How do you make the usual, unusual?

[Bilby]

I like mashed potatoes but I have to make them different each time.
eg:
-mashed potato, I make it different by adding any of these ingredients, grated cheese or herbs or cracked pepper or ....
-steamed veges sprinkle grated cheese over them or by cooking them pan frying in a little butter or a white sauce or .....
-baking vegetables, tossing in olive oil and herbs (rosemary) or oil and seasoned salt, cracked salt or .....

What do you do to make the same old vegetables something different?

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Kathy, this is an excellant question!

I put all kinds of things in my mashed potatoes. I like either grated chedder or parmesan cheese in mine. Garlic also tastes great in them. You can also add chopped cooked bacon pieces to your mashed potatoes along with sour cream and grated cheese and have a mashed baked potatoes. lol

Sometimes, I save my chicken stock. I cook the veggies in the chicken stock for a different flavor.

I love to roast tomatoes in the oven with some extra virgin olive oil, parmesan cheese, and some finely diced onion or French Fried onions.

[ajrsmom]

I take a lot of different kinds of fresh veggies and make "sticks" out of them, sprinkle with Olive oil and seasonings, then broil them.

I have used potatoes, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, zucchini, eggplant.

I love chunked eggplant and tomatoes, drizzled with Olive oil, then broiled. YUMMY!

I grill lots of veggies.

Stir frys are great, too.



I am really hungry now!! ;)

[Regtsky]

My g/k's hate tuna so I send them out to play when I make tuna casserole. I add sour cream and chives and tell them it is fine cut chicken. I haven't been found out yet. ;)

[tater03]

I love mashed potatoes. I will sometimes make them with cream instead of milk and add garlic and cheese. I love potatoes of any kind though.

[Bilby]

My g/k's hate tuna so I send them out to play when I make tuna casserole. I add sour cream and chives and tell them it is fine cut chicken. I haven't been found out yet. ;)
That is brilliant! I do sneaky stuff to but I couldn't in my wildest dreams pass tuna off as chicken, Good for you!

[DeBora4BobbyL]

I like that idea too! Is it magic chicken? lol

[LifeStar]

When I cook fresh veggies, I replace the H2O with broth. I'll cut broccoli into small pieces, sautee in a non-stick pan with a little cooking spray, add a few ounces of chicken broth, and cover to steam. It tastes great with a little fresh or dried oregano or basil crushed on top.

Asparagus too. Steam in broth, top with minced garlic sauteed in olive oil..

Any kind of sandwich can become a wrap instead... Somehow my kids will eat a tuna wrap.. but not a tuna sandwich.. go figure..

Sometimes with canned green beans, I'll drain all the fluid, and melt American cheese over them. This could probably be done with any veggie. Not necessarilly <sp?> healthy, but the kids love them.

I add halved grapes to chicken salad; sliced almonds to tuna salad; and rather than a chef salad lunch I use left-over london broil and crumbled cheese to make a "Steakhouse" salad.

Spaghetti is replaced with fussili, angel hair pasta, or any other of the unusual shapes..

Juices become sparkling spritzers with a splash of seltzer or diet sprite.

Grilled, rather than plain pineapple as a garnish to ham steaks

And when all else fails.. serving on the "good" china, and uising wine glasses instead of tumblers always makes dinner more exciting...

.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

LifeStar, those are really terrific ideas! I love them.

That reminds me of how I have been making asparagus. I marinate them for a few hours in 50/50 mixture of Italian dressing and balsamic vinegar. Then, I take them out and wrap them in prosciutto. I bake them and everyone, except DH will eat them.

[dval]

I don't do the cooking myself. Hubby does it all. He rarely makes the same thing twice because he will look at two recipies and pull different things from each to make something unique.

A couple of things he makes often and I love:
Browned hamburg, can of french cut green beans, can of stewed tomatoes all fried up (the only way I'll eat canned green beans)
Fresh green beans boiled in french onion soup

He will also boil fresh green beans or cauliflower with a piece of salt pork. (not a favorite of mine)

We've also boiled potatoes (for mashing, eating whole, frying, and salad) in water flavored with just about anything (non-cream soup, teriyaki sauce, boullion cubes, vegetable stock, onions, fresh sage, fresh basil, hot sauce, garlic, & crushed hot peppers, just to name a few). I'm the one that likes to experiment with the potatoes. I usually just pick something out of the pantry that catches my eye.

[cat lover]

Hmmm, because of the way DH has to eat a lot of people think we eat almost everything unusal! LOL We steam all fresh vegetables, nothing added just the plain pure veggies. I only use water in the steamer and DH likes a little "crunch" to his veggies. Lots of times our entire meal is steamed veggies and baked potatoes with his allowable margarine and coarse black pepper on them. Other times I heat up vegetarian beans and open fat free cottage cheese and we "stuff" the baked potatoes right at the table and add chopped onion on top.

We eat lots of made up beans and rice dishes too. I'll use beans I have on hand and cook some rice and just add spices at the time; no two times are the dishes usually the same. I've begun to write down the ingredients though as sometimes we want that dish again!

Lots of other things I just can't think of right now because to us this is our "normal" way of eating! LOL

[VicRae]

I sometimes steam carrots and add brown sugarand butter to make them candied. This is usually during holidays.
Peas can be creamed to use as gravy over potatoes. Or mix both the potatoes and peas in a white cream sauce as a side dish. I usually let people salt and pepper their own vegtables.

Sliced onions and a mix of red, green and yellow bell peppers sauted are great toppers for any kind of meat. Such as meat loafs, steaks or burgers.

Sauted onions peppers, mushrooms and swiss cheese makes a great topping for a roast beef sandwich. This is about the same things they put on a Philly steak pizza.

Put bread crumbs with grated parmeasen cheese over scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or tuna caseroles.

[mamab]

We've tried adding honey to carrots, which is a nice twist. You can also add just a dash of lemon juice, not much, though.

Another thing we do sometimes is add a little mustard to our green beans. It makes them a little more unusual, but the kids don't like them much.

[megray]

I make a sauce with a tiny bit of butter, juice of one or two lemons, a bit of water and black pepper to go on brocolli or brussel sprouts.
Grill halved tomatoes with salt, black pepper, butter and grated cheese on top.

[cat lover]

We've tried adding honey to carrots, which is a nice twist. You can also add just a dash of lemon juice, not much, though.




I just got a new jar of honey from a BIL (they are raising bees) and now with all I have in the pantry I need to use it more often before it crystallizes. I like the idea of adding honey to the carrots; about how much do you add?

[cau]

Drain the canned green beans, add Italian dressing, feta cheese and Almond slices for a quick cold salad.


Marinated cut up broccoli and caulflower in olive oil or ff Itailan dressing and grill or bake. Stick with dressings like Italian , french, russian when I tried ranch it was nasty.

I use instant so I add sour cream or cream cheese garlic and cheese. I have even added cut up ham and it was good.

[barbszy]

I like to add a little bit of maple syrup, OR frozen corn kernels, to corn-muffin batter.

[Bilby]

Add to gravy,
either bacon or onion or both after lightly pan frying.
Herbs that go with that meat, parsley, rosemary, thyme etc.
Crushed garlic
Marsala
Extra pepper
Worchestershire sauce
Sliced tomato lightly pan fried first
Tablespoon of sour cream stirred in.