Our quick dinner on Saturday
- tuna salad on dressed shredded cabbage
- garlic toast
- cinnamon apples (not shown)
I was in a bind on Saturday and knew I would only have 30 minutes to get a dinner onto the table in the evening. I realized this in the morning, so I was able to make 1 item/ingredient ahead, the pasta.
So, with some cooked pasta, a can of tuna, 2 previously boiled eggs, fresh celery and green pepper, frozen peas, mayo, relish, olive oil, vinegar and salt, I made a pasta-tuna salad. I served this over dressed shredded cabbage, with garlic toast (using burger buns), avocado wedges, and cooked cinnamon apples on the side.
From the moment I walked into the kitchen in the evening to the moment plates were served up, 33 minutes elapsed. That's pretty good, I think. It included cooking the apples, making the garlic toast, shredding cabbage and chopping/assembling everything for the salad.
So, my question for you is what is your go-to, mostly scratch meal you make that takes about 30 minutes to get onto the table? Share in the comments, please. I know some of you are very adept at cooking on short time.
As you know, I make a lot of crockpot meals. I have a few that take maybe 10 minutes to assemble in the morning or the night before. They typically require a starch (usually rice), which is quick to throw on the stove, so timewise, I'm not spending more than 30 minutes in prep. Taco chicken bowls and pumpkin curry chicken come to mind. I bring this up a lot, but baked potatoes in the crockpot, adding whatever toppings you have on hand to finish them off with, is a great option in a pinch. I add either a quick salad (true confession--I use bagged spinach all the time, and add toppings) or microwave our frozen garden green beans, for a veggie. We have peaches/strawberries/applesauce in the freezer, and we use those frequently as a side.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that what you really want are quick meal ideas that you can pull together 30 minutes before serving. I like the ATK mac and cheese recipe a lot. I can cook it in about 25 minutes, and there's lots of hand-off time to pull together a salad. I also keep a jar of spaghetti sauce on hand for quick meals. Sloppy joes, pork or turkey BBQ (with pre-cooked meat pulled out of the freezer and BBQ sauce added) come to mind. I'm not sure if that fits your category of "mostly homemade", but I find that keeping some convenience items on hand keeps me sane on busy days. I'm sure I could come up with more ideas. :)
Hi Kris,
DeleteThank you for sharing all of this. I know I could use my crockpot more often. I love the idea to do potatoes that way. We occasionally have baked potatoes with a topping as the main dish. You're right, that's an easy one, and quick to add a vegetable side and some frozen fruit. Again, thanks for sharing.
Everything I make has to be quick these days. Just kidding. I like being in the kitchen and being creative as that is my outlet for stressful work days. But I do like quick items too. I've shied away from crockpot because I am gone longer than the 8 hours required for most cook times so I reach for the instant pot more than the crockpot. Grandma's BBQ is easy and delicious with a side of cooked carrots and applesauce is under 30 minutes. Baking chicken and potatoes can be done while I do other things so though it takes longer than 30 minutes I'm not needing to babysit and still have a fresh meal in about an hour. I think I said it before but I prep a lot of meals on weekends to have them ready to finish up in under 30 minutes. Sometimes the meal is entirely cooked and just need to be warmed up.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteI love the idea to prep several meals over the weekend, then finish them up or just reheat during the week. I imagine that is a sanity saver during the week. BBQ sounds tasty. The sides you list are also very easy and fast to do. Thank you for sharing, Alice.
Like Kris, we use convenience foods like jarred pasta sauce, etc. for quick meals. Another one that we like is eggs. We like to scramble them with veggies and/or bacon if we have some. The sides usually don't require more that a quick zap in the microwave.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI agree, eggs do make for quick meals. We had scrambled eggs last night. Tonight I made French toast with sausage, microwaved peas, and orange wedges. The microwave is such a time saver for heating/cooking vegetables.
Thank you for sharing, Live and Learn.
Hi, Lili -- Your tuna salad dinner sounded yummy! We boil a whole chicken for the meat and broth every couple of weeks, so we normally have cooked chicken meat in the freezer; but we used to also always keep canned chicken in the pantry (when I could tolerate it.) One fast meal I find very satisfying is a chicken and pasta salad. It gets your protein, veggies, starch, maybe fruit, and fat, all in one. If we happen to have lettuce for the base, I like to use canned black beans and soba noodles (very quick to cook) with whatever other vegetables we have, cilantro or parsley, and an oily/vinegary dressing. If we only have chopping veggies, it's good with a lot of those plus rotini pasta, dried cranberries or tart cherries (or diced canned apricots), parsley, dill, a squirt of lemon juice, if I have it, and a mayonnaise/maybe mustard dressing. (Flaxseed meal or wheat germ is tasty on this one, too.) We also love chicken and refried black bean nachos, with onions and cilantro/parsley, if we have chips in the house. (Frying your own makes it take longer than 30 minutes.) And I can actually usually get ground meat and canned refried bean burritos done in aboout 30 minutes, even if the grind isn't thawed. (It's faster/easier, it if is.) Sara
ReplyDeleteHi Sara,
DeleteThat's great planning to cook whole chickens specifically to freeze the meat and broth. I love a good chicken salad. I'll keep this in mind for summer meals. You're right, they can be the whole meal in themselves. Burritos are another great idea for constrained time. Canned refried beans or frozen homecooked refried beans make for quick meals.
Thank's for sharing, Sara!
One fast dinner that we have had on rotation quite often is a hamburger salad. You put into a bowl whatever you would on a hamburger, minus the bun. Lettuce, ground beef, chopped pickles, tomatoes (when in season), chopped onion, sometimes cheese and a dressing - usually combining ranch with ketchup. We love bowl meals -
ReplyDeleteHi Ruthie,
DeleteI've never heard of a hamburger salad. It sounds tasty! I don't like the bun on a burger most of the time anyway. I'm going to try these soon! Thanks for sharing, Ruthie.
When I need a quick meal, I make quesadillas. My husband loves these anytime. I can make my own tortillas, but I keep store bought ones for convenience too. The ingredients are whatever I have-leftover cooked chicken, beef or pork, beans, chopped peppers and onions and cheese. For toppings I add what I have, usually salsa, sour cream/Greek yogurt, avocado, lettuce, etc. I will add carrots for additional veggies and some sliced fruit like apples, oranges or mangoes.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynn,
DeleteYour quesadillas sound both tasty and quick. I'm going to have to put those on our menu soon. This time of year, I almost always have avocado, Greek yogurt, cheese, and peppers on hand. The week we had chicken four days in a row, I could have done some thing this. Thanks for sharing. This will help get me out of my cooking rut.
I forgot about quesadillas. Good suggestion. I've also made this riff on them: https://www.budgetbytes.com/pizzadillas/
DeleteKris, those pizzadillas look great. I imagine they would be a good summer supper (not heating the kitchen). I will keep them in mind.
DeleteKris, thank you for mentioning the pizzadillas. Hubby is wanting pizza and these may fill the gap until I can make a pizza crust. Plus, I’m continuing to eat down my pantry and have all the needed ingredients to make them. (Budget Bytes is good about using typical ingredients). Thanks again.
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