What are your faves?

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fried_green_tomatoes

Assistant Cook
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
6
Location
Johnson City
What are your favorite quick, fairly cheap and ready within an hour meals?

I love making things from scratch but cooking for a lot of people I sometimes have to make what is going to feed everyone fast lol.

My favorites:

Chicken pot pie--rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken, diced carrots, onion and celery or sometimes just a bag or can of frozen carrots and peas, a can of cream of chicken soup & celery/mushroom etc, about a cup of milk and top with a roll crescent rolls, and bake for about 30 minutes.

Baked Ravioli--two jars of marinara, a bag and a half of frozen ravioli, shredded mozzarella...alternate layers of sauce, ravioli, and top with cheese. Ready in 30-45 minutes.

Beans/Rice/Sausage ----Sliced smoked sausage or kielbasa, box of yellow or cajun rice, and a can of black beans. Ready in minutes and fills you up!
 
Chicken fried rice, fried diced chicken ( flavoured with soy, ginger corinader), frozen pea, cooked rice mixed in a frying pan and heated.

Otto Pasta: Broth cooked pasta, with diced bell pepper, peas and corn and ham , served with sour cream dressing. This served warm. If it is cold and mixed with the dressing then it is pasta salad.

Anything with falukorv, a Swedish sausage that is used instead of meat in some dishes.

Corn Chowder: Corn, milk, cream, onion, spices mixed smoothed, cooked with stock cube, cheese stirred in served with nachos and bacon.
 
Cream of ____ soups are quick and easy. Butter Roux, frozen veggies (thawed), water, salt and pepper, cream.

Tuna Melts. tuna, mayo, cheese, bread
 
Made ahead soups, stews, casseroles and sauces. We usually make a few dishes over the weekend to have as either "just heat it up" one pot meals, pasta sauces where you just heat it up and cook the pasta or double pans where one is for dinner and one is frozen such as lasagna or stuffed shells.

This past Sunday I made a Red Posole, from the May BA mag :mad:, which we had last night with some flour tortillas. The recipe needed a lot of tweaking. About every 6 months, we'll grind, stuff and smoke (if required) 20 to 30 pounds of Cajun sausages and tasso to freeze.

Seafood, IMO isn't a "do ahead" thing. But then again, I'm a snob when it comes to seafood.:ROFLMAO:

I will say that we don't often repeat meals, with the exception of leftovers for breakfast/lunch, in the same month.
 
Here is a really easy one. A large can of black beans, a small can of Rotel tomatoes & chilis, and some kind of diced up meat, like ham or smoked sausage.

Put it in a dutch oven, or a crock pot, and let it simmer till you are ready to serve.

You can really make all kinds of alterations to this. The beans and Rotel tomatoes are the main ingredients. I sometimes add diced onions, or frozen corn. Lots of different meats work, too.

CD
 
I rarely make anything that takes an hour unless it's a holiday meal! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

When I need a fast easy inexpensive meal in minutes I make breakfast.

French toast.

Scrambled eggs or an omelet with whatever odds and ends I can find in the refrigerator.

Bacon & eggs with toast, if you have an extra half hour add some home fries.

Grilled ham and cheese on Pepperidge Farm Swirl bread.

A bowl of cheerios or oatmeal, add a banana and a toasted English muffin.
 
Broiled salmon, peas, mashed potatoes, tossed salad (ready in 20)
Walleye, peas/green beans/asparagus, tossed salad (ready in 30)
Burgers, potato salad, fresh fruit (ready in 10--the homemaker makes the potato salad)

I love the pressure cooker for apricot chicken, beef stew, and pork chops. Ready in 15.

I have a window from about 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. before my Mom sundowns, so I've gotten really good at meals from scratch that I can get from prep to table in 20-30 minutes or less. Otherwise, I am throwing out my Mom's portion (now I am keeping a "chicken" bucket under the sink for one of our caregivers who has chickens...still working on convincing my Dad that we need chickens...).
 
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A jar of pasta sauce, some sliced Italian sausage or other easy meat to be sautéed quickly and add to sauce, and some Angle Hair or other quick cooking pasta. I always sautéed the meat in the pan first then tossed in the jar of sauce to heat up. Ready in 20 minutes.

Plate it, put a loaf of Artisan bread on the table with a hunk of Romano or Parmasan cheese with a grater and everyone is happy.

My kids always got home late with a huge appetite from practice of whatever they were involved in. By the time the last kid came through the door and washed up, the food was ready. Their favorite meal. In the winter it was beef stew that had been on low in the oven all day.

On Saturday it was always home made baked beans in a bean pot. Put everything in the pot and place in oven. Take it out eight hours later. Serve with brown bread.

If you have a house full of hungry kids, you have to have some quick meals to make for them.

Unfortunately my husband always worked the second shift. Having been on his feet for 12 hours or more, by the time with all the tasting he did on the job, he wasn't too hungry. Most of the time it was leftovers for him.
 
Hamburger stroganoff, I sometimes throw a can of corn in this and serve over pasta.

leftover chili served over mashed potatoes
Sloppy Joes, tacos, burritos. Taco salads
soup and grilled cheese
Breakfast for dinner. I like French toast plus anything else that goes with it.
 
Gnocchi prepared in 5 minutes with whatever sauce or tortellini with butter ,sage and parmisan.
Or still easier a dish of sliced salame-Parma raw ham- pieces of parmisan and speck with vegetables like lettuce or beans with onions or Belgian salade with bacon rolled up(the last one a bit cooked in the oven).
Or i always keep in the fridge a roll of flaky pastry . In twenty minute i prepare a salting cake .
Or ....frozen pizza.
 
I love most all things Italian..

When growing up, a neighbor was originally from Italy.. Her grandson was my buddy..
She would invite me in for after school snacks.. My normal after school snack was something like fruit, cheese and crackers.. She served us samples of what she was preparing for her family dinner.. I got to taste so many delightful dishes, which lead me to a lifelong love for Italian food..

I miss the simplicity and flavors of those childhood days..

Although I am much older now than she was back then, I want a true nonna to cook for me again.. :yum:

Ross
 
I'm a nonna who likes cooking foods not too complicated but tasty. When i enter my house and i smell a good flavour of cake or brased meat or lasagne or rosted rabbit with sage and rosemary, i remember my childhood . It is the same good smell of my mother.
 
Red Rabbit

One of my favourite dish is the rabbit in chunks.
I make it browned with Evo oil. Then I salt and add half liter of white wine.
I add one tbs of a mix of herbs like origano-basil-mint-marjoram -garlic and chili pepper.+salt
I let the wine dry for around 30 minutes an then i add tomatoes or tomato souce and i follow cooking .
When cooked i prepare polenta to be served with.
Good Appetit
 
Tw0 favorites here:
1. Chicken rice pilaf
2 pkgs Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup
1 lb, ground beef
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced.
3/4 cup rice
Brown the ground beef. Add the other ingredients, plus2 1/2 cups water. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook ofer low heat for 30 minutes. Yum.

2.American Goulash
2 cupe rotini noodles, cooked to al dente in salted water.
1 lb. ground beef, browned, and chunky.
1 jar Prego mushroom spagheti sauce.
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced.
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
3 cloves of carlic, minced
Saute the onion, and peppers until tender. Add the garlic, and cooked ground beef. Simmer for 5 inutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with grated Italian cheese, and crusty, buttered bread.

Both of these recipes are great tasting, and quick, one-pot meals.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Ms Mofet's Hot dogs with tomato & onions

hot_dogs_onions_tomato_100211_P1090054.JPG
 
I guess we can pick this up now that the Holidays are over.

Two Sauce Pans, two burners, one plate.

Open a can of tomatoes, Corn, and Okra and add to the sauce pan 1. Add a tsp of butter or margarine and one beef bouillon cube and some sliced smoked sausage. Any other seasonings you would like. (I usually add 1 Tb of dried onion flakes) Bring to a boil and then allow to cool some.

Cook a cup of white rice in sauce pan 2.

Lay the rice out as a bed on a plate and spoon the T-C-O over it. Dust with Parmesan cheese and a shot or two of hot sauce.

A 20 minute dinner with relatively little clean up.

Ice Tea and some French bread usually goes well with this.
 
I have made many Thai curries, when I would put the rice to cook in the rice cooker, then start the dish. Often, the timer would have 2-3 min left on the rice, when the dish was done! Of course, this didn't include making the curry paste - I always have some of those in the freezer, which I thaw in the MW (or remove to the fridge, on those seldom times I think about it the day before!).
 
Chief's Sloppy Joe's
There was once a member who called herself Crewsk. She purchased on of my cookbooks and tried my Sloppy Joe recipe. She stated that she didn't like Sloppy Jjoes, but gave it a try. She reported that she loved my version, and tht her husband took left-overs to work. Then, she had to make more as his co-workers also loved them. So, I'm sharing it again, copied and pasted from my cookbook. The recipe is easy to multiply for larger crowds.


Sloppy Joe's
Before I met my wife, I was going out with another young lady who lived at home with her parents. One day I was at her place and she said “Ya want some lunch”? Of course, being an
exceptionally slender twenty‑year‑old, with an ultra‑high
metabolism (whatever happened to that metabolism anyway), I
said “Sure”.
She went into the kitchen to find a can of store‑bought Sloppy Joe sauce and some ground beef. To make a long story short, she had no sauce and was at a loss for something to make. I replied that peanut butter and jelly would be fine. She complained that her heart was set on Sloppy Joe's.
I said “Well let me see whatcha got.” She had ketchup, brown
sugar, Worcestershire Sauce, tomato paste, etc. I quickly
threw together a sauce with fresh chopped onions and green
peppers added for texture and flavor. She was amazed. I was
amazed that she was amazed. But I was the culinary hero (a
dangerous thing for a twenty year old whose head swelled
easily). I wasn't yet a very good cook. But this seemed pretty
elementary to me.
The point of this is that with a little imagination, you can
create almost any recipe you desire. And remember, if you make
your own, you can tailor it to your tastes.
This is the original “meal in a pan”. As an example of the
“tailor it to your taste” principle, my wife's idea of Sloppy
Joe Sauce is completely different from mine. But hers is
really good, and exceptionally easy to make. However, this is
my book so your going to get my sauce. After you get the idea,
you can make your own, modified to fit your family's tastes.
You can even use the store‑bought stuff if you like it. I won't
tell.
*
Ingredients:
1‑4 oz. can tomato paste
1‑6 oz can Tomato Sauce
1‑12 oz. can dark red kidney beans
1 clove minced garlic
½ medium yellow onion, diced
3 heaping tbs. chopped green pepper
1/4 cup dark brown sugar (for Diabetics, substitute an equal
amount of Splenda brand sweetener and a tsp. of molasses)
1 tsp. Chili Powder
½ tsp. Salt
1 tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1 bay leaf, crumbled
2 tbs. olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
Place ground beef into a 12 inch covered frying pan and place over medium heat. While the pan is warming, add the olive oil to a 1 quart sauce pan and apply medium heat. Add the garlic,
onion, and bay leaf to the oil and saute until the onion turns
translucent. Add the remaining ingredients, stir until well
blended, cover and turn down heat to simmer.
Lift the lid from the ground beef and break up the meat into
bite sized chunks. Lightly salt the meat, stir, and cover.
Check the meat and stir the sauce every five minutes until the
meat is cooked through.
Drain the meat into a suitable bowl and place the juice in the refrigerator for later use. Combine the meat and sauce and serve over hamburger buns.

Qjuiv, easy, and feeds a crowd/ Of course I would expect you to change the recipe to your taste. But If you enjoy htis straight up, that's good too. Enjoy.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 

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