Fast and Easy Meals - Add Recipes Here!

[siege]

We pinched this one off of a Jamie Oliver show...

Most of our fast meals come from a "5-min meal" section of a book of his. 

They do, however, all take us longer than 5 minutes but thats not a big deal.

Salmon & veggie cous cous
Put some cous cous in a bowl and add boiled water until just covered. Rub olive oil over salmon steaks and season with salt & pepper. Chop up a courgette and asparagus (or whatever). Fry veggies, add salmon and fry.  Chop up a tomato and coriander, and stir into cous cous, squeeze in a lemon. At this point you are supposed to add cous cous to pan but we find it just sticks to the bottom. Put on plates with salmon and add a big dollop of creme fraiche. Or sour cream if you prefer.

Paprika steak wraps
Rub oil over steak, season, then add a thick layer of ground paprika (the more the better). Cook on a grill plate. Make a salad of rocket (or some form of lettuce) and chopped tomato, and squeeze lemon over it. Heat tortillas. Cut up steak into strips. Spread a tortilla with homous, add steak, salad and sour cream. I tend to leave the sour cream off but DH has this weird thing where he has to have recipes exactly as stated. And he likes sour cream

And finally, a non-Jamie recipe but an all time favourite of mine
Laksa
I wouldn't have a clue how to make the paste and its hard to come by in the UK (grrr!) but you might be in luck.
Put rice vermicelli in a bowl of boiled water and let sit for 7mins (or do in next to no time in boiling water). Chop up some veggies, I like aubergine, courgette & broccoli. Slice some chicken. Stir fry. Add laksa paste (the more you fry the paste the hotter it is so beware of jars that tell you to put it in first). Add coconut cream and water, amount depending on how soupy you like it. Drain vermicelli and put in bowls. Add soup.

[survivor]

Try Thai stir fry with green or red curry.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp cooking oil
4 skinless boneless chicken thigh cut in bite-sized pcs

1 onion chopped

1-2 tbs green curry or red (use canned from asian food stores)

1 sweet potato cut in cubes
1 asian eggplant (skinny ones)

1 1/2 cups coconut milk (not cream)
1 cup water

1-2 tbs lime juice
2 tbs grated lime zest
1-2 tbs fish sauce (nam pla)
2 tsps brown sugar

handful chopped cilantro with some stems

Heat oil in large skillet or wok on med high. Add chicken and stir fry until browned with crisp edges.

Add onion and stir for 3 mins.

Add green curry. Stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Then add eggplant and potato. Stir fry for 5 mins.

Add coconut milk and water.  Bring to a boil then lower heat to simmer uncovered for 6-8 mins or until swee potato is cooked. Stir occasionally.

Add the lime juice, zest, fish sauce, sugar and stir.

Turn off heat, or keep covered on stove in "warm" setting until ready to serve. Sprinkle with cilantro just before serving.

Serve over steamed Jasmine rice.

Alternately, you can use frozen green beans in place of the sweet potato and eggplant in this recipe. Be careful over-cooking it though. Make sure the green beans don't turn limp. Fresh is better, but frozen worked just as well for me.

[Roach]

dinner last night -Asian Noodle Soup

1 lb of sirloin steak cut into thin strips

heat 1 tbl of oil (peanut is best but I used canola) in a dutch oven/stock pot

Brown the steak on medium heat.

add 1/3 cup of asian peanut sauce, and 2 cups of beef broth (I used some beef and some veggie because I wanted to use the veggie stock up) and bring to a boil.

add asian egg noodles (I only had ramen) and simmer until the noodles seperate (about 3-4 minutes)

Add 2 cups of broccoli florettes and resume boiling then reduce and simmer for 3 minutes.

Serve with some chopped scallion garnish and of course (a side bottle of Sriracha chili sauce).

[onawhim]

I made this last night and it was super quick and yummy.  I made it with chicken since I am not a fan of seafood.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Moroccan-Spiced-Scallops-with-Lentils-351273

[Gomie]

Sometimes it depends on what I have on hand.  For instance last night we basically had nothing on hand so I improvised.

I defrosted and then cut up some chicken.  Put the chunks into an oven safe pan.  Threw in some coursely chopped onions, sweet bell peppers and garlic.  Squeezed in some ground sausage (that I quickly browned first-but didn't cook through).  I poured tomato sauce over that with some basil and oregano.  Cooked on 375 for about 15 min.  Sprinkled with parmesan.

On the side I quickly cooked some bowtie pasta and threw a little bit of pesto on the noodles when they were done.

Served it all together.  It turned out really good!

[rocketgirl]

Sometimes it depends on what I have on hand.  For instance last night we basically had nothing on hand so I improvised.

I defrosted and then cut up some chicken.  Put the chunks into an oven safe pan.  Threw in some coursely chopped onions, sweet bell peppers and garlic.  Squeezed in some ground sausage (that I quickly browned first-but didn't cook through).  I poured tomato sauce over that with some basil and oregano.  Cooked on 375 for about 15 min.  Sprinkled with parmesan.

On the side I quickly cooked some bowtie pasta and threw a little bit of pesto on the noodles when they were done.

Served it all together.  It turned out really good!

This I understand!  I know what all those foods are and what the terms mean. 

[Gomie]

Shrimp baked with tomatoes and feta. 

Thaw a bag of frozen shrimp (anything from med to jumbo works well; I like trader joe's).  Layer shrimp in bottom of jelly roll like pan, top with a layer of really good hearty marinara sauce (can buy this at first and graduate to making a quick sauce of your own), top with crumbled feta.  Bake until feta is all melted and starting to brown. 

With good bread to soak up the sauce and a big salad, it's pretty close to a full meal.  Or for a one dish meal cook a frozen package of spinach with your tom. sauce before topping the shrimp and your veggie is right there.

I made this last night and it was FANTASTIC!

1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes in juice, drained, reserving juice, and chopped
Pinch of sugar
1 1/4 pound large peeled and deveined shrimp
1/4 pound feta, crumbled (2/3 cup)
2 tablespoons chopped dill


Accompaniments: crusty bread or steamed white rice; a green salad

PreparationPreheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.

Cook onion and garlic in oil with 1/4 teaspoon salt in a 4-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in spices and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add chopped tomatoes with juice and sugar and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Season shrimp with 1/8 teaspoon salt, then stir into tomato sauce. Transfer to a 2-quart shallow baking dish and top with feta. Bake until just cooked through, 18 to 20 minutes. Serve sprinkled with dill.

Gomie's Variations-

Used cooked shrimp so I didn't have to do all the extra baking.  Skipped the dill.  Used lowfat feta.  Threw in chopped kalamata olives.

YUM!!

Next time I might even add spinach and/or artichoke hearts.

[redkitty]

Do you just want meals that get done in 30 min or less or you just don't really want to do a lot of preparation (but are ok if the meals take a bit longer?)  If you don't mind how long something takes, I suggest checking out places like Dream Dinners (dreamdinners.com), Super Suppers, Main Dish Kitchen or My Girlfriend's Kitchen (I am sure there are other places like these places, those are just the ones I know of.)

Essentially the concept is that of the Once a Month Freezer cooking method. But at these places the preparation and clean up are done for you.  I have not done any of these yet, but will be going to Dream Dinners for the first time in two weeks.  Some of the meals are considered "fast" (under 30 min) and some take longer to cook. What you do is go to the store, you assemble the ingredients and then you freeze them.  Then pull them out as you go.  So all of the upfront work is done, it is just the actual cooking part you have to do when you are ready to eat.  Some of the meals they offer are healthy, some are not.

My DH and I tried the once a month cooking thing before. The recipes we tried were good. But it took us 4 or 5 hours to prepare 3 weeks worth of food (we obviously did not do an entire month.)  The places above i just mentioned, the sessions are only 2 hours long and we will get at least 12 meals out of what I ordered.  (most lilkely with leftovers we will get more than 12 meals.)

[Ileneforward]

 

[BonitaApplebum]

I love reading old threads and being impressed by my helpful ideas, and mad all over again that rocket girl doesn't appreciate any of my advice. 

[rocketgirl]

I love reading old threads and being impressed by my helpful ideas, and mad all over again that rocket girl doesn't appreciate any of my advice. 

I'm still waiting for someone to mail me a cooking fairy, but it doesn't seem to be happening...   

Believe it or not, I HAVE taken SOME cooking ideas from this forum and made some of the recipes.  I even occasionally make shit up.

Like so:




Chicken Fajitas.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

I had a breast and a half (about .75 lbs) of leftover chicken and some leftover onion, and a wild hair, so I tried chicken fajitas.

Cut the chicken in strips.

Marinated in a mix of lime juice, soy sauce (2 restaurant packets! ha!), pepper, salt, and minced garlic for around 30 minutes.

Started the chicken in a bit of oil in a large saute pan for about 3-4 minutes over med-high heat, added the rest of the marinade (not much that hadn't clung to the chicken, about 1/2 cup of chopped onion, about a half cup of chopped green bell pepper, and a little chopped yellow bell pepper.  Cooked for however long I cooked it - 5 minutes would have been fine, but might have been ten.  Since I wasn't ready to eat yet, I turned it on low for the last bit.

Served with tortillas warmed in the microwave, canned black beans and white rice heated on the stove, home-made green tomato salsa, and sour cream.

(I've basically saved everything I've tried in my Facebook notes, so I can get to them again.  I also have an actual bottle of soy sauce now.)

[Run Amok]

A couple of I've made this week that DD liked:

Preheat oven to 400 deg. Foil on a baking sheet, sprayed with a bit of oil. Two chicken drumsticks with skin removed, salted, on the foil. Poor some pizza sauce (I like tj's, because it's not sweet) over chicken. Fold foil around chicken so it partially covers it (basically, I made a little baking dish out of the foil) and bake for 35-40 minutes. Top with 2 tbls of grated parm. You could easily do this with another cut of meat, but dd likes drums & they are cheap. I am sure you could also add peppers and onions under the chicken and that would be an easy way to incorperate a side. Have also done the same thing with salsa instead of pizza sauce- serve with some canned black beans, a little sour cream, etc.

Strip several rosemary sprigs. Raw jumbo shrimp into a ziplock baggie along with a crushed/diced garlic clove, a dash of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, and a few chopped leaves of rosemary. Marinate for 30 minutes. Spear the shrimp on the rosemary sprigs. Cook in a sautee pan on med-high for 2 minutes each side (they cook fast!). DD ate this over pasta that was lightly buttered and with a bit of parm.

Raw jumbo shrimp- pat dry, dredge in flour, then in egg, then in unsweatened coconut. Place on a sheet pan under the broiler- 2mins/side. If you use chicken, set oven to 400. Marinate chicken in buttermilk for 30 minutes or so (not necessary, but keeps it nice & juicy) then dredge in coconut and bake for 30 mins, or until done. I used chicken breast I'd cut into strips. I served this with some flavored rice I picked up at trader joes and some black beans I had in the freezer.