That reminds me of the “toss it in” soup/stew my family used to make as a kid:
Brown the ground beef or cheap steak.
Then start tossing in whatever canned or frozen vegetables you might have:
carrots, green beans, beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, onions, etc.
You can even add a can of condensed soup to it as well. (tomato soup is good, as well as french onion)
Then add water (and maybe bullion/broth if you have it) and let it boil.
It was a good way to use up the vegetables we had in the cupboard and freezer. Food pantries usually give out canned stuff we wouldn’t have eaten otherwise by themselves.
Break up a block of cheap ramen noodles and put them in the microwave with a cup of water for 3 minutes. Dump it on a plate and add some grated cheese and spaghetti sauce and heat some more. You now have cheap Italian pasta.
You can also throw some frozen veggies in the microwave for a side.
1 can cream of mushroom soup, prepared normally.
Heat to just boiling, then add 1.5 cups Minute Rice (I know, but it’s convenient sometimes).
Remove from heat, cover, 5 minutes, done.
The angel food cake box mix I’ve used doesn’t call for eggs (are you sure you aren’t thinking of yellow cake mix?), so … no. Just the angel food cake mix and the jam.
Just ate a dinner that probably qualifies for this thread, if a policy of squirreling things away in the freezer is allowed.
Got home at 7:30pm, much too tired to cook. From my freezer, I pulled out: a piece of salmon (precut and frozen from a big filet bought at Costco weeks ago), and a package of English muffins. From the fridge, I grabbed triple-washed mixed greens and some wasabi sauce. Then:
thaw salmon in microwave, sear in cast iron skillet
thaw and toast English muffin
Assemble sandwich: salmon, greens, and wasabi sauce on toasted English muffin
Not bad. Of course, a nice long marinade for the salmon before it was seared would have made the sandwich better, but that gets into “fussing” territory.
The breakfast burrito sounds swell but a lot of work, I think it would be easier and faster to nuke a frozen one. Or buy one at the drive through. Chili mac, though, is the bomb with wagon wheels.
I always have cooked crumbled hamburger in the freezer. I dump some in a baking dish, thaw in the microwave. Add some canned vegetables (corn is popular) and beef gravy. Top with mashed potatoes, frozen, already prepared, even instant made with milk and butter. Top with grated cheese and bake 20 minutes. Shepherds pie!
My lazy version of shrimp fried rice: While rice cooks, sauté onion, ginger and garlic in a frying pan. Chop green pepper in medium-sized pieces and add to pan. Rinse frozen shelled shrimp to remove ice and add to pan. When the shrimp are cooked and the rice is done, add rice to pan, mix and eat.
Hmmm…way too much frying, boiling pasta, preparation, and toasting suggested here to meet my expectations.
Put a potato in the microwave and “bake” it. Poke a couple holes in a cheap bag of creamed chipped beef or chicken a la king and heat it in the microwave. Split the potato and pour the stuff over it. Voila! No pans, pots, or utensils (other than your plate and fork) to clean. In fact, I usually just put it on a paper plate and let my dogs lick the fork clean.
Add a dab of sour cream, shallots, broccoli, cheese (usually gouda for me) and some sprinkled spices. Heat in toaster oven. Afterwards, add sections of Ojai Pixie tangerines (if in season; if not, any citrus will do). Prep time: about 5-7 minutes, or 2-3 minutes if you skip the toaster oven part.
Availability of lamajune is greatly aided by living in a neighborhood with lots of Armenians.
Wow. I make microwave potatoes often. I make creamed chipped beef in the microwave often. Why did it never occur to me to put them together! I have always used toast for the chipped beef; a potato would be much better. THANK YOU!
Tonight was simply frozen cocktail meatballs, nuked and slathered with BBQ sauce and some spices. Not meant to be a balanced meal, just something so my stomach doesn’t growl in the night.
Well, I tried Sludge with Chunky Vegetable Soup and I was most pleased with the yummy results. I think it would be even better with a full can of water instead of half. But this is a brand new emergency recipe for me now, and I haven’t had one of those for awhile. Thanks Annie Xmas!
Are many of you on one of those old 6 small meals a day bodybuilding type diets? Just curious how all these 200-300 calorie snacks or whatever count as meals.
Check the freezer section of your grocery store to see what kinds of semi-prepared meats they have available. You’ll likely find hamburger patties, diced chicken, pre-cooked shrimp, cooked breakfast sausage, etc. Keep some of those in your freezer as easy protein sources for quick meals.
The freezer section will also have family-size items like lasagna, gumbo, enchiladas, etc. Often they skimp on the meat in those kinds of things, so add in some of the frozen meat to make a more hearty meal.
Tossing in some of the frozen diced chicken into canned soup or chili can also make those kinds of things more of a meal.
I re-use foil if I can do so without heavy washing. For instance, the foil I used to encase the spring-form pan when I rested it in water to cook something delicate can probably be used 2-4 times for the same purpose, without actually applying soap or scrubbing or anything.
