Easy Cooking with Little Experience

Cafe Society
21

Marlitharn’s “I work nights and sometimes I’m too tired to cook an actual meal” Hamburger Stew.

-A couple pounds of ground beef, turkey, whatever
-A packet of beef stew seasoning
-3 cups water
-can of carrot chunks, or thinly sliced fresh carrots
-about half a bag of egg noodles

Brown the ground beef in a large frying pan and drain. Add beef stew seasoning, water, and carrots, and bring to a boil. Simmer until the carrots are crisp tender (if you’re using canned carrots, skip the simmer and just dump in the noodles). Bring back to a boil, add noodles, and boil until done.

I suppose you could also add thinly sliced sweet red pepper, if you really wanted to. I’ve also added the dried potatoes out of a box of Betty Crocker Au Gratin potatoes with pretty good results (I was out of noodles). Chopped onion would probably be pretty good, too. And I’ve done it with stew beef instead of hamburger. But the above is the basic recipe I use when I’ve worked the night before and only managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Takes about 20 minutes and it’s pretty darn tasty.

22

This is sort of a faux cajun red beans and rice.

1 lb sausage (spiced to taste)
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
Fresh garlic
Pepper, oregeno, basil, crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper
Rice

Brown the sausage and drain. Add the beans, tomatoes, garlic and whichever other spices you desire in whatever quantity you desire (I usually load up on the red pepper but that’s me), bring to boil, simmer for about 15-20 minutes (I just usally time it by starting the rice and then serving when it’s done)

Serve over rice.

23

Thanks! What a nice thing to say!

24

This sounds good, **Lissa. **

Do you think it would work with turnips? (Potatoes cause my husband’s blood sugar to jump.)

Julie

25

Totally Homemade Cheap n’ Easy pasta Sauce

1 pound pasta of your choosing (spagetti, linguini, etc.)
+
1 can Crushed Tomatoes (big can, 32 oz)
1 can tomato paste (the wee can – 4 oz I think)
3 cloves garlic, chopped into bits. (the bulb is the whole thing, a clove is one of the pieces that makes up the bulb)
1/2 medium onion (a medium onion is a bit bigger than your fist) choped into pieces about 1/2" square.
Olive oil or butter
Spices:
dried oregano (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
dried basil (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
Dried red pepper flakes if you have 'em (2 shakes)
black pepper (couple turns of a grinder or 3 shakes of a shaker)
salt (couple of shakes or to taste)

Saute the onion in a couple of tablespoons of butter or olive oil until they get translucent. Add the garlic and keep saute-ing until the garlic is lightly browned.

Add the can of crushed tomato and about 1/2 the tomato paste. Add oregano and basil, stir, and simmer over low heat about 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile, you can cook chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces (2 breast pieces), a 1/4-1/2 pound of hamburger and/or some veggies (broccoli, carrots, squash, mushrooms, whatever veggies are liked by all) chopped up in another pan until cooked. Don’t overcook veggies… they should be quickly stir-fried and still a bit crunchy.

Set water for pasta to boiling in a big ol’ pot over high heat.

Taste sauce and add more basil/oregano if it tastes a bit bland. Put “extras” (meat, veggies) into sauce to cook together for a bit.

Drop pasta into boiling water and cook according to directions.

Drain pasta, bring to table, bring pasta sauce to table, serve! (Salad on the side. )

It will not taste like Prego (which has a ton of sugar) but more tart and tomato-y.

Let me suggest the very excellent cookbook “The Minimalist Cooks Dinner” by Mark Bittman for some very do-able yet tasty recipe ideas.

26

Wow, thanks everyone for the crazy amount of recipes. I’m a little overwhelmed right now, but they sound delicious. (Although I don’t think I could get away with squash or zuccinni!

masonite, you’re right about the frzozen foods thing. Frozen meat is definitely okay, and frozen vegetables probably are as well, but nothing precooked like TV dinners or frozen pizzas.

Again, thank you everyone! Even the recipes I may not serve to my family I’ll save for myself.

(One more rule: I don’t think any recipes so far have involved them, but lima beans are out of the question. I don’t mind them, but my stepmom had a bad experience with them.)

27

Okay I’m late coming to the party but here goes. I’m going to stick to main courses (for the most part) since you’ll likely want to go with something pre-made for the side dishes.

I’m not including measurements with these because you’ll need to eyeball them to decide how much is enough for the people you’re feeding and in most of these dishes the actual ratio of ingredients has more to do with how you want it to taste than “this is how it must be”.

Easy Steak

A recipe I used a great deal before I learned to cook and was living on a tight budget. Ingrediates, a package of cube steak and a packet of powdered onion soup. Tools needed: a shallow dish (plate, cassarole dish, whatever), foil, and an oven preheated to 350. Dump the mix into a shallow dish and coat the meat with it. Then wrap the peices individually in foil and put them into the oven for about half an hour.

Beef Stew

Continuing the theme of “I don’t want to clean up any mess” you need stew meat, potatoes, onion(s), butter, salt and pepper, and some frozen vegitable that you want with it. You’ll want to have foil again, a knife to chop this stuff up, and an oven preheated to 375. Cut up the beaf and potatoes into small cubes, chop the onion into bits, and if you’re using fresh vegitables chop those up as well. Toss a portion into the middle of slab of foil along with a pat of butter and some salt and pepper. Wrap them up tightly and then put in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes (or until the potatoes are done). The advantage of this method, FWIW, is that you can put all kinds of silly vegitables inthere that would be too delicate to put into a stew made the normal way (I like broccoli).

Chicken, Mushrooms, and Rice

Start with a boneless skinless chicken breast, canned mushrooms (in theory you can use dried mushrooms but it requires extra steps I’m not going to get into here; fresh mushrooms are right out), butter, rice, a small amount of salt, and chicken broth (vegetible broth will work, as will a lot of other liquids but I’m saying chicken broth because it’s easy). For equipment you’ll want a knife to cut up the chicken, a skillet that can be covered (avoid non-stick if possible but you won’t ruin it by using non-stick), and a cup. Melt the butter in the pan over medium-low heat (I don’t care if it’s going slow, do it on medium-low and leave it there). Chop up your chicken into bite sized bits (not absolutely necessary but I like it chopped up for ease of serving while others like it whole). Open the can of mushrooms and keep the liquid from the can in a cup off to one side. Now put the chicken, mushrooms, and a small ammount of salt (pretend it’s your plate and you’re salting your food; then use half that ammount) into the skillet and cook the chicken until it’s done (that’s white without a trace of pink inside it). Now start putting in rice about a third of a cup at a time. Put in the first third cup and let it absorb what fluid is left in the pan. Then add another third cup of rice and the liquid from the can of mushrooms and let it absorb that. Now you need to add rice and liquid to the level you want balancing both and remembering that rice is going to expand to about twice it’s starting volume. Cover it and reduce heat all the way. After the rice absorbs all the liquid taste it to see if it’s done and if it isn’t add more liquid and cover again.

28

Here’s a couple of our favorites, that look like they haven’t been covered above:

Mozzarella chicken:

Chicken breasts or strips (1 pound)
Clove of garlic, chopped
Chopped onion (1 small, or 1/2 large, or 1/2 cup pre-chopped)
Chopped green pepper (about the same)
1 jar of salsa (choose the heat you like)
8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese (or more to taste)

Use the oil to saute the onion, green pepper, and garlic, and remove. Then brown the chicken on both sides. Add back the veggies, pour the jar of salsa over it (make sure the chicken is just covered), turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. (Or until chicken is done - cut thickest part to center to make sure it is cooked.) Remove cover, sprinkle mozzarella over chicken to cover. Cook uncovered 5 minutes to melt cheese and thicken sauce. Then it’s ready.

Chicken brocolli bake:

2 cans of crescent rolls
1 large or 2 small cans of precooked chicken (comes in a can like Tuna fish)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped brocolli
1/4 cup mayo or miracle whip
1 Tablespoon dill weed (or less, to taste)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to the temperature the crescent rolls need according to their directions.

Drain all the water out of the canned chicken before using it. Mix everything except the crescent rolls. Open the crescent rolls, and unroll the dough, but do not separate the individual rolls into triangles. Instead, put the dough down as one big rectangle, onto a cookie sheet, and push the seams together so they won’t separate. Put the mixture on top - trying to distribute it evenly (but staying at least one half inch away from the edges). Open the other can, unroll them the same way, and cover the mixture. Press the edges together to seal to the bottom set of crescent rolls. Put in the oven and bake per the time on the crescent roll can. (May need 2-3 extra minutes - check to make sure the edges aren’t doughy.)

Optionally: 2-3 minutes before removing, butter the top lightly to get a nice glaze; or sprinkle some more shredded cheese on top for more flavor.

I’m really enjoying reading all the recipes above, and I’m hoping to try some of them. (Except for the fact that so many of them seem to have mushrooms - which I’m allergic to - but that’s OK, it doesn’t look like any of them will be harmed by leaving out the shrooms.)

Two more of my favorites, which don’t need a recipe:

  1. Enchiladas. Get a packet of enchilada sauce mix. Look at the back. Get the ingredients it asks for, prepare according to directions.

  2. Lasagna. Ditto, except the directions are usually on the side of the lasgna noodle box.

Of course, then there are the days where we are just plain too busy to do something long.

If we have time to prepare, but we’re busy right before dinner, we prepare in advance, and pop something in the oven or pot that we can ignore for an hour: meatloaf (with a side of a box of cheesy potatoes), beef stew, swiss steak.

If it’s gotten really late, and we need dinner NOW, it’s really quick to cook spaghetti and sauce, tacos, or mac&cheese with ground beef in it (and, optionally, onion), or some quick nachos.

29

I’m a big fan of using good-old-cambell’s-soup to make a plain meal more interesting.

Just put some meat in a casserole type pan, pour a can of soup over it (Don’t add water to the soup, use it as is), cover it with tin-foil, and bake. 350 degrees, around an hour works for most small stuff. A big pot roast would take longer.

The Cream of “whatever” types are great with chicken breasts.

Also Pork Steaks are good this way (picky eaters may find these too fatty to suit them)

Then just boil, bake, or easier yet microwave some potatoes and serve a side veggie (like lots of people have said, the frozen packages are great)

The soup from cooking the meat ends up being like gravy without messing around actually making gravy.

I’d use one can of soup for four chicken breasts or pork steaks.

pretty basic, cheap, and filling

Good luck to you!

30

A good place to look is Zenster’s Ultimate Recipe Thread. Quite a few of those are quick and easy.

Meanwhile, try these. They take an hour to marinate, so allow for the extra time. (I’m sure I posted this before, or even got it here, but couldn’t find it.)

Pepper Potatoes

In a bowl, mix half a cup of soy sauce or tamari with a quarter cup or a bit less of oil. (Use more or less, but keep something like that proportion.) Grind in some black pepper. Peel potatoes, cut into one-inch cubes, and stir into the marinade. Let them marinate an hour or so, turning them once in a while so everybody gets a chance to soak up the flavour. I usually grind more pepper over the top every time I stir them.

When the time is nearly up, preheat the oven to 350. Cover a cookie sheet with foil, drain the potatoes, and spread out the pieces with a little space between them. Cook until tender and nicely browned. (Hint: As soon as the exposed surfaces are dry, turn the pieces over to keep them from sticking.)