S/O fancy shabbat meal. Who keeps it very simple?

mochamix18

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:26 am

I think we are pretty simple. We generally eat the same thing Friday night and shabbos day minus the soup from Friday night.
We do homemade challah (I bake once a month and freeze) one or two dips dvd plate of sliced veggies (more kid friendly abs less fussy then salad) one or two dips usually tehina and something else. Soup (again I make a huge batch of chicken or meat vegetable soup and freeze for the month). For the main chicken and potatoes or meatballs and barley, possibly frozen green beans and dessert. Shabbos day almost always the same and on rare a occasions like this shabbos a small cholent. We rarely had guests even before covid, but when we did it was generally nieces or nephews who were in sem or yeshiva and then I would get a drop more fancy like adding deli roll or chumus basar.
Speaking of chumus basar, here is a hack for my Israeli imas. Buy pre made frozen hamburgers or kebab. It’s cheap and already seasoned. Take out one from the package, defrost and sautée and break up in a frying pan. Put on top of plated store bought chumus voila! I’ve impressed my American nephews and their friends with that one many a time. You could add me onion and mushroom if you wanted to be really fancy but you don’t have to.

moonstone

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:29 am

Our meals are very simple. We don't do dips- people fill up on those and then they're not hungry for the rest of the meal. We do sometimes have some really good Chummus to have with the Challah, but that's it.

Chicken soup or orange soup
(we don't do a fish course)
Chicken or meat (not both)
Potatoes or rice - often both since everyone likes both
Vegetable quiche- usually broccoli or carrot
Sometimes another vegetable like string beans
Salad
Maybe dessert

Sometimes we have chalavi- lasagna, cheesy quiches, etc, with bagels, cream cheese, Lox, etc added for lunch.

Elfrida

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:43 am

amother [ Hotpink ] wrote:

You eat cheese for a shabbos meal? Thats a first! Interesting.

In the summer we often have a cold milchic meal for Shabbos lunch. Fish, cheeses, salads and maybe a milchic kugel. And real ice cream for dessert!

LovesHashem

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:47 am

We're pretty basic as well.

We stick to the same dips, chicken soup, fish, chicken and a side dish. We do a salad or two made before shabbos with fish and dips.
If we have guests we will do a second side dish usually and add a kugel.

Shabbos day we have cholent. Sometimes We have one dessert and we also sometimes buy or just do fruit. DH likes cooking so he usually does half.

I'd LOVE to a milchig meal for shabbos day. I don't like cholent. I don't like being meat at noon. But DH is appalled by the idea. Laugh

I'll convince him to try it one day.....

Last edited by LovesHashem on Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:48 am; edited 1 time in total

cbg

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:48 am

I think fancy is in the way you plate and serve otherwise the food is more or less the same.
Fish- usually Salmon
Dips and Salatim
Big salad
Some type of beef, lamb or veal
A roasted veg
A stewed veg
Rice - if we have guest since we try to keep the carbs low

Dessert only if we have guests

Lunch the same

keym

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:52 am

I consider my seudos simple.
Homemade challa. No dips (I don't want everyone filling up on just dips)
Gefilte fish, green salad
Chicken soup
Baked chicken, potato kugel or orzo, veggie side like string beans or roasted broccoli
Cookies

Shabbos Day
Challa
Gefilte fish
Cholent
Salad. (Sometimes I'll toss some deli or grilled chicken in the salad to be "fancy"
Cake/cookies

amother

Bronze

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 7:52 am

LovesHashem wrote:

I'll convince him to try it one day.....

My husband also does not want dairy meals for shabbos lunch. comes home from shul and wants his cholent. I make it just for him, I don't eat it.

LovesHashem

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 8:22 am

amother [ Bronze ] wrote:

My husband also does not want dairy meals for shabbos lunch. comes home from shul and wants his cholent. I make it just for him, I don't eat it.

People I know do daiey shabbos day and have meat and cholent for shalosh sheudis.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 8:26 am

zaq wrote:

Define "simple." Few courses? Plain food with few seasonings or specialty ingredients? Food that is minimally processed (e.g. sliced veggies on a plate as opposed to a salad of veggies cut up small and topped with dressing; half a grapefruit or a bowl of whole fruit as opposed to a fruit salad)?

To me simple means one or two courses and food that doesnt take long to prepare.

twizzlers1

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 8:44 am

I make extremely simple. I make things that my family likes even though some of the things we also eat during the week actually everything we also eat during the week. I'm not such a fancy cook. Maybe when I have more time I will but right now I prefer a calm Friday. I put up a cholent but often my girls and I just enjoy having challah, egg salad, dips and salad. my daughter usually makes dessert usually something different but nothing super fancy.

Raisin

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 9:20 am

LovesHashem wrote:

Lots of people do. It's a yekke minhag as well to have milchig shabbos day.

Its not our minhag but my family really do not like being fleishig the whole shabbos. We wait 6 hours. So often I make soup or cholent and no one touches it. So why bother?

On the long summer shabbosim my family might eat the cholent or chicken soup for shalosh seudos, but not for lunch.

amother

Burgundy

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 10:11 am

I am making a simple Shabbos this week.

This is my menu
Homemade challah
Tomato dip
Eggplant dip
Garlic oil
Chummus (bought but make mushrooms as topping)
Salmon
Sprouts salad (layered veggies salad)
Cut up veggies for kids
Chicken soup with croutons and noodles and veggies
Miami ribs
Chestnuts roasted (my kids LOVE these)
Either string beans or broccoli
Eggrolls
Dessert ice cream.probably

Shabbos day
Challah and dips
Salad
Cholent
Eggs from cholent
Liver
Overnight kugel
Shnitzel
Leftover veggy from friday night
Not sure about dessert yet

amother

Pewter

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 10:27 am

It really depends. When I was home from work and the kids were doing school from home, we had a lot of time to experiment and have fun. But now that life has somewhat returned to normal, back to simple but different. I hate most “frum” food so our Shabbos meal may look fancy, but it’s just different food.

amother

Purple

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 12:10 pm

amother [ Oak ] wrote:

I probably win at simple. When I'm not having guests, Friday night is just chicken soup with noodles. I do put a lot of chicken and vegetables in the soup, so it's very hearty and filling. Dessert is tofutti ice cream sandwiches and fruit. For Shabbos lunch, just chulent. Again, tons of meat in it, so it's very filling. When I have guests, then I make a lot more, but when it's just me and dh and the kids, there's no point. Before I cut back like this, I found they were filling up on the challah and soup/chulent and barely touching anything else, so I stopped bothering.

This is what we do as well unless we have guests and then it’s way more good. I will either buy ice cream sandwiches or so enticing similar or lately I have been buying a bag of licorice or candy as a treat.

Java

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 12:13 pm

amother [ Burgundy ] wrote:

Ok I'm intimidated
If this is a simple shabbos I'm scared what your not simple shabboses look like

amother

Silver

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 12:58 pm

amother [ Burgundy ] wrote:

Wow, this is an elegant Shabbos for me! What is a elegant Shabbos for you as opposed to this??

pause

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 1:05 pm

My bare basics Shabbos looks like this:

NIGHT
challah
fish - gefilte and salmon cooked together
chicken soup
chicken from the soup
potato kugel (which we mostly eat on Friday for to'amehu)
ferfel
dessert - store bought if I didn't get to make

When I have extra time/energy, I'll add dips (homemade or bought), lukshen and/or knaidlach for the soup, apple cobbler for the main course, more elaborate dessert. When we have guests, I'll make chicken or meat separately and not serve the soup chicken.

DAY
same challah
same fish
mashed eggs
chulent with same kugel
same dessert

When I have extra time/energy, I'll add the same dips, sauteed liver, same cobbler, store-bought deli, and a different dessert.

amother

Burgundy

Fri, Jan 15 2021, 1:48 pm

bananas4bananas wrote:

Ok I'm intimidated
If this is a simple shabbos I'm scared what your not simple shabboses look like

I add a lot more dips, couple more sides, and another main when I have company. Plus more for dessert. Shabbos day I add usually roasted veggies, hot pastrami both breaded and non breaded chixken adn sometimes deli, a real appetizer and I add meat to my cholent (dh and I dont touch cholent and my kids dont like meat) sometimes kishka also.