"Emergency" meals

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are salad greens with oil "dinner" in your house? I don't think I could manage that as dinner.

Spaghetti carbonara is my go-to tired, hungry, need a quick satisfying meal in a pinch with pantry staples. If I haven't shopped. Otherwise, if I have fresh veg, I'll whip up pasta with that or tacos.

No, but if my sides fail, the greens prop dinner up nicely.

I LOVE carbonara, but I never have bacon (or whatever the Italians actually use) in the house. Do you freeze it?

Not the PP, but I always have bacon in the freezer. I buy it in four-pound packs at Costco.

[Anonymous]

Pancakes and fresh fruit

Smoothie...if I'm home alone and need to eat something, but don't feel like a full meal...yogurt, banana, protein powder, frozen blueberries

Progresso minestrone with grated Parmesan

Amy's lentil soup with bread

[Anonymous]

Pasta w/fried egg, prm, salt & pepper.

[Anonymous]

Boca "chicken" patty sandwich
Pasta with meat sauce (homemade frozen)
Ramen and dumplings
Tuna melt

[Anonymous]

Frittata w/ whatever veggies are lying around

+1

also tuna melts, frozen ravioli, and veggie burgers.
sometimes if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make peanut noodles since we pretty much always have peanut butter, soy sauce, and pasta on hand (I add any veggies or leftover meat we may have).

[Anonymous]

I freeze bacon in a parchment paper "roll" so I can peel off a slice at a time.

When I open the package of bacon the first time, I cut a big length of parchment (like a foot and a half or so). I lay out all the leftover bacon in one layer on the parchment, then I roll it up and put the roll in a freezer ziploc baggie. That way, I can unroll the paper and pull off as many slices as I need.

[Anonymous]

Super easy, delicious and popular with my kids: Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce. I make an arrabiata sauce in a wide pan with 2 cans of Contadina crushed tomatoes (not the kind with Italian herbs), some olive oil, garlic crushed right into the tomatoes, and red pepper flakes and salt. When it has thickened a bit, I crack eggs into the sauce and cover the pan. The eggs poach in the sauce. Serve over toasted artisan-style bread. (I buy La Brea bread sliced at Harris Teeter and freeze it so we always have some decent bread in the house.) This sauce is also delicious over pasta - add some goat cheese to the top if you want to be fancier without breaking a sweat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I freeze bacon in a parchment paper "roll" so I can peel off a slice at a time.

When I open the package of bacon the first time, I cut a big length of parchment (like a foot and a half or so). I lay out all the leftover bacon in one layer on the parchment, then I roll it up and put the roll in a freezer ziploc baggie. That way, I can unroll the paper and pull off as many slices as I need.

Brilliant. It's advice like this that keeps me coming back to DCUM even after I resolve to never come back again!

[Anonymous]

Re: bacon - I recently discovered the huge bag of "real" (?) bacon bits at Costco. Now I keep one in the back of my refridgerator. Really comes in handy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: bacon - I recently discovered the huge bag of "real" (?) bacon bits at Costco. Now I keep one in the back of my refridgerator. Really comes in handy.

+1 We just discovered the Costco bacon bits as well and they are awesome. We have been using them all the time in salads, quesadillas, eggs, etc. They are even safe for my child who has a ton of food allergies.

[Anonymous]

Recently started buying buckwheat soba noodles - cook in broth within chopped green or minced reg onion, add leftover chicken , salmon - usually have broccoli or spinach or carrots in the fridge . Love to see DS lap it up!

[Anonymous]

Scrambled tofu.

[Anonymous]

Trader Joe's sells a package of thick cut ends and pieces of bacon. I keep a pack in my freezer. When we're out of ideas, I take the pack of bacon out of the freezer, slice a hunk of it off while frozen (easier to chop), sauté it with an onion if I have one. I boil up some pasta. In a bowl I beat two or three eggs very well. Add in some parmesan. Drain pasta, immediately put in the bowl with the eggs and stir well. Add the bacon and onions. Pasta carbonara! (or, as I tell my son "breakfast pasta")

The other go-tos are scrambled eggs and grilled cheese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I freeze bacon in a parchment paper "roll" so I can peel off a slice at a time.

When I open the package of bacon the first time, I cut a big length of parchment (like a foot and a half or so). I lay out all the leftover bacon in one layer on the parchment, then I roll it up and put the roll in a freezer ziploc baggie. That way, I can unroll the paper and pull off as many slices as I need.

What is this "leftover" bacon you speak of?

[Anonymous]

Typically I'll do:
Breakfast for dinner
Grilled cheese
Quesadillas
Nachos (decked out)