Thread: randomly inventing meals and testing them on your family..

I do, but my wife usually doesn't appreciate my experiments. Or at least, not if I go all out with the spices. However, these days I have gone low carb, and as a result I now make dishes for lunch at work instead of sandwiches, and in those I can do what I want.

My lunch was half a pound of ground beef, mixed up with large amounts of cucruma, curry, mix of herbs, ground chili pepper. Baked it through and then added mushrooms. I then stewed celery, paprika and an onion in butter with a spoonful of sambal (ground chili paste) and added it to the meat. Then added a small tin of pulped tomato concentrate.

It was delicious.
I regularly vary the recipe, based on what I have in the fridge at the time. I might use chicken for meat, add completely different spices or seasoning, use different vegetables, add soy sauce, ....

This is something that noone at home would eat since my wife and daughters prefer more suble flavoring whereas I go for a taste-explosion. I do try things at home, but I always have to perform the balancing act of adding spices / making sure that people still eat it.

I have to admit that I don't do pastry, cakes, muffins, ...because those things require you to stick with the recipe very closely or the entire thing fails. My wife the microbiology lab supervisor otoh is a genius when it comes to baking, because she can stick to the recipe and knows exactly where she can stray to add her own touch.

Originally Posted by Bruno

However, these days I have gone low carb, and as a result I now make dishes for lunch at work instead of sandwiches, and in those I can do what I want.

My lunch was half a pound of ground beef, mixed up with large amounts of cucruma, curry, mix of herbs, ground chili pepper. Baked it through and then added mushrooms. I then stewed celery, paprika and an onion in butter with a spoonful of sambal (ground chili paste) and added it to the meat. Then added a small tin of pulped tomato concentrate.

Time will come you'll need to go low cal as well.

Originally Posted by Kees

Time will come you'll need to go low cal as well.

I find that as long as you don't overdo it, calories don't really matter.
And I work out at least twice per week. 3 times per week during summer and autumn. Callories are for burning, not for counting

Besides, in 100 year time I'll be dead. I might as well enjoy the ride while it lasts.

That's about the only way I cook (unless I'm doing frozen pizza or spaghetti-o's ~ I have a mild addiction to those danged things). I start out with a meat, and build from there. Even steak and potatoes end up getting tweaked before I am done. Marinades are a wonderful thing.
I usually have no plan in mind, just whatever seems like it would be good on a given day.

When working with ground turkey for kids, two things that really help a lot (not used together though): soy sauce and chicken broth.