favorit cheap dinner

[sufficientforme]

No I am not buying mixes, but like Farmfresh said it is a whole new game and add that I cannot use eggs to get the texture or dairy it is like eating a rubbery hockey puck on most recipes. I also have the challenge of high altitude. I used to be a great baker now I SUCK!
I make a new dinner every night, I generally repeat meals once or twice a month only due to being that we only eat meat/veggies/fruit generally I have to make a lot of variety or the allergic family member will not eat it. And to add to that complication the family member is considered underweight and I feel like I have a huge weight on my shoulder. Ok, now I am just complaining, I used to love to cook now I dread it. A lot of meat/beans/veggies are being consumed to fill the bottomless pit.

What used to be a cheap weeknight dinner like pasta with a red sauce is not so cheap, GF pasta that was half way decent is 4.16 (small spaghetti package size) a bag. So I might as well fix a great meat dish and veggies or salad and skip the extras like pasta.
What I miss the most is Cheddar cheese, you do not realize how much you use it as a flavor add to a dish.

 

[miss_thenorth]

What's the difference in a crustless quiche and a fritatta?

My cheap dinner tonight is pork tenderloin :-D
The only reason its cheap is because my awesome grandmom thinks Josh and I are too poor to buy meat, so she gives us meat when we go home on Sundays

She's right, of course

for my fritata's I saute the veggies on the stove, add egg, cover cook on the stove for a bit, then broil in the oven. Crustless quiche is basically dump it all together and put in the oven. I also don't add milk to my fritata's and I do with quiche. totally different texture and taste.

 

[Wifezilla]

Obviously you are making the crustless quiche right?

Yup

I tried themuffin tins and wil never do that again. I even lined them with the silicon? (I'm having a brain wind) liners and i had such a mess on my hands. I will never do that again. I don't like scrubbing muffin tins. do you have a secret?

I found some of these (not sure if it the same brand but it looks like them) at a garage sale...for $1 each!
http://www.cheftools.com/prodinfo.asp?number=02-0093&source=gs

What's the difference in a crustless quiche and a fritatta?

Not much. The fritatta is a little flatter and starts out on the stove?

 

[Dace]

sufficientforme (and FF!) ....I did not mean to come across arrogant, and I certainly did not intend to be insulting!

Going DF, GF & EF must be a big challenge. I was just running at the mouth because when my, now 16 yr old, DD did an elimination diet with dairy & gluten, I bought all kinds of stupid replacements, and she hated them all. I naively thought that I could just buy all the same stuff she was used to eating (which was a lot of processed crap) in DF/GF brands it would be smooth sailing....nope.

Now with my 7 yr old I am omitting gltuen to see if that is contributing to her bellyaches, this time I have learned my lesson. I am not buying replacements.....she just eats other things. (although I did buy a bag of rice pasta to have on hand)

With your list of things to avoid I realize that is not so easy, I had that experience with my friend just a couple days ago and she is really what I was blabbering on about.

3 of my kids are technically underweight, so I know that can be a bit of a stress. Hopefully as your family member (DD?) heals internally she will start to put a little weight on!

Again, I apologize if I came across as rude!

 

[Farmfresh]

Not taken that way at all Dace...if anything I was probably being pretty defensive.

It is just SO frustrating now days. I used to make my own pasta, homemade noodles and now I feel like my medical condition is forcing me to buy pre packaged foods. It catches in my craw!

You just have no idea how tough it is too cook without gluten. Everything either crumbles into tasteless powder, sits like a brick that you can not chew or has the marvelous texture of foam rubber. I can't even imagine how hard it would be if I also had to eliminate dairy and eggs!!!

I try to eat other things as well, but you simply cannot NEVER eat another piece of bread or never eat pasta again. It is just too darned hard. So I end up with packaged foods sometimes. I was even giddy over pre-packaged fish sticks for goodness sake!

 

[Wifezilla]

I try to eat other things as well, but you simply cannot NEVER eat another piece of bread or never eat pasta again. It is just too darned hard.

I have been almost 3 years without any of those things. Once you break the addiction, you really don't want them anymore.

If I feel a need for noodles, I thin slice cabbage ribbons and fry it in butter. This makes excellent "noodles" for chicken alfredo. Feel a need for a cracker? I thin slice jicama and dip it in blue cheese dressing or hot queso dip . Feel a need for bread sticks or pizza crust? I make a "crust" out of zucchini, egg, and cheese and either bake it up then top it with traditional pizza toppings or slice it in to strips and dip it in marinara sauce.

Starches and sugars work on your brain like heroin. Stopping these items is like breaking an addiction.

 

[Dace]

Yeah, I understand ....there is a significant difference between CHOOSING not to eat bread and pasta and being told you CAN'T.

I just find it easy to eat other things (because I am not eating refined flours). So I really am gluten free

Have you tried the traditional soak method? I have heard Free say many times that a lot of celiacs can handle soaked wheat. (Could be wrong of course!) something about soaking releases some of the gluten and removes Pytates (hope I got that right) which can be very irritating to the digestive system.

If she does not pop in here, send her a PM to explain....she will do a much better job that I just did

 

[meriruka]

Y'all probably know this, but I didn't see it mentioned.....
Boiled Spaghetti squash is a great substitute for pasta, it goes well with almost any kind of sauce.

 

[Wifezilla]

OH! One more thing on the crustless quiche in muffin tins...
Even though I am using the silicone muffin forms, I STILL smear it with palm oil or lard.

Same with the zucchini crust. Line a pizza pan with a silicone sheet and lard it!

(Can you tell I have had sticking issues before? LOL)

 

[sufficientforme]

I wasn't offended in the least, I just think people (especially my family) think it is so easy to convert a family who is used to certain foods (cheese/eggs/milk/Artisan breads, etc over. My grocery bill eating fairly healthy before averaged less than 300.00, now I am averaging over 500.00 plus most months. I just wish that I knew of the allergies before ever having those foods, the adjustment has been really hard on my kids.
Sorry for the rant, I have been really frustrated about this lately at my house.

Meriruka, my family loves spaghetti squash!