I keep a small Tupperware container full of La Preferida Fat Free Refried Beans and one of chopped white onions in my fridge at all times. Morning, afternoon or especially late night after some couch drinking I’ll combine some of each on a Mission burrito tortilla, add some fine shredded mild cheddar and mic for 35 seconds then add Taco Bell Fire Sauce.
Been doing it since Covid started, and just never seem to tire of it. It’s cheap, quick, tastes good and is a fast clean up.
5-minute Breakfast Muffin:
Put water on the boil for French press coffee. Fork cut 1 English muffin and put in toaster. Fry 1 strip bacon, cut in 2. Dice and add red bell pepper and mushrooms. Add minced garlic, salt & pepper. Scissor cut fresh cilantro into pan.
While that’s all frying up nicely, break 1 large egg into a Pyrex measuring cup with ½ cup water. Mic x 50 seconds (drippy yolk).
Retrieve toasted muffin, put slice of American cheese, or cheddar on top half. Mic x 8 seconds to melt cheese. Place poached egg on bottom half. Chop egg so yolk oozes into muffin. Top with contents of fry-pan. Close sandwich and squeeze. Garnish with sprig of cilantro on side.
Foam half & half in coffee cup with battery operated foamer. Push down plunger on French press and pour coffee into cup.
5 minutes from boil to sip and nibble!
I alternate this breakfast with my 7-minute Biscuit & Gravy (hint: airfryer can bake homemade biscuit to golden brown in ~6-minutes).
Almost anything (mostly leftovers) on a tortilla, warmed on my cast iron skillet. Refried beans and feta? Yep. Hasbrowns and onions with hot sauce? Yep. Black beans and green chilis? Yep. Buffalo cauliflower and cheddar? Yep. Baked beans? Yep. Lentils and bbq sauce? Yep.
Seasonally things change for me. Right now nearly every dinner is accompanied by a tomato salad with delicious tomatoes chopped and topped with basil from the garden and whatever cheese we have on hand.
For breakfast I’ve been making a breakfast burrito with sautéed onions and peppers, cheese, peas or spinach, hot sauce, and an egg.
I had one of mine last night. I pick up Caribbean jerked salmon fresh from the market. I make some wild rice and have some steamed asparagus with veggie spices and lemon. Voila!
Breakfast sausage, small diced potato, some diced onion and diced bell pepper. Saute it all up until potato is done, then whisk in a couple of eggs and scramble it all together.
Meanwhile, reheat a tortilla in a skillet. Add some cheese and the sausage mixture. At this point I take it out, or sometimes turn it into a quesadilla. A little picante and you’re good to go! I save the leftover mixture and eat it a couple of more times.
Dough is made in batches of about 8 - 10 8" pies.
Sauce/ragout/salsa made in big batches.
Grated cheese is a cosmological constant in our kitchen, as with diced onions.
Everything else is usually on hand, olives, pepperoni, etc.
Leftovers are always welcome. One of the most memorable was not so long ago: leftover scrambeled eggs and bacon from breakfast with scallions, absolutely delicious.
So remove dough from fridge an hour beforehand, let rise. Less than five minutes to stretch and top, slide into oven.
Not quite as painless as penultima_thule’s, but one spoon and pizza cutter to wash, and a quick wipe of the peel.
I don’t think i could ever tire of it, I have been eating pizza about 4 nights a week for a couple years now!
Roasted sweet potato with grilled chicken, red peppers and cilantro. I usually use a jerk spice rub on the chicken-- something spicy plays well against the sweet backdrop. We have this at least once a week since quarantine started and I never get sick of it.
I never seem to tire of variations on dirty rice. And I usually make enough for two nights of leftovers so I tend to update the original meal with add-ons the subsequent nights.
Also, tuna melts. Love those once or twice a month.
Ham/rukey/italian meats sandwiches or panini when I’m simply too lazy to bother with raw ingredients of any kind.
Turn the toaster to minimum, drop in a couple of slices and set it off.
Chop up a small to medium onion. By now the toaster will have done its thing, and the bread will be nowhere near toasted. Leave it a minute and then set the toaster off again - the objective is to very slowly toast the bread and, importantly, to dry it out, because it’s going in a microwave shortly, and you won’t want it to turn soggy when you microwave it.
Drizzle olive oil over the chopped onion and microwave for a couple of minutes, stirring once or twice. Grate or slice some cheese. By now the toaster…repeat the process, toasting and drying, you get the idea.
When the onion is cooked, mix with tomato puree. By now…
Hopefully by now the toast will be done and very dry. Spread the tomato/onion on it, squirt on anchovy paste, add whatever stuff you like* (chopped olives, say), lay the cheese on the top and microwave.
Basic grilled cheese. Good sliced bread (Pumpernickel being number one, but rye, sourdough, or anything else with a kick is fine), and swiss by preference. For fun, I add pre-cooked bacon which I get cheap at Costco.
Kicked up Ramen - you can buy good stuff like the Shin Brand, but even the basic bagged ramen is fine if you add defrosted frozen shrimp, poached egg (in the broth is fine), green onion and a bit of sesame oil. Buying a bag of benito shavings that you can toss in is also fun.
Let’s see, I’ve been eating a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea for breakfast nearly every day for nearly 50 years now and no, I’m not tired of it yet. Sometimes, if I rushed/exhausted I’ll have another such for dinner before collapsing into bed.
I’ll do ramen noodles with my own broth and handful of vegetables. If I have something like leftover chicken or the like I’ll toss a handful of that in, too.
A quick stirfry of whatever is in the veg drawer, chopped, with some soy sauce and onions or garlic over rice or couscous.
Cook up a mess of wholegrain rice to last the week. Takes 45 minutes, but really nothing other than putting rice and water in a pan, turning the heat down when it boils, and then setting a timer.
Spoon into a pan enough rice for the number of servings you wish.
Add 1 can of drained/rinsed black beans, and one can of low salt diced tomatoes.
Add whatever spices you prefer, and heat to your desired temperature.
Spoon into bowls.
Top with sliced avocado and/or shredded cheese if you wish.
I could eat that EVERY day w/ no complaint.
Or lentil soup.
Boil up a bag of lentils.
Cut up some carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, or whatever else you wish.
Add a couple of bay leaves and/or whatever other spices you wish.
Boil it until the lentils are cooked and the veggies tender.
Serve w/ toasted wholegrain bread.
Yum!
Both meals are ridiculously cheap, easy, and healthy, with minimal ingredients and one-pan cleanup.
I often go with what I call a [Lurkmeister] Special. Some kind of meat cut into cubes (or ground beef) browned/cooked in a skillet, whatever veggies I have on hand (mushrooms, onions, zucchini, squash, etc) tossed in along with various seasonings, and occasionally a can of cream of something soup. Rice or pasta prepared separately and then mixed with the meat/veggies.
I get two or three meals out of this; leftovers get put in the fridge and reheated sometime within the next week.
