Favorite Quick Meal - and tips
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Favorite Quick Meal - and tips
| Wed, 08-01-2007 - 4:26pm |
Rose and Cat came up with the idea to start a thread about favorite quick meals - especially since school is coming up.
I love quick meals - so I jumped on their idea to create such a thread. Looking forward to sharing and hearing all the answers!

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Don't remember who asked for crockpot meals, but I'm terrible at rembering tings. There's a GREAT Crockpot cookbook- I think Betty Crocker- and it has the best recipes.
I don't actually use a lot of recipes, just toss in whatever- sort of a stone soup deal. However, this cookbook is pretty much the onyl one I ever use, and that's basically for when I'm sick of beef, pork, chicken, venison and can't think of anything to make.
For those domestically challenged days, I usually have a couple of frozen crockpot bags in the freezer-so simple, just toss it in with water and it's done when I get home. I get them at WalMart in the frozen foods, but they're pricier than buying just the ingredients seperately, so I usually only use them in a pinch.
Moody, who should be thinking about dinner tonight
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I have 2 that I cook in my rice cooker:
- lentils and rice - takes 20 min in the rice cooker - can do something else while it is cooking - top with caramelized onions and serve with salad.
- chicken and rice (arroz con pollo) - shredded cooked chicken and rice with peas and carrots and latin spices - put all in rice cooker and press "cook" - done in 20 minutes.
Sometimes I roast a chicken and then turn it into 4 or 5 different meals; roasted chicken the first night; chicken and rice another night; stir fry another night; tacos another night, etc.
Pasta specials:
- spaghetti with red sauce and salad
- stir fry pasta - frozen stir fry veggies seasoned with soy and sesame and served over pasta
- orzo and fresh veggies - quick saute with Parmesan on top
- macaroni and cheese - DS loves this and i make it healthy by using skim milk, 1/2 the sauce packet and no margarine - serve with bread and "toaster oven" asparagus
Burritos - we do a make your own burrito night:
- can be shredded chicken from the roasted chicken
- or made from beans and rice
with lettuce, fat-free sour cream and home made salsa
I am always cooking extra of everything and turning leftovers into different meals.
The all time 5 minute emergency favorite is grilled cheese in the toaster oven - i mean this is real emergency stuff here. Put a piece of cheese between 2 slices of bread, put in toaster oven, serve with salad or oven fries or wedged apples and chips.
Tortilla pizzas - take a flour tortilla and top with pasta sauce, cheese and veggies. Bake in the oven, serve with a salad.
Tuna on toast with salad.
All time favorites - These both go great with baked potatoes and salad:
- microwave bbq chicken - put chicken breasts with a bit of bbq sauce in the microwave and push "chicken" and it cooks it perfectly in like 5 minutes.
- salmon with bbq sauce is great - put the filets in the microwave and top with bbq sauce and push the fish button and it cooks it perfectly automatically - much faster than the oven and not dried and okay from the frozen state
Here is a pic of a Greek salad we had tonight with the macaroni and toaster oven asparagus. DS loves the mac and cheese. We do vegetarian quite a few nights a week.
i am the crappiest cook ever...I once set an ELECTRIC oven on fire, HOWEVER, a co-worker gave me this fail proof way to cook chicken so it's moist and tender and sooo delicious.
My ONE good recipe:
Get the frozen chicken tenderloins and put them in a pan with a half an inch of chicken broth....Cover and cook for 5 minutes each side. I'm telling you, my kids go crazy and I get compliments all the time for how amazing the chicken is and I did nothing!
I usually pair that with 90 second rice and heated up green beans - 10 minutes you have dinner! I feel like mother of the year when I hear the kids mmmm and aaahhhh :)
I don't work as many hours as I did last year (business downturn), but I normally eat about 2 meals a day at work. So, I cook in the crock pot and take my meals in gladware. Make something the night before, then take the next few days. I have 3 different sized pots that I use, and I have several of the smaller ones so that I can make more than one item at a time.
I make a lot of corned beef. Buy it when it's down close to $1 and freeze it, then cook later. I open the bag, wash it thoroughly, then cook in the pot overnight (about 6 hours for me). Then I like to pop it in my broiler until there's a little crust on it. Slice it thin, put it between two thin sliced pieces of whole wheat. At work, slip a piece of thin cheese (one of those pre-sliced, pre-wrapped kind) on top and microwave it, then soak it in mustard.
Or, cook some yellow potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbage in a separate pot and mix those with slices of the corned beef. I add a little butter and vinegar, but I do that with everything.
I've also been making meat gravy. Goes good with noodles or mashed potatoes, or a base for stew. I use "chili grind" meat (you can buy it, but I grind my own), brown it, and put it in the crock pot with a brown gravy mix made with milk instead of water. Cook it on low and it's ready by morning. Some instant mashed potatoes, or some egg noodles and peas, or mix with a nuked bag of any sort of frozen vegetables that sound interesting for stew.
Then, there is the good old standby, brisket. I trim it to leave whatever amount of fat I want (I save the trimmings for winter to feed the birds) and to the size I want, then put it in overnight or while I'm at work. Sometimes I save the juices to make gravy. I will fix it the same as corned beef - sliced thin on thin sliced wheat bread or rye with miracle whip, or sliced and served with potatoes, peas and gravy, or sliced and served with BBQ sauce and whatever.
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