Help a sister out, please. High school band and its accompanying never-ending practice schedule has taken over my life. I need to continue to provide healthy family dinners every night for a family of five, two of which are in the aforementioned band.
I had gotten into the habit of making semi-complex things for dinner. Mostly there’s just a lot of chopping involved, and I can’t seem to imagine a meal that doesn’t have me cutting up zucchini or stir-frying a big pan of spinach at the last minute. I grill meats and then cut up all kinds of vegetables and fruits — something I don’t have the time for in the next few months. I am willing to slice tomatoes, but that’s about it.
What I need is some very basic recipes that can be on the table in 20 minutes or so. The dishes also need to keep a bit, as some family members will be eating later.
I know soups aren’t great for summer, but they are cheap, easy, filling, and can simmer on the stove til they are needed. I do variations on bean, lentil, and chili. Or just throw whatever you like in a crockpot in the morning. I make Swiss steak and pulled pork this way. Could also do sloppy joe. I also like to pick up a rotisserie chicken, a bagged salad and a baguette when I’m in a hurry. And God’s gift to mankind is most definitely steam-in-the-bag frozen veggies. So many kinds; cheap, quick, healthy. My kids’ favorite by far is English muffin tuna melts. Spread some tuna salad on an English muffin half, slice of tomato, half slice of cheese, pop in the oven to melt it, serve with fruit.
Boil spaghetti noodles while you brown ground meat in a pan, toast garlic bread in the oven and steam frozen veggies in the microwave. Depending on how long you cook the noodles and how long the bread takes, you can have a full spaghetti dinner for 4 in about 10 minutes. (of course you add a jar of spaghetti sauce to the ground meat after it’s cooked and drained).
When it’s all done, put the spaghetti in a 1gal bag in the fridge, the sauce and veggies in some Gladware or tupperware in the fridge, and wrap the bread in Saran and leave it on the counter.
I don’t cook for a family but this feeds me 4 nights a week.
Chop the vegetables the night before? IIRC, Sleeps With Butterflies does this when she buys her produce (cleans it, salad spins it dry, chops and preps it entirely). Perhaps when you’re making lunches for the next day do the chopping?
When I know my cooking time is going to be short, I tend to make things in the crockpot. Currently, I’ve got some “country style” boneless pork ribs, a chopped onion, about 9oz tomato paste, a bit of garlic, and some vinegar peppers cooking. Took about 7 minutes to put together this morning. Can served over anything or nothing, and left on low til the last person home gets theirs. Reheats pretty well too.
I also do beef, and occasionally fish in it as well. Though if someone even thinks about canned cream of mushroom while looking at my crock, I’ll hit em with my spoon.
My thought is to make some simpler dishes – i.e., separate meat, starch, and veggies. I’m assuming you have a microwave (possible without it, but not so easy to heat things up for the late eaters).
Most meat, poultry, and fish can be cooked in less than 20 minutes, particularly if it’s separated into invidual portions. Some of it can be set aside to be reheated later. If it’s fish, be sure not to fully cook it at first, so it doesn’t get overcooked and dry upon reheating.
Rice and noodles/pasta cook in 20 minutes or less, and do fine with reheating.
Vegetables usually cook in just a few minutes, to where it might even work to wait until the late eaters are there to cook their portions. Alternatively, they can be reheated if one is careful not to overdo it and turn them to mush. Instead of chopping and mixing, just choose one or two veggies per meal to keep it simple. Examples: Anything canned just needs to be made hot. Microwave it, or throw it into a pot, bring to a boil, and get it off the stove – it’s done. Frozen stuff just needs to boil a few minutes. Fresh can be zapped in the microwave in a bowl with a bit of water, again just a few minutes. Ears of corn should boil for 2-3 minutes – no more than three.
My quick goto meal is a pan fried steak over rice and steamed vegies. If you buy think steaks it only teaks about 5 min to pan fry it. Rice takes the longest at 15 min and steaming some frozen veggies or a head of broccoli takes about 5-7. The only thing that may take longer is the steak depending on how many you need to do and how thick they are.
A nice variation on stirfry is fajitas. Just marinade the strips of meat in salsa and cook it in the marinade then toss in your frozen precut peppers to the pan when the meat is almost cooked. It’s a great one pan dish and takes about 15 min.
As mentioned above, pasta can work wonders. As soon as you get home, throw some thawed chicken breasts in the oven with a little lemon juice in the bottom of the pan (covered with tin foil). The chicken can also be marinated overnight by concocting your favorite marinade in a Ziplock bag and tossing the chicken in. Then refrigerate overnight.
While the chicken is baking, boil some water and cook some pasta. Nuke a pack of frozen spinach. While the pasta is cooking, chicken baking, and spinach nuking, cut up a tomato or two in large chunks, slice a red onion into strips. When the pasta is done, toss with some olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, the nuked and drained spinach, tomato and onion.
By this time, the chicken should be pretty much done. Plate the pasta/veggie mix, throw the chicken breast on top. Maybe sprinkle some feta or Parmesan on top.
Another idea is the cold salad. Make a couscous salad the night before, loaded with fresh veggies, some feta or other crumbly cheese (depending on what kind of veggies you have). Bake or grill some chicken or fish the night before and refrigerate. Serve a mound of the couscous salad with the fish or chicken on top. Drizzle with some olive oil and serve.
Great ideas everyone! Thanks so much. Some of these I already do, but I can’t seem to plan coherently. I think I should do some make-ahead menus so I’m not standing there in the kitchen wondering what to start for minutes at a time. I was in a rut! The only thing I could think to make was hot dogs. <puke>
I probably should do some pre-cutting on the weekend. No time the night before, if I’m going to get my walk/run in, do laundry and clean up. My older children have been great about cleaning the kitchen, but with all this band practice, homework time is short and I’m thinking that it will have to take precedence over their chores.
Recipe: Welsh Rarebit
Time: About 20 minutes, plus cooling
Adapted from Fergus Henderson
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon mustard powder, or to taste
½ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
¾ cup strong dark beer, like Guinness
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
1 pound Cheddar, Double Gloucester or other English cheese (or other good semi-hard cheese, like Comté or Gruyère, or a mixture), grated
4 to 8 pieces lightly toasted bread.
Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and, as it melts, stir in flour. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and very fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and cayenne, then whisk in beer and Worcestershire sauce.
When mixture is uniform, turn heat to low and stir in cheese, again stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into a broad container to set (you can refrigerate for up to a day at this point).
Spread mixture thickly on toast and put under broiler until bubbly and edges of toast are crisp. Serve immediately.
I love that cut of meat, they’re so cheap and easy to work with. My favorite way to do them is to marinate them in apple butter, cider vinegar, and extra cinnamon,etc., then grill them. You can also cook them in a pan, or crock them all day if it’s easier. I tend to serve them with mashed taters or couscous, and whatever veggie seems easiest at the time.
Speaking of which, couscous is one of the best time-savers ever. You boil water or broth, pour it over, cover the bowl, and leave it for ten minutes. No fuss, no muss, no pot to wash if you use the water. We usually buy it in bulk at the co-op on Southland or the other hippie grocery next to Joseph Beth.
Beans are your friend almost as much as a Crockpot. I’m personally very, very fond of combining the two–soak the beans overnight, pop them into the pot in the morning with the seasonings and aromatics, and they’re pretty much ready when you walk in the door. If you do red beans and rice this way, you put the sausage in and the rice on when you walk in the door, pop some bread in to heat, and you’re good to go in half an hour.
There are a ton of great ideas and recipes in Nigella Express, enough that it’s worth getting from the library. Or you’re welcome to borrow my copy if the library hasn’t got it.
The ex used to lean heavily on The Working Stiff Cookbook, which is very focused on quick/no fuss preparation, and I can vouch for the results being pretty flavorful and not tasting as dashed off as they were. $4 will get a copy it appears . . . .
I cook beans and rice a lot in the winter, but how goofy am I to not realize I can add the sausage and stuff when I get home and be good to go? And, hey we should meet at the co-op and exchange ideas! I stand in that bulk aisle like 20 minutes scooping out big bagfuls of this and that.
I used to do quick and easy pita pizzas with a side salad. Pre-heat oven to 425, get unsliced pita bread, pizza sauce, low-fat mozzarella shreaded cheese and some chopped up ham and you’ve got an under 400 calorie pizza that’s <10 minutes to bake and delicious too.
I also had MYOS night. Put the fixin’s out for sandwiches, whole wheat bread, low-fat turkey slices, light cheese, lettuce, low fat mayo/horseradish, and tomatoes. Serve with some carrots and it’s very simple and everyone can make what they want.
This sort of thing is our go-to all the time. You can vary the ingredients so much that it never gets repetitive. We’ve used chicken, pork, beef, sausage and meatballs for the protein. Whatever is fresh is the veggies. Toss in some canned bamboo sprouts, some soy sauce, some oyster or fish sauce and serve over spaghetti and it’s an “Asian” dish. If you buy big bags of chopped frozen veggies, you can mix and match for weeks.
If you’re going to cook beans, use chicken broth as the cooking liquid. And there are ham steaks that you can cut up and add to the beans, which are about half cooked.
For something REALLY simple, cut up some ham and maybe pan fry it a bit. Then make those boxed potatoes, adding the ham and some cut up frozen broccoli. The broccoli will cook along with the potatoes, and there’s usually so much sauce that there’s more than enough for the broccoli AND the ham. Yes, I know this is heavy on the sodium. However, it can be done all in one pot, either on the stove or in the oven, and it’s basically a casserole. You can add a salad if you like.
I boil noodles and mixed frozen veggies in the same pot, drain them, add a can of cream of celery soup and a can of tuna. Heat through, and it’s Stovetop Tuna Casserole. Using cream of celery instead of mushroom does make a difference. And yeah, it’s better to make the sauce from scratch…but sometimes there’s a time crunch, and “good enough” is better than getting drive through.
I prefer to roast my own chicken, because I will roast veggies with it. However, many times that roasted chicken at the supermarket is actually CHEAPER than a raw chicken. And they’re certainly a hell of a lot faster. Get a seasoned rice packet, or cook up rice with chicken broth, add a salad and maybe some other fresh veggie.
Planning is everything. When my wife and I make our grocery list for the week, we also plan out our meals. While I can usually come up with something from whatever is around, we eat better and waste less with a plan.
We write the meals on the kitchen calendar, so when I get up in the morning I can see what I’ll be cooking when I get home. I always try to keep some basics on hand, in case we can’t get groceries on the usual day, but we do so much better when we plan.