Anonymous wrote:How do you cook the Trader Joe’s refrigerated meatballs without any fancy appliances- just an oven or stove?

Is a microwave a fancy appliance? Nuke them.

I did this a couple of nights ago, stack in order:
Naan bread
Bbq sauce
Cheese
Spinach
Precooked chicken
Little more cheese

Bake at 400 for 10ish min

It was super easy and pretty good.

I love our instant pot, makes cooking proteins super fast. We also do a lot of sheet pan meals of protein and veg. Leftovers go in a wrap with cheese or in a salad. Super easy. I cook burgers, steak and any type of group meat in the oven, saves on cleanup and cook extra, freezing the rest. I buy whole chickens on sale and roast 2-3 at a time, just sprinkled with kosher salt, sometimes with a pierced lemon in the cavity > 1 roast chicken dinner with leftovers and shredded chicken that can be frozen in 1 lb bags for future quick weeknight dinners.

Chrissy teigan’s basil chicken and her coconut rice (2 separate recipes). I am NOT a cook in any way, shape, or form, and can handle slapping some chicken in a marinade for 30 min before cooking, and dumping rice and water and coconut milk in a sauce pot. We actually made it today for a low key Easter meal.

Grilling is always easy. I marinate chicken breasts in Trader Joe’s soyaki marinade, then grill. Serve with rice and grilled asparagus or corn. Or I grill steak and do the same.
Baked potatoes are easy.

Shrimp is super easy to make. I sauté it in half butter, half olive oil, with a clove or two of minced garlic. I might add it to pasta, and add some Parmesan or lemon. Or it might skip the butter and add some soy sauce or jarred stir fry sauce and add steamed broccoli or snow peas and serve over rice.

How do you cook the Trader Joe’s refrigerated meatballs without any fancy appliances- just an oven or stove?

My sister's favorite recipe is a hunk of beef in the slow cooker. Pour 1 jar of Pace Picante sauce over the top. Cook for hours. Shred, serve with tortillas or rice (in rice cooker).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did Hello Fresh for a few months and then were able to recreate the recipes fairly easily. You can buy things like concentrated stock on Amazon or at the grocery store.

That would completely overwhelm me. Too many ingredients and too much work.

+1

Hello Fresh is somewhat easy in a way, but definitely not the "insanely easy" dinner OP is looking for.

Trader Joe's has some pretty good frozen pastas in a bag. The arribiata is one of the best and easiest but there are several more. Some with / some without protein. You can also add rotisserie chicken or frozen meatballs. That plus a salad in a bag (or a bin of mixed greens with cherry tomatoes, olives, a mini cucumber if you want to take 5 seconds to chop it up) and bottled dressing is a great meal.

Frozen burritos like TJs or Amy's in a glass dish baked according to directions, but top with a can of enchilada sauce and cheese first. Serve with salsa, sour cream, grape tomatoes, pre-made guac, and nuke a bag of rice if you want to.

Sheet pan (or two, depending on the size of your family and appetites) with frozen fries/sweet potato fries/tots/onion rings, veggie burgers (black bean, veggie, whatever you like), and a pile of onions/mushrooms with oil spray and salt. Top burgers with cheese at the last second.

Serve on buns with sauces, pickles, mixed greens, and a plate of extra veggies on the side (baby carrots, snap peas, grape tomatoes, etc..).

I bake chicken (frozen, fresh, whatever) in foil (easy clean up) with olive oil, garlic/salt/pepper/paprika/thyme/lemon and serve with egg noodles and frozen peas. Butter on the noodles makes it taste great.

I could give you chicken sheet pan stuff but you said insanely easy.

Anonymous wrote:We did Hello Fresh for a few months and then were able to recreate the recipes fairly easily. You can buy things like concentrated stock on Amazon or at the grocery store.

That would completely overwhelm me. Too many ingredients and too much work.

We did Hello Fresh for a few months and then were able to recreate the recipes fairly easily. You can buy things like concentrated stock on Amazon or at the grocery store.

If they hate your cooking, the easy solution is to stop doing it and have them make dinner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Salsa and chicken in the crock or instapot. Serve over rice with any toppings you have at home (sc, cheese, more salsa, lettuce)

This! One jar of salsa and 2-4 chicken breast in the crock pot. Down! Use it for tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, or just serve with some rice. This is my easiest dinner for when I just can’t cook. Everyone loves it. Trader Joe’s salsa authentica works the best. It’s a very simple salsa with no other random vegetables (or fruit!) in there. This makes it a good blank slate for people to customize as they like

How long do you cook it in the crockpot?

baked potatoes with toppings