Dinner 1: Squash and tomato bisque with the remainder of the fried Christmas bread in the freezer
Dinner 2: Kefta meatballs. I would prefer lamb but we have some frozen beef and pork to use up. Served with herby garlic couscous, feta, cucumber relish, and pita
Dinner 3: Cauliflower, zucchini, and pinto bean enchiladas. Not sure how that’s going to work out, new recipe. Using jarred sauce this time
At some point we might get together with a few friends for a dumpling party and if we do I want to make some red lentil dumplings—some to eat, some to freeze for an easy WFH lunch option.
Plant burgers and fries
Breakfast burritos
Vegetable curry
Paninis - pear, bacon, Brie
Don’t remember the others off hand, will come back and edit later.
@AllHat, @mountainmustache29, I might be careful with used nonstick cookware, due to the coating being damaged (invisible or visible). Unless you can trust it’s “new with tags” basically.
I started looking to replace my 14" sauté which was a wonderful homegoods impulse buy over 3 years ago now. It was ceramic nonstick and now things are sticking, although it feels intact. Found this article on Misen that struck me as true: no nonstick coating actually lasts forever: Misen Nonstick Pan. Obviously they use that to advertise their own, I don’t necessarily plan to get one, but I respect that they don’t try to claim theirs is the exception!
I might get a 14" stainless sauté and a 12" nonstick skillet for noodles and potstickers. Still pondering.
Haha, you might pass out if you saw my current pots and pans. They’re so scratched and old but they were the best I could afford at the time! Gotta do what you gotta do, but I’m looking forward to some new fancy cookware! I don’t actually care that much about the nonstick feature, but it seems like most pans the size and budget I want are nonstick, which is odd. I never have a problem with food sticking to anything so I don’t really understand the appeal but I also don’t particularly mind them if that’s what I can afford.
Oh! From all the suggestions I thought you wanted non stick. My SS is a mix of IKEA 365+ and lagostina. Lagostina goes on insane sales and is very predictably good. I actually like the lines of the IKEA 365+ stainless better. And I feel like both will last forever.
We usually have one non stick pan at a time, this one is the cheapest IKEA because they seem to need replacing every five minutes since I moved in with my partner. I was ready to quit doing non stick, but he likes to fry eggs in non stick.
I also have one cast iron frying pan, and I feel like it’s an essential
Doing my meal planning for the week on my free flight home, using a free Wi-Fi voucher: frugal queen here!
This week, we’re having:
Vinegar-y roasted chicken
Air fryer frozen veggies
Sausage, pasta, and spinach soup
Have any of you got into making bone broth at home? I’m doing some initial research and I’d need to get a lot of equipment, but it seems like it helps me feel better and is SO expensive.
I used to make bone broth pretty frequently…just dump bones in a crock pot, add water and a splash of vinegar. I used a colander that I already own lined with cheese cloth and a ladle to strain which is only a few dollars. If you don’t have a crockpot you can use any pot and just simmer. It’s really easy!
ETA that I had a bag for bones in my freezer so whenever we had chicken or something with bones in I would throw them into the bag until I was ready to make broth.
The sprouts near me sells frozen beef bones that you can use if you don’t cook regularly with bone-in meat.
I’m seeing recipes that call for stockpots (fair!) and a drainer thing to put on a pan while you cook them before the stockpot part. Our biggest pot is… not very big.
Oh… I’d just make a batch in your biggest pot and use whatever is on hand to strain. Then when it’s a habit or you want to batch it for the freezer maybe upgrade to a bigger pot?
I also see people canning bone broth and idk…I’d rather make broth more often or buy a freezer
Ok so my grandma taught me to brown the bones on a sheet pan and then scrape everything into the pot. This definitely improves the flavor but is not necessary for the nutrition so most of the time I skipped it because I hate extra dishes. A big pot is helpful but you can do small batches too. I honestly can’t think of a way to mess up bone broth other than using raw ones and not turning on a heat source.
Do you have an instant pot? I have been making bone broth at home and it’s super easy! The secret is you put a tbsp or two of apple cider vinegar into the stock to release the collagen from the bones.
We have been doing:
Leftover rotisserie bones
Onion carrots celery garlic whatever herbs we have in the fridge about to go bad (parsley, cilantro, sage, basil) 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar.
2 hours on the “soup” setting with a natural release
Strain out solids with a fine mesh strainer
Viola.
