I get sick of long steps which take a lot of time and preparation (and effort). Call me lazy, thats ok. But I just made a beef lo mein dish that took a lot time and tasted like ####. And that isn't the first failure by a long shot.
Thanks for the in depth suggestionHow about this quick, but tasty and nutritions veggie dish. It helps to make it easy if you have frozen veggies, that are already cut into pieces, what Jacques Pépin calls letting the store be your sous-chef. I enjoy this and it's quick and easy.
If you don't have any frozen chopped or sliced onion, chop or slice some onion. Pull out any leafy greens that you happen to have on hand and roughly chop those into bite size pieces. You probably want about half a cup of chopped greens per serving. The leafy greens are optional. You can even use lettuce that is starting to wilt. It is handy to have a nice veggie mix or several kinds of frozen veggies. Choose something you like, whether it's individual veggies, a stir fry mix, California mix, or some other mix that you like. Have some curry paste handy. Pataks makes a lot of different curry pastes. Choose one at a heat level you think you will enjoy. Also, have some coconut milk, plain yogourt, or cream handy.
Start by frying your onions. Add garlic and/or ginger if you like those. Add a bit of the curry paste. Adding some now will wake up the flavours in the curry paste and help it spread to everything. Once the curry paste is fragrant, start adding frozen veggies. If it's a mix, add some of the mix. If it is individual types of veg, start with the ones that take the longest to cook, like carrots or larger pieces of broccoli or cauliflower. Then start adding corn and green beans and peppers. If you are using a tender green like baby chard or spinach, add it towards the end. If you are using something tougher, like kale, add it now. When everything looks like it is defrosted and has not changed to some dull green colour yet, add some coconut milk, yogourt, or cream (10% works fairly well). Taste your veggie dish. Add some more curry paste, if you think it needs it. Make it as saucy as you like by adding more coconut milk, yogourt, or cream. You could even add some veggie or chicken stock, especially if the sauce is getting to thick. Taste it again. Season with salt and optional pepper to taste. Add more curry paste if you think that would be good. Stir in any tender greens that you want to incorporate. I stir in baby peas right before I take this off the heat.
By the way, your choice of veg is what you have and what you like. This could lean towards Asian or easily lean towards Italian or other cuisines. It's up to you. Canned tomatoes, tomato paste or tomato sauce could be one of the ingredients, if that appeals to you.
There you go. One of my tastiest and easiest veggie side dishes. Of course, once you get it the way you like, you could always add some protein of choice and cook it with the veg, or used some already cooked protein that was left or planned over from a previous meal.
Grocery shopping: Get a bag of shredded cabbage/carrots, a can or two of beans, make some rice (or boil in the bag kind), and some baked tortillas or chips. Taco sauce.
Assemble: Crumble up some tortillas, top with rice and beans, top that with cabbage/carrots shreds, and add enough taco sauce to flavor it. Eat it hot, warm, or cold.
Optional:
If you like to have chicken or beef with it, cook it up and add that too.
Shred up cheese to top it off if that is your thing.
Once you have all that stuff opened and made, you'll have enough for a few days...vary having it more like a salad or more like a main dish, hot or cold, you could even sprinkle ingredients over the tortilla chips and bake them for a hefty nacho dinner.
Second that!Google Sheet Pan Suppers
Yeah, but you have to really be moving with them. I cooked along with her a couple of times back when she first started. Most people can't keep up and get it done within the 30 minutes as I seem to remember a lot of complaints that it wasn't realistic for an average cook. They weren't hard to make, but don't expect it to actually take 30 minutes for most cooks.When I first got interested in cooking, I watched Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals. She has great, quick recipes and gives a lot of tips about cooking as she goes along. Check out her videos on the Food Network site:
I said I learned a lot about how to cook from watching the show, not that I cooked along with it or expected to do a meal in 30 minutes like she did. All the recipes are available to be printed out from the website. I thought it was a good teaching tool.Yeah, but you have to really be moving with them. I cooked along with her a couple of times back when she first started. Most people can't keep up and get it done within the 30 minutes as I seem to remember a lot of complaints that it wasn't realistic for an average cook. They weren't hard to make, but don't expect it to actually take 30 minutes for most cooks.
And I didn't write that you did. I was explaining that 30 minutes isn't a realistic expectation for most.I said I learned a lot about how to cook from watching the show, not that I cooked along with it or expected to do a meal in 30 minutes like she did. All the recipes are available to be printed out from the website. I thought it was a good teaching tool.
I can make at least 20 different pasta recipes from what's currently in my fridge and freezer and generally takes no more time than it take to boil the water and cook the pasta.
Yes, I agree. When I don't have time that's what I do. No need to wash anything, peel, slice, chop, or any of those time-consuming jobs, limited waiting times. I usually have sliced zucchini in my freezer. While the water's boiling, I pan-fry chopped onions, throw in frozen zucchini, cook a few minutes. To add a little extra touch, I add frozen prawns, which will take just a little longer but still in the range of time of the pasta cooking time!
The fastest of course is pasta with a quick canned tomato sauce, or faster still, simply spaghetti "aglio e olio, peperoncino" (chopped garlic and a chilli pepper, parsley, in EVOO.)