Really Fast Dinners

[Lilija]

Some of our fast-dinner quickies:

Tuna, or leftover chicken salad, as open faced melts, or on a mixed greens salad depending on what's available. This is especially good with a chicken-corn chowder that I whip up from canned ingredients (canned creamed corn, cream of chick soup, coconut milk, frozen corn, ginger, chile paste, and either a handful of rice, a nuked cubed potato, or sweet potato...cream soups have their application sometimes...This isn't the exact recipe, but I can elaborate). I can get these on the table in under 20 minutes.

Sub in a BLT, or scrambled egg sandwiches, with the soup, too.

Also any of the above sandwiches with leftover portioned out soup from the freezer, I always have a stash of my stuffed cabbage soup (which is really a meal itself), tom yum, or cream of leek soup in the freezer.

Sushi rice, from the rice cooker, some thawed frozen shrimp, seared or raw tuna, or a thin sliced raw, or smoked salmon filet, and some miso soup. Seasoning flakes, gari ginger, soy and wasabi. Sorta a ghetto quicky chirashi dinner.

I freeze pints of homemade chili for this one; chili dogs, with bagged shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped onion, and really hot taco sauce, served with a fast bagged salad.

Quesadillas: a can of fat free refried beans, heated in one pan with a bit of olive oil, cumin, garlic, and siriacha stirred in. Sauteed diced onions and peppers, with a double handful of frozen corn, a can of rinsed black beans, and if we have it laying around, some shredded leftover chicken. I sometimes stir more super hot taco sauce into this. Tortilla on a hot pan, spread half of it with a layer of refried beans, a handful of bagged shredded cheese, the veggie-chicken mix spread on top, a bit more cheese, fold, and brown both sides. A meal in itself, even better with a salad.

Many many pasta dishes. The one we had tonight was some frozen gnocchi cooked then combined with a panful of sauteed broccoli rabe, with loads of garlic, black pepper, nutmeg, a splash of white wine, a LOT of parmesan, and a dose of chili flakes. This is good with some cooked Italian sausage sliced up in it, too.

Whole wheat pasta, frozen meatballs, and that great 20 minute canned San Marzano tomato sauce that lots of people have recipes for. Garlic bread, salad mix.

Edited February 4, 2007 by Lilija (log)