Favorite QUICK go to meals? (20 min or less)

Ingredients:
• 1 pound ground pork sausage
• 16 ounce bag coleslaw mix, or 16 ounces shredded cabbage & carrots
• 1 tbs minced ginger (14g)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs soy sauce (or a little more if you prefer)

Instructions:
Brown and crumble ground pork sausage. Do not fully drain. Add all other ingredients to the skillet, and simmer over medium heat for 4-5 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Comments:
The entire dish is approximately 1540 calories and easily serves 4-5. You can also spoon the mixture into egg roll wrappers (about 60 calories each), and fold up. Spray with olive oil spray and bake for about 12 minutes @ 375 degrees, turning once. You can cut the calories by using ground turkey sausage, but I prefer it with the pork. Entire cook time is about 10 minutes.

storyjorie wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

What's the rush? Besides, some of my favorite childhood memories are of spending time in the kitchen when my parents were cooking. Taking time to cook a meal doesn't mean you have to take time away from your kid. That's an activity that you should be doing with your kid.

Hah hah ha haha. I guess you haven't had one of those nights where you had to help kid #1 with her science project, pick up a gift for kid #2's teacher's birthday party which you just discovered (wrinkled flyer at bottom of backpack--kid #2 isn't always so responsible) oh, and then kid #3 has LICE, and oh, your boss texts you that there is an emergency and you have to call her back ASAP? Otherwise known in our house as "Tuesday." :-p

I like ground lean turkey meat. It cooks pretty quickly and I'll use half a pound for tacos (kids love that) with homemade guacamole (I use lean cheese, 0% greek yogurt instead of sour cream) and then the next day I throw in the other half in marinara sauce, serve with pasta for kids, Zoodles for me, with a salad. The second meal is perfect for those extra-crazy nights.

Sounds like most of my nights

This is AMAZING (and super fast, use whatever veggies are in the fridge):
https://cafedelites.com/2016/05/16/sheet-pan-chili-lime-salmon/

I can throw salmon in some water to thaw and it's good enough to throw in the oven in about 15 min. The slight frozen-ness only added about 4 min to the cook time.

And yes, I like good food, and I like to cook, but there are days where it's walk in the door with the kids at 5 pm, need to be out the door by 6. No time for dilly-dallying around with complicated recipes.

I don't cook during the week I put together and heat . I do both lunch and dinner prep on the weekend.

Staples include cooking sausage or turkey bacon, sometimes rice and always veggies including a variety of potatoes. For dinner, I use either rice or pasta and/or spinach as my base then add the pre-cooked meat and veggies. With pasta there is also sauce or oil and with rice often salsa. I cook pasta on the fly, 15 minutes total or so. Anything I want warmed up I do stove top.

As others mentioned, crock pot meals are good too. Some resents include: Chicken Tortilla Soup (minus tortilla ), White Bean and Veggie soup. This weekend I plan to do chicken barbacoa.

My lunch meals could also be used for dinner and they are microwave friendly (office). This week is Farro, Avocado, Goat Cheese, Chile Crunch, Roasted Pumpkin seeds and marinated radish slices. Lately I've also done baked potatoes (pre-baked) with veggies and green chile sauce (or cheese). Last week was buffalo'd cauliflower in a green salad with a bunch of other veggies and dressing.

You could eliminate any of the grains I mentioned and just use leafy greens, zoodles or eggs.

I've found that if I do 3 weeks on and 1 week off lunch only (of cooking, not counting - counting all the time). That gives me 1 week every 4 weeks to come up with new ideas/combos.

Oh a recipe for some good baked nuggets I make is

Preheat oven to 425

10oz chicken breast thawed cut into 1 inch pieces.

in a bowl add

2 tbl spoons grated cheese
2 tbl spoons Italian bread crumbs
4 tbl spoons panko bread crumbs

in another bowl put cut up chicken, and coat lightly with evoo enough so all of the chicken is coated.

Put chicken in second bowl and make sure the pieces are completely covered in bread crumbs, and place them on an oiled baking sheet as you do it. Lightly spray the top of the nuggets with oil, and put them in the oven for 7-8 minutes. Take them out of the oven when the time is up, and flip them over, and spray them lightly again, and put them back in the oven for 4 more minutes, and then they are done! If I want to make them spicy I add buffalo sauce to the oil that I put the chicken in before coating them with the bread crumps, and I put chili powder in with the bread crumb mix.

Once you get this down it takes 5 minutes to prep, and 15 to cook, with the flipping and spraying.

dfwesq wrote: »

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

Omelettes/frittata

Cook mixed vegies - good for using odds and ends from the fridge - chuck over some whisked up eggs, a bit of cheese... Voila, a meal! Serve with salad to bulk it up a bit more...

Just what I was about to post! Saute some vegetables, then add beaten eggs and cook over low heat - no need to stir. My go-to vegetables are mushrooms and onions. A little grated parmesan cheese is a good addition if you want a cheesy flavor but fewer calories.

Btw, sauteed onions closely mimic the texture of eggs, so you can add a lot of them without noticing much. Using a lot of onions instead of extra eggs is an easy and healthy way to bulk up your meal without adding many calories.

Along the same lines as a frittata are tomato scrambled eggs. Here's a very basic and easy recipe I tried out - it was surprisingly good.
https://goodandcheap.website/breakfast/tomato-scrambled-eggs/steps

Am adding in my favorite frittata fixings- thinly sliced purple potatoes, spinach and feta, I also sometimes use beet greens with feta in a frittata (adds beautiful pink color in the eggs:)).

I also like to throw frozen green beans, sliced turkey kielbasa and diced potatoes in a slow cooker as a meal.

The ground beef, turkey or sausage recipes with dry shredded cabbage - seems interesting and simple. Do you guys use any sauce with it? One of you mentioned to leave some of the oil in the pan from the meat.

Can of chicken or turkey salad, add mayo, and/or diced celery and/or Bermuda onions. Good with cucumber slices or green peppers.

TimothyFish wrote: »

What's the rush? Besides, some of my favorite childhood memories are of spending time in the kitchen when my parents were cooking. Taking time to cook a meal doesn't mean you have to take time away from your kid. That's an activity that you should be doing with your kid.

I'd say the rush is that she's a single mom trying to cram everything into a day (drop offs, pick ups, work, house chores, exercise, meal prep, sleep, actually raising a kid alone). Not cool to tell her what she "should" be doing when I bet she has the bases covered there, buddy ole pal. She just wants some quick recipes, which is totally reasonable- why waste time on something when you don't have to?



My favorite go-to meal is super easy and requires 3 things- a baking dish, knife, and cutting board! Add aluminum foil for even quicker cleanup.

1. Cut up sweet potatoes (or any veggie really) and pop it in the oven at 425-450 for ~20/25 minutes. I always add olive oil and any spices (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and basil/parsley are so yummy as a combo!) before baking.

2. Flip the potatoes, then add seasoned chicken breasts (raw or pan-seared) right on top of the potatoes! Put back in the oven for an additional 30 minutes until chicken juices run clear.

3. Voila! All finished. Tastes great, super easy, very filling, and fast cleanup! I always mindlessly put it in the oven and can do whatever while it bakes.


*** if you cook the diced potato/veggies and chicken in a skillet instead (same seasonings) it is usually finished in 25 minutes too!

All my meals are that quick, I do rely on frozen protein for dinner. Fresh is cheaper but more work.

Veggie saute with sauce- either red sauce or Alfredo, 400-600g zucchini, 200-300g mushrooms, and then about 400g chicken. (for two)

Taco salads- all I need to cook is the chicken, while that cooks I chop lettuce and tomatoes, weigh out my refried beans, sour cream, and salsa, combine and done.

Cajun Red beans- No rice, but basic red beans. Two cans of kidney beans with no sodium(smash half), two cans of diced tomatoes drained, 400g Bell pepper and 400g mushrooms for texture so we don't miss meat. Then I use Cajun seasoning, some cumin/chili powders, garlic and onion powder, and oregano. Sometimes I use the pressure cooker for 10 minutes or simmer for 15-20. Longer makes it better but I am usually quick about it.

Super simple stir fry- just frozen shrimp/chicken, frozen broccoli, and a store bought sauce. Higher in sodium but the fastest meal on my go to list.

Check out the Skinnytaste Fast & Slow cookbook.... everything can be prepared in 30 mins or less, or cooks all day in slow cooker (crock pot).

I also learning how to cook in the Instant Pot