Recipes/Meal Ideas for Quick and Easy "Defaults"

[Sienna]

I thought we could start a thread for sharing meal ideas and recipes.

I know there was a cookbook thread awhile back, but I'm less interested in cook books (I know *how* to cook) and more interested in inspiration (I tend to get in ruts about *what* to cook). I figure maybe there are others of you out there with the same problem - and our own personal ruts might be someone elses inspiration.

I'll start off with a few of my quick/easy defaults:

Beef or Chicken Fajitas
Ingredients
Needed: chicken breast and/or stir fry beef, tortillas
Highly Recommended: onion, red/green bell pepper, lemon and or/lime juice, liquid smoke, spices and seasonings like cayenne, chile pepper, chipotle
Also awesome: cheese, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa
Basic directions: cook the meat in skillet (with a little butter, oil or cooking spray if you feel you need it) along with some combination of liquid smoke (go light) lemon/lime juice. Once the meat is cooked, add in diced peppers and onion and spices and seasonings to taste (DH doesn't like spicy, so I just pull his out first). Cook until peppers and onions are browned. Warm tortillas, dress and serve as desired.

Bonus: If you plan ahead you can actually mix your seasonings up with lime juice and liquid smoke and marinate for a few hours or overnight!

Good easy sides: pears (canned or freshed) or apples, salad (use salsa for a different twist on dressing), beans/rice

Protip: fajitas meat reheats really well, but it can be a pain to assemble fajitas on the go (like lunch at work). When you go to put away left overs, make up a few tortillas with anything microwave safe (meat, cheese, onion, pepper, etc) and fold them up like a burrito and refridgerate in individual containers.


Turkey Burgers
Ingredients
Needed: Ground Turkey, buns
Highly recommended: Seasonings, sauce(s), cheese
Basic directions: These are so fun to play with because I can make them to suit my mood. I divide the ground turkey in half and make half for DH (by adding garlic and onion flakes and a dash of pepper) and half for me. Salsa makes for a real nice flavoring if you like spice. Chipotle seasoning is good too. I've also used BBQ sauce before with delicious results. Mix ground turkey and seasonings and pat into burger sized patties. Grill on the George Foreman (or cook in a skillet).

Good easy sides: To be honest, I rarely do sides with turkey burgers, but avocado slices go nicely. Also garlic-parm potato wedges (baked in the oven) would probably go well.


Spaghetti Sauce - can be served over pasta, with meatballs (+ or - a sub roll) or on toast or on baked chicken with cheese for fake chicken parm. When I make it myself, I notice it's much more filling than jar stuff, so it can almost be it's own meal.
Ingredients:
Necessary: Diced tomato (I buy cans when they are cheap, but you could also use fresh), seasonings, flour, sugar
Highly recommended: ground beef and/or meatballs for a heartier sauce,
Basic directions: if using meat, brown it in skillet and then add diced tomatoes (stir often and it's okay to be vicious - I like the stir and mush method) As they cook the tomatoes will start to look sauce like. If needed, use a little bit of flour to thicken and then season to taste with seasonings like basil, oregano, garlic, onion, parsley, peppers etc. If desired add a little bit of sugar to taste. Keep stirring until you like the consistency.

Good easy sides: garlic bread, salad (+ balsamic vinegar and some good olive oil for dressing)
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[kccc]

I like the way you've written up your recipes. They remind me of Mark Bittman's approach, which is closer to the way I really cook than most cookbooks.

Some of my "usuals" are posted in the "Intelligent Dietary Defaults" sticky, and in the one of the cooking threads.

When I'm thinking through what to eat, I mentally run through categories.

Bean-based dishes (try to eat at least 1x/wk, preferably 2)
- Examples: Black bean soup, 15-bean soup, chili (several variations), "Tower of Tortilla"
Fish (try to eat at least 1x/wk, preferably 2)
- Examples: simple fillets, salmon patties, tuna melts, honey-dijon shrimp
Red meat (try to limit to 1x/wk or less)
Chicken/turkey
Egg-based dishes
- Examples: quiche or "breakfast for dinner"
Cheese-based dishes
- Quesadillas, eggplant parmesan
Pasta-based dishes
- Spaghetti, tortellini with pesto, mac'n'cheese, etc.

[amake616]

Your fajitas recipe looks really good, I've never made those before so I might have to try it.

I generally make m'jeddrah when I want something quick and easy especially if it's cold out.

You saute a bunch of lightly chopped or sliced onions (I like doing five or six small ones or three big ones) in olive oil in a large pot until they're browned, add a cup of lentils and 3/4 cup of rice, saute it all together for a minute and then add four cups of water or chicken stock and a little salt. Stir, then cover, cook on medium low for forty minutes, stirring once or twice. Then add spices to taste (I usually do a couple tablespoons of cumin, some cayenne, black pepper, whatever) and if the lentils are a little hard, add a little more water and cook a little longer but that's not always necessary. You eat with labneh or thick plain Greek yogurt for people who don't have access to labneh. It's like the Arabic version of chili I suppose. Hot, spicy, and filling.

[NoelFigart]

Family Recipe Book

I wrote this (it's about 21 pages) as a supplement to teaching my son how to cook. I featured meals he was particularly fond of rather than necessarily what I always cook. There's an intro about meal planning and mise en place.

This is a section in my Household Notebook, and is very valuable to the secondary cooks in the family. My son actually did use this during the past week when I was away on travel.

If it's useful to anyone else, enjoy.


It just occurred to me that what you were asking for was help in dietary defaults and it may not be obvious from the recipe book.

My actual "I don't feel like cooking" dinner default is a sauce over a starch. Might be a stir fry, might be spaghetti, might be a curry. But "Chop up some meat and veggies, throw in some spices and wine, serve over rice or pasta" is something I often do. It's not a recipe, really. But it's what I do when I'm not feeling creative.

[Nicest of the Damned]

Bean-based dishes (try to eat at least 1x/wk, preferably 2)
- Examples: Black bean soup, 15-bean soup, chili (several variations), "Tower of Tortilla"
Fish (try to eat at least 1x/wk, preferably 2)
- Examples: simple fillets, salmon patties, tuna melts, honey-dijon shrimp

I'm trying to get more fish- and bean-based meals into our diets, too.

Maryland Flag Chili

Ingredients:
1 can white beans (Great Northern are good)
1 can black beans
1 can light red kidney beans
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 14-ounce (regular can size) can diced tomatoes
About 1 can worth of frozen or canned corn.
1 onion, chopped (you can use the food processor)
Olive or canola oil for sauteeing onion
Chicken, beef, or veggie stock
Tequila
Chili powder, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Salt, to taste
Pepper, freshly ground preferred, to taste

Saute the onion in the oil in a big pot (preferably nonstick) with a little salt and pepper. When it is softened and translucent, stir in the cumin and chili powder and let it saute for about a minute more.

Add the beans, tomatoes, and corn. Add stock until the chili is at the consistency you like your chili at. Bring to a boil.

When it's boiling, add a splash of tequila. Important Safety Tip: Do not add the tequila directly from the bottle. Pour it into a glass first. If you pour alcoholic beverages directly into a hot pan, they can catch fire and make the bottle explode. Really. (I'm not sure if this could happen from a boiling pot, but boiling pots tend to be near hot burners. Better to dirty one glass than risk having a Molotov cocktail go off in your kitchen) The cook may have a sample of the tequila from the glass.

Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until ready to eat. You could eat it now, but it will be better the longer it cooks.

To serve: sprinkle with broken-up tortilla chips, sour cream, or shredded cheese, if desired. This is a good way to use up the crumbs and little tiny chips that you get in the bottom of a bag of tortilla chips.

A relatively quick way to thaw frozen fish

It's always easier to get more of something into your diet if you can make it without having to plan for it much in advance. This method will thaw frozen fish in 30-45 minutes.

This works well for frozen fish fillets and steaks wrapped in tight-fitting plastic packages, the kind you can get at Trader Joe's and Costco. Put the unopened package of frozen fish in a glass baking dish in the sink. Fill the dish with cold water, and drip the faucet onto the fish, like you were trying to do Chinese water torture on the fish. It will thaw and be ready to cook in 30-45 minutes.

[wosnes]

Family Recipe Book

I wrote this (it's about 21 pages) as a supplement to teaching my son how to cook. I featured meals he was particularly fond of rather than necessarily what I always cook. There's an intro about meal planning and mise en place.

This is a section in my Household Notebook, and is very valuable to the secondary cooks in the family. My son actually did use this during the past week when I was away on travel.

If it's useful to anyone else, enjoy.


It just occurred to me that what you were asking for was help in dietary defaults and it may not be obvious from the recipe book.

My actual "I don't feel like cooking" dinner default is a sauce over a starch. Might be a stir fry, might be spaghetti, might be a curry. But "Chop up some meat and veggies, throw in some spices and wine, serve over rice or pasta" is something I often do. It's not a recipe, really. But it's what I do when I'm not feeling creative.

I love your family recipe book!

My default meals tend to be soup/salad/sandwich or a fritatta, or some kind of stir-fry/saute with meat, vegetables, and starch.

I made a batch of Mexican Rice earlier this week and I've had it as a side dish, and also with cooked chicken added and twice with a fried egg on top. If I had some ground beef or sausage right now, I'd brown that and add some of the rice (yes, I made a LOT of it).

[funfuture]

It's a great recipe book, Noel. Incredibly useful for young 'uns! I laughed out loud at some of your comments.

[MysteryLover]

Noel - great recipes! Thanks for sharing. Just one question: what are gorilla nostrils? I'm guessing guacamole and I'm dying of laughter - LOL.

[NoelFigart]

Gorilla Nostrils are sliced black olives. We used to call them that to freak the kids out.

[Blithe Morning]

• Roasted root veggies and a fried egg. Cube root veggies. Toss with olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast in a 400°F oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
• "Bangers and mash". Bangers are a sausage, mash mashed potatoes. I've recently learned how to make colcannon which is cabbage mashed potatoes. I saute the cabbage and onions in butter before mashing with potatoes.
• Chili - vegetarian or w/ meat. Ms. Wosnes has a wonderful from scratch bean recipe. I'll have to find and link it. I spice the beans up with a can of diced green chilis, T of chili powder, T of cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic salt.
• Mark Bittman's lentils and brown rice with roasted red peppers.
• Meatball subs. I use breadcrumbs (store boughten, yes) and hamburger to make the meatballs and Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce.
• chicken enchiladas. Get about 2 cups cooked chicken meat. This can be from leftovers, chicken breasts or meat cooked then deboned. Prepare the sauce a cup of chicken broth and a half cup of sour cream and diced green chilis by mixing and heating over medium heat. Simmer meat in sauce. Spoon meat into flour or corn shells, your choice. Wrap and put in casserole. Pour sauce over enchiladas. Sprinkle with co-jack cheese. Back till dish is hot and cheese is melted, about 20 minutes if you pop in oven right after preparing casserole, about an hour if you put in the casserole dish from oven

[Over43]

Cubed chuck roast (3-4 pounds)
2 cans of beef broth
2 cans of mushrooms
2 onions diced
2 cups of burgundy
1/2 cup of tapioca (for thickening)
2-3 cubes of Herb-Ox beef flavor

Simmer in crock pot 8-12 hours

Serve over rice, or egg noodles, or mashed potatoes

Steamed frozen peas and a slice of French bread.

[MysteryLover]

Noel,

I wasn't even close with the gorilla nostrils - ha ha. I'm checking out your blog right now. Love the wood stove fan. Can't wait to show my hubby. He has a window fan duct taped to the floor vent above our wood stove in the basement.

[DaveMc]

I got a kick out of the Family Recipe Book, too, Noel. "Also remember if you don’t clean up after yourself, you will die a horrible death." Ha!

[Sienna]

These are some great ideas, thanks guys! And Noel, that recipe book is adorable!

[Over43]

I made this last evening for football:

BBQ BEAST SANDWICH

1 (16-oz.) can barbecue sloppy joe sauce
1 lb. thinly slliced top round deli roast beef
4 sub rolls, toasted
2 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
1 cup shredded or torn lettuce

Dump the sauce into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it simmers. Add the beef and simmer for 5 minutes. Put the lettuce on the rolls. Add the beef and top with the horseradish.

Makes 4 servings

I stuck a salad on the side of the plate, and a Diet 7-Up.

[Lorelei]

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Prepare your favorite pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a skillet. Add a container of grape tomatoes and cook until they blister and begin to pop. Smash the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon (be careful - they squirt!). Add minced garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook a few minutes and add some fresh chopped parsley. Serve sauce over pasta. Simple, but very flavorful. I often add a piece of cod, some shrimp, or some Italian sausage to the sauce while it cooks.

My Favorite Fried-Egg Sandwich

1 toasted ciabatta roll
1 fried egg (with a nice gushy yolk), sprinkled with black pepper
Mayonnaise
Capers

I usually do this with some sort of cooked veg as an accompaniment.