STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

member · Hermes

Easy Dinners

wetbandit42 · Marc Jacobs

I make chicken a lot. I usually put it in a dish with marinade in the morning, and then when I get home I put it and a bunch of vegetables (usually mushrooms and carrots) in a glass baking dish and bake it. It's easy and doesn't take a lot of time to make (probably about 5 minutes to throw everything together into the pan).

There's another pasta dish I make, but it's a little more time consuming than spaghetti. Basically, while after you boil up some penne, you mix a little bit of the pasta water with ricotta cheese, and then in an oven-safe bowl you layer the pasta, the ricotta mix, and pasta sauce until you use up all your layers, and then you top with cheese (any sort of Italian blend) and then bake it until it's warmed through.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

One of my favorite paninis ever is prosciutto, pear, arugula, and shaved romano on foccacia. Absolutely delicious for pretty much no effort.

Have you poked around Rachael Ray's website at all? Her meals all come together quickly and a lot of them are really good (some are gross, but you can usually tell by giving the ingredients a quick look over). there's a tuna burger on there that I've made a few times thats really good.

A lot of soups can be made quickly too (I just use a box of chicken broth as the base and then add other stuff depending on what I want.)

For the crockpot, we'll do chili a lot. I also have crockpot pulled pork on the list for this week. Other than that, I'm not a huge fan of most crockpot meals (I dont like stew or potroast or anything liek that very much).

I actualy stay away from things like pasta on weeknight because I feel like it takes too long to cook. Fresh pasta cooks way faster than the dried stuff though if you're looking to save time there.

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

I make pumpkin pasta all the time:

Boil 1/3 of a one pound box of angel hair spaghetti in salted water. Drain and set aside. In a saucepan (I use the same one because I am weird about dirtying too many dishes at once) melt 1 tablespoon butter, saute 1 minced garlic clove (1 teaspoon preminced in a jar) on medium-high heat, until it's fragrant. Stir in 1/2 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin pie filling, and basil to taste (fresh or dried). Cook until basil is fragrant. Stir in set aside pasta and about 1/2 cup half and half, and a handful of grated parmesan. Serve topped with more parmesan.

The whole thing takes about five minutes, once you've cooked the pasta. And it is awesome. But you have to eat it immediately, or the sauce will thicken.

wetbandit42 · Marc Jacobs

Dizzy wrote:

I make pumpkin pasta all the time:

The whole thing takes about five minutes, once you've cooked the pasta. And it is awesome. But you have to eat it immediately, or the sauce will thicken.

Yum! This sounds delicious.

Jamsicle · BCBG

This one is REALLY fast:
1 package of gnocchi
1 jar of premade pesto
asparagus
jumbo shrimp

cook the gnocchi (takes about two minutes) add pesto to taste. In the water for the gnocchi, boil pieces of asparagus and shrimp for five-seven minutes until done. Cut up the shrimp. Add shrimp and asparagus to the gnocchi. Delicious! When asparagus is not in season, I use raw apple chunks. This is less than ten minutes from start to finish and also keeps well as an office lunch.

I think I'm going to try the pumpkin pasta, but with milk, buttermilk or thinned yogourt instead of half and half. And I might have a pan fried piece of salmon to go with. It sounds really good.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

Jamsicle wrote:

This one is REALLY fast:
1 package of gnocchi
1 jar of premade pesto
asparagus
jumbo shrimp

cook the gnocchi (takes about two minutes) add pesto to taste. In the water for the gnocchi, boil pieces of asparagus and shrimp for five-seven minutes until done. Cut up the shrimp. Add shrimp and asparagus to the gnocchi. Delicious! When asparagus is not in season, I use raw apple chunks. This is less than ten minutes from start to finish and also keeps well as an office lunch.

I've had this before and it is delicious! I usually make my own pesto while I'm waiting for the water to boil. Either way is really good though- the flavors all go together nicely.

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

I just made this pan-seared tilapia w/ chile lime butter dish last night. It was so good, and tilapia is cheap (around here anyway).

We also do tilapia in parchment pouches in the oven. I think you can do a tilapia fillet in a sealed parchment pouch (we staple it shut) with green beans/tomatoes/other vegies and seasoning in about 12 minutes at 375. If you make the pouches the night before, you just have to come home and pop them in the oven on a cookie tray.

Elle · Hermes

Pesto is a great quick meal - I make mine with spinach (frozen!) and silken tofu instead of oil. Yum!

Tilapia can also be done in a touch of olive oil on the stovetop - 3 minutes per side for a sm/med fillet, with served with lemon sauce.

A really quick soup I like is tortellini, tomato, and spinach soup - saute some onion and garlic, add whatever stock you want (I heat it in the microwave first so it boils faster), add tomatoes, add tortellini and when that's almost cooked through, add a box of frozen spinach. Done.

My favorite fast crock pot meal is pulled chicken - add 4 or so frozen chicken breasts to crock pot (and a sliced onion if you like) and pour a bottle of BBQ sauce over it. Cook on low for 6 hours, shred chicken, and cook another 30 minutes or so. IMO the chicken has a better texture than pork for this.

Split pea soup in the crock pot is also yummy, but obviously requires some vegetable chopping before hand.

Udon noodles w/peanut sauce is quick. I usually stir fry some veggies to go with it and serve with (instant!) miso soup.

Fajitas are quick too - just saute the veggies and meat (if you use it), season, and throw into tortillas.

Mushroom burgers are super quick, if you like mushrooms. I just cook a couple whole portobellos 5 min on each side over med-high heat, and while they're cooking with their gill side up spread with a little goat cheese. Serve on a crusty bun with lettuce & tomato.

The fast, no cooking meal I always make when I'm alone for dinner: beans, corn, and seasoned canned tomatoes heated in the microwave and served over mustard greens also heated in the microwave, topped with a few dashes of hot sauce. My husband thinks I'm insane to eat that though, so yours might too!

Jamsicle · BCBG

I just made this pan-seared tilapia w/ chile lime butter dish last night. It was so good, and tilapia is cheap (around here anyway).

We also do tilapia in parchment pouches in the oven. I think you can do a tilapia fillet in a sealed parchment pouch (we staple it shut) with green beans/tomatoes/other vegies and seasoning in about 12 minutes at 375. If you make the pouches the night before, you just have to come home and pop them in the oven on a cookie tray. I've made this before. It was so good that I've used the chili lime butter for all kinds of seafood stuff since. Like, with crab legs...

sfclinevandy · Coach

Here are some of my favorites that weren't listed:

Black beans and brown rice (but I also add diced tomato and sour cream to make it heartier)

Pancakes

My fiance's favorite meal I cook is pulled pork sandwiches. I rub a Boston butt with a mixture ginger, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper, chili powder and grainy mustard. Cook it in the crock pot with chicken broth and then pull it apart and either make your own sauce or used a store bought one.

My favorite salad which is mixed greens, avocado, toasted pecans, shredded chedder, tomato, and Paul Newman lite Honey Mustard dressing.

Tuna Melts on English muffins.

We also eat a lot of marinated and grilled chicken/shrimp, roasted asparagus (so easy... just toss in olive oil and sea salt and broil on high for a about 10 minutes), and instant couscous.

Enchiladas

I also do a lot of casseroles.

kittenheels · Coach

I am a big fan of cooking dinner (as long as it doesn't take too long)

Here are some of my favorite quick things when I'm tired and hungry:

Rice and beans (like SFC, except I add a lot of salsa and cilantro)

poached eggs on toast with spinach

the little packets of miso soup from the grocery store, except I add udon and chopped scallions

any sort of bean soup. Lentils and split peas cook so quickly, and canned beans like chickpeas or cannelini can be wonderful soups in about 45 minutes. Giada De Laurentiis has some great soup recipes.

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

Jamsicle wrote:

I just made this pan-seared tilapia w/ chile lime butter dish last night. It was so good, and tilapia is cheap (around here anyway).

We also do tilapia in parchment pouches in the oven. I think you can do a tilapia fillet in a sealed parchment pouch (we staple it shut) with green beans/tomatoes/other vegies and seasoning in about 12 minutes at 375. If you make the pouches the night before, you just have to come home and pop them in the oven on a cookie tray. I've made this before. It was so good that I've used the chili lime butter for all kinds of seafood stuff since. Like, with crab legs...

Yeah - it was all I could do to stop eating the chile lime butter out of the bowl! I am going to try it on green beans.

NCshopper · Hermes

One of my favorite easy meals is a white pizza. Use store bought pizza crust, low-fat ricotta cheese, add some chopped grilled chicken breast, toss some basil on, then add low-fat mozzerella on top and bake it until the cheese is melted and it's warmed throughout.

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

I highly highly recommend the crockpots that have a timer/auto shutoff feature and the cookbook fix it and forget it lightly (can be purchased at target).