I think I'm lazy, can we discuss?

[Natasha]

I eat chickpea salad every day for lunch lately. no cook, healthy, easy. I can post the recipe if you want. I also have been making a curried tahini carrot and tofu salad. Once again, super easy, i only cook the tofu quickly and i made enough last night for 4 or 5 portions.

I'm sorry for that last post! I didn't mean to sound so ungrateful and negative. Please, post the recipes and I'll give them a shot. 

[nadra24]

I made oven fajitas on Sunday night and they were incredibly easy.  Just cut up your onion, pepper, and chicken breast into strips and put in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with fajita seasoning.  I make my own, but you could certainly buy the packets if you want.  Drizzle on some oil, and stir it all up so everything is coated with seasoning and oil.  Throw into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, stirring part way through.  When they came out of the oven I squeezed half of a lime over top, but you could skip that.  Serve in tortillas with sour cream.  It was so much easier than stir-frying or sauteeing.

[merigayle]

What about enchiladas? A batch can easily be two meals or more. Probably most the stuff I eat your family would not enjoy

[Natasha]

What about enchiladas? A batch can easily be two meals or more. Probably most the stuff I eat your family would not enjoy

I think the problem is getting it down to just a few options. I don't want to have to think about what kind of tortillas, or sauce, or filling. Enchiladas could be good.

[LizardMixture]

I used to love cooking, but I'm burned out. I still like baking but that doesn't really help.

What I want are 5 easy, healthy, delicious dinner recipes. Just 5. And I can just keep stocked up on those ingredients, and do smoothies for breakfast and keep a bunch of healthy self-serve snacks to take care of the munchies, and we'd be set.

Yes! That's what I need too. Maybe 7 or 8 so I can rotate and we don't get sick of always the same things.

So far I have
1. Chicken enchiladas & side salad
2. Pot Roast (in the crockpot) w/veggies
3. Grilled chicken on salad with pita

aaand that's all I got. Sloppy joes pretty often but I don't see that as too healthy. Same with pasta & meat sauce.

[rocketgirl]

The tuna and capers pasta recipe that got posted here once.  I tend to use regular onion instead of green onion, sub lemon juice for lemon zest and either skip the parsley or throw in some spinach. 

The chicken and mushroom and rice one is also good, but more non-shelf-stable ingredients.   

For fajitas, I marinate the chicken in soy sauce and garlic, use peppers and onions, and serve with canned black beans and instant rice.  Shredded cheese keeps in the freezer.  Salsa is nice on it too, but not imperative.

Leftover peppers and onions can then go with Italian sausage, sliced tomatoes, red wine, oregano, garlic, etc with pasta.

The black bean and artichoke medley recipe in the vegan recipe thread is also good and uses a lot of canned/jarred stuff, which makes it easy to prepare on the fly. 

Also pork chops or chicken marinated in a Baggie of olive oil, Sauvignon blanc, garlic, salt, rosemary, (sage if you have/like it) and grilled is good too with whatever veggies you like.  Fresh spinach ion butter or olive oil is a staple for me, plus can use the spinach in salad or whatever.  Chicken cooked this way is good cold in Caesar salad as well. 

(I feel like such a poser contributing to a cooking thread...most of my recipes came from the CH!)

[radial]

I feel like a poser too because I don't really cook from recipes so much anymore.  I mostly cook according to the ingredients on hand and what I'm craving at the moment.  For the most part it works out pretty well.  After a while, you get a feel for what ingredients go together and what seasonings bring out the best in them.  Lots easier than actual meal planning.  I still look at recipes for ideas though. 

[Run Amok]

how much cooking is too much? Like I've been trying to get dd to eat more healthfully. She won't eat my veggie food so I will make her some meat to go with. I find myself making chicken thighs a lot because they are easy and cheap. Her fav is just salt, pepper, and a little olive oil- roasted at 425 until the juice runs clear (35 minutes maybe?). If I think ahead I might marinate for 30 minutes in juice from half a lemon, some chopped rosemary (I have a huge bush, you could leave it out) and some garlic- then into the oven. You can also top the chicken with bbq sauce or tomato sauce before baking. I like my pan with foil and the clean up is a snap. If I'm spending a day cooking on a sunday (I do this 1-2 sundays a month) I will buy a big tray of chicken, put them in marinade and then freeze. Even less to do day of.

Same with a steak. Usually I just make it with salt and pepper (dd likes simple flavors). I look for evenly cut steaks of about 1 inch. Heat oven to 450. Heat a cast iron skillet on high- sear for 3-4 minutes on side one. Flip to side two and put into the oven for 4-5 minutes. Pull out of oven and let rest 10 minutes and this reliably produes a med rare steak.

We compromise and she will often have 1/2 cup of my home made apple sauce with her meal and some cut up cukes or raw broccoli florets. She also has to try what I make. She'll eat kale chips and some squash.

Cous-cous is a super fast side. You just boil water, add cous cous, stir, cover for 10 minutes and done! Goes with just about everything.

Easy chicken dish that you can make one of those pre-roasted chicken (or just pulled leftover meat from one) is cook pasta, toss broccoli florets in in the last 3-4 minutes of cooking. Drain the pasta and broccoli, add chicken and some salt. Mix together and serve with parm and a quick salad.

Not super healthy, but popular in my family- a bag of tortellini (I use cheese, you could use chicken), toss frozen peas and a can of artichoke hearts in right before straining (just to warm them), toss with pesto. Done. You could add shredded chicken to this too.

Taco night is easy and comes together quickly.

Sloppy joe is another one that comes together quickly- if your family will eat it. I make my own that is less sweet- but it's basically just a can of tomato sauce, seasonings and ground beef.

I suppose if we're going there there is always something like goulash which can be as simple as: brown beef, an onion, some garlic, add canned tomatoes and itallian seasoning, and a package of pasta. If you go with lean beef and eat mostly sauce with a little pasta- it's not terrible for you and is pretty quick.

Truth be told, eggs make an appearance in my house a lot. My super quick meal is some sort of roasted vegetable (asparagus takes 10 mintues maybe??) topped with an over easy egg. Low calorie and filling. Works with essentially any veg.

2 eggs scrambled with 2 slices of low fat cheese is also plenty filling and super easy.

Another quick meal is to slice up onions and peppers (I do this on sunday a lot but it takes two seconds) and sautee them in the pan along side my veggie burger. I season the veggies with chili powder, garlic and a little cumin and eat them on top of my veggie burger. I throw together a quick salad on the side- easy, quick, around 300 calories. I skip the bun. Plenty filling/satisfying.

Or I take the same veggies and 1/4 cup of refriend beans (micowaved), 2 tbs sour cream, 2 tbs of salsa, and a low cal wrap. Plus a side salad. Yummy,filling, easy,and around 300 calories.

But I *do* try and sit down on saturday or sunday and think about what nights I'm cooking, what meals I'm going to make, and do some prepwork ahead of time. This makes it much less likely for me to call for pizza

[diablita]

Good stuff in here.  And there is always breakfast for dinner (brinner) which can be healthy with a limit on oil-laden stuff (if bacon, no hash browns and vice versa) and the inclusion of some veggies - raw is fine.

As RA wrote, my DD is often happiest with raw vegetables like cucumbers, red bell peppers, she'll even eat romaine leaves if they're raw and undressed.  So while I cook plenty of vegetables and expect her to taste them, I'll often just put out a variety of raw veggies which get eaten up in a day or two between lunch and dinner.  I try to prep the stuff when I get it home so it doesn't sit forgotten in the fridge.

 

[merigayle]

my DD likes soup so we do a lot of soups- miso filled with root veggies, bean soups, etc.

[Courtney]

I made oven fajitas on Sunday night and they were incredibly easy.  Just cut up your onion, pepper, and chicken breast into strips and put in a baking dish.  Sprinkle with fajita seasoning.  I make my own, but you could certainly buy the packets if you want.  Drizzle on some oil, and stir it all up so everything is coated with seasoning and oil.  Throw into a 400 degree oven for 40 minutes, stirring part way through.  When they came out of the oven I squeezed half of a lime over top, but you could skip that.  Serve in tortillas with sour cream.  It was so much easier than stir-frying or sauteeing.

Good lord, that sounds good.  I have realized I love lime. 

Thanks for the ideas, y'all.    Hopefully it's helpful to more people, too! 

[SandraDee]

I'm definitely lazy, but I do like to cook.  But, I HATE to clean up.  That is what keeps me from cooking, especially if my kitchen is clean.  I don't want to mess it up because then I have to clean it! 

[triciaflower]

Good lord, that sounds good.  I have realized I love lime. 

Thanks for the ideas, y'all.    Hopefully it's helpful to more people, too! 

I posted a "recipe" in another thread.. I forget which.

I made Cilantro lime chicken. I sliced up some red onion, jalapeno, and garlic, satueed that with sliced chicken sprinkled with salt, pepper, and lime juice. I Cooked it until it was done and then threw on cilantro. Done and done. Soooo good. You can serve it with rice, or salad, or tater tots! 

[omega lambda]

I'm definitely lazy, but I do like to cook.  But, I HATE to clean up.  That is what keeps me from cooking, especially if my kitchen is clean.  I don't want to mess it up because then I have to clean it! 

Hee!

I don't mind the clean up so much and I have found that once I've cleaned up the kitchen, I'm inspired by all those clean work surfaces to start again!    For some reason, the thing I dislike is emptying the dishwasher.