Your Favorite Meal?

last year

last modified: last year

I am in the midst of menu planning for all the upcoming holidays and as I paused to make myself some lunch I realized this is my favorite meal: a big salad.

Underneath the spring mix salad greens is kale, raw green beans, and one campari tomato in wedges. I add exactly 3 oz of poached organic chicken (ready to be cut into bite size pieces on the cutting board at left), and toss with white balsamic vinegar and kosher salt and cracked pepper. No oil or other dressings, I really like the freshness and bite of vinegar alone. I poach boneless, skinless chicken in vegetable broth and keep it in the fridge for salads and to eat with crackers and cheese.

If I had to choose one meal to eat every day, this would be it. What is your favorite meal, and is it something you could eat often or more for special occasions?

Featured Answer

Annie Deighnaugh

last year

Hard to come up with a favorite meal as what I eat daily has little to do with anything "favorite". Most of what would make me drool is stuff I haven't had in years, like a filet mignon with bernaise sauce. Instead, I eat so much poultry, I'm surprised I haven't sprouted feathers.

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Comments (33)

mtnrdredux_gw
last year
last modified: last year
For me, it would probably be a dish we had on a boat in Greece. Grilled chicken, grilled red peppers and onions, with big slabs of fresh tomato, on a bed of arugula. Drizzle with a mustard cumin vinaigrette and eat with grilled pita and homemade (only homemade!) Tzatziki.

The memory of swimming in the Aegean Sea off Milos surely elevates the meal.

PS I am a big fan of poached chicken, too. I buy only organic, skin on, bone in, and poach it. DH then debones it and shreds it. We use it in all sort of things and it is 5000x better than boneless, skinless breasts.
Bunny
last year
last modified: last year
There is one meal I eat every day and it is my lunchtime salad. Every day. I start by making the dressing right in the bowl: Olive oil, balsamic, S&P, garlic, za'atar, and tahini. To that I add cucumber, grape tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives, feta, croutons, and baby arugula. Sometimes a little chicken, beets, and/or chickpeas. Toss it in the bowl. Even in the dead of winter, it's always the best lunch.

My other favorite meal is shrimp with soffrito over either mixed rice, polenta, or orzo. And a pan-seared cheeseburger (thanks maddielee).
Kswl thanked Bunny
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maddielee
last year
last modified: last year
My favorite meal is a home grilled hamburger, baked beans, cole slaw and Lays potato chips. With beer.

Not for everyday, maybe every Saturday night.
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Sherry8aNorthAL
last year
Anything with seafood.
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Kswl
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
I like all this variety! Bunny, I used to make a vinaigrette for my own salads until one day I was out of olive oil and tried plain vinegar and loved it. I still don’t understand how we ran out of evoo but it was a happy coincidence. I frequently will add any leftover veg to my salad…..roasted brussel sprouts, squash, carrots carrots, anything I have.

Maddielee I also LOVE coleslaw, I would eat it daily except that I use full fat mayo in mine so it’s a controlled substance in this house 😎 Your meal sounds like an ideal cookout 👩‍🍳

Sherry my mom would be right there at the table with you, she makes salmon and shrimp for herself often but other seafood she orders when dining out.

My DH would have an eclectic combination of a cheeseburger, watermelon or other seasonal fruit, and (weirdly) white rice — weird because I don’t make it. Maybe that’s why?
JustDoIt
last year
I grew up on Sunday heavy meals (my mother was a home economic teacher), therefore these will always remain my favorite meals. Picture it: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, etc.

However, those type of meals no longer agree with me. Now I would say my favorite meal would be grilled chicken, salad (lettuce, tomato, green onion, mayo and nothing else) and a baked potato (doing Keto so these are out until I reach my goal weight).
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Funkyart
last year
last modified: last year
I have not had my favorite meal in many years-- but if calories were not a thing, it would be pasta carbonara with lemon asparagus and a salad.

My favorite cheer-me-up comfort food is eggs and toast-- favorite combo is with asparagus, shallots and herbs... but a mushroom herb omelet is a close second. Toast must be rye or sourdough.

Just this morning, I had these two amazing salads -- the restaurant was kind enough to split each of our salads in two so we could share. Grilled Caesar with Shrimp.. and the other is Kale, apples, bacon and parmesan with pretzel croutons. Both were delicious (and i could eat them regularly if calories weren't a concern)!

(niece instagrams everything lol)
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Kswl
Original Author
last year
Just do it I practically grew up on fried chicken and biscuits… I can close my eyes and see your mom’s delicious Sunday dinners, yum! I haven’t had fried chicken in ages, fried foods don’t agree with me either. I do love a baked potato with a tiny bit of butters and lots of herbs and salt and pepper, with a small salad that’s a good meal around here. You’ll enjoy those starches once your keto cycle is over.

Those salads look deliciously decadent, Funky—coming from someone who considers croutons decadent, lol. What a lovely lunch with your niece!
Funkyart
last year
last modified: last year
Oh yes.. not everyday salads for sure... cheese, bacon, croutons, hot bacon dressing, caesar dressing! I had never had hot bacon dressing-- I was surprised how much I liked it but I would have preferred it less sweet. (are they always sweet?)

I'll try the kale salad your way with just vinegar-- and chicken, apples, green beans etc.

ETA .. I love campari and kumato tomatoes-- perfect size for lunch for 1 and so good for your heart!
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seagrass_gw Cape Cod
last year
last modified: last year
My favorite meal is a well roasted crispy skin chicken with tiny creamer potatoes in the same roasting pan - garlic, rosemary, sea salt and pepper. A simple cooked green veg on the side - asparagus, broccolini, sugar snap peas, harticots verts, brussels sprouts, romanesco. All with Irish butter and a squeeze of lemon.
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LynnNM
last year
My favorite meal would have to be a bowl of my homemade Posole, with a side of either a tamale or a chile relleno, topped wih red chile (sauce) , and a side salad.
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Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
last year
last modified: last year
Wow! I deeply enjoy my food everyday. It's healthy and it wouldn't fall into what I call The best thing I've ever eaten. That would be hamburgers and steak and loaded potatoes and fried chicken and mashed potatoes and french fries and pizza and fried shrimp and seafood with lots of butter and lots of butter with lots of bread and donuts and cinnamon rolls.
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Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
last year
last modified: last year

I eat healthy now with lots of color and variety and I haven't eaten pasta in several years. I don't eat white bread. I eat tons of vegetables like a pound of asparagus a day, a pint of blackberries, two whole grapefruits, onions, cucumbers, mango, pomegranate. Lots of lean meats, fish, brown rice, quinoa.
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czarinalex
last year
My favorite meal is a bowl of linguine topped with my homemade pesto sauce and pignolia nuts. Lots of pecorino romano cheese too. It was my mom's heritage dish and I think of her every time I make it.

My other comfort food(also from my childhood) is a bowl of pastina with an egg, butter and cheese mixed in. It's what my mom made for us when we were sick.
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Sueb20
last year
I’m so not a foodie. I could eat pizza or pasta every day. No problem. Maybe mix it up with some lasagna some days and don’t forget the garlic bread.

But I do not eat those things every day or even every week. I have pasta maybe once a month as a treat. Pizza maybe 2 times a month. If I ate my Favorite Foods every day, I’d be as big as a house.

I do like salads, especially when someone else makes them. And I like plenty of other good-for-me foods, but my favorites are all wicked. Except berries — I count berries among my faves. And those sumo oranges, too.
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Tina Marie
last year
Like Sue, I love pasta! I rarely eat it though. But it would probably be one of my favorite meals. However, I do like variety (even though I'm not a foodie LOL). I love salads, particularly ones with things like pecans, cranberries, strawberries,mandarian oranges, etc. fruits. But I love red onion in there too. On those type salads I like poppyseed dressing. YUM! I really like chicken salad, tuna salad, etc. I'd love it on a croissant, but most often I have it not on bread. I like creamy, cheesy stuff that I mostly stay away from, sadly. But I do like roasted veggies, fresh from the garden veggies like cukes, tomatoes, etc. I really like zucchini too. I like meat, but I can do without meat. It's not something I have daily. So many of my favorite meals, or favorite foods, would be things my mom or grandmother cooked, that just do not taste the same when someone else cooks them : (
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amykath
last year
One of my faves is slow cooked baby back ribs with loads of rub (adding throughout the cooking processs) then finished on thee grill with some bbq sauce. The key for me is the rub.... continuously adding it so it is like a fairly thick carmelized rib. Yummy!
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Judi
last year
I love salads, but they're hardly my favorite meal.

Off the top of my head I would say anything made with my homegrown tomatoes. I only eat burgers and BLTs during the harvest. I love a fresh uncooked sauce over pasta, marinara, roasted salsa, or just eating handfuls of Sun Golds.
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nicole___
last year
I go on salad binges, but then back to Mexican. I love green chile with cheese and tortilla chips. Or...I make a tamale pie, instead of using corn husks and steaming...it's more of a casserole using chicken & chipotle seasoning.
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jojoco
last year
I could eat Poke bowls, preferrably with tuna or salmon, everyday for lunch. In fact, when we were in Hawaii, I did just that.
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amykath
last year
You guys make look like a pig! haha
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OutsidePlaying
last year
It is hard to pick a favorite. While I do love a good salad with garden fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, I also love good Gulf seafood, especially fresh boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce and oysters. A delicious 3-cheese manicotti with a drizzle of fresh marinara is yummy to me. Any well-prepared dish can make me happy.
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Oakley
last year
I've posted this before and it will always be my favorite. When I took it to club once they all asked for the recipe. That was a first. :)

Sausage Rice Carrot Casserole the fluffiest ever

My favorite dessert is Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls.
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Kswl
Original Author
last year
I love reading about everyone’s favorite meals and it’s interesting that we consider so many ”forbidden” either by digestive issues or chance of weight gain or sheer unhealthiness. The overriding message here though is that our favorite foods mostly originate from our childhoods. Comfort food is not just a phrase describing what we are used to….it’s a powerful statement about knowing someone cares enough about you to feed you (and keep you alive). My favorite foods as a child were watermelon and meatloaf; my mom told me when i was three I asked my aunt who had a garden if she could plant meatloaf seeds 🙂 I still like meatloaf today but in a fancier, Cooks’ Illustrated version.
Kitch4me
last year
My favorite, would be a cheeseburger, medium rare with aioli, avocado and arugula. Served with a side of crispy fries.
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maddie260
last year
My favorite meal is Dungeness (only) crab and sourdough french bread.
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palimpsest
last year
My favorite terrible meal is Elio's Pizza (actually designed to fit on cafeteria trays), Tater Tots and some sort of frozen vegetable like mixed vegetables or corn. Sometimes I even like the pizza slightly burnt. There are several bad or boring meals I like quite a lot.

And I grew up in a house with solid traditional cooking and live with a former chef whose responsibilities included recipe development. Who also likes the Elio's meal.
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Kswl
Original Author
last year
Pal, my husband loves tater tots. I never understood the appeal!
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
last year
Skipped down to chime in - I love a fresh green salad with cut up cooked meat too - I use leftover roast chicken or beef, and I like just vinegar too - regular balsamic, salt & pepper - sometimes with a sprinkle of oregano.

But that's only one of my faves 🙂
lizbeth-gardener
last year
I'm not sure I could pick a favorite meal. I love BLT's in season with fresh tomatoes or a grilled burger, fresh corn on the cob and the perfect slice of cantaloupe, but I also can get as excited about a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing/dressing, cranberry relish, fresh green beans, homemde dinner rolls and pumpkin pie. And then I think of seafood or steak or Chinese or Mexican and could go off in a whole different direction. What can I say; I'm a true Libra!
Lyban zone 4
last year
Oakley,

would you mind sharing your sausage,rice,carrot casserole please.
JustDoIt
last year
I consider myself a true addict when it comes to foods, mostly bad. This thread could actually be considered a "trigger".

Your Favorite Meal?

Annie Deighnaugh

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