What are your best tips for spicing up your weeknight menu? Come share & win Gather Points!

I use garlic! Lots and lots of garlic!

Raising three children, dinner became a series of staples: Wednesday is Meatloaf with peas and mashed potatoes, Friday is Fish Sticks with a salad and macaroni and cheese, Saturday is Pizza Night. Well, you get the picture. So now that my darling girls are all grown up college students away from home, my husband and I can go back to our love of cooking for taste rather than convenience. As the author of a cookbook, I had forgotten how much I LOVE experimenting in the kitchen and trying new tastes and textures and methods. Now, I try to "spice it up" by trying at least one new culinary idea a week. One week it was a Ratatoue that's completely vegetarian, another week it was baked from scratch croissants (okay, it took me two weeks and four tries to master puff pastry, but I did it! LOL) and another week it was saffron rice and Middle Eastern dishes with spices I had to look up because I hadn't used anything besides salt, pepper and chili powder in so long. I'm having a blast expanding our palettes again and just "playing in the kitchen".

Good for you, Sandre! Sounds like you're havin fun!! And, you can do it!!

I use garlic, butter, Morton's Nature Seasoning, and a grinder I bought with country herbs to help brighten up the flavor of meats and veggies.

Chile powder in unusual ways: garlic bread, french fries,baked potato, beans, vegetables I omit pepper when using chile powder.

Garlic goes in just about every meal. But I do a different ethnic fare several times a week. The is always an Italian night with garlic, onion and spices; a Mexican or Spanish night where there will be cumin and a zesty spice such as cayene pepper or chili pepper; perhaps a seafood dinner which may have a creamy dill sauce. It depends on the cooks mood.

I love the garlic pepper grinders from McCormick.....I use that in my mashed potatoes to jazz up the plain meat dinners.

At this time of year, I use fresh herbs. Right now I have chives, garlic chives, sage, tarragon and thyme. I use tarragon a lot with fish and chicken. Sage is good for pork.

We use herbs, onions and garlic to spice up our meals. We go to the Farmer's Market and buy organic herbs which is wonderful.

I try to add a new spice that I haven't used before or an old spice but use it in a way that I never have before.

What do you do to spice up your weekly menu? I add traditional items to a new recipe. Like using cranberries in a fresh salad or making a soup out of squash or asparagus ( depending on the seasonal produce). The idea is to incorporate traditional foods into modern dishes.

along with may spices I use a frozen seasoning blend from publix or Winn Dixie many stores have there own brand of this and its found in the frozen veggie isle. Most come with red peppers, green peppers onions celery and some spices its fast and you don't have to worry about having a pepper or onion around or spending time chopping stuff . its also a lot less money at about 1.59 cents a bag . pic sweet make one for around 1.99 at wal-mart . the last time I bought a real green peper it cost me 1.59 so I switched to this frozen stuff and you only need to use a bit and save the rest for the next dish . I love it and cant cook my much loved slow cooked BBQ boneless pork with out it

One thing we love is Old Bay. Yum. Another thing is we decide on what basic food we have (that is on sale or in our garden) then we pick a country/region that is how we know what we will be using to spice it up.

I guess I should explain a bit. Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast
If we want Mexican I can shredd it and make chicken tacos, if we want chinese I can slice thin and make a stir fry, if we want Italian I can either make it into Chicken cutlet Parmesean or take it put it on a cookie sheet with some olive oil top with italian seasoning and parmesean cheese and bake. Then there is the old bay. I just throw in a pan with a bit of oil and sprinkle on the Old Bay. So really we just start with what we have, what is on sale or in our garden then decide what we are in the mood for.

I mix fresh and dry herbs for some tasty dishes. Garlic powder and cayenne pepper are great options, and I also have these great McCormick grinders that add a great touch to our dishes.

I add lime zest to brighten the foods. It gives meals a good zing.

I spice up weeknight dinners by trying something new. I recently discovered cumin and am adding it to anything "mexican" or "southwest". This week I am going to try making stuffed peppers, which we have never had before. We all like the separate ingredients, though, so I'm guessing we will like them together!

To spice up a weekday menu, I like to get the kids involved in making something fun--pizza, tacos, whatever. It brightens everyone's night!

Make your own pizza night. I set up a buffet of ingredients from chopped veggies, carmelized onions, cheeses to pepperoni and two kinds of sauce. Everyone creates their own personal pizza and we share a large salad and breadsticks made from pizza dough.

I spice up my menu by making fries in the oven! Yes, I bake/roast them and never fry them. I take: sweet potatoes and regular potatoes (sometimes even some parsnips) and then season them with some funky spices, and then toss them with some olive oil (and sometimes a bit of balsamic vinegar)....spread them on a cookie sheet, then pop them into the oven and bake at 375-425 degree F for approx 35min. You might need to watch them....I've sometimes had to leave them for 40-45 min. Yum.

Spicing up a weekday meal mostly just requires a little imagination and the willingness to explore the cuisines of other cultures.

Freshly ground black pepper from a grinder and finely grated Parmesan cheese adds a whole new dimension to Italian salad dressing. A few red pepper flakes add a spicy note and snipped parsley leaves and chives add a fresh green note. Creating your own spice blends with a mortar and pestle adds little explosions of flavor since aromatic oils are released first when they are roughly ground and again when you chew. A homogenized blend out of a can simply can't compare.

Growing herbs in pots is the easiest way to add flavor without a lot of effort or expense. I currently have two varieties of rosemary, three of mint, Greek oregano, lemon balm (luxurious scent in a hot bath!), green onions, garlic, lemon sorrel and two varieties of basil in pots or in various spots around my backyard. Sprigs of lemon sorrel added to a salad add a surprising citrus flavor since most of us expect to get that in a dressing and not from a green. Large 'lettuce leaf' basil used as the 'lettuce' in a roast beef sandwich is a revelation to the tastebuds. Chopped young garlic greens added to chicken soup give it an added dimension.

So first, grow your own herbs. They're tough plants, don't require a lot of care and add a lot of fresh flavor to any dish.

Second, buy whole spices whenever possible and invest a few bucks in a pepper grinder and a mortar and pestle. (One of my mortar and pestle sets is carved from granite and cost about $10. That's the most expensive one I have--and I have three.) You'll be amazed how much more flavorful black pepper can be when you crush it in a pestle or grind it over the dish instead of shaking it out of a can.

Well, we fix homemade meals every night, and we don't fix the same things over and over again. We might have Mexican or Italian or something in the crockpot. We might grill outside on the grill or fry up some chicken and have mashed potatoes and gravy here in the house. Variety is the spice of life (and of weekly meals!)

As most folks on Gather know, I try to cook a different meal almost every day. I've done this for nearly four years!

What do you do to spice up your weekly menu?i use lots of bell peppers. it makes things taste different and give the old menu a new texture:)

depends on what I'm making. Crushed rep pepper goes into just about everything.

I let the kids help and decide meals. Christopher loves to add all kinds of spices to our meals, so you never know what you're going to get....like spicy spaghetti sauce.

Freshly ground peppercorns add some spice to most any meat or sidedish.

We use a variety of different spices. We try to experiment with new ones to create unique flavors. Our favorite is Garlic.

I've begun trying new vegetables

I add salt to almost everything because I am a saltaholic, lol. Other than that, I like to bake chicken with different marinades and sauces to add flavor variety to our meals.

Variety is the spice of life they say and I believe that is true for meals also. We certainly have out standard meals that everyone likes but I try to do at least one new or different meal each week. Just to shake things up a bit :-) This way we not only get to try something new but I also get to add the ones we like to our list of regular meals so we don't end up eating the same five meals over and over and over :-)

I make sure we have plenty of papkria, garlic and seasoned salt. all a must

I like to add a little bit of crushed red pepper. Not too much, just enough to spark up the flavor.

different spices and salads make all the difference

I try to cook at least one new meal every week. Even if it's not a completely new dish, I look for different ways to prepare it, or add a little twist to it. It gives us something to look forward to, and it introduces my 3 year old (and sometimes the baby, if appropriate) to new flavors and textures so they don't get accustomed to "kid-friendly" foods.

I usually search for new recipes on this really cool iphone app I have. We cook something new about twice a week from it.

I like to try new recipes! We love garlic and onions, BillyBee honey garlic seasoning, and McCormick Season-All. I also like to use a variety of marinades.

I use season-all a lot, too, Cindy. It's a very good alternative to salt. I planted a few herbs when mom and I planted our garden...cilantro, basil, chives...I hope they will help me flavor up some of my dishes! I love chives on a lot of things. I love the taste of cilantro even though I haven't cooked with i much.

I buy foil envelopes of Indian food at the local market and add it to the vegetables that I am serving.
I also have a collection of unusual flavorings: pandanas from the Asian food store, soursop from the African store...I like experiencing new flavors.

I need help in that department.......My children want pasta with sauce almost everyday so the only thing I am able to change is the shape of he pasta :)

Easy to do and an infinite variety of dishes to prepare. What is that? Get out the slowcooker, pick your meat, add the vegetables, and then zap it all up with your choices of all those wonderful fresh herbs from the garden and/or the variety of of dried herbs and spices which you, of course, have in the cupboard.

jj

I always keep several varieties of spice blends on hand, as well as canned broths, cream soups, and dry soup mixes. Mix and match them in quick casseroles, in the crock pot with your favorite meat or veggies, or with a box of pasta or rice. For me, the key is to have several easy items to choose from, making weeknight dinners go from blah to bon appetit!

I think one of the biggest things for me is to rely mor on spices, less on canned creamed soups, and dry soup mixes. The salt is too much in them. Learning to make things from scratch

Spice blends are great and an alternative when pressed for time. I do keep several on hand, I like to use them in bread crumbs when battering chicken or meats to bake or fry.

Cheeses, the more I cook the more I'm learning about cheeses and a good cheese sauce can also compliment any meal.

Gruyere, Gouda, Fontina, are all cheese that blend well into sauces, and can give a lot of color to any vegetable or plate.

The other night we made a shepherd pie. and it took a little longer because we used home made mashed potatoes, but here's what I did, and it was a hit, and I got 2 meals out of it.

I used fresh onion and garlic, but a spice blend would work well here, boil and mash the potatoes, put aside.

sautee the onions, and garlic, these are mainly aromatics but in a time crunch put the burger in the pan and add a blend of spices of your choice, mine would be garlic and onion powder, maybe a little bit of parsley and rosemary. Throw in some mushrooms, and fry it up.

You need a binder, and while cream of mushroom soups are easy, I find the high salt content isn't working for my family.

Here's what I did.

I took 2 cups of the Swanson's healthy request chicken broth and added 1 cup heavy whipping cream, I let it boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, I then added some pepper and corn starch, and continued to simmer. To help thinken it a bit more I added some cheeses and a little bit of white moscato wine. and I simmered it until it was thicker.

What I want to try next time I do this is make it more like a gravy, take some butter or oil and add just a little bit and make a roue out of it, then add the cream, and more broth to keep it thick......But I poured this on top of the meat and potatoes then topped with cheese, and it was really good my whole family loved it.

Pair it with a veggie and you have a meal you can make in about an hour. (boxed mash would make it go a lot faster, or if you used frozen tater tots or potatoes)

I rely heavily on a blend of spices that is known as 21 seasoning salute, which is sold at Trader Joe's stores.

I make 1 new recipe a week!

I have a really hard time getting myself to actually cook, so I try to make at least one exciting meal a week. Often, this involves my trusty crockpot! (Tonight it was chili.)

"What do you do to spice up your weekly menu?"

I cook and serve topless. Muy caliente!

now why the hell can't I get somebody like that...you really cook?

Yep -- six days a week.

In the kitchen, simplicity is the spice of life. Here's something I learned...

preheat oven to 375F

Get a can (not bottle) of your favorite beer, get rid of about a third of the can

take one raw, whole chicken (with the fat pulled off) and season it up however you like. I prefer basil and not too much garlic powder (b/c fesh garlic will be used), seasoned salt, regular or coarse salt and black pepper (or if you're tough enough, cayenne) all to taste

when you're done with that, pat it down a bit to make sure everything sticks

take 1 clove of garlic and put it into the can

place the can on to a baking dish (make sure it's about an inch or so deep)

put the cleaned and seasoned chicken over and into the inner part of the chicken right-side up, so that the chicken looks like its standing up on its legs.

get two slices of onion, one clove of garlic (peeled&sliced in half, vertically)

and two pieces of bell pepper (cut in half vertically twice, then take 2 of those pieces) deveined and seeded

place the ingredients (onion, bell pepper, and garlic) under the skin of the chicken covering the breasts

place in the oven @ 375F for 1hr 45min- 2hrs for the larger chickens

meanwhile I just throw some roughly diced potatoes into a package of aluminum foil with some butter, salt and pepper. and prep a salad or steam up some green veggies.

If that's not spicy enough, once the chicken is done it looks like it has boobs

I add a variety of fresh peppers and seasonings especially this time of the year. They add lots of color and flavor. My family enjoys the McCormick Garlic Pepper Seasoning Grinder and the McCormick Steakhouse Seasoning Grinder the best.

Every weeknight we have a meal from a different country. Monday may be Italian night, Tuesday is Chinese, Wednesday maybe Portuguese. It's fun. My husband and kids like to pick the country and I have fun on line finding new recipes to try with them. The most exotic so far has been Afghani night!

I have one son, who used to be the pickiest eater. I learned a few tricks. First, cook veggies and puree them, add them to things such as meatloaf, burgers, pasta sauce. Add italian seasoning to make it all taste like pizza.

Second, bake things that have healthy things in them such as flax seed, eggs, oats, and put some fruit or dark chocolate chips in them so that he will eat them. This works with my husband too - who is far from picky - but doesn't like cooked fruit.

Third, put a veg on the plate too BUT season it well and melt cheese on top. Works pretty well this way. So, lets say Cauliflower - steam it, season it with some spices (familiar ones) and then melt some mozzarella or fontina cheese on top, sprinkle with parmesan and everyone eats it.

Every night I make something different. I make sure to use a different grain and protein. So tonight is BBQ Chicken cooked in the crockpot. I sprinkled some chili powder on the chicken and added some to the tomato sauce. I sprinkled with a bit of pepper and salt. I am putting the chicken over baked potatoes with a bit of low fat butter or drizzled with a bit of olive oil. Last night was chicken sausages that I cooked with marinara and bell peppers. I put them in whole wheat hot dog buns. That is a protein, carb and veg all in one.

Every week, I go through the latest cookbooks and recipes from the internet, decide which ones I will make, make sure I have some of the ingredients in the house and figure out what I need to buy and then I make a menu for the week. I make the shopping list at the same time. I put it all in the computer and print it all up, along with internet coupons. I decide on the recipe depending on what I already have. I never make a recipe that I have to buy a lot of stuff for. Usually it is one thing. Then when I am cooking it, I usually change the flavorings and add different spices or herbs. If it says to make the dish mexican, I may feel like Italian or chinese and then I go through the pantry to figure out what I can change it with. I pull out the seasonings - herbs, spices, condiments. I put it all on the counter a few hours before I start to cook.

In 20 years of marriage, and 14 years with my son, I have only made certain dishes a couple of times, otherwise they have had a different thing every night.

We tend not to cook on weekends, so I'd have to say that we spice up our menu by eating out. we usually like to try to find places to go that we usually don't go, so we can try new things.

I cook for 4 children, so tend to stay away from spicy things, but I love to add lots of good flavor to what I make.
When I make anything baked and sweet I add alot of vanilla to make the whole house smell wonderful. Love the scent of vanilla in frech toast as well.

I cook things like enchilladas alot, you can hide ALOT of flavor in there, even when you use a store bough sauce.

I make spaghetti from a jarred sauce, and add home raised browned ground beef, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, sometimes chili powder. Just season it up a bunch.

I myself am still learning about seasonings, what goes well with what, so I will pull my whole spice set out, and set it on the island and just start pulling jars out to sniff them while I am smelling what I am making, it gives me a great idea of what will go with what. So much of what we eat and how we think something tastes depends on the smell, it never surprises me when the kids start yelling that we are having pizza before they even make it down the stairs.