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Because we’re still up to our ears in boxes in our new home, with half the kitchen still MIA (note to self: when moving next time, be a little more liberal when labeling boxes. “Downstairs sh*t” doesn’t help much when trying to locate the remote controls or extension cords), my wife and I find ourselves making a lot of little, quick, easy meals.
Lately my favorite has been an avocado/cheese melt. To make it, all you need is a tortilla (I prefer flour over corn), half an avocado and a slice or two of your fav cheese (I like provolone). Mash up the avocado, spread it on the tortilla, slap the cheese over it and heat. Once the cheese melts, take it out and dash on some red hot-sauce. It’s delicious and takes a whopping 5 minutes to prepare.
The New York Times had a long list of 101 quick meals in their Dining/Wine section the other day. Here are the top ten, all of which sound rather easy except #5. Mussels just don’t belong in any recipe with the words easy or quick if you want my opinion. What about you all? Have a quick, easy dish I can make in less than 10 minutes? (sans microwave, if possible)
- Make six-minute eggs: simmer gently, run under cold water until cool, then peel. Serve over steamed asparagus.
- Toss a cup of chopped mixed herbs with a few tablespoons of olive oil in a hot pan. Serve over angel-hair pasta, diluting the sauce if necessary with pasta cooking water.
- Cut eight sea scallops into four horizontal slices each. Arrange on plates. Sprinkle with lime juice, salt and crushed chilies; serve after five minutes.
- Open a can of white beans and combine with olive oil, salt, small or chopped shrimp, minced garlic and thyme leaves in a pan. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp are done; garnish with more olive oil.
- Put three pounds of washed mussels in a pot with half a cup of white wine, garlic cloves, basil leaves and chopped tomatoes. Steam until mussels open. Serve with bread.
- Heat a quarter-inch of olive oil in a skillet. Dredge flounder or sole fillets in flour and fry until crisp, about two minutes a side. Serve on sliced bread with tartar sauce.
- Make pesto: put a couple of cups of basil leaves, a garlic clove, salt, pepper and olive oil as necessary in a blender (walnuts and Parmesan are optional). Serve over pasta (dilute with oil or water as necessary) or grilled fish or meat.
- Put a few dozen washed littlenecks in a large, hot skillet with olive oil. When clams begin to open, add a tablespoon or two of chopped garlic. When most or all are opened, add parsley. Serve alone, with bread or over angel-hair pasta.
- Pan-grill a skirt steak for three or four minutes a side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, slice and serve over romaine or any other green salad, drizzled with olive oil and lemon.
- Smear mackerel fillets with mustard, then sprinkle with chopped herbs (fresh tarragon is good), salt, pepper and bread crumbs. Bake in a 425-degree oven for about eight minutes.
This is not as fancy as the ones listed above, but it is my husband’s favorite dinner. No matter how many fancy meals I try to impress him with, he asks for this one all the time.
Fry up 2 frozen hash brown patties per person in a little bit of oil. Top with either salsa or chilli, and some shredded cheese. Takes about 10 minutes to prepare.
posted by Sara on 7-26-2007 at 7:14 am
I love coconut curry sauce:
Mix 1/3 C of canned coconut milk, 1 t red curry paste, 1 T fish sauce (all from the oriental/Thai section of the grocery). I’ll stir-fry some snow peas or anything else I have, add the sauce and a small can each of pineapple and salad shrimp and serve over rice or Ramen noodles.
posted by Seth on 7-26-2007 at 7:53 am
This one is so delicous
Ingredients:
1lb sausage
1 package velveta shells & cheese
1 can petite diced tomatoes
Steps:
Brown sausage and let drain
cook velveta
mix sauage - velveta - tomatoes
Outcome:
F-ING DELIOCOUS
it will rip your face off it’s so good!
type of sausage doesnt matter. I usually buy like country style or sage, but I bet the hot or spicy would be awesome as well
posted by Janet on 7-26-2007 at 8:01 am
Quick salad:
Slice tomato and plate. Top with sliced waterpack mozzerella and basil. Mix balsamic and olive oil to taste and drizzle over tomato. Serve.
Quick pork chop & gravy:
Season about 4 boneless pork chops (I perfer garlic salt) and sear both sides in skillet. Set aside. Put a bag of mushrooms into the skillet and sweat. Put chops back into the pan and dump a can of undiluted cream of mushroom soup on top. Cover and let simmer on low until done.
posted by Jason! on 7-26-2007 at 8:22 am
From my ‘Cube Cooking’ experiences:
Foil pack salmon or tuna
Microwave rice pouch (any flavor)
Can of veggies
Microwave rice per instructions
Microwave veggies
mix rice and veggies
top with salmon
Impress your coworkers
posted by Tru on 7-26-2007 at 8:44 am
Here’s one that comes in handy if your cooking-wear has yet to arrive/be unpacked:
1 large square of wax paper OR tin foil
Butter or butter substitute
Sliced bread
Sliced cheese
tomatoes and/or avocado (optional)
Clothes iron
Heat Iron
Assemble a grilled cheese sandwich as you normally would, wrap in wax paper or tin foil, place on a flat surface.
*Gently* iron your sandwich for about a minute, flip over, iron the other side.
Unwrap and eat. Bonus- foil/waxpaper doubles as a serving “dish”.
posted by thirty7 on 7-26-2007 at 9:20 am
Prepare canned tuna like you would for a tuna salad sandwich, I prefer the version with mustard and a little bit of mayonnaise, chopped onion and some garlic (granulated works well in a hurry). Then put your sandwich fixings on top of fresh greens, like spring mix or I prefer just straight spinach. Top with some shredded mozzarella and Balsamic or Raspberry Vinaigrette. It’s tasty and takes no more than 10 minutes if you keep your tuna prep simple!
posted by Jess on 7-26-2007 at 10:54 am
This is the quickest recipe I can think of: Pigs in a Blanket
-2 cans of pillbury crescent rolls
-1 package of cocktail wieners
-preheat oven to 350
Roll out the crescent rolls and cut the triangles in half so they become more, smaller trangles. Roll the cocktail weiners in the triangles starting at the thin end. And cook till the crescents are golden brown. Another way to make this is to put cheese inside the crescent while you’re rolling it up.
posted by Rachel* on 7-26-2007 at 11:32 am
Microwave Quesadillas
2 flour tortillas, shredded cheese and anything else you can find in your fridge, (from olives to deli meat )
stick between the tortillas and nuke
great meal and very filling
posted by Lindsey on 7-26-2007 at 3:49 pm
My favorite is rice, black beans, and salsa. Not quite as innovative as some of the above, but when you’re broke and a horrible cook, making rice and nuking some beans makes for a good dinner (usually with enough left overs for tomorrow’s lunch!). The salsa really makes it (my roommate was a genius….).
posted by Kate on 7-26-2007 at 8:34 pm
1 can Vegetable Beef soup
1 cup Minute rice
Dump the rice and soup into a bowl. Microwave 6 minutes. Season to taste (I like it with black pepper and garlic powder). Delicious and hearty.
posted by Ssquach on 7-26-2007 at 9:33 pm
Couscous is the #1 food for quick cooking. I usually get it in the boxes with the seasoning ready to mix, but I occasionally make it plain with chicken broth intead of water. Either way, its done in seven minutes. Serve it with some of those precooked chicken strips and a bag o’ salad and you are done in less than 10 minutes. Plus, couscous is just fun to say.
posted by Allison on 7-26-2007 at 10:07 pm
A quick little side that I look forward to using once I’ve flown the coup– Prepare rice (we use basmati) as you usually would, but substitute 1/3 of the water for coconut milk. (1 part coconut milk, two parts water.)
Goes great with lots, especially Jamaican Jerk chicken, holy crap. And it seems special even though it’s as easy as rice =)
posted by Courtney on 7-26-2007 at 11:32 pm
One of the best quickie things I’ve ever had (it’s a variation on migas):
Need:
Canned beans (black, kidney, or pinto)
eggs
salsa
cheese
Optional:
crushed tortilla chips
sour cream
Crack the eggs (we usually use two per person) into a frying pan; scramble with about a tablespoon of salsa per serving. When nearly fully scrambled, add beans; cook until beans are hot. aout 3 min. Top with more salsa, cheese, sour cream, and crushed chips. (I usually leave off the chips.)
I’m always suprised at how quick this is to make, and you only need a pan and a spatula.
posted by frumpiefox on 7-27-2007 at 11:20 am
Two words: Ramen Noodles.
Seriously though, my dad and I came up with this really quick and easy jalepeno cheese dip that takes, like 2 minutes.
You simply combine about a cup of shredded chedar cheese, a few forkfuls of canned diced jalepenos or chile peppers, and enough mayo to make it creamy. Add hot sauce and pepper juice to taste and chow down with tortilla chips. It makes a great midday snack (or even better, late night.)
posted by heather on 7-30-2007 at 2:05 am
Sometimes I get a total craving for chicken salad sandwiches. If you have rotisserie chicken available in your grocery store, you’re totally set!
You’ll need:
Bread
Cubed/shredded chicken
Mayonnaise/Miracle Whip/Mustard/etc.
Seasoning (I like cumin, seasoned salt and pepper, but smoke salt is good, too)
Grapes (opt.)
Pecans (opt.)
If you want to get fancy, or if you just like chopping onions, you can also add shallots or red onion. It’s pretty easy to customize.
I just eyeball my ingredients depending on the number of people to feed and their preferences for mayo and stuff. Mix everything from the chicken down together in a bowl, slap it on the bread and you’re done. Mmm!
posted by Larissa on 7-31-2007 at 5:10 pm
If all you really have is ramen, but you’re sick of soup, I have the solution!
Need:
Ramen
Egg(s) (= to the number of packages of ramen)
salt & pepper (opt)
butter
Directions:
While cooking the ramen (nuking it, sans flavor package for 10 minutes or boiling water), scramble egg(s). If making more than 1 package you may add additional season packets to the egg but leave at least 1 aside. Put a pat of butter in a frying pan and warm the pan. When noodles are done cooking, drain the water (all of it) and throw the noodles in the hot pan. Pour egg(s) over noodles and empty the set aside packet over the whole thing. Flip as necessary to cook the eggs and lightly brown the noodles. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Voila. My ex-bf who taught me this dish called it egg foo yung foo as a play on egg foo yung.
posted by Bri on 10-21-2008 at 10:07 am
Sincronizadas
These are like quesadillas, except they’re not folded.
Ingredients:
2 flour tortillas
1 slice ham
Mashed avocado
Cheese
In a skillet or pan over medium heat, place one of the tortillas. Cover with shredded cheese. Add mashed avocado. Add slice of ham. Cover mith more cheese. Top it with the other tortilla.
By the time you do this, it’s probably time to turn over.
posted by Antonio on 10-21-2008 at 10:46 am