|
|
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Dec 9, 2022 18:56:04 GMT -5
A couple of things that I'm really finding useful in my duties at kitchen bitch- 1) Better Than Bullion 2) Mrs. Dash, I think rebranded as Dash seasonings.
Seeing adverts for expanded offerings from the BTB which I have been using for about a year or two in the Beef and Chicken options. It's a paste that is super highly concentrated and worlks like a champ for making gravy and sauce type things. Downside is it is loaded with sodium so you need to figure that in and adjust accordingly if you're keeping track.
The Dash seasonings are salt-free and there are just some ridiculously good varieties on the shelf that I am using regularly because I actually do try to keep salt to a minimum whenever at all possible.
One last thing also a sodium shot, is Lipton Onion Soup. Oh the things it adds great taste to! Pot Roast, Meatloaf, and if you like hearty, throw eating healthy to the wind, comfort food, throw a packet in the crockpot with a couple three chicken breasts, a can of cream of cream of mushroom soup, and a big pack of frozen broccoli. I like it like that best bit for a little variation I also use cream of chicken in place of the mushroom, and a large pack of frozen broccoli and cheese sauce. Do not, I repeat DO NOT add any salt to this and balance it with plain white streamed rice.
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 10, 2022 12:16:37 GMT -5
BTB is amazing, but you are right. It's salt with some chicken, beef or vegetable flavor. Hasn't stopped me from using it at all mind you, but you do need to keep that in mind when seasoning for sure.
Haven't tried the re-branded Dashes - will look into them.
One of my favorite meals that will gross all of you out is noodles with cream of chicken soup. Cook up a batch of egg noodles with just a pinch of salt. Drain and immediately stir in a can of full-strength condensed cream o chicken. Now is not the time to be healthy, so none of this reduced fat or sodium shit!
Makes the creamiest bestest chicken noodles you've ever wanted to eat. And now I want me some.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Dec 10, 2022 14:08:53 GMT -5
I'd have to have some sort of protein in it I think. Never even really been a fan of pasta and alfredo sauce unless it had chicken or steak. BTW- Steak Alfredo is just as good as chicken.
|
|
|
|
Post by k9krap on Dec 10, 2022 21:24:56 GMT -5
I haven’t been able to eat Alfredo sauce since my surgery. It gets stuck.
My first husband’s favorite culinary concoction was pork chops 😱😱😱😱 with cream of mushroom soup. 🤮🤮🤮I can’t stand mushrooms - they’re rubbery and slimy. And I’ve never been a pork chop fan.
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 11, 2022 11:09:25 GMT -5
My mom used to do pork chops, canned white potatoes and then pour condensed tomato soup over it all and bake it. Still cringe just thinking about it, and to this day cannot easily eat a pork chop. Because these were the chops from lean and mean pigs - boney and chewy - so gross. So totally gross. And John, the noodles are great with some grilled garlic chicken. We never made them that way - they were an end-of-month meal cause there was no money left for meat and the masses were rebelling over having hot dogs *again*  |
|
|
|
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Dec 11, 2022 12:26:25 GMT -5
Pork Chops can be tricky but I like to bread them and pan fry in olive oil. And if they're still a little dry, some Cattleman's brand Carolina Gold bbq sauce is BOMBFUCKIMGDOTCOM on them. I also do not buy the shitty cuts unless I'm going to put in slow cooker with onion gravy.
You can still get that plain old cooked ham from the deli. It's cheaper than real hot dogs and a lot cheaper than the really good ones like my favorites Sabrett and Hebrew National. Get a pound at the deli for like $4 maybe 2 or 3 thick slices. Cut it up and mix in with your macaroni and cheese. I'll also add diced onion, fresh tomato (no tomato sauce!), and a pinch of ground clove. It's a super tasty meal on a cold night.
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 12, 2022 10:01:10 GMT -5
You are not incorrect on the ham. But back in the day, cheap-ass no name hot dogs were cheaper than deli ham, so hot dogs it was. Also, hot dogs are easy to cook - dump the pack in a pot of boiling water, heat up some frozen lima beans (don't ask me why -clearly the woman hated all of us), and Bob's your uncle! Dinner that has a look of 'I still care', without actually giving a shit.
I love my mom, but she was not blessed with an ability to cook. When we were kids, a Puerto Rican family moved next door. Now Amy and Ricky's mom knew how to cook, so we were always trying to score dinner invites. Didn't care what it was - plantains? What are they? Fried bananas? Hmmmmmm. Sounds gross, but can't be worse than what we're eating here!
The funny thing is that my grandma was a fantastic cook, and she loved cooking and baking. My mom couldn't be bothered.
|
|
|
|
Post by k9krap on Dec 12, 2022 21:40:26 GMT -5
Yummy! Frozen limas. If they are baby limas, even better!
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 13, 2022 9:46:50 GMT -5
OMG - I have a fear of limas. These were pallid frozen bricks that looked like they had been in the grocers freezer since Clarence Birdseye figured out how to freeze veggies. Disgusting doesn't begin to cover it, and even the damn dog didn't want them!
But, like hot dogs, they were cheap and fairly easy to cook. And for a woman who was trying to feed a family of 5 plus a husband (who I'm pretty sure was NOT eating hot dogs and limas - he wasn't at the family dinner table a lot), cheap and easy was the way to go.
She actually is pretty remarkable - she was raised as a very strict Catholic and was in same-sex Catholic school and went to a same-sex Catholic college (all that money for nothing my Grandmother would sometimes say, as she married a drunken pattyman). Didn't have a drivers license until I was in late kindergarten. But managed to hold shit together, keep the heat and electricity on, and feed all of us. Plus as soon as I was in school FT, she got a drivers license and went back to work. So worked FT with 5 kids, and an unreliable husband. But again, managed to hold shit together and raised 5 self-sufficient adults who all have college degrees and decent jobs.
So I have to forgive the childhood trauma of those meals. The worst were the 'feed your family for pennies' that ran in women's magazines in the early 70s. OMG! OMG! Those cooks and publishers should burn in hell!
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Dec 13, 2022 11:46:02 GMT -5
My old man worked at Safeway so we always had "dented" cans and "crushed" boxes of this and that. He only had two boys to feed and since he was heavily aided in our support by his parents and my mother's mother, I don't imagine that the burden was such that our meals were skrimped too awefully bad. Now my wife's mother.... she would put the same piece of plastic wrap over a half a glass of tea or kool aid until the drink was finished by the person that it belonged to. And she would rinse the tiny little piece of plastic out for next time. That was how she rolled as a stay at home mom with 4 girls. Nothing and I mean nothing wasted.
Not that there was waste over in our environment as kids. I have PTSD because of the beatings from giving the old go fuck yourself over those lima beans. Wanna shove em down my throat? Go ahead because that's the only way I would eat them and don't you EVER put a lima bean or black eyed pea on my plate because it will take flight directly to the garbage can. I won't even say "no thank you" it's just non-negotiable. Same with eggs.
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 13, 2022 15:52:27 GMT -5
We'd fight over two things
1) Who got their hot dog to the dog first - he could only scarf down but so many when our parents were out of the room.
2) Bathroom time - you needed to ask to go, then stuff your face as full of limas as you could so you could spit them into the toilet and flush. If you actually NEEDED to go, man you were in trouble - there were others waiting to dispose of beans, ya know!
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 13, 2022 15:57:05 GMT -5
And while it wasn't food that we were fond of, we always had three meals a day growing up, and my mom paid for school lunches. Never thought we were rich, but even though we were at the lower end of working class wages, I never realized that either. Just thought we were average middle-class folks.
Wasn't until I got to middle school that I started to realize that other kids ate better food and had better clothes and shoes because they had money. I always thought my parents were cheap as shit. And that to me says a lot about their priorities with their kids - they didn't want us to feel like we weren't as good as the other kids, so they let us think they were cheap, rather than telling us the truth - they really didn't have cash to buy everyone a new coat or get poptarts.
|
|
|
|
Post by k9krap on Dec 13, 2022 21:28:19 GMT -5
My parents would make me take a bite but I wouldn’t swallow. So, they had me stand in a corner until I did. My dad said once he still has nightmares of me standing in the corner with my mouth full and tears streaming down my face.
And my mom didn’t get a driver’s license until we moved to Virginia, when I was 9. I distinctly remember her studying for it and I went with her to the DMV. (She hated moving to Fredericksburg. It was very remote to her and she arrived here knowing no one.)
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 14, 2022 10:52:00 GMT -5
My mom was such a horrible driver in the beginning - I lived in absolute terror - I wasn't in school FT yet and I had to ride along on her driving lessons with the neighbor! My mom's biggest threat was going to bed hungry. With lima beans, none of us minded  |
|
|
|
Post by Dave's Not Here Man on Dec 14, 2022 15:29:14 GMT -5
Fact: I never forced our kids to eat what they didn't want. If they didn't want it, fine. I wasn't cooking anything else until tomorrow so you are xcused and salama lakum. I saw no reason for that drama we grew up with.
Momma on the other hand. She always had a secret stash of hot dogs and tater tots for the poor babies in just such an emergency. Probably a tall glass of choc milk too.
|
|
|
|
Post by minx on Dec 14, 2022 16:35:09 GMT -5
I think my biggest mistake as a parent was caving on food.
The eldest was very picky once solid foods were introduced. All she wanted were pancakes and frozen waffles. That was it.
Pediatrician said no toddler ever starved from missing a meal - cook dinner and if she didn't eat, she didn't eat. When she was hungry, she'd finally eat.
Weeeeel, I also had a baby, severe post-partum depression that wasn't being treated correctly and a part-time job. Plus the spouse was on work travel a lot.
So you know I totally caved, because my biggest trigger was crying and whining. Could handle just about anything else but that. So Eggos it was. Three meals a day for a while too.
Today, both adults are very picky eaters. Mind you, they are very polite about it - they never force their food preferences on anyone, or say that someone's food is gross. They'll just politely say that they're sorry but they don't eat xxx. I truly wish I had introduced them to a better variety of food and been firm about not catering to their preferences. Did a lot of 'dual dinners' - we had one thing and they had something else.
OTOH, I did get tired of catering to their whims, and by HS, they were on their own for food. I'd get them what they wanted at the grocery, but they had to prepare it themselves. Also made them do their own laundry too. Should have been stricter with dish clean-up, but two out of three isn't bad. And I'm pretty sure they clean the dishes at their places now.
|
|
