What Are You Making for Dinner Tonight?!?!

Panko crusted tilapia: (mix plain panko with diced garlic, diced parsley, and olive oil in a bowl. After salting and peppering a piece of tilapia crust only one side, place on a baking sheet that has been brushed with olive oil and bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes. The panko should have a nice brown color and a toothpick should slide through the fish.) It's so delicious and crunchy. I make this two to three times a week.

Vegetable cous cous

Sauteed spinach and mushrooms

***and probably some raw broccoli because my son refuses to eat vegetables if they are cooked.

I second the quesadillas suggestion - I put different toppings in a few bowls (we like black beans, shredded zucchini, diced tomatoes, cheese, you can add chicken if you want, scallions) and let each family member create their own. We get the really large wraps, and it's enough for dinner on it's own. I will note that if they are super-stuffed, low heat seems to work better, as it takes a few minutes for everything to melt together.

I just recently started going to the website supercook.com
You can enter in any ingredient(s) you already have and it will show you a bunch of recipes that you can make. I've found a few new recipes that I've loved from the website.

Creole Seasoned Pan seared Polish Style turkey sausage with red beans and rice and a big green salad, took 20 minutes to make and was YUM! My 2 year old loves beans...in any form, so I try to accommodate.

I have some left over taco meat that I had frozen about a month ago. Since I have 2 large tomatoes that need to be eaten before gro day, we are having loaded nachos tonight! I cover a cookie sheet with foil, light spray, chips with refried beans, taco meat and cheese. Bake @ 350 until melted. Top with lettuce (i'm using a baby lettuce/spinch mixture tonight) and chopped tomatoes, black olives etc!!! Yummy!
We LOVE quesodillas - I'll put leftover anything in them. I made a breakfast dilla last weekend with cream cheese and homemade strawberry jam! One of our favorites are pizza - dillas!
We do scrambled chili cheese dogs (I know, not super healthy, but sometimes we want a chili dog!). Break up one whole wheat bun into bit size pieces, chop up hot dog on top, spoon on chili and sprinkle with cheese. melt in microwave. Top with a squit of mustard and eat with a fork!

If you haven't tried www.allrecipes.com- it's a great site for browsing, whether you want quick and easy, chicken in some form (you can narrow your search by cut of meat, bbq, casserole, etc) or pick from the top 20 recipes for any meat/dish you choose. I love that you can narrow your searches, because it CAN get overwhelming! I use it A LOT!

Another site is www.supercook.com - this is great for when you just want to know what you can make with what you have on hand. You type in....beef. It will start asking you if you have....onion, tomato sauce, pasta, etc. you just keep clicking all the things you have in your pantry/fridge, and it spits out a bunch of recipes you can make with what you have.

Tonight, we have baseball, too :) I am putting a beef roast in, adding some chili powder, cumin, etc and we will have beef tacos for dinner, with shredded, seasoned beef.

I agree that trying the different ethnic dishes is a great way to mix it up during the week.

*Oh, and we had a warm spell last week, so I grilled some cedar plank salmon- omg, so yummy.

Good luck!!

We have breakfast for dinner on Wednesdays. Tonight is probably going to be cheese omelets. Can add in veggies, serve with sausage, toast, hasbrowns/potatoes, etc. Also, if you are on Facebook, you can friend FlyLady.net and she asks "What's for Dinner" every day. There are hundreds of responses usually, and I get alot of good ideas from that.

I asked my kids this morning and my daughter piped up with BLT's! So I stopped at Wal-Mart for a second pacakge of bacon (I only buy one for one Saturday breakfast, but we'll need two for dinner) and some tomatoes (my 5 year old eats those like they are going out of style!) It's a fun dinner that we don't do too often and it's movie night at the kid's school - so we can eat and go :).

And I know you don't want recipes but here is on that is so simple and easy and everyone I have made it for is in love. I use a pork tenderloin and cut it into 1 inch thick pieces, lightly cover each side with salt and chili powder. Cook them in sessions and then all them all back to the pan and add in 1/2 cup of stir fry sauce. I normally make steamed asparagus and brown rice with it. The most fabulous meal you will ever have!!!

Make your own pizza
Tacos
Empanadas (easy with Pillsbury cresent rolls in the can)
Quesadillas
Chicken breasts coated in egg/flour and fried in a pan
Fajitas
Fried rice with veggies, chicken and/or beef
Edamame in the shells
Breakfast for dinner

Homemade chicken pastina soup. It's already done! :)

Do something fun and get a vegetable or grain that you've never tried before; kale, quinoa, cabbage, or even old stand-by ingredients and look for recipes that way. You'll get fewer recipe choices this way than when you look for, say, chicken recipes. I, too, get easily bored making the same recipes so I am just about making something different every single night. I love to cook so I have a well stocked kitchen and usually only need an ingredient or 2 in order to try a new recipe.

Don't worry about the animal protein component when you look for recipes. We eat too much of that anyway, and too much leads to disease (www.thechinastudy.com). Go get a copy of Vegetarian Times magazine. Last month, we did a whole week of recipes from that and had GREAT meals. Last night we had a Thai curry from this month's issue and I think I'm going to make a Japanese soup again that I made last month. It has miso paste and seaweed in it. Great, really healthy foods that we seldom eat here in the US.

I could send you some of my favorite recipes if you'd like. PM me and we can talk. Good luck...have fun.

Tortillas seem to be my favorite quick and easy go to meal lately. We used to make tacos once a month or so, then we used them for an easy pizza and just put toppings to suit each person in my home which I loved. Tonight we are having quesadilos (sp?) with chicken, cut up vegies, peppers, mushrooms, cheese and pasta sauce with a ceasar salad on the side, not so sure hubby is looking forward to it, he is not so much into salads, and I will likely make a taco for my 8 year old, but I can use some of the same ingedients at least.

I always keep Pillsbury thin crist pizza dough, canned pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella on hand. I'm adding some sausage and green peppers for me and my husband keeping the other half plain for the kids.

You can make it as healthy (or not :) ) as you like. Quick and everyone likes it. Then I always just cut fresh fruit or serve a salad--quick dinner done.

Could you increase your go-to meals by adding a new ethnic food type? Say, Indian, Chinese, etc? My mom likes to make Indian food and she says Super Target carries a line of products from India that makes it easy.

I haven't decided what I'm making tonight--I tend to be sort of last-minute in that area. Last night I had planned to make special scallops and chicken but realized too late that I was out of scallops, so I made this, one of my go-to dishes that my husband loves: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/ten-minute-szechuan-chicken...

On my menue tonight is Meatballs in a (whatever sauce you want) and buttered rice. I buy the frozen turkey meatballs so its not so fatty.
Tomorrow night Is leftovers, Friday night is spaghetti. Last night we had burgers on the grill with Lipton noodles..day before that I made a pork roast with carrots, potatoes and celery. Sunday we had crock pot BBQ pork ribs wtih rice on the side.
Oh dont forget making breakfast for dinner..thats always fun or just a simple egg salad, Chicken salad sandwiches and chips.

We tried artichoke chicken the other night (allrecipes.com) and really liked it a lot! I followed the recipe exactly, served it with mixed vegetables, some chicken herb rice, and a small salad. It was VERY easy and fast.
Tonight: we're having cornish hens (with dried plums and apriocts over it in a sauce), green beans, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.

Here are a few of my go-to meals. They are all reasonably healthy, fast, easy and not too expensive.

Tin foil dinners (get a piece of foil for each person, add whatever veggies and meat you have on hand, close up the tin foil, bake at 375 45 min to 1 hour. We like to use sliced potatoes, sliced sweet potatoes, zuchinni, corn, peppers, onions, carrots, a few garlic cloves, some fresh or dried herbs, salt and pepper. You can add a few pieces of bacon, chicken, burger, sausage etc. if desired.

Taco salad

Chinese Chicken salad

Fajitas

Stir Fry

Chicken fried rice. I like to use boneless thighs. They are cheap, juicy and flavorful. I stir fry that with salt, pepper and garlic. Best to use leftover cold cooked white rice, but fresh cooked will work. Frozen peas and carrots, scrambled egg, and soy sauce.
The ways I get inspiration is to think what we would order at a restaurant and then try to create it. For instance, If we went to chilis tonight we would get fajitas - so fajitas it is. Sometimes I have to look up a recipe to figure out how to recreate a dish and I love the challenge, but sometimes it's a throw together. I also get inspiration from shopping in differant grocery stores from my own, whole foods, farmers markets, or ethnic stores. Differant items are displyed on the end caps that spark creativity.

My quick go to meal is enchiladas - I generally use ground turkey as the meat but you can use chicken, beef, ground beef, sausage or go meatless (use more beans)! I use whole wheat tortillas, slather on some refried beans (or just lightly mash any kind of beans), put in some meat, add a few green chilies (or any kind of peppers you like - canned or fresh), add on some drained, diced tomatoes (or drain some salsa if that's what you have on hand) - roll up and put in sprayed pan - top with enchilada sauce and some shredded cheese. Bake @ 350 until warm throughout (about 15-20 minutes). If I have more time, I will saute onions and/or peppers and add those in as well. It's hard to go wrong with the recipe which is what I love - it's great to use leftover meat, veggies, cheese up! I usually make a bed of lettuce (usually romaine or baby blend but I've used spinach too) and serve these on top w/fresh cut tomatoes, black olives or avocado slices. Sometimes a little sour cream or guacamole if I have it.

Tonight I think we are going to have summer veggie tostadas. It very simple, quick and the whole family loves it. And sometimes we can use ingredients out of our garden (like the cilantro we have growing right now). Since they have all the food groups right there, we don't have to do sides :) (If the kids seem especially hungry we'll also have some black beans and/or a side salad.) http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action...

My "go to" trick when I can't decide what to fix it to hit up allrecipes.com If you click on the ingredients tab you can list items you have on hand and items you don't want to use. It will check the data base and post a list of recipes you might be able to use. I have done this several times. Most of the time, the ratings and reviews are pretty accurate, so it also helps me decide if I want to try it. GL!

I know what you mean, getting bored with the same old meals. It's hard to be creative sometimes. Some of my favorites: kielbasa and cabbage, pork chops and sauerkraut, dried bean soup, lasagna, homemade chicken pot pie, homemade pizza, baked fish, meatloaf, chicken enchiladas, tacos, grilled kebabs, spaghetti. Sometimes we have "breakfast" for dinner, like and omelet or bacon and eggs. Good Luck! Hope this helps...

Maybe try something more ethnic? How about tacos or fajitas? Or stir fry? Or falafel? Something a little "foreign" could liven up the meat&potatoes/pasta/macncheese routine...

ugh...I have no idea!! Maybe tacos!! Have you ever checked out e-mealz? Super cool website that plans your meals and prepares your grocery list. You pay like $5 a month and pick the store you shop at, the type of food you like ie low fat, carb friendly, regular etc you pick the number of people in your family and then they make you a specific meal plan, give you the recipes and cooking instructions and a grocery list. I did it for a while, it was pretty cool and the food was yummy, well most of it! I stopped doing it bc after a while you just want to do your own thing but it gave me lots of ideas after doing it a few months and opened up my recipe list. Good luck :D

Like Jen B suggested, we use emealz.com. For us, it helped solve the "what's for dinner" and has helped us become a little more adventuresome. It is $15 for 3 months. It gives you a weekly menu with preparation instructions and a shopping list (which is great for me, as I am bad about making a list.) If there is something you don't think you or your family would like, it is easy to switch that meal out with one of your go-to meals. There have been a couple a meals we didn't like, but overall they have been pretty good.

We're having taco soup tonight. Super quick and easy.
1# ground beef cooked
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can kidney beans
1pk taco seasoning
1 can of water
Boil for 10-15 minutes then serve over tortila chips (let it cool first so it doesn't make chips soggy) Then you can top it with cheese, lettuce, sour cream...whatever you like.

Tonite we're having sausages and peppers (Italian), along with polenta and a salad.
Just as an aside, my current favorite cookbook is America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - recipes are super easy to follow, and I like that it emphasizes healthier versions of many of our favorite meals.
Have fun cooking :)