they've been experiments where I just kind of threw things together. So, do you all have any favourite soups that you could recommend?

We call that throw-together soup in our house.

fantasia has shared a recipe before that we really enjoy called Italian Peasant Soup. I think it's somewhere in this thread or its predecessor. There may be one or two that I've shared in here as well.

We also make Taco Soup, Chili (beef and chicken), Loaded Potato, and Chicken Enchilada soup at least a couple times each cold season (read: October-March). I'll have to find those and pass them on to you, but the first two are very simple.

Edit: Those are also cheap soups. I have a couple of other favorite recipes that are a bit more involved and expensive that I can share if you like.

So, do you all have any favourite soups that you could recommend?

fantasia has shared a recipe before that we really enjoy called Italian Peasant Soup. I think it's somewhere in this thread or its predecessor.

Here you go.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=255&p=224284
And that is one of my very favorites.
A tip: The last time we made it, we discovered that it's best to add the spinach as you eat it. If you add it all at once, and it wilts, that particular ingredient doesn't do well being chilled/frozen and reheated. So we'll just add it to individual bowls and as make it.

A tip: The last time we made it, we discovered that it's best to add the spinach as you eat it. If you add it all at once, and it wilts, that particular ingredient doesn't do well being chilled/frozen and reheated. So we'll just add it to individual bowls and as make it.

Whereas we usually end up using kale as it's a bit cheaper, and the kale works well with being chilled/frozen and reheated.

Edit: The page fantasia linked to also has my two other soups I mentioned in my last post on it.

Thanks for the soup recipes and recommendations, stwin and fk!

Thanks, fk! ...umm, how sacrilegious would it be to play around the recipe and use ground sausage and maybe leave out the tomatoes or use a different kind of bean?
(Also, Meadow did say that she'd like the fish recipes... )

I saw the soup recipes, stwin, thank you! They look good! Especially that baked potato one...

I'm toying with the idea of making another batch of pesto aioli and asking Meadow to make grilled cheese for lunch... This time I won't get confused about what constitutes a clove of garlic!

Thanks, fk! ...umm, how sacrilegious would it be to play around the recipe and use ground sausage and maybe leave out the tomatoes or use a different kind of bean?
(Also, Meadow did say that she'd like the fish recipes... )

I'm a recipe purist and I don't usually mess around with them. However, as I've learned in the past several years, recipes are meant to be messed around with if you ever want to learn how to cook properly. I love the recipe as is, but you may find a variation you like just as well if not better.

Here are the fish recipes for Meadow.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-tilapia
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-cajun-catfish
Now, on the second one, it is VERY important that you use fresh catfish, which can be expensive. But if you use anything else, you risk it tasting muddy, which is gross and disgusting.

As much as I enjoy eating it I don't really make from-scratch food very often. Tonight I figured I'd give something new a go. Country Style Steak! One of the hallmarks of southern food is that it tends to soothe not only the palette but also the soul All I did was take a pound of cube steak, dip it in seasoned flour (pepper, salt, garlic powder), fry it 5 minutes on each side in olive oil, and then put it in a small casserole dish in the oven. Mix 3 tablespoons of the seasoned flour that's left with 2 cups of beef broth or stock, mix it up, and dump it into the casserole dish. Cook at 350 for 2 hours.

Holy smokes, that was good eating! We had it with some mashed potatoes. I suspect some biscuits on the side would improve this and perhaps some collard greens too.

Tonight I figured I'd give something new a go. Country Style Steak! Holy smokes, that was good eating!

You have just mentioned one of my favorite dishes, if not my very favorite of all time. This was often my birthday dinner request when I was little.
I thought it was interesting though, I have never heard it called country style steak before. I've always heard country fried steak. Is that a regional thing? Cause I've even heard Southerners call it 'fried'. So I think that's interesting. Glad it came out well! Did your daughter eat it?

I'm a recipe purist and I don't usually mess around with them. However, as I've learned in the past several years, recipes are meant to be messed around with if you ever want to learn how to cook properly.

AH. Umm, I love messing around with recipes, especially if it's not something that's going to potentially fail easily (e.g. any recipe requiring baking soda or powder or yeast). I sometimes don't even make the recipe the right way the first time, even though you're supposed to. But thanks, maybe I'll try the soup the correct way first.
Thanks for the fish recipes! I'll pass them onto Meadow.

Sounds good, SL!

I did end up talking Meadow into making grilled cheese yesterday, so I made the pesto aioli. It turned out much better than the first time though the garlic was still a bit strong. But we had it with swiss and mozzarella cheese, and it was delicious. Plus, I only have a little container left so I should be able to use it up pretty quickly as opposed to last time when it hung around for a couple of weeks.

Country Steak and Country Fried Steak are two different animals it'd seem. Well for one the latter is, well...fried. Country style is cube steak that's briefly breaded and fried on each side and then the whole thing goes into the oven for 2 hours with broth (which then turns into awesome gravy). Country Fried Steak is absolutely awesome too, and I like mine with the sawmill gravy over it and a healthy dosage of collards or home made mac n' cheese and/or mashed potatoes. I suppose I should eat it with fried okra but...it's just not my thing :O . Did I mention gravy?

Country style is cube steak that's briefly breaded and fried on each side and then the whole thing goes into the oven for 2 hours with broth

Ooooooohhh!!!! I missed the oven with broth bit. Interesting! I've not heard of that before and now you have me curious. Do they taste similar? Or does the way it's cooked make it taste different? (Kind of like mashed potatoes vs potato chips.)

So my kiddo's birthday (cup)cake came out really well! I was pleased anyways. I definitely feel like my husband's and my baking and decorating skills are improving. I'm not very good at decorating especially.

I've had a bad couple cooking days (glad it didn't include my kiddo's birthday food!). I decided to try your Country Style Steaks SL. But unfortunately the recipe online wasn't specific enough regarding cooking time, so I succeeding in burning the outside and underside of the steaks and cooking the gravy away to crispiness that had to be scoured off the pan. The top middle of the steaks gave me a tiny peek of what they should be like, and they were pretty good. But I think I prefer Chicken Fried Steaks. I need to give it another try sometime.

Then yesterday I made blueberry muffins, and those turned out pretty good, but they are ever so slightly under baked. Still tasty for sure, but they would have been even better with another couple minutes in the oven.

I have some banana oatmeal muffins on my list of things to make before Monday, so hopefully I won't mess those up. I must be really out of practice cooking!

I've had a bad couple cooking days (glad it didn't include my kiddo's birthday food!). I decided to try your Country Style Steaks SL. But unfortunately the recipe online wasn't specific enough regarding cooking time, so I succeeding in burning the outside and underside of the steaks and cooking the gravy away to crispiness that had to be scoured off the pan. The top middle of the steaks gave me a tiny peek of what they should be like, and they were pretty good. But I think I prefer Chicken Fried Steaks.

Awww! Nothing hurts me more than hearing of good food gone wrong . I know it's probably a day late and a dollar short but this is the recipe I used to make it http://allrecipes.com/recipe/country-st ... etail.aspx. It was remarkably easy to make but rather time consuming, so in the end I imagine if you have a deep frier Chicken Fried Steaks would be quicker to do. And frankly if I had a deep frier that's what I'd be making myself. I'm terrible at making gravy though so while I can probably get a decent Chicken Fried Steak made I'm not sure I could get the gravy for it. And in the end that's really what brings the whole dish together, yes? I meant to get some seasoned collard greens on the side with mine too, you know, to make it more Southern Authentic. Please try again though, it's really good and worth the try, even if it takes two whole hours to cook.