How Often Do You Eat the Same Meal?
The thread about hot dogs prompted this. I have nothing against hot dogs, but there are so many other things that I like, that I wouldn't want to confine myself to the world of sausage.
So I started thinking about it. There are very few meals that I repeat more than once or twice a year. And even those tend to be variations instead of clones. Like I'll make spaghetti sauce in quantity and freeze it, but I'll use it in different ways. Maybe once it will be just spaghetti, or it might be lasagna, or baked manicotti. I'll make and freeze ravioli, but the sauce will probably be different each tme I serve it.
Now that I've figured out paella, we've had that a few times, but completely different varations. Once was mixed seafood, once was chicken, and the last time was shrimp.
I know one couple whose menu is the same each week. I knew they did that for dinners (barring holidays or invitations out) but they were staying at someone's home who was going to make eggs for breakfast, and they said, "Oh, we can't have eggs today. We have fruit on Tuesday and we only have eggs on Wednesday. We have hot cereal on X day, and bagels on X day..."
That would drive me nuts. I like variety, and if I want the same thing a few days in a row, that's what I have.
And since we live in an area with obvious seasons, there are summer foods and winter foods, too. Grilled food outdoors in the warm weather, and a lot of soups and stews in the winter.
For dinners, there's usually enough for leftovers, but once those are gone, chances are that it will be months before the same thing appears on the menu -- or even longer.
So what about you? Do you tend to repeat the same things regularly, or not?
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24 Comments:
If I'm drawn to prepare something I've had before, it could be for either of two reasons. a) I really craved that particular food or b) I'm thinking of someone and this meal reminds me of him/her.
I find in either case, enjoying a familiar food gives me a huge amount of comfort.
therealchiffonade at 4:59PM on 01/11/09
according to SO I never make the same thing twice. I dont use recipes or when cooking and I tend to follow inspirations or maybe its just a wild hare. so i can make spoaghetti sauce 4 times and its different each time. Same thing for just about everything else.
huneybumper at 5:05PM on 01/11/09
I, too, love variety and cannot eat the same thing every day unless I feel like it. The only things I would eat time and again are eggplant parmiagiana and a good b-b-q'd steak...I'm actually craving that steak right now...YUM!
Italiancupcake at 5:13PM on 01/11/09
We eat a pasta meal about every 10 days. I make meatloaf once a month. We have about 1 roast chicken a week. Once a month I make enchilladas Texas style from the recipe I got from Lisa @ homesick texan
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/01/essence-of-tex-mex.html
Sometimes I use some of the leftover roasted chicken.
Every so often I change it up with the Mario's Salsa Verde chicken. I do make fajitas one a month because Mr Tomato loves them.
Once a month I also make soup different kinds depending on ingredients available or how I feel. Also we do chili twice a month.
I also do a stew of some sort beef, goulash, stroganoff once a month.
I also love to grill and we do that in every kind of weather; chops, chicken, steaks, ribs, salmon burgers, chicken burgers, turkey burgers.
We have Indian about once a week. Tonight I am making chicken tikka,
I do a chicken with sundried tomato and smoked mozzarella with a veg. or a chicken marsala with good mushrooms.
We have a falafel night. In between these usual selections sometimes I go off the menu if I see something that looks good while out shopping.
Crabcakes or a nice brisket.
For my respite we get takeout chinese, which lately we have grown tired of.
JerzeeTomato at 5:25PM on 01/11/09
i tend to eat the same things a lot, mostly because i live alone now. i often have baked potatoes, roast broccoli, and romaine lettuce salad for dinner {although i try to vary the dressing}. or i'll make a big thing of something and freeze it in single size portions.
when i was cooking for someone else as well, i was much more interested in trying new things all the time, although he would probably have been just as content with steak and mashed potatoes every night.
cybercita at 5:33PM on 01/11/09
I'm feeding a carnivorous husband and 12 and 14 year old boys. They eat ALOT. And they will eat the same thing over and over and over. And over. I try to shake things up and they are fairly sophisticated eaters, but they like their comfort foods. For example, they know about the fried chicken thread so, tonight is chicken strips, mashed potatoes and broccoli.
I really want eggplant but no one else will eat it. I forced them to eat quinoa for awhile but got tired of all the "dirt" comments. Sigh...
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 5:57PM on 01/11/09
I freeze stuff in bulk and rotate through it. It takes me about a month from when I first make a batch of soup to when I finish eating the left overs, so I tend not to make that soup again until a few months later. I find that my recipes are very ingredient driven. Usually it's what needs to be used up in the fridge, as in "hey, that tomato's looking a little sad. What can I make that uses tomatoes?", or "hey, I'm almost out of lentils. What can I do to get rid of the last 1/4 or so and free up some shelf space." Most of my recipes are of a few basic flavor profiles:
Indian: onions, curry powder, tumeric, cardamom, paprika, allspice, ground ginger, etc.
Chinese: Anise, fresh ginger, soy sauce, mirin, black soy bean sauce, oyster sauce, scallions, garlic
Japanese: Wakame, kombu, fresh ginger, shoyu, miso
Middle Eastern: Cumin, paprika, garlic, cinnamon
Mediterranean, Italian, french, etc.
But I'll make mix and match type meals that are by the seat of my pants using complementary herbs and seasonings to make things less boring.
Aynsl156 at 6:05PM on 01/11/09
We don't have any particular days for particular meals, but we also don't say "oh, but we had XYZ already this month" and won't have it if we do feel like having it. We eat what we want, and if my OH is mad about a steak with chimichurri sauce or my chicken & soba salad, it means that we will have it several times a year, probably at least once a month, sometimes may be even twice. It will never be "the same" meal - I'll certainly have different sides for the steak every time, and the meat cut may be different, but I'm prohibited from changing the marinade if it's top round:-) and the chimichurri sauce is the same because I made a dozen pint jars of it during my canning frenzy back in August -September (and I'm very glad I did).
I love making new things, and I always itch to try something new or different, but I won't deny us old favourites just for the sake of making something new. And sometimes something new becomes a fast favourite and we want more of it. The other day I made a soup with kale, smoked sausage and potatoes (but not caldo verde) - and today I was told, "You have got to make this soup again SOON!"
Of course, like with the steak, things are seldom precisely the same - we may have a pizza night once a month, and it will be more or less the same 2 types of pizza (one for me, one for my OH), but they are never exactly the same - I change cheeses for mine, sometimes I smoke the sausage for my OH's, sometimes I broil it, etc. But the bottom line is, we eat what we want to eat - one day it's something completely new, one day it's something "tried and true", one day it's a play on an old favourite.
And it goes without saying that seasonal produce influences our choices, so when, say, asparagus finally emerges in spring, we can't have enough of it!
brooke29 at 6:29PM on 01/11/09
like cybercita, I live alone, so I do have lots of 'go to' meals and snacks that repeat, like veggie bakes, yogurt with dark chocolate, oatmeal combinations, and fruit salads and savory salads.
However, while I have met families that do the 'weekly schedule' in a rigid way as well, I have always found that type of thing kind of scary and OCD and would never deny myself anything because it didn't fit into a meal plan--that sounds like 1950s women's magazine food science run amuck.
HeartofGlass at 6:31PM on 01/11/09
Oh definitely spaghetti for me.
And dill-cucumber and parsley salad. It's a staple :)
hungrychristel at 6:53PM on 01/11/09
I sometimes eat the same things, but it's mostly out of ease... I know how to make them, so I do not have to think about it much in times of a rush or if i am too busy. But by now having a vegetarian blog has forced me to try and create new recipes and twists on old favorites to keep things interesting and fun.
And now, when I cook, I try to cook only what i'll eat in one or two sittings. I do not like to reheat leftovers that have been originally made for over 24 hours. I believe food looses its nutritional qualities after that time... so I try to cook less so I have enough for that meal, and maybe one more.
Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 7:06PM on 01/11/09
I love to cook, but BF and I eat variations on the same meal over and over- ie: rice and beans with lots of tasty add-ins usually show up at least once a week since we love it. We also tend to go on kicks of tinkering with a recipe or idea until we are happy with it. I rarely plan meals and try to use up ingredients, so if we like something it is bound to show up a lot.
alexb at 7:46PM on 01/11/09
@Heart, I can see the convenience in having a schedule, of sorts, but when I heard that these people insisted on following the schedule while being a houseguest -- I was a little surprised. I mean, what if on oatmeal day, they were staying with people who didn't eat oatmeal? Or dry cereal? Or whatever? Schedule or not, unless it was a heath issue, I'd go with the flow rather than inconveniece someone who was already inconvenienced because I was staying there.
@chiff, I'm not against cooking the same thing more often, it's just that I'm usually reading cookbooks or seeing things on TV, or reading about them here, that inspire me to make something different.
There are some things, like tacos, that we have fairly often, but that's more about leftovers than it is about the tacos. So leftover steak or chicken or even fish might be tacos on another night.
And there are other times I might repeat something the next week, because that's what we want at the moment. But then we might not have it again for six months. I guess we're just consistently inconsistent.
dbcurrie at 8:33PM on 01/11/09
any body have a new "favorite" they want to share?
renee59 at 8:46PM on 01/11/09
spaghetti #8, butter, tomato paste, parm, black pepper. repeat.
simon at 9:37PM on 01/11/09
@renee59~make that a thread =) I'll post.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 10:35PM on 01/11/09
Welriht now Icrave hot and sour soup and have been eating this everyday amongst other things for weeks now, because I crave it. But normally I like variety.
pjracz10 at 12:43AM on 01/12/09
Now that I'm healthier (hopefully for now) and it is freezing outside, I have been making oven or crockpot dishes, today was braised beef shanks, with a ton of veg and it was delicious. But my favorite is spaghetti with either my homemade meatballs and sauce, or just a meatless sauce. With my favorite cheese..pecorino romano. I can and have eaten that 3 or 4 times a week, especially when sick. My family...passes..but that leaves more for me.
lamora at 1:39AM on 01/12/09
The one consistent thing we have around here is Friday night is homemade pizza night. Lately they've insisted on it on Saturday too. I have a couple of stones so the crust comes out really nice and generally I make everyone their own personal pizza. My husband and I mix it up a bit with different toppings, different crust styles or maybe a calzone instead. But quite frankly, I'm getting sick of pizza. I'm thinking of going on strike.
Other nights of the week, it depends on what I have on hand or what I feel like playing around with, and of course what looks good in the produce department. So at least on the weeknights or Sundays we do have variety.
@dbcurrie~those people would have a hard time at my house for breakfast. No oatmeal, Cheerios are the only cold cereal, usually toast or an english muffin is what the kids have for breakfast. I'm not a breakfast person, and if my houseguests were that finicky I'd point the way to the nearest diner.
dhorst at 7:14AM on 01/12/09
The protein may be repeated, but nothing else in combination.
izatryt at 8:15AM on 01/12/09
Would second the living alone posters - much as I love cooking and experimenting, it's less exciting when you're just doing it for yourself (and also difficult in terms of buying ingredients - invariably end up with many "orphans!) That said, even when I'm cooking with the BF, we tend to stick to tried and tested favourites - he's a bit picky and would rather know he'll eat something than risk vast quantities of leftovers and him going hungry!
I used to think that it was just me that hated eating the same thing two nights running, but have actually found it's quite common. So although I'll be eating leftover roast chicken tonight in some guise, I can't stand having an identical meal two nights running (which is another reason why I tend to stick to things I know the quantities for one for).
juniper77 at 8:18AM on 01/12/09
I work full-time and don't have the luxury of cooking something new every night. Sometimes we've just got to eat leftovers. That being said, I try to shake things up and introduce new flavors into my family meals while still trying to keep recognizable and comfortable foods around for my relatively picky DH and 7 and 9 year old. We generally eat pasta at least twice a week, in some form or another, whether it be spaghetti or ravioli with tomato sauce or meat sauce...or I'll make chicken picatta (one of DH's favorites) and serve with penne. We'll have pizza night a few times a month. We'll do rice& beans with chicken or pork a few times a month...always with different sides/veggies. We'll do a fried fish night once or twice a month, and I'll do some sort of roasted chicken or roasted pork loin with mashed potatoes once a month. We'll also have shrimp about once a month -- I'll do a scampi or some sort of shrimp curry or peanut sauce thing...I try to keep my meals simple yet tasty and healthy...not too much fuss or too many specialized ingredients that I have to spend a ton of $$ on or go to specialty shops for. I just don't have the time. But we still like to eat well and I don't like to get bored.
juliebugsmama at 10:44AM on 01/12/09
Leftovers are the lifeblood of my meals. When you live by yourself there is not so much a compulsion to cook something new every night nor is it very practical. It is not really easy or economical to be using a 1/4 of a can of something when you can make 4 of the same thing and just use the rest as leftovers.
I also just like certain things and will have them more than once in a week. My current kick is roast turkey and artichoke panini's. So delicious and so easy.
FrostyGhost at 1:29PM on 01/12/09
A bit ashamed to admit it, but I find myself cooking the same thing over and over. In exactly the same way. Salmon with mustard sauce. Chicken parmesan. Honey-mustard breaded chicken tenders. Chicken thighs in a wonderful tomato/garlic/anchovy/olive sauce. Trout amondine. Pasta with shrimp, clams and cockles. Pasta with asparagus and proscuitto.
If something works, why mess with it?
Dee at 1:53PM on 01/12/09