Forum Index
»
Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
Dinner Ideas in less than 45 minutes
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| I posted a suggestion for a recipe forum under Forum Feedback. If you all are interested in having one too, maybe you can let Jeff know via that thread. I think it's "another forum topic idea" or something similar. I would love to read through these suggestions to get cooking ideas every single day. |
Anonymous
|
I second the Everyday Food magazine recommendation. I get most of my quick meals from there. Often, the "dinner for one" item, which I just double/quadruple as needed.
An easy dish is to marinate however many boneless, skinless chicken breasts you want (can do it during the day in the fridge) and throw them on a George Foreman grill at night. I do that with a salad often. |
Anonymous
|
Here is one of my favorites. It takes five minutes prep, but then probably 45 minutes in the oven to serve two or three. Just double or triple the recipe portions.
Roasted chicken with new potato and arugula salad http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/roasted_chicken_potatoes.html |
Anonymous
| I'm inspired by this thread and the crockpot one now! Got meals for a month!! |
Anonymous
| One of the best tips I received was from an elderly neighbor. She said having cooked chopped chicken ready makes meal prep so much easier. So now every weekend, I do a crockpot of plain chicken, shred the meat and save in the fridge for meals later in the week. Easy to do a lot of quick easy meals if you have cooked chicken ready! |
Anonymous
| If you have Comcast On Demand there are tons of recipes on demand to watch. |
Anonymous
| Awesome thread! I have lots of great new ideas now! |
Anonymous
| I went to one of the prepare your meals for the month places yesterday and made 12 meals that easily feed 4 adults in 2 1/2 hours. I split each meal into 2 portions for me and DH so for us it will be 24 meals. Ingredients were good and it all looks like it will be good. I have done it one other time and liked everything I made. It was sooo easy and the people who work there were very helpful. This may not be what OP is looking for but it may work well for some especially if you don't like to cook! |
Anonymous
|
bump.
Thanks for such great ideas!! I think a recipe forum is a great idea too. Any good crockpot recipes? |
Anonymous
See this thread on the Off Topic Forum http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/28129.page#249906 |
Anonymous
| Marry a rich man or buy a crock pot or order a pizza. |
Anonymous
|
Every day food is great! Also, Williams Sonoma has a few Food Made Fast cookbooks that are great -- namely, I love the "weeknights" book. I can't quite get it down to the 20 minutes they promise, but I can do dinner in 40 and it's a great meal. I also have one of the real simple cookbooks -- a little bit better than the (frankly usually crappy) recipes they have in their magazine. My husband and I love to cook, so the williams sonoma has been great for us. We tend to go overboard.
One tip I have is to prep everything out while you are preheating (if you're doing something in the oven) and before you start actually mixing. Nesting bowls are great for this. Ever watch the cooking shows? They all have this and it's not just for show. If you have a dishwasher it's not much harder to clean up and it really helps. Also helps you clean as you go, too, b/c you're not fussing over your sauce while trying to remember to put the cornstarch back in the cabinet. Along the same lines, take 2 minutes before you start cooking to plan out a timeline. I used to get really frustrated, early on, when I was trying to cook because I frequently had one thing ready while something else was 10 minutes away from finished, or I was running around trying to get the salad finished while the hot food grew cold on the serving plates. Also, do you take shortcuts? before getting pregnant i had the time and patience for mincing garlic, lemon grass, chilies, etc. Now I buy the plastic perishable squeeze tubes of these things available in the produce section. Yes, fresh is better, but they're not bad at all! It also helps to just know a few basic techniques so that you aren't always relying on complicated recipes. For instance, get thin sliced chicken breasts instead of the thick ones, coat them with lemon and parsley or whatever herbs you have on hand, a little bit of flour, and then bake or saute for a few minutes and serve with boiled potatoes. You can make a 5 minute sauce to go along with it if you want. Pasta is another thing that can be done in a half hour, and it doesn't have to be prego! Just boil some pasta, cut up fresh beefsteak tomatoes in summer (in winter used canned or roma tomatoes), olive oil, basil (an herb garden makes it super easy and fast to snip and use as needed and basil and mint especially do well inside all winter long), lemon, garlic, and if you want a meat some proscuito. Mmm. Invest in the Joy of Cooking for sauces so that you can make simple sauces based on stocked items (like demi-glaze, or garlic) so that you won't always have to go to the grocery store for these little odds and ends. Finally, give up on trying to buy fresh all the time. Yes, frozen poultry defrosted is not as nice as fresh. But if you want to save time, cutting out that trek to the market for fresh meat every day is a start. Let's see -- what else -- I also don't set the table! If my husband is home, he helps me prep and chop and then if there's time, we'll get drinking glasses set out. But everything in my house goes from stovetop to plates unless I am entertaining, then of course I try to be a little bit more urbane. 
Good luck and bon appetit OP! |
Anonymous
| If we had a food forum, we could also post what's on sale. Arnold bread is on sale at Safeway right now for $2 a loaf, and avocados were ten for a dollar last week at whole foods.... |
Anonymous
Sorry, I meant they were ten for $10. |
Anonymous
Ha ha ha! I thought that might have been a typo...otherwise I would have been really disappointed to miss out on that sale!!! |