learn to cook ten new dishes

I don’t know if anyone else would like this, but it was a great quick meal. I just warmed up some frozen brocolli, (steaming fresh brocolli would be better). Then I diced some leftover holiday ham and heated it up in a saute pan and added shredded cheese. When the ham and cheese were hot and melted, I poured it over the brocolli and topped with salsa. this took less than 10 minutes total, including prep time, and it was a very nutricious and low calorie meal that tasted great to me.

I improvised a chicken in gravy over rice meal. It was ok, but not great. I will make some changes if I do something like this again.

Well I improvised a quick meal, kind of like cheap fajitas. I cooked some ground beef with seasonings, onions and bell peppers. Then I added some enchilada sauce. I put this over steamed rice with cheese. Wow it was really great. Maybe a simple salad on the side and some corn? Next I will make this for my girls.

I want to add 10 new interesting dishes to my repertoire. I seem to be cooking the same thing most of the time. It is time to branch out. I also know that there are some things I used to cook that I have not done for years. It would be cool to dig up a few of those things that I stopped making when my girls were born.

...been cooking a lot this year because I’ve been on meal replacements, and my only daily meal has been a bit of lean meat and steamed vegies. Not really a new dish for anyone in the world. As of last week though, I’m back on lunch meals too, so to make things a little more interesting than exactly the same meal at lunch AND dinner… tonight I made soup! TWO DIFFERENT TYPES, EVEN.

Does that count as meals 1 & 2?

Have bought the Jamie Oliver cook book and have selected a number of dishes from there. The first being Fillet Steak with leeks and beans. I love butter beans, but never really manage to cook them in any other way than with a bit of garlic butter. This recipe was a bit more involved and was going to take 30 mins rather than the usual 5mins. It was sooo worth it. Leeks, garlic slowly fried in butter, then simmered with the butter beans in a glass of white wine, finished with a dollop of cream. Absolutely gorgeous. The fillet steak wasnt bad either, indulging in medium – rare fillet steak is one of the indulgences of living alone.

This is the most common dinner preparation for me:

» 500g diced/stirfry meat
» bag of frozen vegies
» bottle/jar of sauce
» hokkien noodles OR rice

Pretty exciting, hey. :| Seriously, that’s like… all I eat for dinner. Wait, I lie; sometimes I’ll have a can of soup, heated on the stove. What I want to do is get right into it and make ten dishes from scratch. Get up to my elbows in flour or sauce or something. None of this straight-from-the-packet cooking. I mean, no way am I dissing that cooking style as it’s served me well over the years. However, I want to be able to serve up a plate of something amazing and say, I DID THIS MYSELF.

This is kind of defunct, seeing as I’ve just started with Lite’n’Easy and they give me my three meals a day, seven days a week (AND SNACKS, KIDS) all prepared and I don’t have to do no darn thing except occasionally zap stuff in the microwave. So this thing might have to hold back till I’m looking like Scarlett Johansson.