What to cook for Fridaynight dinner & a movie...

**Nanotech9** · 11-17-2004, 09:27 PM

umm, long story short, supposedly this girl is coming over friday night and bringing a couple of movies with her... i was joking around about cooking her dinner, but i'de like to actually do it.

so, what to cook? She watches her weight (past weight problems) somewhat so i need to think somewhat lean food...

i'm thinking something easy like a stirfry of some sort, with a few side dishes of some sort.

but post up ideas, and then be ready to back them up with instructions

THANKS!

BTW, YA'LL are awesome

**JaQnAbOx** · 11-17-2004, 09:29 PM

Steak....
Meat+fire=steak

**eSDee** · 11-17-2004, 09:30 PM

Some celery and carrots with dip are a good healthy snack for movie watching.

**RoniMan** · 11-17-2004, 09:34 PM

i don't watch my weight, so i prob can't be much help.

but pasta is always simple, and you can make the sauce using ground turkey instead of beef.

or you can always use this site

**JaQnAbOx** · 11-17-2004, 09:34 PM

edit::
Lean Steak
(Lean piece of Meat) + Fire = (Lean Steak)

**look_ma** · 11-17-2004, 09:40 PM

Besides the obvious "Man shake" High protien low fat low carbs.

Grilled chicken Salad all fresh. Dont use sh1tty iceburg lettuce either. I usually pre-prep all the vegatbles, chop them up and put them in different bowls. That way when she comes over if she doesnt like a veggie you dont put it in. It seems alot of girls do not like tomatoes, so I stay away from those. I say the more veggies the better, varity tends to encourage less dressing use. Dont forget that this meal can be impressive if presented right, and is reasonably priced, and very healthy. Remeber dont mix the contents of the salad, lettuce, then the layers of yummy veggies and dont forget the chicken on the top and cheese on the very top. Please dont buy pre-shreadded, it taste bad to begin with and stands out in a salad, grate it yourself unless you get wild and put crumble cheese on.

**ufcrusher** · 11-18-2004, 01:18 AM

How much of an effort do you want to put forth here and how much cooking experience do you have? Since she is watching her weight there are a bunch of interesting receipies you can try to make that are lower in calories.

You can go for what my family calls "Linda Style Chicken" which is really simple and not too bad for you if you do it right.

Ingredients: boneless chicken, cornflake crumbs, italian dressing, and butter/margarine if desired.

Take BONELESS chicken breast, dip into Italian dressing (creamy or regular, lite or not), and then coat both sides in corn flake crumbs. (Sometimes its difficult to get the cornflake crumbs..you can use bread crumbs instead but its more calories). Place on baking tray and then cook at 350 for approx 1 hour. If you want you can place a little butter on the top to try to make it more moist...but in reality its not needed. -- This is super easy and taste great. If you want you can add a little cajun seasoning to the coating, but that is all about what you like not the receipe.

I would probably serve that with steamed fresh string beans or another steamed veggie of your choosing. If you dont care as much about watching the calories, you can "stir fry" some snow peas in a bit of olive oil with salt. Just make sure you keep it moving and heat up your wok/pan first. A baked or mashed potato would finish it off. If you want to go for more of a wow factor brush the baked potato in olive oil and then coat it with Old bay seasoning. Cover the encrusted potato in tinfoil while you bake it. Just remember that the tinfoil will make it take a little longer to cook. (I am sure you know to fork the spud before you start too)

Option 2: Chicken parm - More calories, a bit more difficult

Ingredients: Boneless chicken, flour, 1 egg, 1/2 cup of milk, bread crumbs, olive oil, tomato/spagetti sauce (traditional works best), mozerella cheese - shredded

Take boneless chicken breast and place on top of large piece of saran wrap. Make sure the wrap it a bit more than twice as large as the pieces of chicken you are making. Once the chicken is on the saran wrap, leave about 1" extra between the edge of the chicken and the middle of the saran wrap. (imagine that the saran wrap is a book...you want to place it near the spine but leaving that 1" gap) Fold back the remaining Saran wrap over to full enclose the breasts. Take either a meat tenderizer or a cleaver and using either the flat side of the tenderizer or the broad side of the cleaver, beat the chicken until its about 1/4" inch thick. The chicken will spread out quite large.

In a gallon size ziplock bag place in 1/4 cup of flour.

in a large shallow bowl mix together egg and milk. It will take on a light yellow color when fully mixed.

On a dinner plate pour out some of the bread crumbs.

Now, take your first piece of chicken...put it into the ziplock and then proceed to shake it until the entire chicken is covered in flour. Make sure that no areas stuck together.

Take the flour covered chicken and place it into the milk/egg mixture coating both sides.

Take the egg/milk/flour coated chicken and place into bread crumbs. Make sure that the entire chicken breast gets coated in the bread crumbs.

Repeat for as many other pieces of chicken as you have.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take a large pan and cover bottom with a small layer of oil (enough to cover 1/2 the height of the chicken). Remember that when the oil is heated it will expand. Heat the oil up until it is ready and then turn it down to med/med low. For ease of cooking I suggest you use tongs for this. You will now place the chicken into the oil and using the tongs flip it once it has a golden brown coloration. (This generally is pretty fast...remember the chicken is thin and thus cooks in a snap)

Once both sides are golden brown, remove from oil and place onto a plate with papertowels on it. Cover the chicken with another layer of paper towels to remove excess oil.

Repeat for each piece of chicken until all are cooked. (Yes you can cook more than one at a time if the pan is big enough.)

Place each blotted cooked piece of chicken onto a cookie sheet. Take spoonfuls of the spagetti sauce and cover the top side of the chicken. Then cover the tomato sauce with the shredded mozzerella.

Cook in oven until cheese is melted and looks golden. (Think pizza cheese coloration)

Viola - Chicken Parm. Receipe for veal parm is the same just substitute veal cutlets instead.

Option 3: Bust out your cookbook and see what looks interesting. I have another receipe for something called salsa chicken which is great, but I would have to dig it out. (Its a weight watchers receipe of all things

)

Hope that helps

**Leebo** · 11-18-2004, 01:39 AM

Lasagna!

Sauce (w/ meat / mushrooms/zuccini/whatever you want)
cheese
noodle
<repeat>

or...

You could do Chicken fajita's. That'd be fun to construct together after you cook up the meat, bellpeppers, onions.

Just a couple of thoughts. If you go with lasagna, get some wine. if you go w/ fajita's.... beer(?)

**faither** · 11-18-2004, 05:03 AM

Pizza (w/ sausage and pepperoni) and a couple of beers.

Oh, what the hell do I know. I'll be married 12 years on the 21st.

**oblongmelon** · 11-18-2004, 05:38 AM

uf! I'm impressed

....(except don't add the milk to the eggs or it won't bind to the flour as well!-just a tip!)
anyway...
I'd make an enormous salad-grill up some chicken, toss it in with some spring mix, dried cranberries,mandarin oranges,blue cheese chunks..yeh..salad is the way to go for a girl watching her diet.

**Yossarian** · 11-18-2004, 05:51 AM

or, if you aren't sure what she likes/dislikes, make the salad more basic, with stuff like oranges and cranberries in a side dish. that way she can take how much, and what, she wants

**Merlin** · 11-18-2004, 05:58 AM

What is your favorite dish to make? Whatever it is just go with that. You can then play up the "It's my speciality" thing. She'll like it since you are showing a little of yourself. Just make sure you have a good bottle of wine on hand and everything will be just fine.

If it were me I would make Fet. Alfredo with grilled chicken and asparagus. And a bottle of Chianti. After a meal like that vegging out and watching a movie is perfect.

**Kim** · 11-18-2004, 06:01 AM

Oh Merlin, that dinner sounds delish...you can ask me out anytime!

**Nanotech9** · 11-18-2004, 10:28 AM

damn crusher... sounds good to me...

one question - what goes good with that?... i.e. green beans (or some sort of grean bean casserol), corn, what?

i'm definitely thinking a white wine to go with it. (white with chicken right? especially since i cant stand red)

**ufcrusher** · 11-18-2004, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by oblongmelon

uf! I'm impressed

....(except don't add the milk to the eggs or it won't bind to the flour as well!-just a tip!)
anyway...

I have always done the egg/milk mixture without any trouble. Every receipe that I have ever seen for it does it that way, its how I was taught, and even how the Italian restaurants where I know the chef/owners do it. But to each their own.

Impressed? Why? I worked as a chef for a while. On top of that I have been cooking for the majority of my life. My mom loves to tell the tale of coming home to a kitchen covered in flour with me having made pizza dough from scratch when I was 6. Other than the mess everything was perfect. I have been cooking for as long as I can remember...unfortunately, my prowess in the kitchen has not gone un-noticed as I end up having to cook even when I go visit my family.

**ufcrusher** · 11-18-2004, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Nanotech9

damn crusher... sounds good to me...

one question - what goes good with that?... i.e. green beans (or some sort of grean bean casserol), corn, what?

i'm definitely thinking a white wine to go with it. (white with chicken right? especially since i cant stand red)

What goes well with which one? The "Linda style chicken" or the Chicken Parm?

You can have mashed/baked potato with both. If you do mashed, I would suggest making garlic mashed potatos as it really compliments the chicken parm.

Personally I wouldnt go with a casserol. I mentioned string beans and snow peas. You could go with asparagus in a vinagrette if that floats your boat. Mixed veggies are a "restaurant" standard side with the parm. Corn (not on the cob) would go well with the Linda Style if you want.

Honestly, veggies are more about preferences and presentation.

**look_ma** · 11-18-2004, 10:02 PM

Don't forget to make a chocolate something for desert. More choicalate the better the odds: http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81252

**InfiniteNothing** · 11-18-2004, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by Leebo

Lasagna!

Sauce (w/ meat / mushrooms/zuccini/whatever you want)
cheese
noodle
<repeat>

or...

You could do Chicken fajita's. That'd be fun to construct together after you cook up the meat, bellpeppers, onions.

Just a couple of thoughts. If you go with lasagna, get some wine. if you go w/ fajita's.... beer(?)

**Merlin** · 11-19-2004, 05:00 AM

Originally Posted by Nanotech9

so, what to cook? She watches her weight (past weight problems) somewhat so i need to think somewhat lean food...

I wouldn't worry too much about this. Romantic dinner means all bets are off for the night on the diet. She'll appreciate the guilty pleasure. And....It sets the tone for doing things she shouldn't

**Nanotech9** · 11-19-2004, 06:05 AM

i'm gonna try the parm....

thanks for all the help guys... check this thread once more around 6pm central in case i have an "emergency" please

**Nija** · 11-19-2004, 08:26 AM

make sure to buy jimmy hats

**Booyamos** · 11-19-2004, 09:58 AM

yeah i was going to suggest chicken parm, or chicken fettacini alfredo, or a big salad.

those 3 are pretty easy to make.

If you need recipe ideas this is where i always go to find them. www.allrecipes.com great site and you can keep a recipe book there, user reviews. I love it, found a great spinich and artichoke dip recently.

**Airencracken** · 11-19-2004, 12:29 PM

I too vote for giving her a mouthful of baby batter.

**RoniMan** · 11-19-2004, 10:26 PM

so.......what happened?

**Nanotech9** · 11-20-2004, 12:01 AM

dood your recipie made me look like a pro chef. not only did it look good, but it tasted good too.

lets just say it was good enough to get after-hours play time

oh yeah, and shes coming with my on my trip to dallas tomorrow. Staying over sat night in dallas and coming back sunday afternoon.

**Nanotech9** · 02-13-2006, 01:24 PM

well, i'm re-using this recipe again... but this time for Valentines day.

The girl i originally made this for (who turned out to be my "first" on that trip to dallas) has now been living with a fellow for about a year... Shes due to have a little girl here in the next week or two. We're still friends... in fact i went ot her baby shower / cookout a few weeks back.

but anyway, i decided to come back and look up this recipe for this girl i've been seeing for almost 10 months now... It'll be the first time in over a year that i've cooked.

once again... thanks for all the help back in the day guys. Ya'll helped me have the most memorable evening / weekend of my life. Quite the accomplishment.