Re: A nice simple dinner

Carol wrote:
...

It can be a pain in the ass, but if you love'em, you figure out
compromises.  Mostly lately, it's been Don's taste for spices.  He's
not hopeless on that, it's just he used to be the spice hound here so I
had to gear up a bit.
>
We found a surprising winner for us both.  Now I know instant oatmeal
isn't nearly as good the old fashioned kind but Don's never going to be
the sort to make oatmeal on the stove first thing in the morning.  For
all these years (39 years now), Don has made our breakfast unless I was
on a night shift or something.  I usually do dinner (about 5 times a
week) and we combine on stir fry style sides with me chopping and him
cooking.
>
So the surprise is the instant oatmeal packets are tolerable!  It's
fast enough to be workable and with added fruits (dried or fresh) to
suit.  I'd tried them long ago and they were nasty.  They've improved.
>
I'll try it later using the rice maker and rolled oats but suspect Don
likes the speed more and considers it a workable tradeoff.

  i tried them many years ago too and ended up going to
making plain ones instead because i like more texture
and less salt and other odd things.

  if it is time involved in making oatmeal that he objects
to i've found that i can measure things and use the microwave
to start the oatmeal and then after it reaches a boil i can
turn it down to a lower power level for however long to
finish.  so there's actually very little time i'm having to
do much of anything other than waiting for it to finish.

  the first stage for how much i normally cook is 2 minutes
or less.  after that it is a few seconds of putting in the
new power level.  and then waiting 8:11 for them to finish.
i can easily do other things while the 2 and 8:11 are
going so it's really not a lot of time involved at all.


  songbird