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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP, the PP doesn’t sound pretentious at all to me. What triggered you?

NP also, but I think it was the seeming disdain towards OP's premade/frozen ingredients.
I think if the pp had just posted her menu without the "Well that menu doesn't sound good to me but" it would have been a better look. You can post your advice without crapping over someone else's menu.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP, the PP doesn’t sound pretentious at all to me. What triggered you?

NP also, but I think it was the seeming disdain towards OP's premade/frozen ingredients.
I think if the pp had just posted her menu without the "Well that menu doesn't sound good to me but" it would have been a better look. You can post your advice without crapping over someone else's menu.

Oh, and I see now that this pp did say later that frozen vegetables are disgusting.

[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.

We love the TJ Kung Pao chicken and fried rices for a quick meal that feels like take out without the cost! (If you'd like to ditch the marinating time, I'd recommend the frozen Kung Pao) One note, don't use all the sauce - we use about 1/4 of the provided (or 1/2 of 1 packet)

[Anonymous]

One of the things I have come to realize in the last year, is that East Asian food can be pretty easy to pull together, especially if you do the chopping and whatnot ahead of time. You can make and store the sauces for the most part, and that saves time as well. Stuff like Thai Basil Fried Rice, Drunken noodles, or Korean Japchae - child's play (in fact, my 12 year old has made all of them by herself).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I have come to realize in the last year, is that East Asian food can be pretty easy to pull together, especially if you do the chopping and whatnot ahead of time. You can make and store the sauces for the most part, and that saves time as well. Stuff like Thai Basil Fried Rice, Drunken noodles, or Korean Japchae - child's play (in fact, my 12 year old has made all of them by herself).

If you have a rice cooker, even better. You always have an easy base for protein and vegetables. I’ll be honest and say I’ve just been leaning on Trader Joe’s frozen organic brown rice. I just hear it up in a pan.

-a lazy (East) Asian-American

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We love the TJ Kung Pao chicken and fried rices for a quick meal that feels like take out without the cost! (If you'd like to ditch the marinating time, I'd recommend the frozen Kung Pao) One note, don't use all the sauce - we use about 1/4 of the provided (or 1/2 of 1 packet)

Also easy to bulk the frozen rices by adding more rice, vegetables, or riced cauliflower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the things I have come to realize in the last year, is that East Asian food can be pretty easy to pull together, especially if you do the chopping and whatnot ahead of time. You can make and store the sauces for the most part, and that saves time as well. Stuff like Thai Basil Fried Rice, Drunken noodles, or Korean Japchae - child's play (in fact, my 12 year old has made all of them by herself).

If you have a rice cooker, even better. You always have an easy base for protein and vegetables. I’ll be honest and say I’ve just been leaning on Trader Joe’s frozen organic brown rice. I just hear it up in a pan.

-a lazy (East) Asian-American

I'm South Indian by origin, so that goes without saying. Hot rice or old rice are always available. One of my recent favorites for easy cooking (served with hot rice), is this one:

https://www.recipetineats.com/asian-chilli-garlic-prawns-shrimp/ (I knock down the brown sugar a bit; too sweet for me otherwise).

Similar, but not the same, and also quick and easy:
https://www.recipetineats.com/chilli-lime-fish/ (ditto sugar)

[Anonymous]

So, you didn't really make dinner. You just microwaved different pkgs. I could do that in 8 min but that's like making dog food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP, the PP doesn’t sound pretentious at all to me. What triggered you?

NP also, but I think it was the seeming disdain towards OP's premade/frozen ingredients.
I think if the pp had just posted her menu without the "Well that menu doesn't sound good to me but" it would have been a better look. You can post your advice without crapping over someone else's menu.

Oh, and I see now that this pp did say later that frozen vegetables are disgusting.

Well? They are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They’re not really roasted in 15 min.

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad you clarified that you used ORGANIC chicken tenders. PHEW.

But I do like the rest of your idea. Even if total time was an hour and 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

LOL! I am Indian. I live for the spices and I love to cook all kinds of cuisines. But, yeah, I can live my while life without eating Thanksgiving food and I will be happy.

I recognize this PP and she is an amazing cook. I grew up eating a ton of vegetarian food, a lot of it Indian though I am not. And yes, I will avoid eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal forever. Blech. Give me FLAVOR and spice!

We are all going to appear on Indian cook's doorstep regularly, and twice on Thanksgiving (and I am a pretty good cook and do what I can for the traditional meal, but you're starting in the hole, flavorwise)

[Anonymous]

One of my quick and cheap go-to is kimchi fried rice. Heat oil in a pan, add kimchi, add left-over rice, season with sesame oil, pepper flakes, and top with an over easy egg made in the same pan. I sometimes add some cut up hotdog sausage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

LOL! I am Indian. I live for the spices and I love to cook all kinds of cuisines. But, yeah, I can live my while life without eating Thanksgiving food and I will be happy.

I recognize this PP and she is an amazing cook. I grew up eating a ton of vegetarian food, a lot of it Indian though I am not. And yes, I will avoid eating a traditional Thanksgiving meal forever. Blech. Give me FLAVOR and spice!

We are all going to appear on Indian cook's doorstep regularly, and twice on Thanksgiving (and I am a pretty good cook and do what I can for the traditional meal, but you're starting in the hole, flavorwise)

When I host, I make things I want to eat, which are mostly not traditional. My nod to tradition is to make say, a whole roast chicken instead of turkey, and have good cranberry sauce to go with it, but that's about it (my brother often takes on the centerpiece meat dish, and he's damn good with meat). When I go to other people's houses for Thanksgiving and they're going the traditional route, I offer to bring dessert. That way, I know I will have something to eat.

[Anonymous]

Thanksgiving food is not appealing to me either. I think it's probably the case for most immigrants. The turkey is the only nod to Thanksgiving, the rest is a variety of West African foods. Egusi soup, Cassava leaf, tomatoe stew, pepper soup, jolof rice and so on. My in-laws host and we all leave with containers of food.