You know those tried-and-true fallback recipes that are relatively quick and easy but always come out delicious? Yeah, those - I need more of those. What are yours? We’re getting a bit tired of ours, and I need inspiration.
Carnivorous, vegetarian, vegan, healthy, decadent … they’re all fair game.
Make me hungry, Dopers!
Kefte: a pound of ground beef, half an onion minced, two cloves garlic pressed, dash dried parsley, dash of “yogurt seasoning” from middle-eastern store, dash cumin, dash salt. Form into golf-ball sized pates, smash flat on griddle.
Tomato salad: a tomato for each person, a couple cloves garlic pressed, olive oil and salt.
Cucumber salad: diced cucumber, yogurt, “yogurt seasoning”, salt
Hummus: can of chickpeas, dollop of yogurt, salt, cumin, juice of a lemon. Blitz in food processor 3 minutes.
Yogurt sauce: yogurt, garlic, parsley, salt
Serve with warm store-bought pita.
It is a small number of ingredients all jiggled one way and another; you can do all the salads while you’re frying the kefta in three shifts.
Catfish: thaw and pat dry. Dredge in flour, then egg and milk, then cornmeal with salt and cajun seasoning. Fry in canola oil in a skillet.
Then dice half an onion and add it plus an egg, a teaspoon of baking powder, and enough milk to make batter to your leftover cornmeal breading. Fry dollops in the skillet to make hush puppies.
Shred half a head of cabbage and dress with a dollop of mayonnaise, dollop of yogurt, milk, dill, sugar, salt, and vinegar to taste.
Serve boughten green tomato pickle (I recommend Sechler’s kosher dill tomatoes) on the side.
If you have time, toss some rhubarb with sugar, top with oats flour sugar butter and cinnamon, and bake this whole time to make crumble.
Last one before I have to tend to my own dinner making (shrimp sauteed with garlic and sriracha, wheat berry salad with tomato, cucumber, feta, and green onion, and steamed artichokes): taco kits. Comes with shells, salsa, and taco seasoning. You supply a pound of ground beef plus shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream. God I love box tacos.
My husband makes fun of me for loving fish sticks, but I recently made these fish stick tacos. Not only are they incredibly easy and fast, but they are yummy too. You can customize them with any toppings you like - in my case it was tartar sauce, coleslaw and shredded cheese. I used plain flour tortillas and didn’t fry them. Oh, and I sprinkled the baked fish sticks with some chili powder for a little kick.
For pasta when we don’t want to use premade sauce or spend the time making a normal one and want something good and quick:
Cook some minced garlic in olive oil with diced shallots or onion. Add some wine and reduce that a bit. Add sliced tomatoes and a bit of salt and cook until the tomatoes soften and release juice. A little before that’s done, throw in a bit of basil. Toss cooked pasta into the pan and heat for a few minutes 'til most of the liquid is absorbed. Occasionally we include slices of sausage or some other vegetables.
We’re doing tacos tonight using some left over tri-tip from last night. We’re adding raw cabbage and a dollop of tangy mayo and some cheese. Simple and quick. And cabbage is like the anti-calorie for me so I can eat as much as I want. That’s a bonus.
I fixed crockpot steak tonight.
Wait until London Broil goes on sale, or round steak, or even flank steak.
Place steak (cut into pieces to fit) inside crock pot with one can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom soup (do not reconstitute) and one large can sliced mushrooms (pieces and stems are fine) with liquid. No need to stir it up, just kinda slosh it around together. Cook all day on “low.”
Serve over rice or noodles.
Even folks who do not like mushrooms will lick out the crockpot.
~VOW
Fry up some asparagus, chopped broccoli and onions in olive oil. Don’t overcook.
Use as a topping for a baked potato. Add cheese butter and sour cream if you like. Simple and delish.
Buffalo chicken plus a side of roasted broccoli:
Preheat oven to 400. Trim and cut up chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Brown in a skillet, then turn down to simmer and throw in a bunch of buffalo chicken marinade sauce stuff from a bottle. (Sue me.) Or any other simmer sauce you like.
When the oven comes up to temp, toss a bunch of broccoli florets in a little olive oil and some salt and throw 'em on a cookie sheet (preferably with foil on it so there’s no cleanup.) Roast until you’ve got some good brown spots on them, maybe 25 minutes depending on the size of your florets.
If the chicken still isn’t done, throw that skillet into your hot oven when you turn it off and take out the broccoli and let that finish it. Voila, practically no Weight Watchers points and only two dishes.
steamed rice, brown or white
Stew meat or chicken chopped similarly - brown in olive oil
add can of Rotel diced tomatoes & chiles and kalamata and/or mixed pitted olives
salt, pepper to taste
Cook in covered skillet until meat is done, serve over rice
Finely chop broccoli stems and leaves, onion, garlic, chili and ginger. Cook in a very small bit of neutral oil (rapeseed here) with Chinese five spice and a little stock powder. Throw in some mussels. Add water. Add noodles. When the noodles are cooked, you have some very good soup. Or at least we did, about half an hour ago.
On lazy nights we fry up some garlic with red pepper flakes and a can of tuna. Add some mushrooms and spinach, stir in some pasta of any sort (we like fusilli). Good stuff.
That one sounds great, HazelNutCoffee. We’ll have to try that one … tomorrow.
For tonight, we have green beans and a b/less s/less chicken breast. I’ll be cooking the beans separately, so I’ll be doing … something … with the chicken. I think the Other Shoe is getting tired of the Kellog’s Cornflake chicken recipeso I’ll need to do something else. Most likely, brochette chicken - stuff pieces with jalapeno and cheese, and wrap in bacon. Pin with a toothpick or two, then cook 'em up.
Thanks, all, for the ideas so far! 
Glass noodles with peanut sauce - once I started keeping the ingredients as pantry staples - I love to whip this together, it’s really a lazy and cheap dish. This serves two:
package of mung bean noodles (the thin vermicelli usually in the Asian section in a bag on a lower shelf), place in big bowl of hot water before anything else. Then, in a 10-12 inch skillet on low:
1/3 cup or so plain unsweetened peanut butter
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce
1 cup water
Tbsp low sodium tamari sauce
tsp toasted sesame oil
Tbsp mirin
few dashes sriracha - to taste
Everything’s to taste, really, and I’m guessing at the amounts - I haven’t actually used any measuring spoons but I think it’s pretty close.
mix around in skillet until peanut butter is melted and everything’s incorporated and starts to bubble. Check the noodles - they should be softened after about 10 minutes (just the time it takes for the sauce to come together - convenient!). Strain. Add in sections (one big lump is hard to mix/toss) to the skillet and toss with tongs until coated and saucy.
Of course you can add any vegetables or meat or meat substitute to this - simply cook whatever in the skillet first then turn down the heat add the peanut sauce ingredients and incorporate as above. I love some lightlife shredded “chick’n” (found in produce, usually) or gardein “beefless tips” (frozen). But the noodles and sauce are delish on their own for the truly lazy, hungry now, eat in 10 minutes crowd.
I was going to give my satay recipe, which is remarkably similar to SeaDragonTatoo’s peanut recipe above, except with a small tin of coconut milk in place of the “few dashes of” ingredients, and mixed veggies instead of noodles.
So instead, I’ll give my friend’s eggplant pasta recipe.
3-4 slices of bacon, fried, chopped up
3-4 mushrooms, sliced and fried
Half a tub of supermarket eggplant dip
200g Your Pasta Of Choice (for two people)
Mix 'em all together, serve with parmesan cheese. Extremely yum.
A tasty snack…quick, easy, (relatively) healthy pizza
whole wheat muffins
can of no-salt diced tomatoes
parmesan cheese
provolone (or mozz) slices
toast muffins in toaster oven
remove, add a generous spoonful of diced tomatoes, then parmesan, then provolone cheese
broil in oven until cheese is melted
optional: add onion, green pepper, mushrooms, etc
it’s easy to make, and surprisingly good
Here are a couple fast comfort food type meals. You can just throw them together in no time. I will leave out obvious seasonings such as salt, pepper and garlic, you know what you like, season to taste.
#1
In a large stove top pot add; browned hamburger, 1 large can whole tomatos, 2 cans kidney beans, 1 can corn. 1/2 sauted onion. Simmer it all up to temp, then add some boiled elbow macaroni al dente. Simmer it all together. Don’t over cook or the macaroni gets too soft. Add them last and just bring it back up to temp. Serve in bowls with shreaded parmesan cheese on top.
**#2 **
Use a large casserole dish for this one, you will bake it.
Add to casserole; browned hamburger, 2 cans sliced whole potatos, 2 cans sliced water chessnuts, 1 small package frozen mixed vegetables, pour 2 cups brown gravy over it all, stir, top with French’s dried onions, bake. Don’t burn the onions.
You know those jarred curry type sauces on the grocery store shelf? They’re surprisingly good - I add a jar of sauce to chopped up, cooked chicken or pork, maybe some tomatoes, green peppers and onion, and serve it over long-grain rice - very tasty and easy.
I’ve recently discovered meatloaf, too - I enjoy playing with the recipe to make it taste a little different each time. Meatloaf isn’t fast, but it sure is tasty, and we usually get two full meals out of it.
My all time, hands down, favorite meal.
Everybody loves it, serve over pilaf.
Easy, but time consuming.
Instead of doing the softened butter with flour mixture, I make a [light] brown roux. But I have made it both ways and they both work.
Paul Prudhomme’s Chicken a la King
(clipped directly from his website)
Makes 4 to 6 servings
This recipe takes the traditional approach to the dish–rich and creamy, spiked with a bit of sherry. It’s colorful and delicious, and just perfect when you want a very special meal. Serve in pastry shells or crepes, or over rice, pasta or croissants.
Find this recipe and more in Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Pure Magic.
ingredients
3 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Poultry Magic�
1 1/4 teaspoons dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon ground savory
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened plus
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pats
1/4 cup all purpose flour
6 tablespoons dry sherry. in all
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped red bell peppers
1 cup chopped yellow bell peppers
2 cups thinly sliced fresh mushrooms
2 1/2 cups heavy cream, in all
how to prepare
Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl to make the seasoning mix. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the seasoning mix over the chicken and rub it in well. Set aside.
Combine the softened butter with the flour until completely blended. Set aside.
Preheat a 5-quart pot over high heat for 4 minutes. Add the chicken, and dot the pats of butter evenly over the chicken. Cover the pot and cook without stirring until the chicken can easily be unstuck from the bottom of the pot, about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of the sherry, the onions, peppers, mushrooms, and remaining seasoning mix. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the butter/flour mix a spoonful at a time, stirring constantly as the mixture dissolves and the sauce thickens. Stir in 2 cups of cream and heat until “small volcanoes” begin to erupt in the sauce, but do not allow the sauce to come to a rolling boil. Let the volcanoes erupt 3 times, stirring after each eruption. Add the remaining 1/2 cup cream and heat until another group of small volcanoes erupts, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining sherry.