Simple, easy dinner ideas?

[Anonymous]

I feel like we eat the same thing every week and my palate is BORED!!! Any easy suggestions for working mom who wants dinner fast, but not microwaved??

Thanks! Have a great weekend...brrrr....it's cold...

[Anonymous]

Take out - ha, ha. Seriously, for me the key to making so many dinners fast and easy is being prepared - having the meat/veggies on hand and defrosted. That's so much of the battle. So I am trying to menu plan/shop on Sundays. I'm moderately successful with those efforts. What I'm making is of the Mark Bittman school of simple foods, simply prepared, and seasonal if possible. An example of a fast easy dinner: roast/bake any fish in store bought marinade - takes 15 minutes tops; microwave steam a veg on the side, whatever looks good in the store - takes less than 5 minutes; and last my family likes a carb side so I will steam rice, or cut up sweet potoatoes small and roast in olive oil and sea salt (the smaller you cut them, the faster they cook), or make Near East cous cous. I know it's not too exciting, bt we get variety bc I switch up chicken/fish and the marinades. I also love the Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook and get lots of great ideas from it - from the cookbook my family loves the lemon oregano chicken; honey sesame spaghetti; indonesian chicken satay; honey curry chicken (yes we have sweet teeth!); and lots of the fish dishes. Most of the recipes are easy and fast and are organized seasonally!

[Anonymous]

Veggie fajitas

We buy an onion and some bell peppers and saute it up with some vegetarian chicken strips, then serve it with homemade guac, tortillas, sour cream, diced tomatoes, grated cheese etc

Fast and delicious.

[Anonymous]

We had Swai tonight -- I put it in the oven frozen (came in a big bag of individually wrapped and frozen fillets) with some butter chips on it, lemon juice, what i think may be paprika, salt and some Adobo seasoning. While it baked I boiled some Orzo and heated frozen spinach in a pan with butter and salt. (Also served the orzo with butter.) It was really simple and my kids ate it.

I made a big batch of meatballs recently which we ate several times -- spaghetti with meatballs could not be easier, with a jar of spaghetti sauce heated up with frozen spinach in it so the entire meal is covered.

Made a big batch of crepes recently, with a filling of leftover turkey which I pulled out of the freezer, two spears of cooked asparagus each, and some garlicy-spinach sauce which was basically glorified gravy that I buzzed cooked spinach into with the stick blender. I let the kids shake a bunch of Parmesan on top. The leftovers were good heated up in the oven. I'm going to try to freeze them too, see if that works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had Swai tonight -- I put it in the oven frozen (came in a big bag of individually wrapped and frozen fillets) with some butter chips on it, lemon juice, what i think may be paprika, salt and some Adobo seasoning. While it baked I boiled some Orzo and heated frozen spinach in a pan with butter and salt. (Also served the orzo with butter.) It was really simple and my kids ate it.

I made a big batch of meatballs recently which we ate several times -- spaghetti with meatballs could not be easier, with a jar of spaghetti sauce heated up with frozen spinach in it so the entire meal is covered.

Made a big batch of crepes recently, with a filling of leftover turkey which I pulled out of the freezer, two spears of cooked asparagus each, and some garlicy-spinach sauce which was basically glorified gravy that I buzzed cooked spinach into with the stick blender. I let the kids shake a bunch of Parmesan on top. The leftovers were good heated up in the oven. I'm going to try to freeze them too, see if that works.

Sorry, I realize that making the batch of crepes was a big production that you would not want to do after coming home from work; but once I had the big batch in the fridge they heated up easily in the oven.

[Anonymous]

Mexican Mix: be creative and add/subtract whatever you want from this recipe. It's always a hit.

brown 1-2 lbs ground meat of your choice with chopped onions in large skillet

add:
1 jar salsa
1 packet taco seasoning
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 box of chopped spinach (squeeze out water first)
1-2 cups of mexican mix shredded cheese
1 cup frozen corn

Bring all to a boil and let simmer.

This tastes good in soft tortillas, taco shells, or by iteslf. Can serve with sour cream/guac/lettuce, etc. Makes enough to last for a week of leftovers.

[Anonymous]

OP, you don't tell us which foods you are sick of, so I don't know what to suggest. Quesadillas made with whole wheat tortillas, whatever cheese is on hand and baby spinach is always a quick meal for us. Anything you don't want to hear about?

[Anonymous]

Frittatas with whatever we have around - this week it is onion, red peppers, and Swiss chard. Big salads with whatever else is around - today it has salmon (from freezer) green beans, potatoes and tomatoes. When I make each veggie, I make it all and use the leftovers in other meals. Bean soups with squash.

[Anonymous]

Tonight I browned chicken in a sauté pan that can also go in the oven, add some chopped garlic (I have the kind already chopped in water in the fridge) Splash of white wine I hadnopen, lemon juice (1/2 of a lemon) can of cream of mushroom soup and 1/3 of a container of borsin cheese
Mixed everything around and popped it in the oven for 30 minutes while I cooked pasta and a veggie
Came out really good, the prep time before oven was only about 5 minutes so the whole dinner was quick to make

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take out - ha, ha. Seriously, for me the key to making so many dinners fast and easy is being prepared - having the meat/veggies on hand and defrosted. That's so much of the battle. So I am trying to menu plan/shop on Sundays. I'm moderately successful with those efforts. What I'm making is of the Mark Bittman school of simple foods, simply prepared, and seasonal if possible. An example of a fast easy dinner: roast/bake any fish in store bought marinade - takes 15 minutes tops; microwave steam a veg on the side, whatever looks good in the store - takes less than 5 minutes; and last my family likes a carb side so I will steam rice, or cut up sweet potoatoes small and roast in olive oil and sea salt (the smaller you cut them, the faster they cook), or make Near East cous cous. I know it's not too exciting, bt we get variety bc I switch up chicken/fish and the marinades. I also love the Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook and get lots of great ideas from it - from the cookbook my family loves the lemon oregano chicken; honey sesame spaghetti; indonesian chicken satay; honey curry chicken (yes we have sweet teeth!); and lots of the fish dishes. Most of the recipes are easy and fast and are organized seasonally!

Your idea for sweet potatoes sounds delicious! Just curious--do you leave the skins on when you cut them up? And about how long are they cooking and at what temp? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Here's what we've had the last week:
grilled steak, cheesy orzo, sauteed mushrooms spinach
tom kha gai soup over rice
spaghetti, broccolini
shepherds pie
salmon, asparagus, rice
tacos
grilled cheese and tomato soup

All super quick. Highly recommend hearty soups in winter. My cuisinart mini-prep and immersion blender are my best friends for this.

Thanks to the PP who recommended Mark Bittman, am sure I can find some more ideas there.

[Anonymous]

Sweet potato/mark bittman PP here-
Re the roasted sweet potatoes - definitely leave skin on; chop into small cubes; toss in olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt; bake at 425 for 30 min or so (a bit shorter is small cubes, a bit longer if big cubes). Stir them around about halfway thru cooking. This works with virtually any vegetable- softer veggies like mushrooms, zucchini take less time, like 20 min, and harder veggies like potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts take longer like 30-40 min. But they are all great roasted!

And re Bittman- he has a great cookbook that is broken down into seasons, and one that literally has no measurements for the ingredients, it's that simple. Love him.

[Anonymous]

In a 5 meal week (weekends are always diff), I try to make:

1 chicken, potatoes, veggie
1 fish, rice, veggie
1 mexican inspired - tacos, burritos, enchiladas
1 "italian" - baked ziti, lasagna (veggies mixed in)
1 egg/quiche/souffle

By mixing it up with diff marinade for the chicken and fish, and diff in each of the categories, we dont get too bored.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! Looks like a lot of Mexican food! We eat:
- Pork loin chops, sauteed baby spinach, mushrooms with bacon
-BBQ chicken with steamed broc and brown rice
-Linguine with clam sauce with portabella mushrooms
-regular spaghetti with noodles - I really like Prego lately...it's so sweet and maybe it is because I am Preggo. ;oP
-Pizza (Fridays) - Amy's or vocelli (not as greasy)

we tried fish, but my son has no interest

The food we eat is really yummy, it's just getting boring and I need new ideas...and BRRR...it's still so darn cold outside!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sweet potato/mark bittman PP here-
Re the roasted sweet potatoes - definitely leave skin on; chop into small cubes; toss in olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt; bake at 425 for 30 min or so (a bit shorter is small cubes, a bit longer if big cubes). Stir them around about halfway thru cooking. This works with virtually any vegetable- softer veggies like mushrooms, zucchini take less time, like 20 min, and harder veggies like potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts take longer like 30-40 min. But they are all great roasted!

And re Bittman- he has a great cookbook that is broken down into seasons, and one that literally has no measurements for the ingredients, it's that simple. Love him.

Thank you! Thank you! Can't wait to try! Also, I've googled Bittman and will be buying the cookbook as soon as I get off work on Friday! I think I'm a good southern cook but want to try more varied types of recipes. Thanks again!