It took spending the summer in the middle of nowhere and having to make a big trek to grocery shop once a week for me to realize that I cook the same things all the time for dinner. Each week when I made my big list and headed off to the store, I thought about how boring dinner has gotten. Sure, I could practically cook our regular meals with my eyes closed at this point, but I also should be challenging myself more. Challenging myself to try new things, challenging my family to try to eat healthier and stop requesting their same (not always good for us) meals. I am actually pretty happy with the things we eat, but I could certainly mix things up a bit and fix them differently.
So, when I returned from our trip, I vowed to make all new to me dinners for a month. I pulled out my dusty cookbooks, looked up some popular food blogs and printed off some recipes that sounded yummy and got started. For four nights now, we’ve eaten all new to us recipes. Not all wild and out there different foods, but mostly just things prepared in new ways to make dinner more interesting. I have discovered how much like a little dinner robot I was. Now that I have to read recipes, measure things out and really pay attention while cooking to make sure I am doing it right, I realize how long it’s been since I’ve challenged myself in the kitchen.
I’m using those cookbooks pictured above, some recipes from my mom, and I’ve been perusing sites like Our Best Bites, but I have to tell you I am not really a foodie. I like good food and I like to cook but it’s not something I think about much or pay much attention to. But now I want to more so that I can add some interesting things to our dinner rotation.
Please share links to favorite recipes, favorite websites to find recipes, good cookbooks. I don’t have many criteria. We eat pretty healthy, not a lot of meat, I love seafood and vegetarian recipes although I am not vegetarian – usually I will just tweak a recipe to make it vegetarian. I am trying to get us away from eating so much pasta and so much mexican.
I look forward to your suggestions!
I made this yesterday and the whole family enjoyed it. It sound kinda weird, but it was good.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-honey-garlic-chicken/detail.aspx
~FringeGirl
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 8:48 am
sounds delicious – thank you! honey and garlic are faves around here
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Try checking out some cookbooks from your local library. Some great ones include The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbooks. (The original one is red, and there is a healthy version which is green. Both are excellent)
Ellie Krieger has two fantastic cookbooks, “The Food You Crave” and “So Easy”, both are healthy and delicious.
“The Comfort Table” by Katie Lee is fabulous as well. I hope you find some new recipes that you love!
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Thank you Kat!! I definitely will use the library and look for those – great suggestions!
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I totally agree with Kat – America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks are wonderful. Also, I like http://www.101cookbooks.com for healthy/veggie ideas. I just discovered pinterest.com for organizing my online recipes – they were such a mess, and now they are so pretty and easy to find!
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 8:56 am
Oh what a good idea to use pinterest to keep online recipes organized. I am on pinterest but haven’t used it much – this is a practical reason to start using it. Thank you!!
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I love Jules’ recipes on thestonesoup.com. Most of the recipes (except some of the older ones) are 5 or fewer ingredients. A lot are vegetarian or adaptable (and a while ago she did an entire month of vegetarian ones), and many take fewer than 10 minutes. They’re delicious, easy to make, and straightforward enough that you don’t decide it isn’t worth the effort and pull out an old standby meal instead. Enjoy, and good luck!
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 9:27 am
thank you! headed there now to pin some recipes!
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I was going to email you today!
I like to use allrecipes.com to search for new recipes by ingredient or dish style.
Here’s a few of our family favorites-
*Dixie Pork Chops*
(only bake for 45 min rather than the suggested hour though)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/dixie-pork-chops/detail.aspx
*Chicken Pot Pie*
(super easy and my kids LOVE it)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chicken-pot-pie-iii/detail.aspx
and recently found while blog hopping:
*Baked Turkey Taquitos*
(this is a healthier twist on a mexican favorite – still tastes best with all the fix’n's like sour cream, guacamole though)
http://thecreativemama.com/baked-turkey-taquitos/
Let me know if you try any!
-h
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 9:26 am
Heidi, these are awesome!! my kids LOVE pork chops and I have some thawing for tonight so I am going to try the dixie pork chops for them tonight. And I love taquitos but the traditional ones are so heavy and after dinner is over I feel like they were really unhealthy even though they are delicious. I will try the baked turkey ones next time. I have never ever made a pot pie but that’s what this whole experiment is about – trying new things!!
thank you!!
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Here are my fave spots for new recipes ::
Susan’s Dining Diva :: http://www.diningdivadinners.com/Services.html
(she creates a week full of recipes … pretty handy!)
Kristen at Dine and Dish ::: http://dineanddish.net/
And then I keep track of our family favorites here :: http://naomidoesfrugal.blogspot.com/search/label/Recipes
Good luck!
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I have been in a terrible rut all summer! I just do NOT feel like cooking, but I have to get into gear with school/sports/etc. coming up and hungry kids!
I LOVE AllRecipes more than any other site. I find more “normal” recipes there, and not so much funky stuff. We don’t eat a lot of meat either, and if we do I always make a vegatarian version of whatever I am making for myself.
I’m excited about all the new sites readers left!
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While some of her recipes can be quite complicated, Ina Garten has some really simple and flavorful recipes. I got her cookbooks from the library and then copied the ones I liked. Her Back to Basics cookbook really has good, simple food. And if you want something a little special, her lemon pound cake with raspberry sauce is fabulous. (I can’t remember which cookbook the recipes are in though.)
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So cool! I remember doing something exactly like this. I vowed to make 30 new recipes within the month. Just like you, I really wanted to expand what I was making. LIttle did I realize… I also fell in love with cooking then.
This is going to be so awesome (and exhausting)
for you! It’s good to have you back, Em.
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I love the web site http://www.myrecipes.com. It is has recipes from the magazines Cooking Light, Coastal Living, Sunset and Real Simple to name a few. I love the reviews.
Another good place is http://www.onefamilyonemeal.com. They have some good easy recipes the family will love.
I also use http://www.epicurious.com.
I have a cookbook fetish and vow to start cooking from them. I am a total sucker for the Summer Grilling Magazines and special seasonal magazines. Good for you for planning it out! You have inspired me to do the same.
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I love your challenge! I am also trying to get out of the rut, so I will check back with you for inspiration. In the meantime, here are a couple of recipes that I make around here that I really like. I keep a little “phantom” blog site just to catalog my recipes for easy access from anywhere, anytime.
This is an amazing salad, lots of chopping/prep work but SO worth the effort, great use of that summer basil and tomatoes. It is a famous old favorite from a restaurant:
http://champagneandgrits.blogspot.com/2011/06/chopped-salad.html
Another summer favorite, this time summer squash, tomotoes made with fresh butter basil. Easy, from Southern Living:
http://champagneandgrits.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-squash-with-tomatoes-and-basil.html
This one is a shrimp stir fry I adapted from Food & Wine magazine. Very easy, serve with brown rice. I use the Yoshida’s marinade from Costco, it is a really great marinade/Asian flavor.
http://champagneandgrits.blogspot.com/search/label/shrimp
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Hi, I’m in Australia and this is my favourite recipe site: http://www.taste.com.au. For inspiration I throw a country into the search function to see what comes up, e.g. Syrian etc… Great inspiration.
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Emily Reply:
August 15th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
That is awesome – I need to branch out more and that site will certainly help me do that – thank you!!
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Thank you all!! I am love love loving these links and ideas! I am so appreciative. xo
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There is a great blog called *Dinner: a Love Story* that I came across a few months ago. It’s about the importance of gathering the family around the table for meals, and therefore cooking kid friendly food.Lots of good recipes. It is also pretty funny sometimes. I love it!
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Orangette.blogspot.com is a great resource. She’s got a memoir out, too. I also enjoy (along the food memoir line) The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn, who has a blog: http://kathleenflinn.com/ and a new book on its way called The Kitchen Counter Cooking School, which I would love to read. Bittman has one called Kitchen Express that’s 20 minute easy meals. There are some gems in there.
Alice Waters’ The Art Of Simple Food is one of my go-to books for the basics, and Molly Katzen’s The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without is full of yummy recipes.
And of course there’s Smitten Kitchen, can’t forget about her!
And pintrest – don’t discount the pintrest food boards
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Hi Emily!
When I have found myself in a rut I will try to plan Italian on Monday, chicken on Tuesday, Mexican on Wednesday, meatless on Thursday, etc. I think you get the idea. It would kind of kick start me!
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[...] The Dinner Challenge: Two Weeks InThank you all so much for the suggestions that you gave me last week for recipes, websites, and cookbooks to help me through my challenge of making new-to-me dinners for a month. If you want to check out the ideas people shared, there are some good ones – just read the comments here. [...]
Hi, I just found your site, and I realize this is an older post, but I couldn’t resist sharing two recipes from my blog.
I am mostly vegan (my family is not)…both of these recipes could be smothered in cheese and meats to satisfy the meat ‘n tater crowd.
Cauliflower Steaks is probably one of my all-time favorite dishes:
http://nestandbloom.com/2011/06/cauliflower-steaks-vegan-style/
Vegan Stuffed Mushrooms were pretty good, and would make a great snack or side dish:
http://nestandbloom.com/2011/06/not-so-stuffed-mushrooms-vegan-style/
Good luck on your Dinner Rut Challenge. I’m gearing up to do something similar at my dinner table!
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There’s a curried chickpea with cauliflower recipe in the Joy of Cooking that is super good! If you’re feeling ambitious, the naan and mango lassie recipes are also great. The vegetarian chili in there is another go-to recipe for us.
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[...] month long challenge to cook all new meals ended late last week. The grand finale was sweet and sour chicken, requested [...]
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