Today I’m participating in Monthly Musings with Holly and Patti. This month’s topic is Easy Fall Recipes and Dinners. The truth is that I’m not much of a cook and I usually feel embarrassed to share about my lack of recipe ideas! But I decided to participate anyway. Also, I didn’t participate last month when the topic was back to school, and I’m not sure why!
1. Easiest dinner you make? Will you share the recipe?
The easiest dinner is one that everyone will eat. It’s always a struggle because the kids are picky and I don’t eat things like pasta if I can avoid it. Right now, something that everyone eats is eggs. Dave (the cook in the family) makes us each omelets or sometimes shakshuka, and we like to add Impossible Plant Based Sausage.
2. Crockpot? Instapot? Both?
We have a crockpot. I have never used it for a weekday meal! We generally use it to make food for Saturday lunch, which is our Shabbat day meal. We don’t cook on Shabbat, but if you start a meal on Friday, it can cook all night until you eat it on Saturday. So we use it for soup sometimes and chili sometimes.
3. Are you a member of a wholesale club? Which one and favorite items there?
We are Costco members. We buy a lot of snack foods there, as well as cheese, chicken, fish, ground meat, milk, and paper goods like plates, toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, etc. The last pack of toilet paper we bought was Scott brand and let me just say that the Costco brand is so much better! We are so happy we are almost done with the Scott package!
4. Do you meal prep or menu plan? Do you follow any set themes?
Not really. We do generally repeat the same meals that the kids will eat. There is always complaints from someone though! (Zachary doesn’t like tacos with vegetarian meat, Simon doesn’t like real meat, etc.) The kids have pizza on Thursdays and we tend to eat more meat on the weekends with more dairy / vegetarian meals during the week.
5. Best dinner tips for busy nights?
Leftovers. Having meals that last more than one night.
6. Do you use certain ingredients more in the fall?
Fall brings Rosh Hashanah and I tend to think about Rosh Hashanah foods as fall foods. I think of foods like butternut squash, beets, and apples, which all are in season in the fall.
7. Any back to school dinner traditions?
Nope. I used to do a special breakfast on the first day of school but I tend to burn things so I stopped doing that!
8. Do you own an air fryer?
Yes, but it’s been sitting in my pantry closet for years!
9. Favorite grab and go items? Homemade or store bought?
I generally will grab one of the bars from the diet I was on when I lost weight a few years ago. I still purchase the bars to use as snacks.
10. How many nights a week do you cook?
We generally do not eat out unless there is a special food event in the community (for kosher food reasons). So on most weeks we (Dave) cook at home each night, besides for when we have leftovers!
Tell me your answers to any of these!
