Much easier than you think dinners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For OP with the goat cheese spinach pasta thing, try it next time with Boursin cheese. So good and even easier.

Here’s one I used to make as a single person, but can’t sell my kids on. Sauté minced carrots in olive oil with minced garlic and onion if you want it, add can of chick peas and some curry powder. Serve with garlic naan. So yummy and filling and healthy and quick!

Thank you, and thank you! My kid will go for this, I'm certain.

[Anonymous]

baked risotto

ramen noodles with an assortment of toppings (left over chicken, hard boiled eggs, cut vegetables)

tamale pie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pasta/Rao sauce + salad

Chicken breast/ side of pasta/ side of broccoli

Rice/Beans

Quesadillas

How do you prepare the rice and beans?

The cheesy black bea bake in NYT is simple and delicious.

[Anonymous]

So many of these are so much harder than I want to work or am able to do with toddlers underfoot. It’s so dispiriting.

[Anonymous]

https://www.budgetbytes.com/sheet-pan-kielbasa-potatoes-and-green-beans/

Seriously so freaking easy. I promise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.budgetbytes.com/sheet-pan-kielbasa-potatoes-and-green-beans/

Seriously so freaking easy. I promise.

Budget Bytes is a great source for these kinds of recipes. We also do this one a lot: https://www.budgetbytes.com/southwest-chicken-skillet/ and this one: https://www.budgetbytes.com/sesame-glazed-salmon-and-green-beans/

In addition to those, my easiest is chicken drumsticks + potatoes baked at 450 for about 20 min, then add in broccoli and bake for another 20.

[Anonymous]

My laziest go-to recipe that still tastes good is taco ranch chicken chili in the Instant Pot. Essentially, dump chicken thighs or breasts, 3 cans of white beans, a packet of taco seasoning, a packet of ranch dressing powder, and a can of Rotel tomatoes into the pot and push start. When it's done cooking, take out the chicken, shred it, and put it back in the chili. Voila, chili for a week.

Even my snobby mom who hates American processed food products liked this one (she couldn't tell what was in it until I told her).

[Anonymous]

Turkey wings.


Ingredients:

- 1 cup Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 half lemon
- Black Pepper
- Preferred No Salt Herb seasonings: Rosemary, Thyme, etc
- 1-2lbs Turkey wings

Here are the steps:

- Preheat Oven to 375
- Place turkey wings in ceramic or glass pyrex casserole dish
- season with black pepper and herbs, rub into skin
- pour vinegar into bottom of dish, do not pour over wings
- cut lemon in half and squeeze lemon juice over wings
- cover with foil and bake for 45-50 min.

- Serve with rice, or mashed potatoes, a can of kale greens, or whatever desired sides you'd like

[Anonymous]

My kid made this tonight.
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/nadiya-hussains-blender-beetroot-pasta/

It was good and would have been super fast and easy except he decided to make pasta from scratch.

We had a chicken too but I think it would be fine on it’s own.

[Anonymous]

I marginally prefer this with rice, but you can make it with microwaved potatoes if you’re really crushed for time… top with beans out of the can and shredded cheddar, microwave again for a minute to get the cheese all gooey. Top with hot sauce, diced avocado and sour cream. So good. I could eat rice (or potatoes) and beans daily.

[Anonymous]

Whole chicken in a crockpot. Season chicken, place in crockpot with half cup water. When you come home from work the chicken is ready. Finding organic whole chicken is less cost per pound vs the cuts. This is great for a busy weeknight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Manchego Cheese sandwiches. Take good bread and if necessary, lightly toast then add a drizzle of olive oil and salt and then slices of Manchego. Potato chips on the side enhance this dish. Decadent.

Is this sarcasm? This is dry AF and almost all white carbs. About as decadent as a bowl of noodles tossed with butter and salt. At least add in some jamon or crushed tomatoes and garlic or something.

Oh, and not "easier than you would think." It's literally as easy looking as making a sandwich out of white bread, mayo, and bologna just better ingredients.

The title says "easier than you think," but the OP is pretty clearly just looking for "easy."

You might want to add a cocktail along with that jamon.

I am the original Manchego Cheese sandwich poster. Question for the simple carbohydrate sandwich haters above, are you the same people from the My Vacation Destination Did Not Meet Expectations thread who complained that the seafood in Portugal tasted like seafood?

[Anonymous]

salsa verde enchiladas. Cook ground beef, add salsa verde. Put inside tortillas, roll them up and put on a pan. Then pour on more salsa verde, and shredded cheese. Broil for a few minutes.

I also make this with shredded chicken, but that involves instant pot cooking the chicken then shredding it before adding it to a pan with salsa verde to heat for a minute- which involves the instant pot as opposed to just one pan, and the added step of shredding the chicken. But, on the other hand, you dont have to stand over the stove cooking ground beef, you can just put the chicken in the instant pot and walk away.

Alternatively you can do this whole recipe with a can of beans instead of meat, and it makes it even faster, but less tasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Turkey wings.


Ingredients:

- 1 cup Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 half lemon
- Black Pepper
- Preferred No Salt Herb seasonings: Rosemary, Thyme, etc
- 1-2lbs Turkey wings

Here are the steps:

- Preheat Oven to 375
- Place turkey wings in ceramic or glass pyrex casserole dish
- season with black pepper and herbs, rub into skin
- pour vinegar into bottom of dish, do not pour over wings
- cut lemon in half and squeeze lemon juice over wings
- cover with foil and bake for 45-50 min.

- Serve with rice, or mashed potatoes, a can of kale greens, or whatever desired sides you'd like

Why don't you use salt in this recipe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. Lots of these are great-- and I'm taking notes!-- but I was expecting more like "deceptively easy" or "seems complicated and fancy but actually takes 10 minutes." A loaded baked potato is a beautiful thing, but it's not that IMO. (I'm still using that idea, though!)

I suppose if you have fancy ingredients around, that helps. Like precooked lamb sausage or w/e.

Off the top of my head, I do have a more unique one that was given to me by a friend, but I think I modified it down the line for ease or something.

Orzo/Chick Peas/Goat Cheese Thing:

You need:

Orzo or very small pasta, but you can actually use whatever.
Baby spinach or regular spinach
Canned chick peas
Goat cheese (preferably crumbled)

Olive oil
Seasonings of your choice

Cook orzo on stove.

When it's almost done (maybe 1-2 minutes left), throw in baby spinach and rinsed/drained chick peas. (This might add 1 minute to your cook time for the orzo since you cooled down the water with the extra ingredients.)

Drain and mix back in the pot with some olive oil or butter to taste, mix in an herb blend you like-- like Badia Complete, or some herb mixture like Herbs de Provence or something-- some herby, maybe garlicky mixture with salt and pepper is good. Rosemary goes good with goat cheese, but so do lots of things.

Mix in goat cheese (chevre)-- it doesn't have to be crumbled, but that's easier to work with IMO.

Done.

Obviously figure out the proportions you prefer, but I like this because:

-It's easy to have most ingredients on hand. We usually have baby spinach at least for smoothies, and everything else is a non-perishable staple. You just might get in the habit of picking up goat cheese crumbles once in a while. They have them even at Aldi, which brings me to:

-Cheap! Quite cheap outside of the goat cheese, which is still as little as $3. I shop Aldi and Giant sales mostly, so if I did a pound of pasta, a can of peas, 5-6 oz goat cheese tub, some spinach... this is like $6-7 including olive oil, etc. and would make enough for 8+ individual meals.

-Vegetarian (we're not veg but almost everyone could benefit from eating less meat)

-Adults AND kids seem to mostly love it. My kid is not picky, but the kids of the friend who shared the "recipe" with me were pickier. It's almost like mac and cheese in a way, but it's kinda fancy-tasting, too.

-Actually doesn't use a bunch of prepared foods, except the beans are canned, I guess?

-EXTREMELY fast. It's basically all assembly, and total time is only as long as it takes to boil water, cook the orzo, plus maybe 2 additional minutes. So maybe 15-ish minutes, but like 5 minutes active time. You can unload the dishwasher and set the table in those 15 minutes.

-Pretty low dish use. Pot. Can opener. Maybe a colander/strainer for the chick peas. No knife, no cutting board, no additional bowls or pans.

-Versatile. Add chicken, change up the beans, maybe do feta instead of goat cheese, change the herbs...

---

Of course you can make it even better by sauteeing the spinach and/or chick peas, etc. but this is my lazy meal.

And I'm 99% sure I'm leaving out an ingredient my friend uses, for no reason other than I didn't have it the first time I made it and then forgot it existed. Jarred red peppers? I don't think that's it, but I can't remember, and anyway that sounds great.

We make this orzo dish, too, but we use feta- it is kind of like a spanakopita pasta dish!