Conquer Club

As you decide what to make for dinner or purchase, what is the first item you decide on?

Sometimes I will use a carb-first approach (e.g. I had pasta last night so tonight I will have potatoes).
In the summer months when I have lots of fresh veggies, I might use a vegetable first approach, but more likely I just match up the veggies to the protein (next option)
Protein-first is my normal approach. I will take some meat out of the freezer, or fresh from the butcher and then design the meal around the meat I have (or decide for vegetarian).
I am thinking of switching to a sauce-first approach, since I have so many hot sauces. The way it will work is I decide on a hot sauce and then make a meal that fits that sauce. So if it's Valentina night, that means fish sticks. Crystal night can be burgers. Super hot night usually means some kind of carb to cut the burn. Since I'm also a saucier I could theoretically add sauces that aren't hot sauces.
Style first is for those lamewads who say shit like "I'm feeling like Indian food tonight" or "I'm thinking Chinese" and then order Butter Chicken (a UK dish) or Chop Suey (a US dish). These people are irrational. You should steer clear of them - unless they say "Meat and potatoes" and that is the only style they ever pick; those people are ok.
Combination is for if you don't really have a set thing, you just base it on whatever food is going to go bad soon or whatever.
None is for the thoughtless who just grab whatever, and don't understand why someone would even study meal planning.

you guys have Valentina?

I've recently started using it more, I used other brands of that similar hot sauce, and recently gave Valentina a try. I like the "Muy Picante" variation.

I do this snack lately to watch a game or something on tv. 2 hot dogs or sausages whatever you call it, 100gr or so of gouda cheese, and a cucumber, chop all, then add a lot of Valentina Muy picante, jugo Maggi, soy sauce, english sauce, salt and ten limes. It must have a lot of Valentina, enough to make you cry if you drink a spoon of the juice.

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You have to go to the specialty stores to get Valentina. I never use the black though, just the normal.

Wow...DY, you put a lot more thought into it than I. How many are you cooking for?

I pretty much do 95% of the cooking for our family of 4 for...20 years now....

Assuming you're talking dinners. I use what we have and try to find new recipes that sound good (aside from my go-tos). Wife gets awesome deals on bulk purchases of: chicken, pork, steak, ground beef, seafood. So....ours is based on what we have...lol.

For my kids: always have veggies in some format for dinner. Always have fresh fruit for breakfast. Always have sufficient protein....other than that its a crapshoot!

As a small biz owner, I'm supposed to have all this fucking online presence (so I'm told). So I do it...one of the things I keep active for me is a board on pinterest of recipes I wanna try. Easy place to find it and I can say I'm being active in social media

If you want (maybe I'm being stoopid), I think you can look up "Triton KoolBak" on pinterest and look at the shit I've tried....have made every one of them ;o) or maybe https://www.pinterest.com/koolbak0147/

Thanks for a positive, non political thread!

I think protein first ...

I pick a meal on Monday (generally either curry or spaghetti), make three portions, eat one and then freeze the other two. Then during the week I eat the other two, and the other two nights just have an oven pizza or noodles or something.

I alternate the curry and spaghetti generally, and sometimes if I'm sick of both I swap them out for bagels and fruit. Then afterwards I go back to curry and spaghetti.

KoolBak wrote:Wow...DY, you put a lot more thought into it than I. How many are you cooking for?

I pretty much do 95% of the cooking for our family of 4 for...20 years now....

Assuming you're talking dinners. I use what we have and try to find new recipes that sound good (aside from my go-tos). Wife gets awesome deals on bulk purchases of: chicken, pork, steak, ground beef, seafood. So....ours is based on what we have...lol.

For my kids: always have veggies in some format for dinner. Always have fresh fruit for breakfast. Always have sufficient protein....other than that its a crapshoot!

As a small biz owner, I'm supposed to have all this fucking online presence (so I'm told). So I do it...one of the things I keep active for me is a board on pinterest of recipes I wanna try. Easy place to find it and I can say I'm being active in social media

If you want (maybe I'm being stoopid), I think you can look up "Triton KoolBak" on pinterest and look at the shit I've tried....have made every one of them ;o) or maybe https://www.pinterest.com/koolbak0147/

Thanks for a positive, non political thread!

Do you mean the board "recipes I want to try"? I'm not familiar with pinterest.

Yes...its just pics / links to recipes online ;o)

I obviously like comfort food

I just cook for myself, but I still like to meal plan to force myself into variety. If I ate whatever I felt like, I would probably eat frozen burritos three square per day.

Like saxi with his diet of Hot Pockets.

Protein first - at least the general category ...
Spice / style second ...
Starch third ...
Veg last ...

those wieners look disgusting, mrs...

DoomYoshi wrote:You have to go to the specialty stores to get Valentina. I never use the black though, just the normal.

Maybe in Canada. Valentina is everywhere here.

-TG

Protein first, starch second, veg last.

Occasionally style first, but that's only if I'm craving a particular style, obvs.