I enjoyed the recent suggestions about cheap eats in the neighborhood so much that I'm going to sponsor another little contest: this one about fast meals, prepared at home. What do you cook when you only have half an hour to eat but you can't stand the thought of food services food? When you're running out of cash? When you want to cook a meal for a friend? Or solo?
Around our place, when there’s no time to cook — and we can’t stand the thought of takeout again — we’ve had a long-standing fall-back (is that an oxymoron?) in a dish we call Rasta Chili, because it comes out looking like the rainbow of universal colors (red, green, yellow, black). It’s adapted from The Moose Restaurant Cooks at Home and goes something like this:
Chop and sauté a largish onion and a couple cloves of garlic. While the onions are softening, chop up a couple red and green bell peppers, which you’ll add once the onions are translucent. Keep that cooking while the peppers soften, five minutes or so. Season with cumin and chili powder — about 1 tbsp each — but don’t let the spices burn. Add a can of black beans, a can of red kidney beans, and a can of chopped tomatoes. (If you’re cooking for two, use 15 oz cans; if you’re cooking for four use 28 oz cans and up the spices a little.) Simmer until everything’s nice and soft. Add a 10 oz bag of frozen corn. Serve when the corn’s heated through. Garnish with cilantro, lime, avocado, fresh tomatoes in lime juice, jalapeños, or whatever else floats your boat. Sautéed zucchini works well on the side or use diced zucchini in the chili itself.
There. Should be ready in under 30 minutes.
Need a quick and tasty lunch? My friend Shelley taught me this one years ago. They’re called Sun Tacos.
Preheat your broiler. Get out a couple corn tortillas. Make a stripe down the middle using your favorite miso paste. This works well with light or dark miso, so take your pick, and use more or less, depending on how much you like the salty deliciousness that is miso paste. Add a little grated cheese (doesn’t need too much, and vegans can make this recipe w/o any cheese) and toss them in the broiler. While they heat — don’t let them burn — chop some red peppers or tomatoes and grate a couple carrots. When the tortillas come out of the oven, pile on the chopped veggies, fold, and enjoy. The burst of shredded carrots gives them their name.
So what home-cooked meals work for you in a pinch? Food from a box or the microwave doesn't count. Leave your suggestions in the comments section and I'll draw a random winner a week from today. Prize: Your own copy of The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home -- a great resource for fast, vegetarian meals that even meat-eaters will love.
10 comments:
for a quick cheap meal, i take a small chuck steak, shave the fat and slice it into strips. Then i chop half an onion and a pepper and soften them in EVOO in a large saute pan. After a few minutes, add the chopped steak. I season the concoction with taco seasoning and alittle yellow curry powder. Cook until the onions are clear and the peppers are soft, and throw it on a kaiser roll with a piece of provolone. My version of the steak sandwich. So good.
It may be because I learned to cook while studying abroad in Italy, but I tend to fall back on a quick pasta dish.
I saute a medium onion and a minced garlic clove with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever other spices I choose (like chili flakes, oregano, paprika, whatever!). Adding a sprinkling of sugar in the end stages it good too for a more caramelized, delicious onion. Boil pasta at the same time (spaghetti, capellini, penne, whichever you like!) with some salt.
Cut up a fresh tomato (or halve cherry tomatoes), drain the pasta, and mix it all together with more olive oil and some basil.
Yum! And simple too!
Somehow all those suggestions sound like far too much work for half an hour for me! If I'm pressed for time, I whip up a salad:
lettuce, feta, pecans/other nuts, dried cranberries, (pre-)grilled chicken, and raspberry dressing (my favorite).
Other variations are plentiful and delicious too. :)
If you live by the philosophy that breakfast can (and should) be eaten anytime of the day...then you should make peanut butter french toast.
If you just want to make one for yourself...whisk an egg, a splash of milk, a sprinkle of cinnamon and/or nutmeg, and like a teaspoon of vanilla together. Go ahead and warm up your pan and melt a little butter on it or use cooking spray. Put a thin layer of peanut butter on one piece of bread and sliced bananas on the other. Then put them together like a sandwich and dip both sides into the egg mixture. Now you're ready to actually cook it, which is the same way you would for regular french toast...let one side get to a golden color and then flip the sandwich over and do the same for the other side.
I haven't tried this with marshmallow fluff on the inside/on top yet, but it's on my to-do list, and I'm not sure how it could possibly taste bad. But just plain syrup will do the trick.
Also if you're from the South and/or know what grits are, those also go well with french toast for a sweet/salty balance.
Oh, and drizzle some honey over your peanut butter before you put the two pieces of bread together.
And enjoy.
i think one of the most important things about quick and easy meals is that they can be changed easily so that they taste "new" each time you make it. for this, one of my go to meals is stir fry. whether you choose to use frozen or fresh vegetables, tofu or meat, stir fry can be changed easily by the sauce you use and what you pair with it. adding extra flavors, like garlic and ginger, will also add to your stir fry.
while studying abroad in ghana, i learned to make coconut rice and have found it is also a great pairing with stir fry here in the states.
in a pot on stove, add:
2 cups white, jasmine rice
2.5 cups water
14 oz can of coconut milk
cook the rice with water by bringing it to a boil. reduce the heat and stir (about 20 minutes). then add the coconut milk and continue to cook until the rice is ready (another 10 minutes or so). once your rice is finished, it can also be mixed up by adding toppings such as coconut flakes or pineapple chunks.
I love to make a Ramen concoction I learned from one of my friend's moms (which means that just because it has Ramen in it doesn't mean it's only for college students!). Anyway, it's also vegetarian, which I'm not, but I still love it. So you just defrost a bag of Morningstar Farms Grillers Recipe Crumbles (it's like fake ground beef) in a pan. Once it's pretty much defrosted add a cup or two of frozen peas (I kind of like frozen corn better, but it's your decision), and just warm them through as well. At the same time start some water boiling for the Ramen. Follow the directions to boil 2 bags of Oriental flavor Ramen. Drain the Ramen and add the noodles to the pan with the fake beef and corn. Sprinkle one packet of the Oriental flavoring over the whole mixture. It's so much more of an amazing dish than it sounds in a recipe, and also very fast.
I tried making it with real ground beef once, but it was just too greasy. The fake ground beef really makes the dish for some reason...plus it's really not that bad for you especially if you're only using 1 packet of Ramen for a dish that feeds about 3 people.
best "fast" food to cook at home
It's Vegan and has Probably under 200 calories!
And it costs less than $3 to make like, four meals' worth:
--Chopped Celery
--Chopped firm tofu
--soy sauce (can use leftover packets from chinese food or pay for a bottle)
Chop 'em up, stick them in a frying pan with a teflon coating, toss some soy sauce in there, or substitute your fave sauce (marinara, mexican, indian, w/e) and fry for about 10-15 min. Eat.
Let's see...
GADO GADO!
Ingredients:
Pretty darn-tootin' critical:
bag o' pasta
big goop o' PEANUT BUTTER (about 3-4 tbs)
soy sauce
coupl'a cloves o' fresh garlic
sunflower seeds!
3 tbs brown sugar
3/4 cup water
3 tbs vinegar
Less critical:
spices - garlic powder, spike, hot sauce, etc
sausage if you got it
Least critical:
some veggies eg onions, red, green peppers
So, you make your pasta, drain, set aside. Easy.
In a small pan - (This step omitted if you don't have sausage or veggies). Do a simple stir fry to make these babies soft/hot using whatever base you normally use for a stirfry (I tend to use canola or sesame oil. You could use butter to make it extra awesome. [Awesome of course being higher in caloric value, which of course is healthier]). Set aside.
Sauce pan - get a teeny bit of oil, and fry up that minced garlic for maybe 45 seconds. Add the sunflower seeds. Fry em up good. Use however many cloves you want. The garlickier the better IMHO (In My Humble Opinion). Throw in the that big goop o' peanut butter, soy sauce to taste, 3/4 cup water (add the water with care, don't want it too watery), vinegar etc and spices to taste. Get it to a saucy consistency. KEEP STIRRING DON'T LET THIS BURN! It will taste real bad.
Add all your ingredients except for pasta. Pour your now delicious sauce onto pasta. Mix. Enjoy high calorie food. Not for those on a diet.
(Basic idea from NOLS Cookery)
And I have to share my favorite breakfast.
Turkey Bacon Egg and Cheese
At the very beginning, you can butter your bread first.
Fry up a few slices of turkey bacon (or real bacon if you're hardcore). Take it off the pan. Leave some oil in there, crack an egg on it, and mix it slightly. Flip it.
Place one slice of bread on the pan with cheese sliced in there (your favorite cheese is fine). Put the egg on top of the cheese, add the bacon on top of that. Then the other piece of bread. Squash it down. Flip toast. Press. EAT!
*For best results add hot sauce and a big glass of whole milk.
I think it's best to toast bread and bagels in a pan.
ChEESY Bagels
Toast a bagel in the pan - middle sides down, buttered to how buttery you like it. Once you have it to the toastiness you like, take the top half out and set it aside. Flip the bottom piece onto its bottom, add copious amounts of cheese. Tilt your pan slightly, and pour a maybe a half shot of water in the pan and COVER. The water should be STEAMING when you put it in - this will then steam the cheese, melting it to a delicious consistency. You may have to add more water to steam more. Add the top half of the bagel. Flip it. Squash it. Eat it.
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