The hitch for me is the everyday items. We dont always have cucumbers on hand, but I plan meals and smokes well ahead and cucumber salads are a go to for me, especially in the summer when I want lighter sides. I alternate between a creamy cucumber salad and a vinegar and oil based cucumber, onion and tomato salad.
I'm making one for dinner tonight. The recipes I use require an all day or several hour marinating AFTER some salting and rinsing of the cucumbers. There are plenty of recipes out there if you dont already have one
You mentioned creative, have you ever made a panzanella salad? I just added that to my summer sides on my meals list (if I dont keep records I forget entire meal concepts). I had removed it because the wife and I went low carb, but we are eating bread again here and there (and the waistline shows it). It's kind of like a salad with croutons but the croutons are chewier.
I have gone to the baked canned baked beans too. So much easier and Bush's has the zero sugar version now. We try to avoid sugar still when we can, a remnant of the low carbing, but we actually dont feel well now if we eat much sugar.
Also, not for everyone but we love gazpacho. I first started making it when I grew a garden to use up tomatoes. Now I have developed a recipe using canned tomatoes that is really good. I can share it but my recipe calls for resting overnight and has a couple ingredients you may not already have. No time for back and forth, you are trying to eat today!
Another one I forget about is lettuce slaw. We DO usually keep a head of iceberg on hand along with a few jalapenos and usually some celery in varying stages of freshness. We always have sweet onion on hand. I almost shave the lettuce and very thinly slice other vegetables. I use the same slaw dressing as for cabbage slaw (homemade). Either lettuce, or cabbage slaw, I found it best to toss right before serving.
A warm spinach or lettuce salad is something not everyone thinks of but is in my cookbook for something different. Same with a warm German potato salad.
What people usually have around the house can vary a lot. To me, everyone's house I have been in looks at things very differently. They store things differently, some things they dont refrigerate that we do...so, what edibles individual households have at any given time can also vary wildly. Also, cooking for two vs. a crowd makes a huge difference. Not all recipes are easily scaled to extremes either way.
For me, "prepare ahead" is what I have to do. I hate surprises. I actually keep a running meals list Sun-Sat and update it as the weeks move along. I dont think I ever wake up without a meal plan for dinner that day already planned and laid out...in some cases prep done the day before.
Best of Luck!
indaswamp
thread or what I posted above. Mines a variations with some cheese to be like French Onion soup like. If you love onions these are game changers.
