Great thread. Some great sounding ideas here folks. Thanks.
Can't post much as in kitchen doing one of mine... oniony rice - from Cas Clarkes student cookbooks. Feeling v poor at the mo - so cooking rice to which I will add chopped or diced onion - she uses water. I use stock and add bits of things like celery salt, turmeric, garlic, cumin or whatever takes my fancy as I have a large store of spices and herbs from soup making. Then she tops this with slices of onion fried in lemon juice.
Using value rice and 2 onions it never ceases to amaze me n my flatmate at how tasty this can be.
Hmmm...wonder if this is where I got the idea from?? But I actually like my "poverty dinner" of rice (brown in my case) steamed with some chopped onion in. I then pour half pint of cheese sauce over it....but its any excuse for cheese sauce here chez ceridwen...:D
It ticks a lot of boxes - filler food (the rice), protein (the milk, butter and cheese) and a tiny bit of Vitamin C (the onion). I figure I can get away with so little Vitamin C in this meal - as I eat so much fruit throughout the day that I must be getting all I need anyway...
(just grinning to myself at the memory of earlier in the week going into a wholefood shop to spot two people in my "circle" and she was saying to him, as she picked the short grain rice off the shelf - as opposed to the slightly dearer long-grain rice - "It's just as nourishing" - a woman after my own heart in my more "puritanical" moments about food.....goes off wondering just where I picked up my ideas about it being okay for food to be a bit "unconventional" - but it MUST be nourishing.....clue: think I know them by sight from a certain church I used to go to......:rotfl:).
Fry off red, green and yellow peppers with some onion
Cook some rice, throwing in some frozen peas for the last couple of mins
Drain the rice, add it to the frying pan with the peppers and onions, and add one beaten egg (keep heat on and keep stirring until all egg is cooked)
Mix in some chinese five spice
Done! (can be done with chicken, bacon or beef, but i'm veggie!)
Aha.....:D Dinner tonight:D. I was wondering what to have. Sorted - got me some peppers and a bit of celery/ a carrot chucked in as well. Got rice. Got onions. Got eggs.
I'll do that then - and steam a bit of spinach I have to accompany it - yay:T
Sausage 'bung it' (as in bung it in!) - sausages, onion, mushrooms, garlic, can of chopped toms and whatever else you have into a pot, into the oven for an hour, done. Easy peasy, no need to cook off or saute anything first. Is fab on it's own, with mash, or with pasta.
Rice and Beans with a little bit butter and WS in the beans mmmmmmm
Or pasta and beans a cheese yuuuuuuuummy
Aha! Tomorrow's dinner sorted as well - the other half of tonight's rice with some canned beans added and bit of butter - with rest of spinach (with my usual bit of drizzled olive oil and squeezed lemon over it) and few tomatoes on side. Yay!:T
just remembered another quick, simple dish that is far tastier than you'd think
slice some smoked sausage (the 'U' shaped ring of sausage you get in the foil packs) into slices about 1/4 inch thick, add a bit of butter or oil to your pan and sautee these, when they are starting to get brown toss in some sweet corn, continue to cook until the sausage slices are now getting dark brown and slightly crispy and teh corn is warmed through
serve this over freshly cooked rice... simple to cook, simple tastes but really really tasty mixed together. i also love the textures mixing together in my mouth, sounds odd but it's really worth a shot!
also i always cook extra rice so the next morning i can take the rice, add some butter and a bit of sugar (or you could use a little honey or golden syrup) and microwave it for a lovely hot breakfast!
or you can melt some butter and a little cheese (i like the powdered 'parmesan' cheese from the canisters) along with some garlic granules or garlic salt, really tasty, quick and easy! you might prefer this for lunch but i'll eat it at breakfast time, to me food is food and it doesn't matter what time of day i eat it i just want it to taste good
My lazy dinner is spicy yoghurt chicken wraps/pittas.
You need:
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Greek style yoghurt (like Total)
Bit of olive oil (ordinary is fine not ex virgin) or sunflower or groundnut oil
Harissa paste or Rose harissa (comes in a jar or tube)
Salady stuff: lettuce/rocket/lambs lettuce/ ; cherry tomatoes or whatever
Pittas or wraps
A lemon (optional)
Coriander/mint/ or parsley (optional)
Heat grill to very hot
In a bowl mix some yoghurt, harissa, salt and pepper to taste, add a splash of oil.
Add the chicken thighs to yoghurt mix and mix with hands to coat well
Grill thighs on foil lined tray turning once until cooked through.
Meanwhile mix some yoghurt and harissa in a small bowl, season and add a squeeze of lemon juice if you have it, heat wraps on bottom shelf of oven or pittas in toaster, tear lettuce leaves, chop tomatoes etc
Fill hot wraps/pittas with lettuce and tomatoes, some of the yoghurt and harissa 'sauce' (not the marinade one obviously, the other one!) the chicken thighs cut into pieces and top with chopped coriander /or mint/ or parsley if you have it. Devour!
Very tasty and very quick - under a hot grill the chicken will cook in about 10 minutes so the whole thing should be ready in 20 minutes or less. I got the basic idea from a Nigel Slater recipe.
Puttanessca is my standard storecupboard standby option but I add the capers and olives at the end - anchovies and dried chilli flakes + olive oil at the beginning, 2 mins until anchovies 'melt' then tinned toms go in, simmer until thickened (10 to 15 mins) while pasta cooks, then add capers, olives, seasoning, combine and serve.
"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the
best of everything; they just make the best
of everything that comes along their way."
-- Author Unknown --
I put sausages in the oven – either meat or veggy works fine ( I love Linda McCartney, can hardly tell the difference between them and meat!) Cook for about 20 minutes.
Whilst sausages are cooking, boil up some potatoes and then mash them.
Once the sausages are cooked, pour over a tin of beans and top with the mash and grated cheese.
Put back in the oven for about 15mins for beans to warm and cheese to melt
Perfick winter lazy comfort food!
It's nice to be nutty but's more important to be nice
One of my fav lazy foods is sausage & bean pasta. Put sausages under the grill to cook while at the same time boiling some pasta. When pasta is cooked, drain and put back in pot. Add a tin of baked beans, stir until pasta is coated in the sauce and return to heat until beans are warmed through. Chop up cooked sausage and stir in. You can put some grated cheese in this as well if you like. Kids love it too!
Another soup! So easy to make, and ten times tastier than out of a tin When it says 'tomato juice', I just use 2 cheapie tins of chopped tomatoes, give them a quick whizz with the magic stick if you like it smooth!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter/marg
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons flour
1 pint tomato juice
Pinch salt
1 pint milk
Method:
Add the butter to a saucepan and melt, fry the onion till soft. Remove from the heat.
Stir the flour into the tomato juice so that no lumps remain, then slowly stir into onions. Return to the heat and add salt to taste. Cook until almost boiling but turn off the heat before it boils. Let cool 10 minutes then slowly stir in milk. Serve immediately.
That sounds rather yum, persian_star - I've never made tomato soup (although I've made lots of other types of soup), but I'll definitely be giving it a go if it's that easy!
Another super-easy meal I'd forgotten about until reading through this thread is refried bean burritos: stuff tortillas/wraps with spoonfuls of refried beans (from a tin), some grated cheese and some finely chopped red pepper, then roll up and put in an oven-proof dish. Top with chopped tomatoes (fresh or from a tin, depending on what I've got), some dried chilli flakes or cajun spice mix, and some more grated cheese, then bake in the oven until bubbling.
It ends up gloopy in the middle and crunchy round the edges, and is my perfect comfort food on a miserable autumn evening. :drool::drool: (Shame that's not what I've got for dinner, really! )
Replies
Hmmm...wonder if this is where I got the idea from?? But I actually like my "poverty dinner" of rice (brown in my case) steamed with some chopped onion in. I then pour half pint of cheese sauce over it....but its any excuse for cheese sauce here chez ceridwen...:D
It ticks a lot of boxes - filler food (the rice), protein (the milk, butter and cheese) and a tiny bit of Vitamin C (the onion). I figure I can get away with so little Vitamin C in this meal - as I eat so much fruit throughout the day that I must be getting all I need anyway...
(just grinning to myself at the memory of earlier in the week going into a wholefood shop to spot two people in my "circle" and she was saying to him, as she picked the short grain rice off the shelf - as opposed to the slightly dearer long-grain rice - "It's just as nourishing" - a woman after my own heart in my more "puritanical" moments about food.....goes off wondering just where I picked up my ideas about it being okay for food to be a bit "unconventional" - but it MUST be nourishing.....clue: think I know them by sight from a certain church I used to go to......:rotfl:).
Aha.....:D Dinner tonight:D. I was wondering what to have. Sorted - got me some peppers and a bit of celery/ a carrot chucked in as well. Got rice. Got onions. Got eggs.
I'll do that then - and steam a bit of spinach I have to accompany it - yay:T
Aha! Tomorrow's dinner sorted as well - the other half of tonight's rice with some canned beans added and bit of butter - with rest of spinach (with my usual bit of drizzled olive oil and squeezed lemon over it) and few tomatoes on side. Yay!:T
next please - the rest of the week awaits.....:D
slice some smoked sausage (the 'U' shaped ring of sausage you get in the foil packs) into slices about 1/4 inch thick, add a bit of butter or oil to your pan and sautee these, when they are starting to get brown toss in some sweet corn, continue to cook until the sausage slices are now getting dark brown and slightly crispy and teh corn is warmed through
serve this over freshly cooked rice... simple to cook, simple tastes but really really tasty mixed together. i also love the textures mixing together in my mouth, sounds odd but it's really worth a shot!
also i always cook extra rice so the next morning i can take the rice, add some butter and a bit of sugar (or you could use a little honey or golden syrup) and microwave it for a lovely hot breakfast!
or you can melt some butter and a little cheese (i like the powdered 'parmesan' cheese from the canisters) along with some garlic granules or garlic salt, really tasty, quick and easy! you might prefer this for lunch but i'll eat it at breakfast time, to me food is food and it doesn't matter what time of day i eat it i just want it to taste good
You need:
Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Greek style yoghurt (like Total)
Bit of olive oil (ordinary is fine not ex virgin) or sunflower or groundnut oil
Harissa paste or Rose harissa (comes in a jar or tube)
Salady stuff: lettuce/rocket/lambs lettuce/ ; cherry tomatoes or whatever
Pittas or wraps
A lemon (optional)
Coriander/mint/ or parsley (optional)
Heat grill to very hot
In a bowl mix some yoghurt, harissa, salt and pepper to taste, add a splash of oil.
Add the chicken thighs to yoghurt mix and mix with hands to coat well
Grill thighs on foil lined tray turning once until cooked through.
Meanwhile mix some yoghurt and harissa in a small bowl, season and add a squeeze of lemon juice if you have it, heat wraps on bottom shelf of oven or pittas in toaster, tear lettuce leaves, chop tomatoes etc
Fill hot wraps/pittas with lettuce and tomatoes, some of the yoghurt and harissa 'sauce' (not the marinade one obviously, the other one!) the chicken thighs cut into pieces and top with chopped coriander /or mint/ or parsley if you have it. Devour!
Very tasty and very quick - under a hot grill the chicken will cook in about 10 minutes so the whole thing should be ready in 20 minutes or less. I got the basic idea from a Nigel Slater recipe.
Puttanessca is my standard storecupboard standby option but I add the capers and olives at the end - anchovies and dried chilli flakes + olive oil at the beginning, 2 mins until anchovies 'melt' then tinned toms go in, simmer until thickened (10 to 15 mins) while pasta cooks, then add capers, olives, seasoning, combine and serve.
best of everything; they just make the best
of everything that comes along their way."
-- Author Unknown --
I put sausages in the oven – either meat or veggy works fine ( I love Linda McCartney, can hardly tell the difference between them and meat!) Cook for about 20 minutes.
Whilst sausages are cooking, boil up some potatoes and then mash them.
Once the sausages are cooked, pour over a tin of beans and top with the mash and grated cheese.
Put back in the oven for about 15mins for beans to warm and cheese to melt
Perfick winter lazy comfort food!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter/marg
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons flour
1 pint tomato juice
Pinch salt
1 pint milk
Method:
Add the butter to a saucepan and melt, fry the onion till soft. Remove from the heat.
Stir the flour into the tomato juice so that no lumps remain, then slowly stir into onions. Return to the heat and add salt to taste. Cook until almost boiling but turn off the heat before it boils. Let cool 10 minutes then slowly stir in milk. Serve immediately.
Yum!
Another super-easy meal I'd forgotten about until reading through this thread is refried bean burritos: stuff tortillas/wraps with spoonfuls of refried beans (from a tin), some grated cheese and some finely chopped red pepper, then roll up and put in an oven-proof dish. Top with chopped tomatoes (fresh or from a tin, depending on what I've got), some dried chilli flakes or cajun spice mix, and some more grated cheese, then bake in the oven until bubbling.
It ends up gloopy in the middle and crunchy round the edges, and is my perfect comfort food on a miserable autumn evening. :drool::drool: (Shame that's not what I've got for dinner, really!