Everyone on my bloglist is talking about food. All this talking makes me hungry. Since lovely L came home, I don’t have much time to make decent meals, so I have been looking for delicious but easy meals from the freezer section or preprepared foods aisle(s).
I have been sampling some of the Trader Joes frozen entrees and have found them to be quite superior to anything from the regular grocery store. I tried both the Chicken Teriyaki (5 minutes in the microwave) and the Gnocci with Gorgonzola (8 minutes in a skillet) and thought they were both delicious.
Let’s help each other out. What are your favorite quick, tasty and easy to prepare dinners? By quick, I mean it can be prepared in less than 30 minutes while lugging around a (heavy but adorable) baby.
(This is a total cop out of a post, but give me a break. It is friday.)
I am on wife-strike. I bought a bunch of ready-made or almost ready food and paper plates at BJ’s this week. I thought it would be expensive but it cost about the same as buying all the ingrediants for from scratch food. Smoked chicken wings, burbon chicken, chix pot pie, corn on the cob etc. Sanity saved.
though for real food…
I make bo kho (viet beef stew) which is easy and quick.
potatoes (don’t need to peel them), onion, beef (I buy the already cut up stew meat) in a pot with bo kho boullion cook for a few hours or use a crock pot. Its yummy with rice or baguette!
Various beef, fish, shrimp ball (like the kind for hot pot) and raw shrimp smeared with hoisin sauce broiled for 5 mins.
Chix breast marinated in milk and cornstarch then fried with Ngoc chaam sauce (kind of like vietnamese chix).
We usually have bul ko gi from TJs that take 5 mins.
My new fav lazy wife recipe is chix pieces with cut up sweet potato and water add a thai chix flavor packet and let it cook for 20 mins.
good luck!
Fish/ seafood cooks really quickly. I put a piece of salmon on foil, add lemon juice, dill, and maybe a little butter, then wrap it up and bake it at 400 for about 20 minutes. We eat it with rice or potatoes and steamed broccoli. Another good, fast dinner is shrimp + spicy tomato sauce + pasta or rice.
I love the simmer sauces at TJ’s. I cook a simmer-sauce-based meal at least once a week. The naan from TJ’s frozen section tastes just like the real thing, and it only takes a couple of minutes from the freezer to table.
We get Costco’s pesto, some red bell peppers, pine nuts, parmesan cheese (pre-grated) and fresh spinach. While your favorite pasta cooks, saute the chopped red bell peppers with some garlic. Wilt the spinach in the bell pepper / garlic mix right before the peppers are done. Oh, also toast the pine nuts in a pan while the peppers and pasta cook. Mix together a healthy amount of pesto, the pine nuts, parmesan, pasta, and pepper/garlic/spinach combo. Done.
I second the naan from TJ’s. Very yummy, just saute some diced chicken breast, some potatoes and carrots, add the naan, and go.
Make sure to try Trader Joe’s mushroom risotto – quite yummy.
Also, you can make Roast Chicken with potatoes, lemon and asparagus quite easily: Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Take 1 1/2 lbs. new potatoes (halved) with 1 1/2 tablespoons butter (cut up) and place them in a shallow roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, then roast, tossing once, until potatoes are golden (20-25 minutes).
Please a 3 lbs. whole chicken (purchase it already cut up) skin side up on top of the potatoes. Again season with salt and pepper, then roast until chicken begins to brown, about 20 minutes.
Scatter about 1 lbs of (cut up) asparagus, 1 lemon (cut into 8 wedges), 1 tablespoon of butter (cut up into little peices) and 6 sprigs of fresh thyme around chicken. Roast until asparagus is tender and chicken is cooked through, another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve the chicken, vegetables and lemon drizzled with the pan juices.
Also, check out this recipe for Garlic and Oregano Baby Back Ribs at my craft blog here http://mesocrafty.wordpress.com/2007/01/29/oink-oink/
It is easy to prepare and very good.
Let me know if you make them and if you enjoyed.
Oh my god, the TJ frozen entrees. As a not-domestically-inclined grad student, I don’t think I could live without them. They have a lot of stir-fry dishes that are really good (and really easy/fast), but the portions are smallish. I also third (?) the naan – I like to eat that with some of the boxed Indian foods, like the Bengal lentils, which only takes 1.5 minutes to cook. One couple that I know swear by the TJ pizza dough (and sauce and cheese), and have gone so far as to buy a pizza stone to enhance their experience. And now, I’m hungry….good luck!
I usually lurk, but I have a yummy, easy recipe (it does involve getting out the blender, but if you have a dishwasher that’s not such a huge hassle):
* Get a package of those barilla stuffed tortelloni (tortellini?) — I ususally get spinach and ricotta but I don’t think the variety really matters — and prepare according to package directions.
* While the torte-whatsis are rolling around in boiling water, dump one jar of roasted red peppers (drained and rinsed), a quarter-cup or so of olive oil, a couple generous shakes of garlic powder (or, you know, actual minced/pressed cloves of garlic), a stingy shake (maybe two) of cayenne red pepper, and the juice of 1/2 lemon (maybe the whole lemon, if it’s not a juicy lemon) into the blender. Whir it for a bit until it’s a consistency you like. (I usually go for pureed, YMMV).
* Drain the tortethingies and serve with red pepper sauce on top.
I’m cooking for two, so I usually get the smaller bag of pasta and use a 10-12 oz. jar of red peppers. This stuffs us both and usually leaves enough for me to pack for lunch the next day. I haven’t tried to make it with a baby on my hip (we’re still waiting on a referral from Taiwan), but I think you could do everything one-handed except maybe squeezing the lemon.
I’m a huge fan of “Salsa Chicken” which is probably the easiest thing I’ve ever made.
Cube up some chicken (you could substitute meats if you wanted, but I’m not a red meat eater) and cook it over a medium flame on your stove top.
When it’s about halfway cooked, add half to a whole jar of your favorite salsa (depending on how much meat you prepare)
Once the chicken is fully cooked, sprinkle some of the pre-shredded “mexican blend” cheese on top. The heat from the chicken will melt the cheese.
I usually serve it on warmed up tortilla rounds with brown rice, but you could serve it just on rice or just in the tortilla rounds.
It’s quick and fabulous, plus it allows you to play around to suit your tastes. If you wanted to get extremely fancy you could dice tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and some peppers to make your own salsa blend… but I’m all for quick and easy!
This is my cheap and quick cop-out meal when there is not much in the house and I am uninspired: rice & egg (from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian cookbook).
Cook rice (this can be basically unattended if you have a rice cooker). Once it’s cooked, stir in a few beaten eggs (depending on the quantity of rice; 1 or 2 eggs for 1.5c of dry rice) – the heat from the rice will cook the egg. Add 2tbsp butter and .5c to 1c of grated provolone. Alternately, add different things for flavour – 1/3 c pesto + 1 tomato + 1/4c feta/parmesean + handfull toasted pine nuts is delicious (leave out the provolone).
Another idea: what about a slow-cooker? Can you take advantage of time when Mr A is home in the morning (or a morning nap?) to throw things into a slow cooker and then forget about them until dinner?
1 pan chicken
cut chicken breast into smallish pieces – saute w’ a little onion in a large skillet (one you have a lid for) until half cooked then add chopped red peppers, mushrooms and a big splash of olive oil – stir in a cup or so of long grain rice -stir so the rice gets coated in oil add 1 cup white wine- 1 cup chicken stock – some dried basil and thyme-stir again -put it on low heat -throw some whole green beans on the top -put a lid on and walk away.go watch blues clues or something-15-20 minutes eat up
I get home at 6 and my kids want ME to make dinner and have it ready by 6:05, the punks. Bertolli Frozen Skillet Dinners are surprisingly good. Sometimes they’ll (4 and 6) will eat them, sometimes they turn up their noses, but then I don’t mind eating what they’ve left behind.
Melissa from SuburbanBliss has some quick recipes over at http://www.suburbanbliss.net/did_they_eat_it/. My picky kids loved the Mexican potato casserole.
I had completely forgotten about this, but reading this post reminded me that I used to put my high-needs son in his bath chair (that had suction cups on the bottom, so it wouldn’t slip) on the kitchen counter while I cooked. He was too big for the Baby Bjorn by that point, and I was too tired for the backpack. I remember him being fairly happy with that setup.
My “I don’t have time to cook” dinner is salmon with rice and asparagus. I take salmon filets, spread a dab of mayonnaise on it (spicy mayo if you like it really spicy) and then put Paul Prud’homme’s Blackened Redfish Magic spice mix on top. Throw some white or brown rice in the rice cooker. Lay asparagus baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, add a bit of salt and pepper. Cook salmon and asparagus at 400 for about 10 mins, depending on the size of your salmon pieces. Prep time is less than 5 minutes, and it’s a good and healthy meal.
It can also easily be done on the BBQ on a hot summer day so the oven doesn’t have to be on.
Julie
HA! copycat.
i can email you some really easy ones, including the one i made for you guys. i’m queen of easy (cooking. get your mind out of the gutter).
one i’ve been doing recently and loving is buying premade indian simmer sauces at tj’s or world market, then sauteying chicken with some garlic and onions. add chopped potatoes and peas, put in the sauce. serve over some rice. tj’s has microwavable jasmine rice, serving for two and ready in 3 minutes. i am NOT a fan of minute rice, but honestly? for a super fast meal? it’s not bad. of course, uncle bens brown rice is yummy and ready in 30 minutes, cooking while you get the other stuff ready. tj’s naan and vegatable samosas served on the side and you’re good to go.
You can make this any time of the day and it is great!! Just cube two tomatoes (you can use cherry and cut out the chopping step!!), one wheel of brie cheese cubed (we have also used mozza or to avoid chopping, use mini boccocini), chop up a handfull of fresh basil (use dried to save time), one garlic clove chopped. Mix in a bowl, drizzle with good olive oil and let sit for at least 2 hours but can be more.
For a meal – make pasta, mix and serve. For an appetizer – serve with rice crackers or garlic oil brushed toasted baguette. This is REALLY kid friendly and people LOVE it at potlucks or parties. Most times, we make it the night before a really busy day and then voila, dinner the next!!!
We’re huge fans of the Trader Joes orange chicken. I make it according to the directions, but I add a half bag of TJs frozen string beans (the whole ones) and some toasted sesame seeds. Serve it over rice. A quick, one pot meal.
The TJ simmer sauces are fabulous, too. And if you’re a fish eater, the salmon steaks are great for an extra thing in your freezer, just in case!
I couldn’t live without TJs.
I make some sort of fish 1x a week- Tilapia, salmon, halibut- whatever you like. I throw on the marinade of the week- terriyaki, lemon-pepper, butter and seasoned salt etc and bake for about 15 minutes. Sometimes I even buy the already seasoned filets from WHole Foods.
I then chop a matching veggie and throw in the steamer. Then I boil water and make couscous (which is so fabulous because it cooks in FIVE minutes). And then open a bottle of wine.
There you have it- dinner in about 15-20 minutes.
To recipes I make when I don’t have time are:
1) Toast
2) Cereal
You can also eat them together.
Jesus Christ. Y’all cook more on days when you don’t feel like cooking than I do on days when I DO feel like cooking. This is not a criticism, just my own wretched feelings of inadequacy.
My idea of not cooking is boiling pasta, then frizzling up a little meat while the pasta cooks (sausage, chicken, ground beef), dumping some sort of red sauce into the meat, then mixing that with the cooked pasta and a little grated cheese and calling it good. It takes about fifteen minutes, tops. My husband loves it, but it’s not the sort of thing that’s classy enough to make for company.
I have many ideas. May blog about this next week. But… our neighbor is a French chef with 2 small kids. I asked him what he gives them for dinner. He’s all about Trader Joe’s and said their risottos are excellent.
This is a little more appropriate for cool weather, but: put skinless chicken thighs and cut up carrots and sweet potatoes in a baking dish, cover with a mixture of 1/4 cup maple syrup and a couple of tablespoons of butter, then bake. It’s easy and quite tasty.
Oh, and I also love the Tasty Bite pre-made Indian meals (available at Whole Foods and recently, Safeway), especially the lentil meals and the Bombay Potatoes. I make the meal a bit more substantial by frying up some chicken sausage (which does away with the vegan aspect of the Tasty Bite packages, but that’s fine for us) and adding most of a pack of frozen peas. Then I stir in the Bombay Potatoes and let it all simmer for a few minutes. Serve over jasmine rice and sprinkle on some lemon juice. About fifteen minutes from start to finish–I do this at least once a week, because I’m just that lazy.
I don’t have experience cooking while lugging babies, but we do like fast-cooking meals when we’re tired. And we don’t have TJs here.
Our fastest meals are microwaved leftovers from the freezer, but you have to have had time previously to make extra portions of something (easier with just 2 of us).
Otherwise, our fast meals are:
burritos: nothing fancy, just heat up canned refried beans with some salsa and maybe some frozen corn mixed in if we have it. The flour tortillas around here tend to be smallish, so I don’t even bother with a burrito fold usually, just add the beans and some grated cheese and a little salsa and fold it over like a quesadilla. Sometimes, if we have them, I add olives, scallions, sour cream.
pizza: boboli crust, grated mozzarella and parmesan, tomato sauce (could be from a jar, we usually use leftover spaghetti sauce), topped with bell pepper/mushroom/pepperoni/artichoke hearts/etc. We get the 1/2 pound package of mozzarella, grate the whole thing and put half of it in a bag in the freezer for next time. We keep a bag of pepperoni slices in the freezer, so even if we don’t have any veggies around, we can use that for topping (I’m all about unhealthy meat since I stopped being a vegetarian….). We buy a couple of crusts at a time and stick them in the freezer too. The pizza only has to cook 8-10 minutes, so it’s faster than ordering a pizza and waiting 1/2 hour, or going out to get one.
You didn’t say it had to be low fat
I’ll throw a plug in for Trader Joe’s and say that their Indian rice dishes in the frozen section are excellent as well. and those can be stir fried one-handed in about 5-8 minutes.
I’m also a big believer in ‘cold supper’. Go to TJ, pick up a baguette, some cucumbers, some tomatoes, some cheese of your choice and some salami/other cold meat. Slice/serve in easy to eat sizes. Add some fruit for a little variety. Marinade the veggies in some dressing (homemade or store bought). Easy, filling, nutrious and everyone can choose what they want to eat from the choices laid out.
Umm – another thing that I have been cooking for the past couple of weeks is veggies stir fry. Some stores even have pre-cut bags of stir fry veggies now, and you can cook up some rice in the rice cooker, and stir fry the veggies during the last 15 minutes of the rice cooking. I usually just throw some soy sauce into the pan, along with some other condiments in our fridge and call it good.
Another thing I do is to buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco, bake up some sweet potatoes and nuke some of those green giant steam in the bag veggies. Quick, easy and super nutritious as well. And it is very easy to bake a whole chicken yourself if you want to. We really should start a weekly food day to blog about these things.
I’ve heard so much about TJ’s. I wished we had one down here. (….we just recently got an IKEA).
Taco nights are huge at our house. I am vegan, but you can use regular meat or use the morning star like I do. I get about 20 corn tortillas and fry them in oil for about 5 seconds on each side. Cook up the meat, then add to your tacos salsa, cheese, black beans, avocado. lettuce, etc.
Some times I buy a whole rotisserie chicken from the market and let them eat that in the tacos instead of the meat.
Easy and kid friendly….but can be messy.
My latest fast meal is a pasta primavera. Boil a box of whole wheat pasta (we like the kind that looks like screws). While it’s boiling, steam a bag of pre-cut veggies bags of broccoli / cauliflower / carrots (easy to find in our local grocery store). Cook a package of italian spiced chicken sausage in the microwave. When pasta, veggies and sausage are done, toss together with your favorite pasta sauce. I’m partial to alfredo. I usually make enough to last for several meals.
We do quesadillas with spinach kind of frequently. And pasta, pasta, and more pasta.
Oh, why am I even posting? I’m totally uninspired myself.
Black Bean Soup:
Saute an onion in 2 tsp oil – do this in a 5 to 6 quart pot
add 1 and 3/4 c chicken broth, a 28oz can of tomatoes with liquid, 3 15oz cans of black beans (pureed)2tsp cumin seed
break up tomatoes with a spoon and bring to a boil
simmer uncovered for 10 minutes
serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, fresh cilantro tortila chips and lime wedges
I do really get the one-handed part. Now that I’m back at work, E is SO clingy when I get home. I’m going to ignore the word dinner in your request and mention that we just had the new (ok, new to me at least) Morningstar Farms breakfast skillet meal, and mmmmmmmm, it was so good. It says it feeds four, which makes me laugh ( it fed me and my husband with a small amount left for E), but if you scrambled more eggs, it would do the trick with fruit on the side. And who doesn’t love breakfast food for dinner, right?
organic boxes o’ soup: tomato, butternut squash etc. toss a salad, cut up a bagette and voila.
buy a steamer. it’s a lifesaver. mine makes veggies or rice (not as much as a rice cooker). go to amazon.com, kitchen & housewares and enter ‘food steamer’ (otherwise you will get lots of carpet cleaning and clothes steamers too). target and other discount stores also carry them. heck, looks like they even have a richard simmons one.
the good thing about these is they can be plugged in, veggies & water put in and forgotten about. just turn the dial–they steam and turn themselves off and it’s not another pot on the stove.
good luck!