Last night I made dinner in nine minutes - a new record!

[Anonymous]

Organic chicken tenders from TJs - dumped into a Ziplock, and then poured in soy vey sauce and coconut aminos. Frozen TJ's rice medley. Frozen mixed vegetables. Let the chicken marinate for an hour or a little more. Then take it out for ten minutes and pour the ziplock into a frying pan on medium high. Microwave the rice for three minutes and veg. Put all in bowl, add some cashews.

Everyone liked it, and it was SO easy! Every dinner should be this quick and this simple.

[Anonymous]

how is that 9 minutes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how is that 9 minutes?

What? Because OP was educated in USA?

[Anonymous]

Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

[Anonymous]

I guess it could have been 9 minutes of cooking, but the hour marinade would be a dealbreaker for me on weeknights.

Here's my quick dinner entry:
Ahi tuna steaks, pulled from the freezer the night before and thawed in the fridge
Big bag of baby spinach
Ready cooked rice

Pat the fins streaks dry, sprinkle with salt, sprinkle with sesame seeds (optional).
Heat a pan, wilt the spinach with olive oil and salt. Wipe out the pan (or use a different one), crank the heat super high. Sear the tuna 30-60 seconds each side. Plate.
Meanwhile, heat the rice in the microwave.

If the kids can be put to work setting the table, dinner is served within ten minutes of me walking in the door. Shrimp is also really fast if you don't like seared tuna.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

What vegetables roast in 15 minutes, including prep time? I imagine children thighs are small enough to cook quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

I’m not OP, but pretentious people like you just set my eyes a-rolling.

You are such a superior diner!! Ha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

I’m not OP, but pretentious people like you just set my eyes a-rolling.

You are such a superior diner!! Ha.

She eats undercooked children’s thighs. How superior can she be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

What vegetables roast in 15 minutes, including prep time? I imagine children thighs are small enough to cook quickly.

Love your typo I buy pre-cut broccoli and cauliflower florets which I usually halve, halve baby carrots, halve baby potatoes. I don’t pre-heat the oven, I find letting them cook in a heating oven crisps things up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well that menu doesn’t sound good to me but I regularly make dinner in 15–roasted fresh vegetables, broiled salmon or children thighs, bread, rice, or roasted potatoes. Lots of “sheet” meals are fast and broiling proteins can also be fast. Or pan-seared shrimp, also lightening fast.

I’m not OP, but pretentious people like you just set my eyes a-rolling.

You are such a superior diner!! Ha.

Sorry frozen vegetables are disgusting!

Also I didn’t even realize it was my typo hahaha

[Anonymous]

I do this often. Today I made rice, dal, fish curry, fried spicy potatoes, and butter-paneer in less than 15 minutes. Fed 6 adults and 2 kids

1) Rice and daal was cooked together in my pressure cooker. Daal was tempered with cumin seeds, ghee, asoephotida powder and garlic slices.

2) Spicy potatoes - sizzled some dry ground spices in a pan with ghee, (coriander, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chilly powder and salt) with boiled peeled small potatoes. Served with squeeze of lemon and chopped coriander leaves.

3) Butter paneer - Simmered cooked pureed onion-garlic paste with organic home-made creamy tomato soup. Dunked frozen fried paneer in it, 2 heapng tbsn of MDH butter chicken masala, dried fenugreek leaves and a generous pour of heavy cream.

4) Fish curry - Fried fish steaks added to frozen premade mustard-onion masala. Add a little water and simmer for 4-5 minutes to make a thin curry. Add a bit of sour tamarind paste (from concentrate) in water and add to the curry to give the tangy taste.

Kept the salad simple - just sliced cucumber sprinkled with salt. And I nuked pre-made rotis and spread some kerrygold butter on it to keep it soft and delicious. All of this in 15 minutes.

I do most of my prep work for food during the weekend and every month I make huge amounts of premade sauces and masalas so that every meal is under 10 minutes. Te best part is that I can cook up a feast to feed any guest who comes to our house unexpectedly because I have the building blocks ready.

This is similar to what the OP did, in that she used a lot of prepped food to make dinner. I don't buy prepped food from the store. I prep the food myself so that I can control the quantity, menu, cost, quality of ingredients etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Organic chicken tenders from TJs - dumped into a Ziplock, and then poured in soy vey sauce and coconut aminos. Frozen TJ's rice medley. Frozen mixed vegetables. Let the chicken marinate for an hour or a little more. Then take it out for ten minutes and pour the ziplock into a frying pan on medium high. Microwave the rice for three minutes and veg. Put all in bowl, add some cashews.

Everyone liked it, and it was SO easy! Every dinner should be this quick and this simple.

It doesn't sound particularily interesting, heating pre-made stuff from TJ.
A bowl of milk and cheerios sounds better, and quicker!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do this often. Today I made rice, dal, fish curry, fried spicy potatoes, and butter-paneer in less than 15 minutes. Fed 6 adults and 2 kids

1) Rice and daal was cooked together in my pressure cooker. Daal was tempered with cumin seeds, ghee, asoephotida powder and garlic slices.

2) Spicy potatoes - sizzled some dry ground spices in a pan with ghee, (coriander, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chilly powder and salt) with boiled peeled small potatoes. Served with squeeze of lemon and chopped coriander leaves.

3) Butter paneer - Simmered cooked pureed onion-garlic paste with organic home-made creamy tomato soup. Dunked frozen fried paneer in it, 2 heapng tbsn of MDH butter chicken masala, dried fenugreek leaves and a generous pour of heavy cream.

4) Fish curry - Fried fish steaks added to frozen premade mustard-onion masala. Add a little water and simmer for 4-5 minutes to make a thin curry. Add a bit of sour tamarind paste (from concentrate) in water and add to the curry to give the tangy taste.

Kept the salad simple - just sliced cucumber sprinkled with salt. And I nuked pre-made rotis and spread some kerrygold butter on it to keep it soft and delicious. All of this in 15 minutes.

I do most of my prep work for food during the weekend and every month I make huge amounts of premade sauces and masalas so that every meal is under 10 minutes. Te best part is that I can cook up a feast to feed any guest who comes to our house unexpectedly because I have the building blocks ready.

This is similar to what the OP did, in that she used a lot of prepped food to make dinner. I don't buy prepped food from the store. I prep the food myself so that I can control the quantity, menu, cost, quality of ingredients etc.

I could never eat that much curry and spices in a given week. I like more variety in flavors.

[Anonymous]

I can make a bowl of cereal in ten seconds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do this often. Today I made rice, dal, fish curry, fried spicy potatoes, and butter-paneer in less than 15 minutes. Fed 6 adults and 2 kids

1) Rice and daal was cooked together in my pressure cooker. Daal was tempered with cumin seeds, ghee, asoephotida powder and garlic slices.

2) Spicy potatoes - sizzled some dry ground spices in a pan with ghee, (coriander, cumin seeds, turmeric, red chilly powder and salt) with boiled peeled small potatoes. Served with squeeze of lemon and chopped coriander leaves.

3) Butter paneer - Simmered cooked pureed onion-garlic paste with organic home-made creamy tomato soup. Dunked frozen fried paneer in it, 2 heapng tbsn of MDH butter chicken masala, dried fenugreek leaves and a generous pour of heavy cream.

4) Fish curry - Fried fish steaks added to frozen premade mustard-onion masala. Add a little water and simmer for 4-5 minutes to make a thin curry. Add a bit of sour tamarind paste (from concentrate) in water and add to the curry to give the tangy taste.

Kept the salad simple - just sliced cucumber sprinkled with salt. And I nuked pre-made rotis and spread some kerrygold butter on it to keep it soft and delicious. All of this in 15 minutes.

I do most of my prep work for food during the weekend and every month I make huge amounts of premade sauces and masalas so that every meal is under 10 minutes. Te best part is that I can cook up a feast to feed any guest who comes to our house unexpectedly because I have the building blocks ready.

This is similar to what the OP did, in that she used a lot of prepped food to make dinner. I don't buy prepped food from the store. I prep the food myself so that I can control the quantity, menu, cost, quality of ingredients etc.

This is amazing. Please share some other masalas that you freeze + prep. (Fellow desi working mom here - making an assumption - but very very new to this balance)