A box of Zatarain’s red beans & rice or black beans & rice. While that’s cooking, throw a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave.
English muffin half, slice of cheese, slice of tomato, a couple anchovies, toast in toaster over 5 minutes.
Pancakes and sunny side up eggs, maybe a slice of fried ham is I have it.
Cheapo pack of instant ramen plus whatever canned veggies I have on hand. Add a scoop of peanut butter, some chili-garlic sauce and some pickled ginger to turn it into a something a little more…something or other.
Nuke a sweet potato - smash the thing and add butter, salt and pepper - done.
I do boxed Mac & Cheese. Throw in some frozen peas or corn while it’s cooking. Also fry up some hot dogs; then slice 'em and mix in with the mac & cheese and vegetables.
I make something similar, cooking the broccoli and noodles in the same pot on the stovetop. Boil salted water, add noodles, when the noodles have a few minutes left to cook, add the broccoli, finish cooking, then drain it all together. Add butter, pepper, red pepper flakes, parmesan, etc.
One can chicked noodle soup and an equal amount of water. Heat on stove. Stir in a gob of butter, some some sour cream, and a heaping spoonful of paprika. Crush a handful of salted crackers and add to hot soup, Use a small pan to spare the effort of tranferring soup to a bowl. Enjoy with a glass of milk.
Grilled ham & cheese is probably my go-to 5 minutes or so meal. Throw some mustard & pickle slices on it and you have some bastard child of a Cubano going there.
We always have pita in the freezer and a jar of ajvar in the fridge and/or pantry. Spread pita with ajvar, top with whatever cheese we have lying around in the fridge, and stick in the toaster oven for 8 - 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fry up a crispy egg in olive oil. Slide the crispy egg onto the cheesy pita and sprinkle with smoked paprika and/or Penzey’s Fox Point Seasoning.
My funny idea is to make stuff on the weekends (or whenever I have time) and put it in the fridge or freezer so when I don’t feel like cooking or don’t have time all I need to do is chuck it in the microwave or oven. I can’t make things any easier than that.
I do the recipe on the Dinty Moore soup can. I pour it over egg noodles. 1 of the largest size Dinty Moore cans poured over 8 oz egg noodles will get me 1 easy meal.
Pull out a lasagna pan. Now open the freezer and pull out all the odds and ends of bagged veg that are just hanging out int here. The last seven peas in the bag you forgot in the bottom of the drawer, that bit of onion you couldn’t quite use up, the 1/2 cup of mixedpeppers that would have been just too much.
Now open the cheese/lunchmeat drawer. Get the last two slices of turkey and that half-a-slice of ham you didn’t need. And the end of pepperoni from the back there. Ooh! And this bit of cheddar. Score!
Light olive oil in the bottom of the pan, and a quick rinse for all the veg, then toss it all into the the oven on 400F.
Now scramble some eggs with basil and a little extra cream and pour them over top. Turn the whole thing down to 325 and go take a nice hot shower while it bakes.
Call it fritatta and people will think you’re a genius.
If you cook some pasta at the same time and then pour the stew over it, you have Bachelor Bolognaise.
Boil some ravioli with the filling of your choice. Put it in a bowl with a tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle in some Kraft parmesan and toss until the butter is melted and the cheese is mixed in. Serve with bread & butter.
Cooking pasta is quick and easy if you start with the minimum amount of cold water. Here’s a quick and easy recipe for lemon garlic farfalle.
Put farfalle (or any short past you happen to have) into a saucepan and add enough cold water to cover. Salt the water generously when it begins to roll then add broccoli florets about a minute before the pasta is al dente. Drain the water then add fresh lemon juice, evoo, freshly grated parmesan and chopped roasted garlic to your liking. Toss and garnish with lemon zest and more cheese. Five minutes to prep and 10 minutes to cook.
If you don’t have roasted garlic on hand, you can use garlic powder that’s been hydrated in a little bit of water then heated in evoo or butter. Add some cut up chicken breast if you want protein.
No kidding. Half the posts here, even the OP, sound like gourmet vast banquets, at least compared to MY notion of no-fuss dish for the exhausted (in particular, when said exhausted is ME).
Certain canned foods are edible (for some minimal value of “edible”) straight out of the can. Just bite the can open and eat. THAT’s my no-fuss dish when I’M exhausted. Or, just plain peanut butter sandwich. If I’m even just a little bit peppier, maybe I’ll take the trouble to add a layer of blackberry jelly too.
Or just a few handfuls of Planter’s dry roasted peanuts.
Or even (getting into health foods here, which may not count), some baby carrots to munch on.
Some funny ideas of “no-fuss” in this thread, from this hopeless bohemian bachelor’s point of view. “No-fuss” should mean NO FUSS.
So there. :rolleyes:
In the front half of 1982, I shared a house in Idaho Falls with two other sailors. At the end of a typical 14-hour day, we’d throw together a couple of cups of Minute Rice, top it with a large can of Campbell’s Chunky soup, and split it three ways.
“Even the OP” here.
Boiling a potato, regular or sweet, is the laziest stovetop cooking you can get. It’s water to cover, and wait as it cooks. You don’t even have to fuss with a timer as with boiling eggs. Just jab for doneness with a fork and lift it out of the pot with the same fork.
Cut the potato open and dump cottage cheese on it. Sprinkle with capers. Tah-dah.
I guarantee that you will extend less effort on this than smearing sticky uncooperative gobs of peanut butter on bread, and then balancing slippery blackberry jelly on a knife edge from jar to sandwich.
Although I do agree with you that some of the dishes posted here do seem…well, fussy.
But the one for Sludge seems like genius! Definitely trying that one. Sludge may win the thread if it tastes like the heart stopping trip to heaven it sounds like.
Yeah, this “start with boiling four quarts of water” for pasta is NOT NECESSARY. The upshot-- Pasta Liberation!
How 'bout that?
The linked article has the whole schmientific explanation if you’re interested.
And the bonus is you have extra starchy water (due to the lesser volume the pasta is cooked in), which helps bring together and make a velvety sauce (especially important if you’re making something like cacio e pepe.)
mmmmm… cacio e pepe…