Struck with inspiration, I decided to throw off my normal laziness and actually cook something. I dumped some salsa on top of some pork, covered it with string cheese (it’s all I had), and baked for 20 minutes. Violin! Amazing smothered pork chops. Easier than making a sammich.
I’m extremely lazy in the kitchen so I need recipes that are easier to make than EasyMac (quite complicated if you ask me). Money isn’t an object but effort certainly is. Share your recipes that you can describe in two sentences and take about 5 minutes to prepare. Cooking time doesn’t count, since I don’t mind playing PlayStation while I wait.
Remove stems from button or portobello shrooms. Replace with some cream cheese or laughing chow cheese, top with pesto, spray with non-stick cooking spray and bake at about 325 until bubbly.
Disclaimer: I don’t measure anything for this dish. I just throw it all together pretty much.
Pasta Tuna Salad a la Dad
Large can of tuna
Box of medium sized pasta shells
Medium sized onion (I like yellow in this dish)
several hard-boiled eggs
Miracle Whip
garlic salt
paprika (optional)
Boil pasta and run under cool water until room temperature. Mix tuna, diced onion, sliced (with egg slicer) eggs in large bowl. Mix in Miracle Whip until the consistency is as wet as you like. Stir in pasta and add more Miracle Whip to desired wetness. Add garlic salt to flavor. Cover; leave in refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours (it’s way better cold). When ready to serve, stir salad adding more Miracle Whip if it has dried out a little while chilling. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired, for color and mild zest.
My dad made this for me as I was growing up and now I make it for my family. Everyone loves it; it never lasts longer than a day or two.
Wow, I totally didn’t follow instructions on this (sorry! missed them), but it’s a pretty easy and quick recipe anyway…and at least I didn’t bog you down with measurements. :o
My classic standby is chicken breast (or whatever meat you prefer), wedged potatoes, baby onions, and baby carrots drizzled in olive oil, seasoned with rosemary, garlic salt, and pepper, wrapped in foil and baked. Takes next to no time whatsover to prepare and tastes absolutely fantastic.
Five minutes? I can’t get you from hungry to eating in five minutes, but slice up an idaho potato into wedges (a la home fries) and soak them in water a half hour. Deep fry them, covered, in olive oil, and season with sea salt. Voila, greek fries.
Fry chicken thighs skin side down until fat is rendered, flip over. Cover with canned chopped tomatoes, sliced onion, dash of olive oil, turn down heat, cover and cook until done.
The beauty with the (as mother loved to call it) “hobo dinner” recipe is that the most difficult part of the entire preparation is little more than “wash and wedge potatoes.” Using baby carrots and baby onions means no preparation is needed for either of them. Pretty much just add the oil and seasoning, wrap the foil, and let it cook. It’s a really hearty meal and you can adjust it however you like. I’ve even used frozen veggies instead of baby carrots and baby onions.
Stack in this order: half an English muffin with a quick swirl of mustard, a slice of deli ham, a slice of Swiss, a pineapple ring, a slice of provolone and a slice of mozzarella.
Throw it in the oven (or toaster oven) for about 10 minutes, or long enough to melt the cheese to your liking.
Toss chicken (breast strips, tenderloins, wings, whatever you prefer) and potato wedges in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of garlic. Throw the lot into a roasting pan with lemon wedges and a generous sprinkle of rosemary and bake for 40 minutes at about 200C. I like to serve this with whole green beans that I’ve steamed in the microwave.
Option 2: boil some penne pasta until al dente, then drain into a colander with some frozen peas and a handful of spinach leaves so your peas are cooked and spinach wilted. Return the whole lot to the pan and add chopped avocado, a splash of cream, some finely grated fresh parmesan and cracked black pepper and stir it all up. Done.
Slice a head of cauliflower into pieces as thick as your pinky, then toss with olive oil and salt. Roast until they start to turn brown, stirring occasionally.
Hummus is more than two sentences and five minutes, but it’s ridiculously easy and the results are vastly better than the stuff you get at the grocery store.
1 can of chickpeas. Moosh 'em up with a fork in a mixing bowl.
Add the juice of 1 good-sized lemon. Stir. Moosh up some of the chickpeas that you inevitably missed mooshing the first time.
Render a large clove of garlic into a paste via the knife-n-salt method. Add to the bowl.
Add in a few glugs of good olive oil. (Olive oil quality is key.) Stir, moosh some more.
Add a couple good-sized spoonfuls of tahini.
Add salt to taste. Start with a couple good sized pinches. Add fresh-ground black pepper to taste. Dump in some cumin if you want.
Great suggestions so far. Anyone have something good to do with a potato that I can do in the oven next to the chicken so that it cooks at the same time and finishes at the same time? What happens if I toss cubed potatoes in the oven…do they come out baked or burned?
I do this all the time with the aforementioned “hobo dinner.” As long as the potatoes are in small enough pieces (that is to say, not whole or half potatoes), they come out just fine. The foil traps in steam which lets them steam cook pretty quickly while also keeping the meat from drying out. Maybe not quite what you are looking for since it is cooking them in the same vessel rather than separately, but it works.
A suggestion to try and fix this problem…get a pizza stone. A pizza stone is usually about 2 ft. wide by about 1 or 1.5 feet deep and 1/2 in. thick. The stone deflects the intense heat from the bottom of the oven and also helps insulate the oven and regulate the temperature since it soaks in heat and evenly distributes it.
Back OT:
My simple food consists of buying a whole cooked chicken and a loaf of sourdough bread. I cut the loaf in half, strip the meat off the chicken and place on bread. Eat half for dinner and save the other half for lunch. If you’re fancy you can add lettuce and cheese and other fixin’s
Microwave 1/2 a cup of rice with a cup and a bit of water for eight minutes (or whatever, depending on your microwave)
Add:
-small tin of tuna
-one avocado
-lashings of sweet chilli sauce