Do you ever have one of those days when you can’t decide what to make for dinner? When you’re bored with everything in your fridge and you feel like all you do is make the same things over and over? Lately it seems like everyday is that day.
Back in Vancouver we never used to cook this much. We’d eat out quite a bit, and with so many great restaurants we rarely got bored. Here in the Philippines the restaurant options are a little bit lacking. Thats not to say we haven’t had some great meals, but on a whole, things here are kind of bland. Fast food abounds and pretty much every restaurant has the same menu. So we’ve taken to cooking at home quite a bit. It’s great cause I love to cook, but I’m starting to run out of ideas.
Much like the restaurant selection, the ingredient selections here are also lacking, thus we find we make a lot of the same things over and over again. Stir-fries with chicken or pork, lots of rice and pasta dishes, potatoes, sandwiches, and very basic salads (lettuce is hard to come by).
We’re getting a bit bored, so I’ve decided to turn to you, the internet, for some new ideas. Do you have a favorite recipe? Something that you turn to when you can’t decide what to make? Help me out by sharing a recipe or two!
To help you out, here’s a list of things we do and don’t have access to:
| Stuff we have lots of: | Hard to find: |
|
– Pork Chops – Chicken (Whole, Breast, Legs, Thighs, Wings etc.) – Ground Beef – Ground Pork – Shrimp – White fish – Rice – Pasta – French Bread – Potatoes – Tomatoes – Carrots – Onions – Cucumbers – Green beans – Garlic – Mangos – Pineapples – Watermelon – Papayas |
– Steak or good beef – Fresh herbs (limited dried ones) – Lettuce (only iceberg) – Jalapenos – Lemons – Limes – Mushrooms (fresh) – Tortillas (although we learned to make our own) – Risotto – Limited Variety of Cheeses |
This is of course not an exhaustive list, there are lots of other things we have and don’t have, I just tried to give a bit of an overview on some of the more common ingredients. If you want to know about a particular ingredient not listed above just lemme know. Share your recipes in the comments section below.
Posted by: Kelly
Kel, this is a really great (and simple) list of basic dinners
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Have you checked out rouxbe.com? I love that site. Makes me look good in the kitchen…well, it makes my food look good.
Ya I love that site. My friend Curtis has a few recipes on there. Unfortunately the problem is finding ingredients here. A lot of the recipes on there call for things we can’t find.