I have a confession.

I've forgotten how to cook

The last year, due to some family issues I had to travel a lot for, we've gotten in a terrible habit of eating out, or doing fast quick meals that don't take a lot for me to put together, but they aren't cooking. Now, as we're really struggling to regain our diet, get back to really healthy eating (ish), I've quite forgotten how to do it all. While I'm a recipe cook at heart - I don't have a natural propensity for cooking but love doing it, I still could at least look at a few of my ingredients, know my recipes if it wasn't something I could put together easily, and run with it.

Tonight, I sat here for 45 min looking at a bag of shredded chicken, unable to come up with anything more than chicken tacos or chicken/rice casserole.

I'm embarrassed, quite frankly. And I'll probably make you all sick of me with my what's for dinner threads. I've used up a good chunk of my freezer stash (which always made non-cook nights so easy before). So - now, I need motivation to get back in the kitchen and create!!

la - I need your help, too. While we'll never be strictly vegetarians, I am aiming at doing more veg. meals and snacks....and you need to chime in!!

Darcy...

I don't know much about Veg...but as for that bag of shredded chicken....

Take a can of crescent rolls, open it, and press all of the crescents together...like the little separations.

Put some shredded cheese down the middle, top it with the chicken, and a bit more shredded cheese.

Fold the crescent over the chicken and cheese and bake.

This is one of my favorite quick quick meals.

I actually ended up making mexican chicken rollups - cream cheese (I used the low fat Neustefal or however you spell it), a packet of taco seasoning, chives and the chicken mixed up stuffed into strips of lasagna and rolled up into a 9x13 with enchilada sauce. It's fairly quick and easy, and along with a bit of salad, a good meal for us to watch Dr. Who by

I was just sad that I sat there for so long and couldn't easily come up with anything...this has been coming for a bit LOL

But thanks for the idea - I can add it to the pile!

I can try to help lol.. I'm kinda a wing it all together type gal.. I make a lot of stir frys hahaha.. but hey, ce tells me all my food is delicious (ok there is the occassional mom wth did you do to the meat moment- but that's his fault I don't taste that crap ^_^ ) I had some reaally awesome veg blogs bookmarked, which of course are gone now, but lemme try to find them again :]

Darcy...loving that recipe too...can't wait to try it.

I'll be reading this thread with interest too, skating just ended for me, and I have TIME again to cook more elaborate meals.

Here's one I make with shredded chicken, but I shred my own chicken, so I'm not sure how much is in the bag:

Chicken Enchiladas
1 pack of whole wheat wraps (I buy the pack of 6 large, but 12 small works too)
4 chicken breasts, cooked however you like, and shredded
1 large onion diced very small
1 jar of salsa
1 can of low fat cream of chicken soup
5 tbsp of fat free sour cream
low fat cheddar cheese shredded (use however much you like, I use about 1/2 cup)

- combine in a small bowl the sour cream and can of soup, set aside
- Cook chicken and shred
- while you're cooking the chicken, chop and cook onion until it is soft. Preheat oven to 350 or so
- Once onion and chicken is cooked, combine in the frying pan, with the jar of salsa and 6 tbsp of the sour cream/chicken soup mixture. Stir very well and heat through
- spray a 9x13 flat glass dish with cooking spray
- fill each wrap equally with the mixture, and wrap
- place the wraps in folded side down
- cover with remaining sour cream/soup mixture
- top with shredded cheese
- cook for 15-20 min

It's yummo!

The other night I had a little cooked chicken, so I cut it up, mixed a little miracle whip and some taco spices put it on a tortilla with some cheese and made quesadillas. Even the picky kids like them, so that's got to count for something!

I have to confess I have not cooked in probably two years LOL. I have been married for over 18 years now and about 2 years ago I just told my husband I was sick of cooking every night so he took over. He is a pretty good cook but we do kinda basic meals like hamburgers/fries, chicken soup/sandwiches, salisbury steak/corn/mashed potatoes...nothing really fancy

Do you guys like Thai food Darcy? I make a lot of that, and it's pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself! My two boys that are at home now eat pretty much everything.

I always love reading Christine's blog http://www.listgirl.com/
Her husband does almost ALL of the cooking, and if he uses it from a website like Cooking Light, she always links you and has a photo or two!

I have to confess though, I hate to cook, and only do it because we have to eat, and it is usually cheaper to eat at home!

With leftover chicken I usually do a pasta (multigrain) and a cream sauce.

I like both my PACE Picante 40th Anniversary Cookbook (50th was not our style)...and my Campbells Soup Cookbook (tons of ideas for chicken). Most recipes for both books should be on the websites!

SirScrapalot said:

Darcy...

I don't know much about Veg...but as for that bag of shredded chicken....

Take a can of crescent rolls, open it, and press all of the crescents together...like the little separations.

Put some shredded cheese down the middle, top it with the chicken, and a bit more shredded cheese.

Fold the crescent over the chicken and cheese and bake.

This is one of my favorite quick quick meals.

Click to expand...

Oh Aaron...check this out...saves you a little bit of work!

http://www.pillsbury.com/products/rolls/Refrigerated/RecipeCreations.htm



My son works in the dairy department at the grocery store and showed this to me.

I confess I never learned how to cook in the first place! I'll be looking for ideas!