One of my favorite quick dinners is bean tostadas. Warm up a can of refried beans, toast tostada shells in oven. Top tostada shells with beans, cheese, hot sauce, onions, iceberg lettuce, cilantro, tomato, avocado and sour cream. Serve with poblano rice, if you want a side dish.
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Yum!!
Yes! Thanks for the reminder. I used to really enjoy that.
I’ve been used to working late and eating late, so maybe my late dinners are a bit more advanced since I usually do not have to wake up too early.
However, for those nights that I really cannot be bothered:
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Breakfast! An omelette or scramble can be done in minutes and use whatever veggies you have on hand. There’s always asparagus, mushrooms, and multiple kinds of shredded cheese in the fridge, so its perfect. Maybe some homefries and toast as well. Feeling extra lazy? There’s always a can or two of potatoes in the pantry just in case.
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Shake and Bake pork chop or chicken. Coat, throw in the oven, and mix yourself a drink while it cooks. Usually a side of mashed potatoes and some quick boiled asparagus.
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Flatbread. Get yourself a Boboli (or better yet, Brooklyn 00-- check Costco for it, so good!) and go fridge diving. You can get creative and make use of what’s on hand all in one shot.
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Permission to whine a bit about what I’ll miss? I’m a community college prof, so my on-campus workday (assuming we’ll be back to “normal” in Fall) can be anywhere from 8-14 hours long. My key to quick meals is advanced prep, but I’ve been doing that during lunch breaks and such during the week the past two years, and I will miss that! Throwing in a batch of scones during lunch, braising beef and onions while in Zoom sessions with classes, caramelizing onions during office hours… it’s been nice not to have to do all that after a long day or on the weekends. I’m glad I’m easing back into work two days per week this Spring.
Thanks for letting me whine a bit! Good luck to all of you!
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Hi @truman
Just wanted to link this similar prior thread by @LindaWhit which has lots of ideas too.
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I’ve been meaning to post a link to a quick favorite: braised beans and greens.
For those without access to NYT, the jist of it is this:
Saute some onion and some herbs. When soft, add garlic and red pepper.
Throw in some greens and wilt.
Add drained and rinsed canned beans, plus 1 c. of stock for every can of beans.
Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer 10 minutes.
Mash a few of the beans with the back of a spoon to thicken things up.
Off heat, stir in lemon juice and parm.
Adjust salt and pepper. Serve with some crusty bread for mopping up.
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Another quick, delicious, easy dinner (that I plan to make on Monday) is this chicken and rice soup with celery, lemon and parsley (I use dill instead): https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020898-chicken-and-rice-soup-with-celery-parsley-and-lemon?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page®ion=all&rank=30 This is way more satisfying that you’d expect.
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Love 
that soup.
I’m frequently lazy enough to make it with canned chicken. Dump every single ingredient (except the lemon juice and stuff for garnish) in a pot and cook until the rice falls apart. Chop up that little garnish thingy, season and serve.
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It’s been pointed out that this could work.
If you have some, and maybe some fresh greated Asiogo, and something like this
…you may be good to go! I suppose a salad would nice.
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I remember a recipe for white beans and sausage- I LOVED it! I left the kale out of the husband’s bowl.
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These are my cheats:
I use the Taste of Thai peanut sauce mix in the oven with Sweet potato. The recipe is on their website.
The Pad Thai with spiralized vegetables, chicken, shrimp, or tofu. Sometimes all three or whatever I happen to have on hand.
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Bookmarked this one thanks!
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I’ve found a couple of office day dinners this week!
Pork Tenderloin Piccata from Simply Julia. It was so quick, the pork overcooked a little while I was boiling the egg noodles. really good and easy.
Creamy Mushroom Pasta this was requested by my daughter since my husband Mr. No-Fungi wasn’t home tonight. I made it even simpler by omitting the vegetable broth (used pasta water instead) and reducing the amount of cream.
A bonus: Potato Chip Fish Cakes also from Simply Julia. I make with either canned salmon or leftover salmon if we’ve had it for dinner recently, or a combo of both.
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Nice! I might try that.
Printing out that mushroom pasta recipe. Sounds delicious.
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Baked potato with tonnato (tuna) sauce and an egg could be done in 15 minutes or less if you’re willing to microwave-bake the potato. I first made it a few years ago when Ottolenghi Simple was COTM, and we enjoyed having it for our supper tonight. The “serves 6” is optimistic for the sauce - we’ll get 4 servings from it. Recipe is one of several included in this article from The Guardian.
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If you prep your onions, then freeze them, it will take less time to sautee them, straight from the freezer, than to sautee them freshly cut. This is because freezing breaks cell walls. You can bag the prepped onions in recipe amounts, or in one big mass. Either way, it will be easy to pry apart the frozen onions with a fork. Often, the most time needed in making a simple dinner is prepping and sauteeing the onions without burning them. The water exuded as the frozen onions cook makes it easy to control the browning.
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@gregarious - The one time I tried chopping my own onions and freezing them I had issues with onion-scent migrating through the plastic bag and into the other food nearby. Do you double-bag, or place in a special container? I’m fairly certain there are a few home cooks here on the boards who buy commercial bagged frozen chopped onions as a time-saver.
I keep a bag of frozen commercial “seasoning mix” - very finely diced onion, carrot, celery and red bell pepper - on hand now, for convenient flavor boosts of sauteed meat. I’d never used these until a few years ago when I unintentionally grabbed a bag while “aiming” for the veg next to it, and didn’t notice until unpacking the groceries at home. Turned out to be a fortunate mistake.
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These are great when I’m too tired to cook. Also more tuna flavours are available there is one with couscous (tuna) and a Mexican inspired (tuna) one.
I toss them on top of whatever greens I have in the fridge. Whenever I’m feeling fancy I add a splash of cider vinegar.
The salmon ones are especially nice ontop of a Caesar salad.
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