I sauté squashes (yellow and zucchini) too. I’ll add shallots and baby Yukon Gold potatoes. It’s a good way to use up zucchini.
Yes, I use Montreal Steak Seasoning on my veggies a lot.
Honestly, it’s not like we are eating caviar and wagyu beef on this thread. I read about a lot of good meals here from foodies and good cooks but that doesn’t necessarily translate to $$$. Cooking, especially from scratch, is less expensive than ordering takeout. I haven’t ordered out since before I went into quarantine mode on 3/10. But, my cooking style other wise hasn’t changed too much. I’ve always cooked dinner and we do tend to eat well in general but often simply as well - lots of fresh stuff. Even before Covid-19, I always have bought a week’s worth of groceries and meal plan around what’s on sale. Assuming my store will have things actually in stock, this week’s specials include lamb chops for $7.99, pork butt for $.99, sea scallops for $9.99, boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs for $1.99. So, my protein purchases will be high/low but all a good value.
Yesterday was a beautiful day here and after our 7 mile hike to the beach and back we were craving something not too heavy. Fortunately I had bought several good cheeses on my last shopping trip along with prosciutto and salami. I had a baguette in the freezer that I baked and some good crackers. We had honey, stuffed olives, cornichons, grapes and fig and orange spread. Opened a nice bottle of rose we bought on our last trip to Costco and it was a perfect night!
DS’ smoked chicken yesterday was great. Today I’m making stock out of the bones (and some chicken feet plus onion, mushroom, carrot and celery scraps from the freezer) and making curry chicken salad with the leftover meat from the whole smoked chicken. Dinner will be the curried chicken salad, homemade pita and some greens. Mangoes were one of the few things on sale so I got a few, cut them and froze the chunks. For dessert, I’m going to try making mango whip out of those frozen mango chunks and an overripe banana that’s been staring at me.
I had a pound of ground beef and a pound of ground turkey in the freezer so I’m making the Korean meatballs with rice from the NY Times Cooking link today. Generally I’m a protein and vegetable kind of cook (my H is a picky eater) unless it’s a special occasion, but cooking for 5 adults these days has made me get a little more creative. Otherwise it’s really boring. There’s a dipping sauce made from soy sauce and rice wine vinegar to which I will add some pineapple chunks, honey, and a little sweet chili sauce. A little steamed broccoli on the side and it should be a good dinner.
I cook very simple things with simple ingredients. I am just not a creative cook. I have cooked the same way when we had little money to spare as I do now. I’m making a lot of the same dishes, too.
Going to start making the stuffing to go with the turkey. Plenty of roasted veggies were cooked with it so not making another veggie. H is in charge of making the gravies.
I love Montreal Steak seasoning!
Nothing fancy or expensive for us tonight.
We are having grilled Greek chicken (just a homemade marinade of olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice and fresh herbs from my garden-rosemary, thyme and oregano. Then I’m making orzo with diced red onion, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes, diced cucumber, feta cheese and a red wine vinagrette, and grilled eggplant. My sons may or may not like the orzo so they can have leftover mashed potatoes if not.
@doschicos I love scallops but they never seem to be on sale at my local store (unless you call going from $21.99 a pound down to $19.99 a pound a bargain). Enjoy! I hope I catch a better deal some day.
I made teriyaki chicken thighs in the Instant Pot and rice for DH and DS (the non-veggies). They loved it. I don’t know if we can post links to recipe videos on youtube but if you google, ‘Flo Lum Teriyaki Chicken in the Instant Pot’ you should find it. Super easy recipe.
I also recently made ‘Chicken Francaise Recipe’ by OrsaraRecipes which you can also google. I love the man who makes this. He has such a positive personality and is fun to watch cook. DH and DS loved it.
I made fried potato skins that DS loved. I tried one but as I didn’t have enough to make much and DS wsa so excited, I let him eat them. They were like a stove top thin french fry type thing. My son likes these silly videos, ‘life of boris’ by this guy who actually is a pretty good cook and I got the idea from one of his videos where he made about 10 different things from the skins of potatoes. All looked delicious. Will never throw away potato skins again!
How can someone not like orzo?! It’s pasta! 
I live fairly local to scallop harvesting country. Our regional grocery chain, Hannaford, will have them on sale every few months for $10.99 vs the more normal price of $14.99 or higher. Right now, the seafood industry is facing a slump with less demand from overseas as well as restaurants (I have a family member who works for a seafood wholesaler). Hannaford has be running $9.99 specials on dry sea scallops every few weeks which is a great deal. They’ve been super fresh and delicious - and no waste! Whole Foods usually has them at over $20 and even they had them on sale a few weeks back.
Tonight I made another dish from the recent Milk Street Kitchen magazine—pasta with zucchini, pancetta, and saffron. I didn’t have pancetta so I used bacon. Served it with a large green salad.
More produce to use up before it gets too past its prime. I made a ratatouille style sauce for pasta with eggplant, zucchini, red peppers, Vidalia onions and garlic sauteed then cooked down with a can of crushed tomatoes and a little red wine. I saved a few links of sweet Italian sausage from the other night as well. Served the sauce over some Banza chickpea pasta. I’m trying to limit my carbs and this is lower carb. Definitely not as good as real pasta, IMO, but the sauce and sausage were yummy.
Crockpot pork chops cooked in cream of mushroom soup, onion slices and mushrooms. Asparagus and rice.
DD made dinner last night. Used instapot to cook pasta then added pesto she made with spinach, Added More spinach, Frozen shrimp and cheese. We needed to use some of the spinach we have been getting in the market boxes. It was great with garlic toast. Very green and spring like.
@doschicos they will eat orzo just not with all the stuff I was mixing in. Normally I would’ve left some of the orzo plain (they would add a little butter and grated cheese), but since there were leftover mashed potatoes from the previous, I wanted to use them up.
I’m envious of the low priced you are able to get on meat and seafood. Even our locally sourced seafood (mid-Atlantic) is never that cheap. I’m allergic to scallops but my husband loves them. He recently became intolerant to shrimp, which I love and is so versatile and easy. So now I look for sales on scallops so that he can have them when I want shrimp but they are still pretty expensive here even on sale.
We were able to get dry sea scallops (frozen) from Whole Foods–no delivery fee because we bought other groceries for delivery. A friend of mine found a source for scallops at $20-something per pound, but the delivery fee was more than the scallops.
D2 went and did yoga last night over looking the ocean and then ordered sushi from one of our favorite places and picked it up on her way home for us. H had leftover pizza and a salad since he is not a sushi fan.
I made a giant pot of pilaf. Mr.’s comfort food. Will be serving it with various veggies to vary the meals a little. How elitist of me. ?
I rarely go to our Whole Foods any more but I do check the weekly sales so I can stock up on the Bell and Evans chicken when it’s on super sale. The main reasons I no longer go is that since Amazon bought this one they’ve apparently stopped cleaning it and the prices went up. Dirty and expensive is not a good combo, IMO. Anyway, this week’s sales at the local WF are few and far between, but fear not - there’s a big sale on caviar! I can’t be the only one that reacted with a little cringe to that one…