Getting sick of cooking!

Ok, I like cooking...I love baking, but lately I am getting so sick of the same old things for dinner. I even asked some of my friends and they are feeling the same way.

It seems we just have chicken, hamburger then different cuts of chicken, hamburger bla bla bla.

Anyone else "recipie challenged" lately? I get up in the am and find myself thinking, "what can I make for dinner"

Whenever I get bored, I go to the library and pick out an interesting looking cook book. If I like it, I'll buy it. One can never have too many cook books (says the person eagerly awaiting her latest order from Amazon, that should arrive today )

Since it's chilly out, why not try making a new soup each week? One can never have enough soup in the winter. I am totally smitten by the book Love Soup. It's vegetarian, but if you're eating meat as a main dish, a vegetarian soup isn't a bad thing. I just made this - http://leitesculinaria.com/20903/rec...rlic-soup.html - this last weekend from it and it's

Search for recipes online! I LOVE Pioneer Woman's cooking blog! And Tasty Kitchen. Both are amazing! PW has a cookbook out now too that I plan on buying this week!

I love to cook and bake and am happiest when I'm puttering around in my kitchen trying new recipes. But yeah, I get recipe-challenged sometimes and it's difficult. We try to eat healthy with low-fat recipes, and have meatless meals twice a week. We eat a lot of soups in the winter and a lot of salad-type dishes with fresh veggies during the summer. A lot of chicken recipes (using boneless, skinless breasts), fish dishes, things like that. It's frustrating sometimes.

I go to the libray, too, to check out cookbooks. Actually, I'm addicted to cookbooks. At last count, I have about 400 cookbooks. And still have trouble trying to figure out meals.

Since I have a lot of meetings right after work and at night, I started to spend Sundays in the kitchen. That's when I'll make some soup or spaghetti sauce or chili, homemade breads or rolls, and casseroles for our freezer. That way, when I do have a meeting, all we have to do is get something out of the freezer, heat it in the microwave, and we've got a fairly healthy dinner without eating at restaurants and fast food joints. And I know it's healthy because I made it, so there's not a lot of sodium and ingredients that I can't even pronounce.

I love Pioneer Woman! Haven't tried Tasty Kitchen yet....but now I will. Thanks!

Oh, and I should mention, just because I love to cook and bake? Doesn't mean I'm actually any good at it. I enjoy cooking though, I really do.

Check out Smitten Kitchen (it's a blog) or Steamy Kitchen (another blog) I also browse Food Network's website and Recipezaar for new recipes. Hope that helps!

I'm vegetarian so no chicken everyday for me, but sometimes we get stuck in a rut of ham sandwich for BF, veggie burger for me... boring.

As mentioned earlier, soup is awesome, either from following a recipe or from maybe looking up recipes online based on an ingredient you want to use, just to get an idea and you can just throw something together in the pot. I hardly ever actually follow a soup recipe, which is bad because sometimes it comes out really good, and I know I'll never be able to recreate it again.. But generally soup can be an easy dinner (for several days), and it can be really filling and hearty and low fat/calorie. Or really rich and indulgent too if you're in the mood, like a broccoli cheese soup with sharp cheddar. My go-to website for recipes in general is allrecipes.com. And I also tend to pick up cheap cookbooks from used bookstores...

Sometimes I will just start chopping veggies and think of what to do... stirfry/sautee with any combination of sauces/seasonings. Last night i did that with olive oil, oregano, basil, garlic, dill, parsley, tiny bit of soy sauce, and some red wine. Just started shaking random spice/herb jars in the pan. We ate that with leftover stuffing and tofurky from xmas.

Baked potatoes are good, it's like a blank slate you can top with anything! Pasta is like that too. Also tofu can be turned into anything, if you're willing to get past the fact that it comes in a scary white block.

Originally Posted by Winchester

I go to the libray, too, to check out cookbooks. Actually, I'm addicted to cookbooks. At last count, I have about 400 cookbooks. And still have trouble trying to figure out meals.

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You are my hero I only have 22, but I aspire to your level of cookbook hoarding

I get tired of EATING the same old things but not usually cooking them. I am a 'get the job done and get the heck out of the kitchen' kind of cook though. Except baking, but when I bake I just try different recipies. My stepmom collects cookbooks so theres no shortage of them around here!

When I want a new recipe or taste I either go by something my mom or friends have told me about, or just start tossing things together and see what comes out. Usually if I can make it happen in under an hour and it tastes pretty good, it stays on the rotation.

My most recent favorite a friend of mine told me about: Taco Soup! Its yummy, feeds the whole crew here, and is done in under 20 minutes - what's not to love? It does use ground beef though... hmm. I am not sure if this post was asking for new recipes to try or just a vent, so I won't put the instructions here right now. Good luck!

I am signed up for daily email recipes from the AllRecipes website. They send an email a day - and sometimes that gets me motivated to try something new.

Hubby and I have a 6qt crockpot that we cook in every other week. Wee generally fill it up and make something different every time and then package it up in gladware bowls and freeze it so we end up with a variety in the freezer of individually portioned meals.

Originally Posted by rahma

You are my hero

I only have 22, but I aspire to your level of cookbook hoarding

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LOL! Thanks, Rahma! My name is Winchester and I'm addicted to cookbooks! I really do have a ton of them, but am always on the lookout for good ones. My one thing is that I must be able to actually use a cookbook before I'll break down and buy it. There must be some recipes in the book that I want to try or it's not worth it.

You know how people take books to bed and read them before going to sleep? Well, I do that with cookbooks. I read them, note certain recipes for future reference, and determine what I have in my pantry and freezer that I could use for the recipes. So my cookbooks have notes, dates, and all kinds of info written in them.

I used to think that was bad, that I shouldn't be writing in my cookbooks. But then one day, DS was looking through a book. He said that when I'm ready to get rid of them, he wants them. All of them. When I asked him why, he said that they were like my diary.

I have a beautiful bookcase in my computer room that is full of cookbooks. I have boxes of cookbooks under my bed. And in my closet. And in the kitchen, on the hutch. On the kitchen counters. I'm pathetic. (But I love it! )

Enjoy your cookbooks!