<p>I was vegetarian for 35 yrs, one year vegan, no fish 8 yrs. Am trying to cook with meat now as it is better for H’s health issues. It would take me 1.5 hours to make a veggie meal so am loving this much simpler way of cooking with meat. My problem is that it turns out that I cannot cannot (did I say cannot?) digest chicken. It is so weird but this is huge-- I had not idea the last 35 years how much chicken is eaten daily by people. I just got use to ignoring anything that was not meat free in stores and restaurants.
So now I am back to a learning curve. H likes chicken and thank goodness for Trader Joes and Costco chicken.
Me–I miss really good and complicated vegetarian/vegan food. I will say, though, that meat protein stays with you longer than a veggie dish.</p>
<p>So, after writing the above post I did a google search on chicken intolerance. Then I realized that I cannot eat whole eggs either. I always make egg white dishes for myself.
It is not a true allergy but man am I uncomfortable with chicken or whole eggs.
Gads, thanks ? I guess? but this post has given me insight!</p>
<p>I am actually an amazing cook:) if I can brag here a bit. I just get so tired of “figuring it out”. NPR recently discussed how inspiration becomes the hardest for a cook. Love doing it, can do it, but get tired of thinking of WHAT to do.
Guess Chicken will no longer be something I am trying to do!</p>
<p>How is turkey for you? I like turkey better than chicken, and if you have a butcher cut up a whole turkey into pieces, there is a great deal of meat there for the freezer at a reasonable price. I usually get one fresh around Thanksgiving when they are cheap. Make gravy with the wings (from some thread here perhaps) and freeze the rest. A back makes a wonderful soup base. </p>
<p>oregon, I also, for years it seems, have been on the post vegetarian learning curve. Meat seems like a pita. Unless frozen, it goes bad quickly. Having lived in Asia, I have become a fan of lean pork. Tenderloins are easy to thaw, and ground pork is used in a number of dishes in small amounts that are easy to freeze.</p>
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<p>My first thought was poetgirl’s recipe sounds delish but rather involved. But if you have a grocery store which makes nice and juicy rotisserie chickens, you could throw that meal together quickly without having to deal with roasting a chicken. I’ve done that a lot with a chicken/rice casserole.</p>
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<p>I still use actual cookbooks for inspiration a lot of the time. I like being able to flip through a book to get ideas, see the pictures, etc. I can easily spend an hour or more at the library looking through regional and/or seasonal cookbooks. </p>
<p>Searching online is great when you know what you want to make and just need a recipe, but I don’t find a lot of inspiration that way.</p>
<p>I am with AXW! I love cookbooks! One of my favorite things to buy when I travel is a local (local Chef / Junior League/Church Group / Newcomer Group) cook book. Some of my favorite recipes are from a very worn & tattered garden club cook book. My collection started with a graduation gift. I went to school in New Orleans and received a collection of local cook books from a relative as a graduation gift. I still have them and use them 25 years later!</p>
<p>^^^LOVE junior League cookbooks…would love to have a copy of every one ever published…probably have to build a library to house them, but the recipes are always good ones!</p>
<p>I will compare my cookbook collection with anyone’s collection. My favorite? The Women’s Club of my city in the 1920s. Oh…there is a reason that people were thin back then: small meals…like really small. Example: half of an avocado stuffed with lettuce and 1 shrimp. </p>
<p>I also love Junior League cookbooks.</p>
<p>My favorite cookbooks for baking are my Iowa State Fair cookbooks. I have a Junior League cookbook that belonged to my MIL.</p>
<p>I thought of you guys last night. It was going to be dinner for just the two of us until a friend and her daughter called to say they were stopping by and my son did too. I added a steak ( I usually make enough for leftovers anyway) and a second vegetable and that was it.</p>
<p>Tonight it’s stir fry and I’m sure somebody will drop by. It rarely turns into just the two of us, but when it does the leftovers get eaten by lunch the next day.</p>
<p>I got a weeknight cookbook from Williams-Sonoma. The recipes truly are quick and easy and take minimal effort. Tonight is cashew chicken, rice and veggies steamed in a bag. My son walked in with 4 extra people about 5 minutes ago and saw the look on my face and just said don’t worry mom, we already ate. I just said good, because I now can’t stretch dinner for 3 to dinner for 8.</p>
<p>However we had drop ins yesterday. I just defrosted more pork chops and added extra potatoes and I had enough of my green bean/tomato salad with red wine vinaigrette.</p>
<p>I think the trick is to really keep a stocked pantry and extra food in the freezer. I plan my menus a week in advance and grocery shop for those ingredients. However, I keep a bunch of food in “back up” and just replace when I open the next thing the next time I see it on sale.</p>
<p>I find online quite helpful at this time of year when I have a lot of CSA vegetables and want new ideas for what to do with them - or don’t even know what to do with them. Currently Bittman’s Best Recipes in the World and How to Cook Everything are the ones I use most often, but it varies alot. I love the vegetable recipes in Plenty (somewhat mideast inspired) and the ideas in Elements of Taste, by one of the chefs from Lespinasse, but I’m also happy to just throw things on the grill or steam them and serve with fresh herbs.</p>
<p>This seems like a good time to plug</p>
<p>[Grocery</a> iQ: Grocery Shopping Made Simple | GroceryiQ.com](<a href=“http://www.groceryiq.com/]Grocery”>http://www.groceryiq.com/)</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Pepperplate”>http://www.pepperplate.com/]Pepperplate[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I love to read through cookbooks. I don’t so much use the recipes as the ideas. I like the book culinary artistry when I’m stuck. It just has flavor profiles with a representative recipe or two. It reminds me of things. Or points me in a new direction</p>
<p>When I remodeled my kitchen I put bookshelves over the fridge for my cookbooks…it was one of my favorite things I did.</p>
<p>Tempemom, do they get dirty/dusty? Do you have to climb up on something to reach above your fridge?</p>
<p>MDmom…as of noticing it this weekend, apparently they do (and I should)…but not more dusty than the library of shelves in my family room–just harder to see. (Smile)</p>
<p>Book shelves over the fridge would not be enough room. We have a china closet off the dining room now and I have floor to ceiling cookbooks about 30" wide. I have another bookshelf in the basement with the less used cookbooks and all my old cooking magazines. (Bon Appetit and Cook’s Illustrated). Which reminds me there are some great recipes bookmarked down there I should make again!</p>
<p>(holy moly cookbookmama!)</p>
<p>I keep my cookbooks in cupboards in the pantry. They stay clean, but I do not get to look at them. Now that I think about it, SIL has hers on the shelf over the stove. She is taller than I am.</p>