I live in Southern Cal so Mexican is popular at restaurants. In our area, we have plenty of choices such as Korean, Chinese, Italian, Cuban. You name it, we got it.

We go out for Italian, French, Japanese and my personal comfort foods, southern cooking. Got to get my frequent fixes of fried chicken, collard greens, fried okra and Mac and cheese. Good southern is very hard to find. I have Flossie's and Johnny Reb as my two remaining choices.

Ribs is something else that I love and that I'm particular about. I will only have ribs at two places.

DH claims to love Mexican and eat it by himself as much as possible but the truth is he likes Americanized Mexican. When I take him to real Mexican places, he dislikes the food as it is greasy.

I cook French, American, Italian, and Vietnamese mostly. We mostly have three course meals as I grew up with multiple course meals. It's typically soup, vegetable and a meat dish.

For example, our menu this week is:

Monday- beef barley soup, lemon pepper chicken salad.

Tuesday - hubby out eating Mexican on his own as usual so it's rice, salad, tomato egg soup and egg rolls for me.

Weds - grilled salmon salad for lunch. Parmesan crusted pork chops with sautéed garlic spinach.

Thurs - spaghetti squash with spicy turkey marinara

Fri - Chicken Pot pie

Sat - blue cheese wedge salad with my SMOB quiche

Sunday - Brussels sprouts with bacon and lemon caper chicken

Midwest here. Only a few restaurants fly in fresh fish. I grew up on the ocean and that has been the hardest thing for me to get used to. I wish I liked frozen seafood more. A few times a month we will have
something with ahi, shrimp, cod, salmon, or halibut. More often in the summer
than winter.

Hum...what do we cook...it really varies. I am home this week. I try to make fun things when I am home, but we realized the freezer has too much, so we have deemed March and April "clean out the freezer" season. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.

Last night was frozen pork chops, sauteed onions, frozen carrots from last year's garden and a salad. Tonight was egg noodles, frozen meatballs left over from a meatball soup we made a few weeks ago, some condensed mushroom soup we made into a sauce for the noodles and meatballs, and frozen squash.

Monday and Tuesday are meatless - I have a curry chickpea/red lentil dish we like and haven't made in a while, so that will probably be it. Tuesday is salad night.

We have some local farm steer meat from the summer we need to use up, so I put out a pot roast to thaw and that will be cooking with last years garden carrots, onions, and tomatoes all day on Wednesday. If I can remember on Tuesday, I will make Sullivan Street bread to go with it.

I haven't thought further than that yet. We still have loads of frozen and canned tomatoes and squash. And, more Tippy to eat.

Some regulars in the winter rotation are ahi/risotto/salad, bbq pork butt and black beans/rice/diced tomatoes, breakfast dinners, home made pizza, salads, a good steak and potato about once a month. roasted chicken, smoked chicken,sometimes we just have a bowl of cereal....We have been trying to use less animal protein, but old habits die hard.

As the weather warms, the rotation changes and the ratio of fresh fruits and veggies to meats goes up. Our asparagus are starting....super excited about that!

I don't find many restaurants are worth the price, especially when we add a bottle of wine, but we do eat out a few times a month. We have a lot of bbq but we don't do that because ours is better made at home. I like a local Thai place. My goal this year is to learn Asian cooking styles.

Great question as always, Texas-Gem! I think perhaps not only our location is influential but so is where our parents grew up and what they ate. And then what we as kids ate. And I would venture to guess that folks who travel a lot, especially outside the US, are a bit more adventurous in trying new things. Not always, but it may be a factor.

My mom didn't like to cook and wasn't a good cook. My dad was actually better, and apparently my paternal grandmother, who died when I was a baby, was an amazing cook and made the best pies in the county. Dinners for me, growing up, were typically casseroles, served with a canned veggie, maybe jello with canned fruit in it, a potato from a box, such as mashed, au gratin, etc., and bread--usually toast, but sometimes Crescent dinner roles. Mom was a slave to the Betty Crocker cookbook, lol! We had dessert every night, which was about 3 tbl of ice cream in a tiny dessert cup.

I mostly grew up and have lived in the Seattle area, but I lived in Mexico for two years and Zambia for a year, and travel to Zambia frequently for my research. I have traveled a good part of the world.

I was married and raised three kids and really tried to teach myself to cook. My kids, now in their 30's, recall having "good food" growing up, and I feel good about that. We did eat out probably 3 times a week, so I can't take all the credit.

I'm 55 now (Yikes!) and I live in Eastern Washington with my 30 year old daughter. We really enjoy cooking together! We keep it fairly simple these days, and we very rarely eat out, mostly due to budget constraints. We are out in the country, in a tiny mobile home park (37 or 38 homes), and are literally surrounded by farms, so no pizza delivery or delivery of any kind.

Here's our dinner menu for the past week:

TODAY (Sunday): Baked ham with pineapple Roasted Brussels sprouts. Garlic & butter mashed potatoes (not from a box!) Gravy Asian salad (from a bag)

Saturday Papa Murphy's Pizza Papa Murphy's Cole Slaw

Friday. Spinach leaf & cherry tomato salad. Grilled cheese sandwiches Safeway tomato bisque soup

Thursday Cheesy hash browns from scratch Scrambled eggs Biscuits from a mix (Red Lobster) Hot cocoa from scratch

Wednesday Eggplant Parmesan. Green salad (spinach, tomato, red onion, broccoli, celery, shredded cheddar cheese) Steamed corn on the cob

Tuesday. Steamed salmon. Steamed rice (white) Steamed veggies (carrots, broccoli, onions, cauliflower) Green salad (Spinach, tomato, red onions, croutons from a box)

Monday Chef's salad (mixed greens from a bag, sliced hard boiled eggs, cubed ham, crumbled bacon, onion, shredded Parmesan cheese) Cornbread muffins from a mix served with butter, jelly, or honey

Other favorites we have regularly include spaghetti, lasagne, sautéed shrimp, tacos, broiled steaks, chili in the crock pot, various soups in the crock pot, homemade split pea or lentil soup, babooti, and starting in April we've made a pledge to try one new recipe a week!

Have a great day! :-)

Checking in to the thread, representing the Coast of Maine. I think I mostly cook traditional americana. In addition to where I live now, I think past locales and heritage are important, so while I live in Maine, I grew up in upstate New York, lived in Queens NY for 15 years, have German-Scottish heritage and my sibs have brought via marriage Sicily and Osaka to the table.

I am also influenced by what is in my freezer and what is on sale :)

This week:

Saturday - Chicken Corn Chowder, with butter lettuce salad

Sunday(coming home from skiing needed something quick) - Vegetable Fried Rice, Miso Soup

Monday- (Spring Sorts Night at the HS) Broiled Salmon and Green Beans

Tuesday -(DH is traveling) - Buffalo Burgers, lettuce and tomato, home made baked beans(pulled from freezer), Crudite

Wednesday(DH is traveling) - Popovers(by request), peppered bacon rashers, fruit salad

Thursday - St Patrick's Day!! Corned Beef, Oven Roasted Cabbage Wedges, and Boiled potatoes with parsley and chives. Homemade soda bread if I have time.

Friday - Nothing- everyone has stuff going on, we will all eat leftover salmon or there is always hummus and salad in the fridge as well as PBJ. They cant touch the leftover corned beef because they want me to make hash(homemade corned beef hash is the best)

Central Florida here - we have (as you can imagine) an abundance of seafood restaurants. Second is probably a tie between Tex-Mex and barbecue. I prefer "real" Mexican food over Tex-Mex, but the T-M chains like Chipotle and Tijuana Flats are everywhere.

Donna

Lawn Guylind, Nu Yawk and SW FL here and most nights we eat out.

In both places we are blessed with fantastic restaurants serving all types of food. In NY it's mostly Italian, American Bar Food, Greek, Japanese (sushi), fresh from the market cuisine, Mexican, Thai, Jewish Deli, Pizza, Chinese.

Here in FL it's more seafood, plus all of the above plus Peruvian and except Deli and Chinese. Can't get good deli, a good bagel or good Chinese here in FL.

When I cook, I will do a stir fry with veggies, chicken, etc and throw it over a pasta or rice. Occasionally, I'll cook a chicken or a roast and most years, (except this year because of selling the condo and trying to get our build right) I will freeze up a season's worth of home-made tomato sauce which we then use once a week adding meat, etc to make a meal. I will also in winter make a beef stock, thick veggie soup and freeze that too. All the soup needs is some garlic bread to go with it, and it's a full meal.

Once we build the house, I'm hoping to do more barbecuing. I make a mean set of ribs and miss them.

A typical week:

Sunday: Our favorite Peruvian place and we usually get their special salad and an appetizer.

Monday: We'll go for Thai, American cuisine or fish.

Tuesday: Same as Monday. Sometimes we'll stay in and do tuna sandwiches or if we have theater that night we'll do the restaurant at the theater.

Wednesday: Is our favorite new restaurant. It's tapas style done by a chef from NY who is Italian. We sit at the chef's table which is really a bar in front of where they cook, and we let him give us small plates of anything and everything. Usually it will be a combo of all different style cuisines. We never get a menu and never ask, it's that good.

Thursday: We always eat home since our housekeeper comes on Friday. LOL. This is when I will definitely make a mess cooking up stir fry, etc in the kitchen.

Friday: Sushi

Saturday: We always stay in. Usually we'll have something like a pot pie this year. In past years, it would be the night to have the tomato sauce or soup.

My answer elaborates on the one from the previous thread; I like to make roasts--pot roast, pork loin, ham, or a baked chicken, then base subsequent meals on the left-overs. First meal is usually the plain meat with mashed potatoes and gravy, and a plain vegetable--comfort food at it's finest. If there is a large roast, my adult kids can help themselves for their own versions of stir-fry or quick meals.

Growing up, we ate a lot of beef and pork, locally raised and butchered for the freezer, which meant that the only meat my mother bought from the grocery store was chicken, and occasionally, fish. Her idea of fish was the breaded squares or fingers, which we covered in ketchup. We still don't eat much fish, and no other seafood (both DDs have allergies to shellfish), but I like to bake salmon fillets, with lemon--ketchup is not allowed on the table. ;)

Last week I baked a large batch of chicken drumsticks, with rice instead of potatoes, and made a big mixed green salad. The next day I used some of the chicken, with onions, mushrooms, peas and carrots, to make a pot pie, served with the left-over salad. The day after, I used the remaining chicken, and rice, to make a big pot of soup, which was two day's worth. I used the refrigerated, left-over pastry from the pot pie to make puffed 'crackers' for the soup.

I saved the bones to make stock for the soup, and after I drained the stock, I added a little water and continued cooking the bones, then later removed all the cartilage, and as much marrow as possible, by cutting the soft ends off the bones and scooping the marrow with a knife blade. I feed the cartilage, soft bones, and marrow to the dog and cats--they love it. When I removed the skin to de-bone the baked chicken legs, I saved it, then when I baked the pot pie, I put the skin on a baking sheet, on a lower oven rack, to crisp. My grandson loves crisped chicken skin.

After beef pot roast I will make beef stew or pot pie, or beef-vegetable soup. Left-over pork loin is used in stir-fry with vegetables, or pulled pork for sandwiches, and ham can be used many ways--diced in quiche and omelets, cooked in beans, used in jambalaya. Any meat and left-over gravy can be served with pasta, or used in a casserole. I use a mix of ground beef, pork sausage, and ground turkey for burgers, meat loaf, meat balls, chili, tacos (sometimes I cut the left-over meat loaf up into cubes, so we have spaghetti and meat chunks, instead of meat balls.)

So, I cook a lot of the old standby foods, with a few new ones that my mother never made. Other than what I consider down home country cooking, we do Americanized versions of Italian, Mexican, and some Asian. Maybe the pot pie with the puffed crust could be considered French?

When my kids were small, and I was the one planning the menus and doing all the grocery shopping, I was so much more organized. I knew ahead of time what was on sale, what was in the freezer and pantry, what I would cook each night. Now my kids do a lot of the grocery shopping, and use whatever they want from the pantry, so I don't always know what's on hand. Life changes, and evolves, and so does my cooking. :)

Texas_gem, I am in the mid Atlantic so we have lots of seafood, especially crabs!

I also do not care much for French food. My family is a very very boring bunch to cook for. They eat the same stuff week after week. Spaghetti, tacos, burgers, chicken soup, chicken pot pie and stuffed peppers (and they throw away the peppers :(

My husband would eat roast beef, whipped potatoes and gravy every night of the week (hold the veggies, please!) I don't make it nearly as often as he would like because it uses so many pots and it's not one of my favs.

We also have a Taco Tuesday now because of the Lego movie :)

We live in Toronto, and have pretty much any type of restaurant to chose from. We tend to eat at those that are walking distance from home - the local pub, Indian, Italian, Anatolian influenced, International. I typically don't know more than a day or two in advance what will be on the menu at home. Tonight will be BBQ'd pork chops with potatoes and whatever veggie I happen to like the looks of at the green grocer down the street. During the summer I use the Green Egg for everything from fish to pizza to ribs to steaks to chicken. Most meals are protein, starch and veggies. I don't make many salads, except in summer.

Here in Columbus Ohio you might be surprised to learn that we have a very active and diverse restaurant scene. Of course, pizza is a leading favorite (I counted, I have nine pizza joints within a mile of my house!), barbecue is also very popular, but there are loads of ethnic eateries -- Greek, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, other east Asian, various other middle eastern, and coming on strong are the various African (we have a very large African -- predominantly Somali -- community). There are Mexican restaurants of course, but I wouldn't say any more than the others.

For fine or traditional dining there is also an overwhelming array of choices, some very good seafood places (flown in daily) and lots of "home cooking" types of places-- good places to get fried Lake Erie fish in season. Columbus-ites are also connoissers of fine ice cream!

When we get take out it is almost always Indian, Eastern or Greek. There is a place near us that has the most scrumptious dolmas. And I love another's lamb korma. Yeah, I had to learn to love lamb, and now I do -- but I didn't grow up eating it. I still am not fond of goat or even goat cheese (although I do like it on pizza, go figure)

I really don't have a typical weekly coooking menu. I make pizza topped with roasted vegetables once or twice a month -- this last week did one with eggplant, zucchini, peppers and mushrooms with pesto sauce. Pretty good!

I live in Canada about 5 minutes from Detroit MI.

I cook a variety of things except pork (which I don't like the taste of, except for bacon) and roast beef, which I can't cook to save my life. I mainly cook proper dinners when I have the boys. We have a lot of stir fry, fajitas, tacos, burgers, steak, chicken, soup etc. In the winter, the older boy has hockey 3-4 days per week, so sometimes it's get home from school, eat and leave right away. Sometimes we'll have breakfast for dinner or simply pasta and salad. In warmer weather, we'll BBQ or just have stuff like chopped veg, salad, toasted tomato/BLT sandwiches and eat outdoors. I grew up on overcooked meat/potato type meals. My kids don't eat potatoes much, so I tend not to make them. When I'm working, I eat leftovers from the meals I made when the boys were here for my lunch at work, and something simple and fast when I get home because I'm usually too tired to make an effort at anything. LOL

Lily Spider, I often make Skinnytaste's Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers, and for the boys, I cook the insides in a baking pan and then stuff a raw pepper for them, because they prefer not to have the pepper cooked. They eat the hot insides and then the cold, raw pepper. LOL Not sure if your family would eat raw peppers or not.

(spoken in robotic voice:) I cook what Leanne Ely tells me to cook.

No, really, I used to subscribe to Saving Dinner Menu Mailers and still use them. It's a little variety of Italian, Asian, curry, American, Mexican, a little African, (some meatless but DH gotta have his meat) and I fill in with Scandinavian, comfort, Joy of Cooking, and DH cooking lol. Tonight I made my own stirfry with whatever was in the crisper and shrimp.

i like giving my family balanced, non-processed, mostly fresh, meals. Oh, we do some Kraft dinner, and frozen pizza. Our favorite restaurant is the little neighborhood Japanese place or Indian/Tibetan restaurant.

Magmum, thanks for the idea but they also won't eat raw peppers. Either I end up eating way more peppers than I want, or sometimes (since my kids don't care) I give them the meat that won't fit into the peppers.

Oddly enough, my whole family loves this very simple shrimp linguine dish. So good! I just hate peeling the shrimp :)

Once again I'm amazed at how much cooking people do! We are much lazier than a lot of folks here (3 course meals?? nightly??? wow! can I come over?). We often do variations on a theme - we mostly eat vegan, so this week we did big pot of chickpeas and make them into channa masala one night, on a salad the next, and hummus the third. We try to do a large salad once a week. Lots of different beans - black beans are a favorite - on rice or enchiladas with new mexican green chile sauce. Stirfry or some sort of asian noodles (garlic, sesame, japanese/soba, etc) usually once a week. Some thai - curry or peanut sauce, haven't mastered thai noodles yet sadly. Occasionally pasta. Ottolenghi recipes when we are feeling inspired to shop and not use what we have on hand!

I really didn't answer the original question. What is typical in this area for the majority of the population -- fried, processed, boxed, gravy, potatoes, high salt, high sugar, sodapop for breakfast, lunch and dinner, few vegetables, white bread and spaghetti, bananas, grapes and apples only for fruit, kids who aren't expected to like anything other than hamburgers, spaghetti-os and chicken fingers -- and one of the higher rates of obesity and diabetes in the nation. Seriously. Not a real regional cuisine other than farmhand/fast food nation. Interesting, really, in light of how the restaurant scene is thriving.

I may be -- no, I AM--somewhat jaundiced in my opinion -- too many discussions with the families of hospitalized patients over what is appropriate for them to bring in. No, a six pack of mountain dew is not a good idea for your diabetic, blood sugar out of control kidneys failing mother. I don't care how much she wants it.

Sorry, rant over.

What I typically cook -- soup weekly, a quick braise or stirfry of a protein (you name it) cooked with whatever veggies strike my fancy -- I keep a wide variety of frozen and fresh, and the proteins are in my freezer in serving size portions. I don't plan ahead, rarely did even when DD was little, and as I mentioned in the last thread, 3 days out of the week I am not cooking at all really. Trying to get in the habit of eating more beans/legumes every week, eventually to have some daily. And trying to have a big green salad daily. I am also relying more on those inexpensive Indian dishes that come in a pouch.

I will be making corned beef and cabbage on Thursday! one of my favorites!

We're in the Deep South, so, What else? BBQ! Oddly enough, I have a hard time finding BBQ as good as my own. I have a smoker that I built, and it performs very well. We often smoke chickens, and less often, ribs, pork, and brisket.

We both like to cook, and are willing to try most anything, so our tastes run from Indian to Mexican to Thai to Swedish. We found when bringing things to our church's pot-luck suppers that we had to tone down our ambitions some. 'Exotic' doesn't play well with conservative old Southern church ladies!

Bay Area here. Interestingly, I eat nothing like I did growing up. My mom cooked, but it was always heavy on boxed, frozen, or otherwise processed foods. I rarely cook processed foods (other than raw meat).

Unfortunately, I am part of a young couple and we work a lot (both leave before the sun is up and return after sun goes down). So much that we usually do not eat dinner together during the week. I am fortunate to work at a company that provides subsidized meals but the dinner option is always Chinese food. I eat that sometimes, or try to grab a salad at Chipotle or some other fast/casual place. Living in the Bay Area, we have just about everything you could imagine and great access to year round fruits and vegetables.

On the weekends, we cook at least 2 nights and eat every meal together to make up for the weeknights. We try to eat mostly healthy. I cook a lot of chicken, we almost always have salad, and often I prepare a vegetable. I have recently been obsessed with pan sauces so I make one after I finish cooking the meat. Other than chicken, we also make beef and pork, with lamb once a month or so. We do occasionally make seafood but I prefer to go out for it. I really enjoy jumping into a cookbook and making something elaborate and I have books focused on Mexican, Southern, Tex Mex, Israeli and other cuisines. I also love to bake and try to do so once every other week.

When we eat out, we try to change things up but we have some mainstays including a deep dish pizza place and a noodle restaurant.

We are not big drinkers. We have been working on the same bottle of bourbon for 2 years (we don't really like any other hard alcohol). We do drink wine and beer, but we usually don't finish a bottle of wine in one night.

We're in the southeast. In keeping with the "how I cook" noted in the last thread, there is no regular pattern to our cooking. I like to get inspired by what looks good at the market and what we have around the house. We're certainly influenced by our region; grits aren't just for breakfast, and we make our own bbq sauce and use it often. But, sometimes I have to break away from southern traditions (we like our green beans bright green!). I usually don't use recipes, but when I do, it's to help me learn a new skill or technique, or bring in a new ingredient or style of cooking, which may not have any connection to our region.

We have lots of restaurant options and generally when we dine out we'll order something that we can't make very well at home (like a real wood-fired pizza) or something that I'm not comfortable preparing (like tuna tartare, which I never thought I'd ever have, but we tried it as part of a tasting menu and it was amazing).

Well.. see, I have a problem. I have one of the most sensitive noses you have ever seen. Nothing ever really bothers it (except skunks and Grolsch beer.. lol) but, I go to the store and all the smells make it so hard to decide what to cook.

I really do not have a pattern, I just can smell a roux and have a craving for gumbo.. or smell cinnamon and start craving apple pies like I did last week.

It's the craziest of things...drives my wife nuts :P can't take me grocery shopping at all.. lol. I end up buying so dang much!

Tonight.. chili dogs! BAM!

Another fun topic. Well, until recently we did meatless main dishes a couple nights a week and the rest of the nights could be most anything like pasta, stir-fry, roasts, casseroles, tacos, pizza, typical meat/potatoes dishes, yada yada. We had been working on having more meatless meals and adding more fresh veggies but weren't fanatical about it.

A recent health scare in the family has made me a fanatic so we are in flux on our meals and I feel like I'm learning to cook again from scratch as we move more fully into meatless, plant-based, whole-foods, low-fat cooking. I'm not claiming or striving to be 100% vegan. We still eat seafood. Our freezer is too full of the yumminess of salmon, halibut, clams, cod, crab, shrimp and tuna. So we're limiting seafood to 2-3 meals per week, and eliminating dairy (except a half butter/half grapeseed oil spread that we use sparingly).

I feel like I'm learning to cook again. I have always made a lot of soups so now I'm just doing them without meat and using beans/lentils/dried peas instead. This means I'm playing with different seasoning blends and flavor profiles. I'm also experimenting with different bean-based fillings for things like tacos/burritos/wraps and faux-burgers/loafs. I've never been much for buying processed foods so I'm avoiding the store-bought faux-meat items and learning to make healthier versions of things like that myself. And I'm not trying to get them to taste like meat. Just as a well flavored, non-meat protein. I really don't miss meat. Wasn't that much of a fan of it anway. DH is having more of a problem with the adjustment but he's the one that needs it most so I just keep trying to find things that satisfy him.

I was making a lot of our own bread before so now just bake more to eliminate store-bought and have been experimenting with how much I can add in the way of things like ground up nuts, seeds, steel-cut oats, bulgur, etc., to increase the nutritional value of the bread while still getting a nice bread for sandwiches or toasting. So my baking center isn't getting as much use as it was before for sweets but it's sure handy for getting the bread done!

Breakfast is always a green smoothie, packed with greens and superfoods. DH usually also has some steel-cut oats, bulgur, muesli with nut milk, or similar to fill him up but the smoothie satisfies me until lunch.

Lunch and dinner are kinda interchangeable and can be salad, soup, stir-fry, sandwich/wrap, taco/burrito, "meat" loaf, seafood dish, veggie pastas with veggie sauces (thank goodness for my spiralizer), veggie chips, hummus, etc., always with some kind of veggies whether the salad and/or a side as well.

Desserts tend to be sorbets made with 100% fruit/berries but I'm ready to branch out. I made my first black-bean brownies a week ago. Pretty good but I think Laughable's suggestion for the non-baked ones sounds even better. Will try that next.

I'm trying out a lot of different types of vegetables that I've never bought before. I've had to laugh at myself when I've gotten home with something I can't identify. Seriously. I need to take photos of the sign at the store to help me remember. Menus vary depending on what veggies I have on hand, what looks like it's starting to turn and needs eaten NOW, and such. I read recipes online like crazy for ideas but I rarely have all the exact same ingredients so I do a lot of substituting and experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. I don't think I've ever made anything the same way twice but I'm having fun with it Fearless in the kitchen, that's me, lol.

Side benefits. I just plain feel better eating this way. I used to have a lot of heartburn and other gastro-intestinal problems. Gone. Nada! No odd headaches out of the blue either. I've always been one that has to practically starve myself to lose weight. Yup, even when I'm training for long bike rides and alpine scrambling. And now all my clothes are getting loose without me starving myself or even being hungry at all. I'm quite satiated. And I don't have any cravings for sweets which is crazy because I have always had the ultimate sweet tooth. Go figure. Love the side benefit of losing weight without even trying. First time in my life that has happened. LOVE!

Congratulations, Funky!! It's a big lifestyle change, for sure!

Two thumbs up, Funky! Roast those root veggies! Too bad brussel sprouts need to be paired with bacon fat to be the best. Shred carrots, cabbage and brussel sprouts for additions in salad. Try one of those crazy emulsion blenders to have all kinds of blended soups. The beans can be blended too. Psi cook your own beans. Tried it all but really like beef and fish.

I live on the central coast of CA. I'm not not restricted in my diet but I do tend towards plant based meals. I recently purchased Deliciously Ella cookbook and really dug in. so many great EASY recipes. I like to cook but I don't like the planning and shopping. I've also found a few other cookbooks that keep me inspired. My DH thankfully eats whatever is put in front of him and prefers NOT to eat meat.

I also find I go in spurts of cooking. currently i haven't been cooking many dinners but luckily we have a few really good options near us that makes it easy for us to get take out that are relatively healthy.

I'm in south Louisiana in the heart of Cajun country, so I do cook Cajun food, as well as other styles. Even if I'm cooking something that wouldn't be considered Cajun, I do season it the way I normally do, so that sort of makes it Cajun.

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo (with potato salad)

Crawfish Etouffee

Shrimp & Pasta

Crab Leg Salad

Chili

Thai Curry

Stuffed Bell Pepper

Holy Cow Pattisue - please adopt me!

Midwest here.

I would say we are eclectic and I try for a few veggie meals per week but since we adopted our puppy, we have been eating a bit more beef - long story but thought I snagged a rib roast with ribs to give the bone part to Gatsby - but I bought a boneless roast and had opened it up before realizing it. This was a giant roast and still working my way through it. - oops.

Generally we eat fish 1-2 times per week, casserole another night, pizza, stir fry, soup and salad. I also like to spatchcock a chicken every couple weeks and use the leftover chicken for a casserole as well as cooking the bones to make chicken broth. I freeze in 8 oz containers.

I froze a lot of roasted tomato sauce and have 1 jar left and will use with a pasta dish. We are active, so we eat a lot of pasta. We need to feed the motor for our bicycles.

Pizza can be partially home made or DH can order out. I have made it from scratch but have not mastered the crust. Whole Foods sells the dough and then I assemble it with my ingredients.

We occasionally have tacos and in the summer a burger.

My husband's favorite casserole is DASH-a-roni Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension My husband named it - Turkey, Chicken, or beans, onions, garlic, oregano, basil, paprika, pepper, no salt tomatoes, wilted spinach and a touch of mozzarella cheese

Tonight- my last rib steak (still have more roast in the freezer), sweet potato, salad and an ice cream topped with espresso for dessert. Gatsby will get a chunk of sweet potato - great chew toy.

We do go out for dinner ~ once per week.

I would so I am a decent cook but not great with presentation.