Today I went to get my car vacuumed… a procedure that has a solid place in my week as a great majority of it is spent in said car running errands for and shuttling my two older kids, while feeding and entertaining in various potentially-messy methods, the younger one. I’ve grown attached to the place I am used to going. It’s positioned privately next to a horse farm, with a perfectly located garbage can for my massive clutter flinging. I mean, it is a cozy nook, but it is still a car vacuum for goodness sake. The price recently went up to $2 from $1. EIGHT quarters I need just to help clean out my car?!? As I drove to my usual gas station, I realized I was passing several, possibly 4-quarter vacuum, gas stations. But I was not compelled to stop. I wanted to get to my vacuum. The only explanation for this is habit. I realized this must be what it is like for many of you in the kitchen, and it helped me clarify why so many people have just one or two “standby” recipes. While I know the obvious reasons (taste preferences, mastery of the recipe and execution, and having the ingredients), I also realize a major factor is habit. When performing a habit, we can go on autopilot… literally act without thinking. And this can really take the stress out of the dinner process. But it gets boring. Here are some ways to up your Old Standby’s from 2 to 20.
Go with themes, not single recipes
Maybe it’s homemade pizza that your family would eat any which way, any day. Don’t always make the same kind. There are many, many variations on a pizza crust. Two of my not-so-standard favorites are Chicken Caesar Salad Pizza, and Barbecue chicken pizza, and I love to make bruschetta pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden. If your family, like mine, would eat anything on a tortilla, stock on on some good quality flour tortillas (yes, you can freeze them) and know that any night of the week (or year) you can make a multitude of dinners including soft-shell beef tacos, chicken tacos, chicken caesar wraps, chipotle shrimp tacos, steak fajitas and much, much more, based on what you have in your refrigerator and/or freezer. The key here is to always have cheese and lettuce on hand. And if you follow the 70 Meals plan, you would have these as well as…But since they are 2 of the 14 ingredients on the 70 Meals weekly list (3 of the others being chicken, ground beef, tortillas), you would anyhow!
Variations on a theme
Do you find yourself always making pork roast? Or is fish the dish you could cook in your sleep? Still cook your old standby, just change up the cooking method or serving style. Instead of grilling, throw the roast in the crock pot with some Italian dressing and barbecue sauce for shredded pork. Serve the fish up on a hearty bun with lettuce and chutney for a delicious fish sandwich.
What’s your standby?
