Now that I am on bed rest, it usually falls to Paul to scrounge up something for dinner. He’s always done a lot of the cooking for our family, but now he has to cook while keeping up with a 19-month-old and somehow squeeze it in between work and household chores. We often receive meals from friends and family, which is great, but it’s nice when Paul gets to cook — it makes life feel a little bit more normal.
However, as I’ve been making meal plans for each week, I’ve noticed us falling into a rut. There are only certain meals we can squeeze into the tiny amount of time that is available to us. Dishes that require a lot of preparation or a long baking time aren’t always practical.
So I am turning to you, talented friends. What are your go-to quick-and-easy recipes? Gimme gimme.
Here are the picky requirements, though:
– The meals must involve very little processed food. We try to stay away from sodium, preservatives, and corn syrup.
– The meals must truly be easy from the start. So, starting with a cup of cooked chicken leftover from last night’s homemade soup is cheating — that actually requires the extra prep of cooking chicken before starting the rest of the easy dish, because we generally don’t have leftover cooked chicken sitting in our fridge.
– Paul won’t eat beans, and I won’t eat fish. And I probably won’t eat eggs (that’s a pregnant thing for me).
Okay, chefs, are you up to the challenge? Don’t worry if you are flummoxed by my requirements; we can continue quite happily with our current list of meals. However, I think it might be fun to see what you guys suggest!
We actually had this last night, and is our go to when the godkids come over (I had to assemble six and only had teeny white potatoes instead of the honkers we usually get, so the prep time was a little longer than usual).
Anyway, the kids call it Oven Chicken.
– Chicken breast, fresh or frozen
– Potatoes (we usually put one per person, depending on size)
– veggies (frozen, canned, fresh)
– butter or margarine
In heavy duty foil, lay down a pat of butter, then the chicken breast and season to taste. Add the potatoes, and season if you’d like. Put the veggies on top of that (we usually use corn, but green beans, butter beans, pretty much anything will work). Season the veggies and put a little pat of butter on the top.
Fold the foil over the top to make a packet, then fold in the ends to seal it. Stick it in the oven at 400 for an hour. Only dishes that get dirty are the plates you eat off of.
We’ve used margarine, olive oil margarine, butter, and the soy margarine. Depending on the size of the chicken, sometimes it takes longer, but an hour usually does it. Oh, and I put the packets on a cookie sheet just in case they leak. Other than that, it’s pretty hard to mess this one up (which is why I make it all the time, I can ruin boiled water). 😉
Ack – forgot to add to peel and chunk or slice the taters. Doesn’t really matter how, just small enough so that they’ll fit in the packet and cook evenly.
Are you hummus eaters? Hummus, tomato, and onion in a pita is my fast food. I also eat hummus on apple slices as a snack. Hummus is easy to make – but I usually just buy at a Turkish or Kosher deli. Ummm. Yeah. Good luck with that.
I’m also really into roasting veggies on aluminum as @jag said.
Do you guys have a slow cooker? If so: there are a lot of easy recipes that just involve chucking stuff in there… could make you copies of some if you want!
P.S. Oh, that anonymous person was me, Emily!
A quickie that I like is breakfast for supper! Pancakes or waffles topped with fruit…low on the veggie scale – but good in a pinch.
Also – I’ve done jag’s oven chicken with fish – and very lean beaf patty….think kababs in foil without the skewers. Good stuff. Especially on cold days when the oven helps heat the house.
Kaye
Lots of leftover cooked chicken can be obtained from a good (store-bought) rotisserie chicken, enough for 3 meals. Paul can pick one up somewhere where they make them without MSG or MSG-producing additives (Whole Foods has delicious ones) and you can take the meat off the bone while you’re in bed. Granted, you’d have to get up to wash your hands afterwards, and I don’t know what your limits are, so this may or may not be a feasible idea! Use the pulled roasted chicken in quesadillas, toss it into a veggie-stir fry toward the end, just long enough to coat it with the sauce, or use it to make a white chicken pizza.
I *adore* eye of the round roast (beef): One eye of round roast (they’re usually 3-4lbs), sprinkle *liberally* with salt, pepper, garlic and worchestershire sauce. Roast at 325 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours–NO MORE! for a nice medium rare. Takes quite a bit of cooking time, though, but sets you up for great roast beef, especially thinly sliced for leftovers. I serve this with brown rice and a bag of Steamfresh broccoli. When I serve the leftovers from this roast, I don’t try to reheat it, just let it come to room temp and serve it sliced.
Muffins and no-nitrite/no-nitrate bacon make a good meal. Paul can add an egg or two if he wants and needs the extra food. I have 2 or 3 excellent muffin recipes that are full of really good things–if you are interested, I’ll post them.
The challenge of this is fantastic, by the way–you can expect me to pour through my brain while I go wash the dishes and come back with another comment or two later on!
Thanks for the ideas, everybody!
Jag — So I can just stick a frozen chicken breast in the bottom of the foil, and that works?
Amy — I love hummus, but that might be a meal for me rather than Paul. I indulged in hummus and pita chips the other day. Yummmmmm.
Emily – We do have a slow cooker! It seems like so many recipes call for cooking the meat first, but I love the idea of chucking stuff in there!
Kaye — I [heart] breakfast as dinner!
Sarah — Rotisserie chicken is an idea….hm….thanks!
Grilled cheese is a favorite when I’m in a hurry. Add ham or turkey to make it hearty, and soup along side for a chilly day meal.
Do you guys have a Crock Pot or a slow cooker?
I’ve got some good recipes that are easy for the Crock Pot.